The Tamil Tigers declared on Monday they now saw no other option than to push for independence in what analysts said was notice to Sri Lanka's government they are resuming their struggle and renewed civil war will deepen.
Shadowy Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who had earlier pushed for a separate homeland for minority Tamils short of outright independence, said Tamils had been cheated by successive majority-Sinhalese governments and would be fooled no more.
"The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam," Prabhakaran said in his annual address, emailed by the rebels to Reuters.
"We, therefore, ask the international community and the countries of the world that respect justice to recognise our freedom struggle," Prabhakaran added. "Tamils are recommencing their journey on the path of freedom."
The Tigers spent much of their two-decade insurgency battling for independence, but scaled down their demand to a separate homeland within Sri Lanka after a 2002 ceasefire, now lying in ruins but which both sides argue still holds on paper.
Prabhakaran said the ceasefire had become defunct and had been effectively buried by the government. "It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question. Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path," he said.
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