"How long can they hold Jaffna?"

Howserious a setback will it be for you if Jaffna falls?

Idon’t see it as a setback for us. For the Sri Lankan military it will be atactical advantage, getting into the Jaffna peninsula. But the question is, howlong can they hold the territory. In doing so, they are going to lose theeastern area and that라이브 바카라 a very contested area. On the other hand, thegovernment라이브 바카라 other objective is to kill more LTTE fighters, sympathisers,artists and intellectuals. But they cannot do that as the people have fled formthe advancing army. All the government achieved was to kill civilians by aerialbombardments and artillery shelling. As far as winning the hearts and minds ofthe people is concerned, in that also it라이브 바카라 a total future.

Howlong will it take you to reclaim Jaffna?

Weare there. We will always be there. The government troops will be resisted everyinch. And what I can say is, the government cannot stay there for a long timewith the limited number of troops that it can deploy there indefinitely.

Giventhe LTTE라이브 바카라 recent setbacks, what kind of rethinking has been going on amongthe top leadership?

Asa guerrilla organisation we have to continue with the guerrilla resistance aslong as the Sri Lankan Army is in our areas and as long as they continue withthe aggression and attacks on civilians.

Sometime back, a ceasefire was broken off. Then there were indications that talkscould begin.

Ithink the government should behave in good faith, which is not there. There areindications of a genocidal attack on the civilian population. I want all people,not only organisations like the UN, UNHCR and other international aid and mediaorganisations, to be allowed into the area. Some kind of a genuine move must beundertaken by the government rather than merely paying lip service. On theground, the government is doing everything contrary to what it says. The troopsmust withdraws to their earlier positions; people should be allowed to go backto those areas and the government should allow food and other things to reachthem.

Areyou concerned that under the present circumstances in Sri Lanka, Tamils may fellmore inclined towards other Tamil parties?

Theseparties are on the payroll of the government. Even among these parties there aredifferences of opinion. For example, one party is working closely with the SriLankan armed forces. The other party, EPDP, is working with the government.These people --- after having served their use – may be thrown into thedustbin (by the government).

TheLTTE denies responsibility for Rajiv Gandhi라이브 바카라 killing. How do you explainIndia라이브 바카라 indifferent attitude towards the LTTE and a decline in support inTamil Nadu?

Indiafrom the start wanted to manipulate things by setting up various groups andtrying to impose a solution. India never wanted to recognise our right toself-determination. This is the basic problem. The Indian government is verysecretly waging a kind of proxy war against us. It has some inner fear that thepeople in Tamil Nadu will react if it does so openly and there will be backlash.India also feels that if our right to self-determination is recognised, then thepeople of Tamil Nadu will also react. That is the main reason for India workingagainst us, our struggle. We have the problem of genocide, we have a right toassert for self-determination. In the case of Tamil Nadu, they face no suchproblem. The situation in Tamil Nadu is quite different from Sri Lanka. We wantIndia to treat these two problems differently, in a different perspective. Thereis a possibility of cooperation and renewal of friendship between the LTTE, theCentre as well as the state government. (We have seen cooperation earlier.)India and the LTTE, they can decide on their own. But India is instead waging aproxy war through the Sri Lankan government, and the people of Tamil Nadu arefeeling let down.