KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka, Dec 30 (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday left the door open for cooperation with their warring partner, the Sri Lankan government, on tsunami relief operations.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said working together to provide urgently needed relief to areas devastated by Sunday's tsunami that killed nearly 25,00 people so far could be a useful confidence builder.
"We have already put on the table (a request) seeking the cooperation to take further humanitarian delivery ... suggesting that it can be viewed in an optimistic way," LTTE's political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan told AFP here.
He did not directly say if they would accept an initiative of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to set up an all-party panel to carry out relief work as well as medium- and long-term reconstruction.
However, he said the guerrillas were not ruling out cooperation despite the mistrust between the two sides that had hindered diplomatic efforts to revive peace talks that remain on hold since April last year.
"If the intentions are translated into action, definitely there could be a positive step towards building confidence and will definitely have positive impact on the peace process as a whole," Thamilselvan said.
Tigers who run a de facto separate state here and have their own civil administration and police said they were making their own arrangements to ensure thousands of people affected by the tragedy were looked after.
In the capital Colombo, President Chandrika Kumaratunga told reporters that the government was sending whatever relief the Tigers had requested from civil servants who work in rebel-held areas but are paid by the state.
"The government servants in LTTE-controlled areas are already working closely with the LTTE and have told us the requirements in the affected areas," the president said. "We have sent them everything they have asked for."
The president said she visited relief centres in the island's east Thursday and met with at least two Tiger women cadres and inquired after relief operations.
"I shook hands with them and asked about the relief operations," Kumaratunga said.
Asked if the chance meeting with Tiger cadres could lead to a warming of relations between the two sides which have been observing a tenuous ceasefire since February 2002, the president said she had talked to the Tigers in a spontaneous gesture.
"You don't stop to calculate what the results are, but I acted naturally and spontaneously. I asked them about the relief operations, what they cooked and things like that."
Kumaratunga said she believed that the Tigers wanted to handle the aid delivery themselves.
12/30/2004 17:31 GMT - AFP