'Thousands of our fighters are standing ready to fight with determination for our just goal of freedom and we will
overcome the hurdles before us and liberate our motherland,' Prabhakaran said in his annual Heroes' Day speech on his 53rd birthday.

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'Today, the international community is making the same mistake that India made many years ago. Even the countries that are the guardians of the peace efforts succumbed to then deception of the Sinhala State and listed our freedom movement as a terrorist organisation,' he said in a hard-hitting statement in Tamil from his hideout.

He alleged that India tried to enforce the Indo-Sri lanka accord of 1987 with the strength of more than one lakh
security personnel, with the power of the agreement between the two countries and with the assistance of 'treacherous Tamil paramilitary groups.'

'However, even this ill-considered solution, which did not even address the basic national aspirations of the Tamils, was blocked by the chauvinistic Sinhala State,' he said.

'We explained to India then that the aim of the Sinhala State was not to find a solution to the Tamil question and
bring peace; but to occupy the Tamil homeland, destroy its resources, and enslave the Tamil nation. India refused to accept this reality.

As a result our land witnessed great sorrow and destruction,' Prabhakaran said. He said the regime of President Mahinda Rajapakse is never going to realise that the Tamil national question cannot be resolved by military 'oppression.'

'On this day, when we remember our Heroes, I ask the entire Tamil speaking world to rise up for the liberation of
Tamil Eelam,' he said.

The LTTE chief said the peace with the island's 'genocidal' government was impossible. He accused the Sri
Lankan government of 'trying to destroy the Tamil nation' and warned of 'serious consequences' for the armed forces.

'All the Sinhala political parties are essentially chauvinistic and anti-Tamil. To expect a political solution
from any of these southern parties is political naivety,' Prabhakaran said.

He also vowed that rebels would strike back after a difficult year, adding that the government was 'over-confident
of its military victory over the Tamil freedom movement.'

Prabhakaran said successive Sri Lankan governments have 'always misunderstood our freedom struggle (and) consistently underestimated us.'

'The Sinhala military has fallen yet again into the net we spread and it is now forced to commit large numbers of
troops to rule land without people. Caught in a territorial trap, it will soon be forced to face the serious consequences of its misguided ambitions.'

Releasing the casualty figures, the 'Tamileelam Heroes Secretariat' of the LTTE said 954 of its fighters have been
killed in action up to November 20 in 2007, the second year of breakdown of the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

The LTTE says it has lost 19,877 cadres in the last 25 years while fighting for an independent state.

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