Tamil Tiger anger over election result

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels reacted angrily today to the election of hardline President Mahinda Rajapakse, saying it showed that the island’s Sinhalese majority had no understanding of Tamil aspirations for a homeland.

Rajapakse, after assuming office on Saturday, said he would never allow the country’s division, but pledged he would not return the country to war.

The rebels have demanded wide autonomy in the country’s northeast, where most of the 3.2 million ethnic Tamils live, saying they can only prosper away from the domination of the Sinhalese majority.

“The pillars of the Tamil demand, namely, Tamil homeland, Tamil nation, and Tamil self-determination will never be accepted by them,” the rebels said today on their official web site, referring to Rajapakse and his supporters.

“There is no space to talk of a federal solution,” the rebels said.

Rajapakse was able to narrowly defeat opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who favoured granting the rebels more autonomy, after an election boycott by the rebels prevented thousands of ethnic Tamils from casting ballots.

Rajapakse sought the support of hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist and Marxist groups by promising to review the Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire that has grown increasingly fragile in recent months.

The rebels have fought since 1983 for a Tamil homeland in the northeast, where they already run a de facto state. The war has claimed 65,000 lives.

Most of Sri Lanka’s 14 million Sinhalese are Buddhists who live in the southern and central parts of the tropical island.

“Sinhala people, Sinhala institutions and Sinhala political processes immersed in the Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic theories are not going to understand the just aspirations of the Tamil people,” the rebel statement said.

In a speech after taking the oath of office on Saturday, Rajapakse said he was for an honourable peace.

“War is not my method,” he said. “I will initiate a new round of talks with all those who have a stake in the solution of the national question.”

But Rajapakse said dividing the country was not the answer.

“During the presidential election, the overwhelming majority of people said that the country should not be divided,” Rajapakse said. “It is this aspiration that would be the basis of my policy for achieving peace.”

He also has pledged not to allow direct foreign tsunami aid to the insurgents, who have repeatedly demanded access to some of the two billion US dollars promised to Sri Lanka so they can run their own relief effort.

The December 26 tsunami killed at least 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and swept away the homes or livelihoods of 1 million others.