The Hindu : LTTE 'ready to face a war'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

International

International

LTTE 'ready to face a war'

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO JULY 13. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has said that it is "ready to face a war" if the need arose, but maintained that it was "firm in finding a political solution" to Sri Lanka's separatist conflict "through peaceful means".

"We are ready to face a war if it is imposed on us with the change of a new Government. But we are firm in finding a political solution to the conflict through peaceful means," the LTTE's political wing leader, S.P. Tamilchelvan, reportedly told Tamil journalists in rebel-held Kilinochchi on Saturday.

According to a report in the TamilNet website, Mr. Tamilchelvan said that there was a "move to demarcate" a "boundary line in the sea to avoid further ceasefire violation" and that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission "is studying this aspect". No further details were given.

Mr. Tamilchelvan's remark that the LTTE was prepared to face war "if imposed" by "a new Government" is against the backdrop of speculation that the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, with wide constitutional powers, could dismiss the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe's Cabinet. Moves by the Opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party, headed by Ms. Kumaratunga, to clinch an electoral pact with the Left radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna since early this year, fuelled such speculation.

As the Executive President can dissolve Parliament anytime after one year of a general election, speculation of political change has been on since last December. Except for making it clear that any move away from the Constitution by Mr. Wickremesinghe will invite her wrath, the President has not indicated imminent change.

The LTTE, currently in a peace process with the Wickremesinghe administration, recently wanted the President and the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, to work on revoking the international bans on it for it to talk to any SLFP Government.

Asked in an interview by the Tamil newspaper Sudar Oli, if the Tigers would negotiate with a Kumaratunga Government, the chief LTTE negotiator, Anton S. Balasingham said: "Such a opportunity may arise if Ms. Kumaratunga and Mr. Kadirgamar go around the world again and get the bans on us revoked and accept us as a people's movement. We can then consider the possibility of negotiations."

Mr. Tamilchelvan, in his meeting with the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance on Saturday, said that the "Tamil community suffered a lot under Ms. Kumaratunga's regime" and that "there is a limit to patience".

To resume talks with the Wickremesinghe administration, stalled since the LTTE's unilateral pullout on April 21, the LTTE demands an interim administration "with adequate political, administrative and financial powers" for the north and east, outside the unitary Constitution, with a majority stake for itself and as proposed by its leadership.

On the possibility of talks with a changed government, Mr. Tamilchelvan said there was "no value in talking about the proposed interim administrative structure with people who are against such a move".

TELO criticises Govt.

The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), a former militant party and presently a constituent of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance has criticised the Wickremesinghe administration for "negotiating the purchase of war materials to strengthen the Sri Lanka Navy".

A visit by the Defence Minister, Tilak Marapane, and the Navy Commander, Daya Sandagiri, to Israel, reportedly to "purchase arms", according to A. Selvam, TELO leader, had "shattered the confidence of the Tamil people in the United National Front Government that it was sincere in the peace initiatives".

The Defence Minister's visit, when the Navy was "engaged in operations with the intention of derailing the peace process" had "created suspicion in the minds of the Tamil people" that the UNF Government was "preparing for another war while talking peace", Mr. Selvam was quoted by the TamilNet as saying.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International