Colombo: Sri Lanka's newly elected President Mahinda Rajapakse called an emergency meeting of his aides on Monday, a day after Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tiger leader, threatened to intensify the rebels' struggle for an independent homeland next year if the ethnic minority's grievances were not
addressed.
The President's office said Rajapakse was meeting with aides and members of his Cabinet and would make an official
statement after studying the text of Velupillai Prabhakaran's speech.
Prabhakaran did not set an exact deadline in his speech on Sunday, but said that Rajapakse must lay out a plan that satisfies the political aspirations of the country's 3.2
million Tamils, who seek a homeland in the northeast.
"If the new government rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year, in solidarity with our people, intensify our struggle for self-determination, our struggle for national liberation to establish self-government in our homeland," he said.
Rebels armed with rocket launchers and submachine guns were seen on Sunday patrolling near military positions in eastern Sri Lanka while the top military general said his
troops were ready to defend the country.
"We are always committed to the cease-fire but if they withdraw and attack us we are not going to just sit and watch. We are going to retaliate," army commander Lt Gen Shantha
Kottegoda said on Sunday.
Hagrup Haukland, who heads the Norwegian-led mission responsible for monitoring a 2002 cease-fire, said his 60 international monitors were at their posts and that there was
been no change on the ground.
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