Norwegian chief negotiator Wider Helgesen has told a Sunday newspaper that the LTTE wants the ban on it lifted in advance to enable it to participate in the peace talks on equal terms with the government (sic).

In an interview on Rupavahini on 18/03 Thamil Chelvam referred to homelands of Sinhalese and Tamils. He said that while the Tamils want to live in their homeland with dignity without interference by anyone, he also said that the LTTE would also not interfere with the Sinhalese in their homeland in the south. The inference that the decisions on ‘homeland’ have already been made and that Sri Lanka is no more a unitary state.

It is not clear whether the purpose of telecasting the interview, to record which the SLRC crew would have gone all the way to Vavuniya was to show that Thamil Chelvam, after signing the MoU, has turned over a new leaf and become a full-blooded democrat who will not be party to any more massacres in the south but an angel who respects the right of all the others to life or to educate the public as to the intentions of the LTTE.

It is, however, clear that the LTTE has got a new lease of life after the signing of the MoU and is receiving all the food and everything else needed for a renewed attack in any part of the country. It has not budged an inch from its stance that NE is the traditional Tamil homeland. All this may give the wrong impression that the LTTE is an organisation of freedom fighters and not a group of blood thirsty terrorists.

There is no dispute whatever that all want peace. But the utterances of and actions of the LTTE unequivocally indicate that it has become more than an equal partner in the peace process and will never give up its demands.

It is stronger than ever before with all its needs stockpiled and freedom to move about in any part of the island at its will and pleasure. By D+90 it will be all ready to face the government as equal or ‘more equal’ partners.

S. Abeywickrama
Nugegoda