SRI LANKA's government yesterday annulled a six-year ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers which will now allow a full-scale military campaign to recapture the rebels' de facto state in the north of the island.
The truce has been redundant since a new phase of a two-decade civil war opened in early 2006 and the announcement came hours after suspected Tiger rebels bombed a military bus in central Colombo, killing four people and wounding 24.
"The gover
nment had decided to withdraw from the ceasefire," said Lakshman Hulugalle, director-general of the Media Centre for National Security.
"Today, at a cabinet meeting, it was decided now the government will give notice to the other party, because there is a clause that says we have to give 14 days' notice."
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who are fighting for an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment. Norway, which brokered the 2002 truce, also had no comment.
Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said last month he might outlaw the rebels if they continued to mount large-scale attacks, because there was "a limit to our patience, our tolerance".
And his brother, Gotabaya, the defence secretary, called on Saturday for an end to the ceasefire pact. He said it had been violated so many times it had become a sham.
Buoyed by battlefield successes against the Tigers in the east, the Rajapaksa brothers have vowed to defeat the rebels militarily.
The Tamil Tigers have been outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, following a series of attacks and assassinations.
The full article contains 286 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
