Tiger rebels ready to die for a Tamil homeland

Editor's note: AP correspondent Matthew Rosenberg is reporting from inside the rebel-held zone of Sri Lanka.

AT A TAMIL TIGER REBEL BASE, Sri Lanka — Past the paved road lined by minefields, down a sandy track hemmed in by coconut palms and thatch huts, the gate appears, a metal boom bookended by bunkers made of logs and sandbags.

It's not visible until you're on top of it, and the tiger-striped camouflage of the lone sentry is the only sign this is a base of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"The people who need to know — our soldiers, the villagers who aid us — they know we are here," said Muttiah Jayanthy, 33, one of the base's top officers. "If there is war, the government will feel our presence."

A surge in violence has left Sri Lanka dangerously close to resuming a war best known for its suicide bombings — a vicious conflict that for 18 years pitted rebels from the Hindu Tamil minority against the government dominated by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

The Tigers agreed to let The Associated Press make a rare visit to a front-line rebel base on the condition that its location not be revealed. The trip was tightly controlled, and only a dozen of the 2,000 fighters said to operate out the base were made available to speak. But it provided a rare snapshot of how the Tigers think — and what they are preparing for.

In interview after interview this week, the fighters talked of their readiness to die for a Tamil homeland. One said she had volunteered to become a suicide bomber, known as a Black Tiger; another admitted she was once a child soldier.

Much of what they said was stock rhetoric, with repeated references to "historic responsibility" and "occupation forces." How much they had been ordered to say, how much came from indoctrination and how much was heartfelt was hard to judge.

But none showed doubts.

"Only by war can we get our homeland back, our identity, our dignity," Jayanthy said.

Using a Tamil homeland as an inspiration — along with a feared intelligence network — the Tigers have shaped a cult-like force whose fighters carry cyanide to swallow if they are captured, an agonizing death that hundreds have chosen.

Only the top commanders are given ranks; soldiers must wait until death.

"It is a final judgment on how we lived and fought," Jayanthy said.