Colombo: Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) not quit a truce despite calling it "defunct," European cease-fire monitors said on Thursday, as the government called for renewed peace talks.
Thorfinnur Omarsson, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said the LTTE assured truce officials they would not withdraw from the 2002 Norwegian-brokered cease-fire during a meeting in the rebel stronghold in Kilinochchi on Wednesday.
The truce ended two decades of civil war, but now only exists on paper, with more than 3,500 fighters and civilians killed in unsolved killings, mine blasts, suicide attacks, artillery exchanges, sea battles and air strikes this year, according to government figures.
Monitoring officials were told top rebel leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran called the cease-fire defunct "mainly due to violations of the truce by the government, especially the closure of the A-9 highway," said Omarsson.
The A-9 highway, closed by the military in August, connects the northern Jaffna peninsula with the mainland. The rebels have refused to continue negotiations until the government reopens it.
Prabhakaran also said on Monday that the rebels were recommencing their freedom struggle.
A Sri Lankan official on Thursday said the government is ready for peace talks.
"We hope they (rebels) return to the negotiating table as we believe this can be resolved through dialogue and negotiations," said Palitha Kohona, the chief of the Sri Lanka's Peace Secretariat, which is directly involved in the peace process.
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