A three-year truce between the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil Tiger rebels is in jeopardy.
Colombo has failed to fulfil its promises to restore normalcy and has eliminated prominent Tamils, a top rebel leader said yesterday.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga was also dragging her feet on sharing $2 billion of aid pledged by donors to help reconstruct coastal areas ravaged by the Indian Ocean tsunami and the rebels now doubted if a deal to share aid would be implemented even if it was signed, said S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
He said in an interview that more than $1 billion will be needed to rebuild Tamil areas destroyed by the waves but Colombo remained apathetic four months after the disaster.
His comments were the most threatening since the December 26 tsunami after which the government and the rebels had signalled they would forge unity. It was also the first time the LTTE put a number on the amount they needed as aid.
Sri Lanka's president has meanwhile, failed to win support from a key coalition partner to set up a joint group with Tamil Tiger rebels to distribute foreign aid to tsunami victims in Tamil-majority areas, a party official said yesterday.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga met late Friday with the Marxist People's Liberation Front, which is her party's main partner in the country's governing coalition and has threatened to withdraw from the government if it sets up a joint aid-distribution group with the guerrillas.
