Peace talks an LTTE ploy, say observers

The latest British-brokered peace initiative in Sri Lanka demonstrates the remarkable capacity of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to find a patron to bail them out of a desperate situation, according to observers.

The disclosure of the peace deal with the ruling People's Alliance and the main opposition United National Party jointly agreeing to talk to the rebels had been carefully manoeuvred by LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran from his headquarters in the northern Wanni jungles, they said.

This also explains why Prabhakaran had placed three of his top lieutenants in Europe, an informed Tamil source said.

The source said the British had apparently enlisted the support of New Delhi for their peace initiative in the island because the three rebel leaders had been provided safe passage to transit through India.

While Lawrence Tilakar, coordinating secretary of the LTTE's international operations, reportedly visited Prabhakaran at his headquarters in February and returned to his base in Paris, he had since been joined by Karikalan, the LTTE leader's deputy and Anton Balasingham, his political adviser.

Balasingham, who had fallen from grace for a short time after criticising his leader following the loss of the Jaffna peninsula, had even undergone medical treatment in Tamil Nadu before proceeding to Europe, the source claimed.

Prabhakaran, the sources said, had summoned Tilakar to address his top commanders and impress on them the urgency of entering into a peace dialogue with the government because of the growing international isolation of the LTTE and dwindling support.

He has thrice before made similar peace moves when in a tight spot and then gone on the offensive.

"Prabhakaran decided to talk after he lost Killinochchi," the LTTE’s political headquarters which was captured by security forces in September, one source said.

The sources said it was then the LTTE chief promoted Karaikalan, the deputy leader of the political wing, as his deputy so that he could lead the LTTE delegation when the peace dialogue with the government resumed.

They noted that Prabhakaran had made his then deputy, Gopalasamy Mahendrarajah alias Mahattaya, lead the rebel delegation for peace talks with the Premadasa government. Mahattaya was later branded an Indian and Sri Lankan agent and executed.

Tamil leaders in Colombo have welcomed the decision to resolve the ethnic problem, but advocated caution in dealing with the LTTE. "Historically, it is the lack of consensus between the two major parties that has frustrated efforts to resolve the problem", said Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam, MP of the Tamil United Liberation Front.

He hoped the two parties would adopt the same bi-partisan approach in finalising constitutional reforms now under discussion, and that the decision to talk with the Tigers would not retard it.

The observers wondered what compelled President Chandrika Kumaratunga to negotiate with the LTTE. Kumaratunga herself had said recently that the LTTE was no more the key player in the conflict. ''The LTTE has arrived at the end of the road, militarily,'' she said and added that the government felt that it was more important to talk to the Tamil people.