Colombo: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-backed protesters in Sri Lanka's North and East have denounced the 200-year prison term slapped on rebel leader V Prabhakaran for ordering the bombing of the Central Bank in 1996 and raised a demand for granting amnesty to him to save ongoing peace moves.

The Northern towns of Jaffna and Vavuniya on November 8 witnessed processions and demonstrations organised by civilian groups in which hundreds of government employees, teachers and school children participated.

More such programmes are likely in the days to come as the Tamils are demanding the scrapping of the verdict by Colombo High Court judge Sarath Ambepitiya who announced the sentence against the rebel leader for the truck bomb attack that left nearly 90 people dead and over a thousand wounded.

Protesters in Vavuniya demanded that Prabhakaran be granted amnesty on the ground that it was an act committed during war.

The rebel group lodged an official protest during the second session of negotiations with the government in Thailand, arguing that acts of war could not be criminalised and threatening that its own "judiciary" could slap even 2000-year-long sentences on Sri Lankan leaders for their own "war crimes".

While the sentence is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the continuance of the talks, the Tamil side is upset over its timing, with some media articles even wondering if the government had anything to do with the delivery of the order on the day that talks were to take place.

After delivering the verdict in absentia, the judge issued a warrant for Prabhakaran's arrest and imprisonment, but few believe it will be executed.

Tamil moderate MP and Tamil United Liberation Front president V Anandasangaree said there were signs that Prabhakaran would obtain a pardon after the successful conclusion of peace negotiations and move around the world like Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

PTI