A top aide of President Chandrika Kumaratunga said Sri Lanka's military would suffer severe losses if peace talks with rebels fail and the guerrillas resume fighting. "What we understand is that the military's preparedness is nonexistent," Lakshman Kadirgamar told the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka Friday night.
Kadirgamar said the rebels had taken advantage of a cease-fire to build up their fighting power — and Sri Lanka's 100,000-strong military wouldn't be able to confront them if war resumes.
| That's what Bad Guys usually do when there's a ceasefire, isn't it? |
The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam signed a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in February 2002, and held six rounds of peace talks. The rebels pulled out of the negotiations in April and have said they'll resume only after the government recognizes that they've permanently gnawed off a piece of their country allows them to run their own administration in the northeast. The government has agreed, but wants the rebels to first disband their police, banking and judicial systems. The rebels have yet to respond, but Kadirgamar said they were unlikely to make such concessions. |