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LTTE rejects

govt's peace

package

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists have officially rejected the government's devolution "peace package" aimed at ending a 12-year ethnic war, rebel radio said on Saturday.

"The government has published this peace package and also declared war against the Tamils," a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Anton Balasingham, told a news conference in the rebel-held northern Jaffna peninsula, the radio said.

"This peace package does not pave the way for a permanent political solution but does pave the way for a long-term war," he was quoted as saying on Friday.

A suicide bomber blew up 24 civilians in Colombo on Monday in what police said was the LTTE's answer to the package.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga announced the proposals on August 3 stressing that a present military offensive in Jaffna was aimed against the LTTE, not Tamils.

Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils make up about 18 percent of the population and have for generations complained of discrimination in land, language and education by the majority Sinhalese.-Reuter