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US Ambassador to S. Lanka Says Tamil Rebels Cannot Achieve Goal
United States ambassador to Sri Lanka Ashley Wills has said that separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the country cannot achieve their goal of a separate state and they should give up violence if they really care for the Tamil people.
He said the United States rejected the idea of an independent Tamil state carved out of Sri Lankan territory. The US regards the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels as terrorists and does not believe they are the sole representatives of the Tamils, he was quoted by state-run Daily News as saying on Wednesday.
The US ambassador, who was on a two-day visit to embattling northern Jaffna peninsula, made the statement to the people of Jaffna in an address on Observations on Sri Lanka's conflict at the Jaffna public library.
He added they did not believe Sri Lanka or any part of the country is the special reserve of any one ethnic group. They regard Sri Lanka as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural state.
He noted that those in the country who advocate separation of the state longed for ethnic purity which was a genetic and geographical impossibility.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 in the north and east of the country for a separate Tamil state. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody war.
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