War not an option - LTTE

by Simon Gardner KILINOCHCHI, (Reuters) - The LTTE, accused of assassinating Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar last week, have said for the first time that they will not resume a two-decade war.

The LTTE said abiding by an ongoing truce was the only way to resurrect a stalled peace process. "We want to maintain the ceasefire momentum, the peace ...

and ensure that we walk back into the peace process again," S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the Tigers' political wing, told Reuters in Kilinochchi on Tuesday.

"War is not an option," he added speaking in the Tamil language through a translator.

"But if war is thrust upon the Tamil people, we will have no option but to face it."

"An eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth is not the concern at the moment when we are strongly committed to the ceasefire agreement," he added. "We are seriously interested in the ceasefire agreement."

He toned down his recent threats that the ceasefire could collapse unless the military disarmed a renegade faction attacking Tiger cadres in the East, saying the group's leadership "may have to sit down and think about it" if the killings continued.

"The most simple way to get the peace process back on track is by sincerely and effectively giving implementation status to the ceasefire agreement," Thamilselvan said.

"That alone is sufficient to get the peace process back on track for the parties to sit down and talk."