Tamils Will Surrender for People’s Sake, Leader Says

Sri Lanka’s most powerful Tamil guerrilla leader told a rally attended by 100,000 people in the northern city of Jaffna today that his fighters will surrender their weapons, official sources reported.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, 33-year-old head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said his group took up arms out of concern for the Tamil people and were laying them down for the same reason.

“We are surrendering arms for their sake,” he was quoted as saying.

Accord Signed

The surrender is to take place under an accord signed by President Junius Jayewardene, leader of this Indian Ocean island nation, and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The accord, reached last week, is aimed at ending a 4-year-old conflict between majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils that has claimed more than 6,000 lives.

A method for handing over the arms remained to be worked out, sources said. Maj. Gen. Harikirat Singh, commander of the Indian peacekeeping force in Jaffna, was to meet with rebel leaders tonight to discuss the matter.

Official sources, who received reports from Jaffna, said Prabhakaran told the rally that the Tigers loved India and did not want to fight the Indian army.

The deadline for the surrender, due Monday, was extended for 72 hours by Jayewardene and Gandhi after Prabhakaran asked for more time.

The government has designated 24 locations in the north and east where the arms could be handed to government officials in the presence of observers from the Red Cross societies of India and Sri Lanka.

The peace accord provides for greater autonomy for Tamil-dominated areas in the north and east, which predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese nationalists fear will bring about a permanent division of the country. The mostly Hindu Tamils make up about 2 million of the island nation’s 16 million people.

The Sri Lankan sources said Prabhakaran was persuaded to accept an arrangement under which he would chair a council of Tamil groups that will advise a government administrator on running the areas where most of the island’s Tamil minority lives, pending the holding of elections for a provincial council.

He and his closest advisers will be allowed to retain their weapons for personal security, the sources said.