Tamil Leader Makes Appearance

The mastermind of Sri Lanka's 19-year ethnic war pledged Wednesday to pursue peace but stopped short of removing the biggest obstacle to a settlement - his demand for a separate state for minority Tamils.

Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, speaking at his first news conference in more than a decade, also called for an Indian role in a Norwegian-sponsored peace plan, widely seen as the best chance to end a war that has killed about 64,000 people.

"The right conditions have not arisen for the (Tigers) to abandon the policy of independent statehood," Velupillai Prabhakaran said, addressing his first news conference in 15 years.

The Tamil Tiger rebels, blamed for the assassination of numerous political opponents, went to extreme lengths to protect their leader. The body checks for the approximately 200 journalists who traveled to rebel-held northern Sri Lanka were so thorough that reporters had to remove their socks for security officials to check between their toes.

The news conference followed a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government signed In Feb. 22, paving the way for peace talks next month in Thailand.

Prabhakaran said he believes the Norwegian-mediated peace process would succeed.

"With the mediation help by the Norwegian government, I believe this process will succeed this time," said Prabhakaran, founder and sole leader of the Liberation Tigers.

"The struggle for political independence is the demand of Tamil people," Prabhakaran said. "The question whether we accept the hegemony of the Sri Lankan government has not arisen."

Prabhakaran, 47, said the LTTE is "sincerely and seriously committed to peace."

"Because we are serious about the peace process, we have declared a unilateral cessation of hostilities," he said, speaking in Tamil. His comments were translated into English by his chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham.

The clean-shaven Prabhakaran appeared in a gray safari suit instead of his trademark battle fatigues and pistol at the hip.

The LTTE has been fighting to create a separate homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka since 1983, one of Asia's longest civil wars which has claimed more than 64,000 lives.

The news conference was the first time in 15 years that Prabhakaran — considered a terrorist by the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, India and Sri Lanka — was seen in public.

Prabhakaran demanded that Sri Lanka lift the ban on the LTTE, calling it a precondition of the Thailand peace talks.

"Only after de-proscription will we take part in peace talks ... that is our problem," he said.

In Thailand, the LTTE intends to discuss the establishment of an interim administration for the northern provinces, Prabhakaran said. He said he would not attend the talks, but would direct the negotiations, adding that Norway has asked India to mediate in the peace talks.

The Thailand talks have raised hopes for the first time in seven years of crafting an enduring peace in this Indian Ocean island famous for its tea and tropical beaches.

Prabhakaran runs the LTTE, which has approximately 5,000 to 10,000 combatants, from northern jungle hide-outs, dispatching squads of suicide bombers and guerrillas wearing cyanide capsules around their necks.

His fanatical followers include suicide bombers who have assassinated several leaders, including former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993.

Prabhakaran described Gandhi's assassination "as a tragic incident" and said the Tigers "want to have friendly relations with India."

Peace became a possibility in Sri Lanka after the election of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government in December on a promise to end the civil war by negotiations.

The Tamil Tigers want a separate state in northern Sri Lanka for the minority Tamils who comprise 3.2 million of the country's 18.2 million people. They complain of discrimination in jobs, education and politics by the Sinhalese majority, who make up 74 percent of the population.