In his autobiography Stefan Zweig wrote: "Amidst his political and military victories Hitler’s most diabolic triumph was that he succeeded through progressive excesses in blunting every sense of law and order" (The World of Yesterday). Vellupillai Pirapaharan too has achieved a similar ‘diabolic triumph’, as our collective response to the brutal murder of SSP Charles Wijewardene demonstrated. Obviously after three and a half years of appeasement, to us no crime by the Tigers is of moment - the serial killing of Intelligence officials and anti-Tiger Tamils, child conscription and now the slaying of a senior Police officer - all have become so normal, so much a part of our everyday existence. There is no anger, no outrage; a couple of statements and then it is back to appeasement as usual.

The death of an innocent Tamil man should be condemned; but that tragedy was an accident. As Thenee, an alternate Tamil website pointed out "A soldier went to a barber saloon for a haircut`85. At some point the soldier’s gun went off accidentally and killed a barber saloon worker and injured another. Following this accident Tigers organized unrest and tension around that area. As tension was mounting the elderly, innocent Police Superintendent Charles Wijewardene (60) went to the spot with the genuine intention of pacifying the protesters. He was engaged in talking to the Tiger representatives on the spot when they cunningly abducted him. They forced him to remove his uniform and wear a sarong to disguise him. Then they took him away and assaulted and tortured him and his dead body was found lying on the desolate area on the wayside near Suthumalai".

SSP Wijewardene was innocent of any crime; he went there unarmed, as a peace maker; and he was abducted and killed. And from the available evidence it is clear that this murder was carried out by members of the LTTE, possibly with the approval of their leadership; the Asian Tribune reported that the Tiger area leader Mr. Eswaran was involved in the abduction and the killing; earlier a number of anti-Tiger websites pointed out that photographs of the dead officer appeared on the pro-Tiger website Nitharsanam barely half an hour after the murder.

That then is the essence of this peace process - we provide VIP security to their Eleelan and they murder our Charles Wijewardana (no wonder the Tigers are so anathematic to the very idea of revising the MoU, that invaluable gift of the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration to the LTTE).

There is obviously a national consensus even though there is no national government; a consensus based on appeasement. This national consensus is strong enough to withstand almost any crime by the Tigers (the murder of SSP Wijewardene is only the latest in a long list). The President and the PM condemned the killing but afterwards it was business as usual - one went back to appeasing the Tigers while the other resumed his non-stop pilgrimage for votes. The Leader of the Opposition continued to focus on the date of the Presidential election; he does not condemn Tiger atrocities in any case. The usual cacophony of voices which reaches a crescendo whenever there is any talk of power sharing with the Tamil people is in any case not so loud when it comes to opposing Tiger atrocities. After all it is one thing to take on unarmed Tamils; it is quite another thing to anger the Tiger. Even in the ‘halcyon’ days of July 1983 the ‘patriots’ ran in the other direction when there was a rumour of a group of Tigers shooting from a building in Pettah. Far more sensible to concentrate on conversions and Buddha statues!

The peace lobby in the South and the Norwegians are trafficking in illusions; wittingly or unwittingly they are trying to persuade the Sri Lankan state to ignore or de-prioritise the killing of security forces personnel and anti-Tiger Tamils by the LTTE with the argument that a firm response on our part will damage the peace process and pave the way for the next conflict. I am not suggesting that we should respond to Tiger atrocities by commencing a shooting war. That would be stupid and counter-productive. But surely there are other ways in which we can express our outrage. For example the government could have asked the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister to postpone the trip to Killinochchi as a mark of protest against the Wijewardene slaying; or summoned the diplomatic representatives of the four Tokyo Co-Chairs, officially informed them of the incident and demanded that they send a message of condemnation to the Tigers. The Norwegians of course should have had the decency to stay away from Killinochchi at least till SSP Wijewardane’s funeral was over; but then decency has never ever been the Vikings’ strong suit. Anyway if our leaders are not bothered why should foreigners trouble their heads about something as trivial as an unarmed police officer being abducted and hacked to death? When the Tigers know that they can kill with impunity why shouldn’t they continue to kill?

The brutal murder of Charles Wijewardane is yet another reminder that a lasting peace within a united Sri Lanka can be achieved not with the Tigers but despite the Tigers, and in opposition to the Tigers. The anti-democratic nature of the LTTE and its unchanging commitment to Tiger Eelam impede any search for a democratic solution to the ethnic problem within an undivided Sri Lanka. The LTTE’s jettisoning of the Oslo Agreement clearly indicates that it cannot and will not condone any measure that will make the Eelam slogan superfluous and strengthen Tamil democracy. The fact that the brutal slaying of SSP Wijewardana took place after the government provided VIP security to Mr. Eleelan demonstrates that no amount of appeasement will make the Tiger change its way.

If our goal is a Sri Lankan peace and a Sri Lankan future we have to look beyond the LTTE and try to build a new strategic partnership with non-LTTE Tamils. For the outcome to be pluralist and democratic, the search too will have to be pluralist and democratic. This means the search must be as broad based as possible and must involve most - if not all - of the democratic Tamil and Muslim parties. A solution which ensures a substantial degree of autonomy for the minorities, takes into account the religious and cultural separateness of the Muslims from the Tamils, ensures the safety and security of the Eastern province Sinhalese and strengthens Tamil democracy rather than stifle it cannot be arrived at as a result of a bargain between the Sri Lankan state and the LTTE. Democratic devolution rather than anti-democratic devolution must be what we consciously strive for and promote in any solution to the country’s festering ethnic problem.

The defiance of the Bulgarian Communist Georgi Dimitrov (falsely charged with burning the Reichstag) in the face of his Nazi accusers gave rise to a popular saying in Berlin: "There is only one man left in Germany and he is a Bulgarian". Similarly the events since the signing of the CFA makes one think that there are only a handful of anti-Tiger men left in Sri Lanka - and they are all Tamils, from the UTHR to the EPDP, from Lakshman Kadiragamar and V. Anandasangaree to Col. Karuna (the most unequivocal condemnation of the Wijewardene murder also came from them). And they have been carrying out their struggle against the LTTE without any appreciable help from either the Sri Lankan state, Southern polity or society. Forming a strategic partnership with these anti-Tiger elements is the only way we can work towards a democratic rather than anti-democratic devolution, a power sharing agreement which will save both the unity of Sri Lanka and Tamil democracy.

The Tigers’ hold over the East is a rather tenuous one; in fact in many of the areas in the East the Tigers cannot even move about without the protection of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Unfortunately and ironically this new balance of power is not reflected in the way the government or the main opposition approaches the Tamil issue. Whether it is about the revival of the peace process or obtaining Tamil support at the Presidential election, both the PA and the UNF act as if the LTTE is in reality the sole representative of the Tamil people. And as long as the LTTE manages to maintain this political illusion, it will be impossible to prevent the two major Southern parties from adhering to a policy of accommodation vis-`E0-vis the Tigers.

The inability of the anti-Tiger Tamils to form some sort of broad unity at the political level is one of the main reasons for their incapability to put themselves forward as a viable alternative to the LTTE. I am not proposing the replacement of one sole representative with another authentic representative but a broad unity of the anti-Tiger parties and groups which enables them to maintain their separate identities while working together to take on the Tigers in the politico-propaganda - and maybe electoral - sphere. Such a unity could bring together old guard politicians like Mr. Anandasangaree, second generation militants such as Messers. Devananda and Siddhartan and fighters of the younger generation such as Col. Karuna. The Anandasangaree proposals could serve as the political basis for this unity; the new unity should also affirm unconditional commitment to democracy and the basic rights of all the people of the North and the East. If such a united front is formed it has the potential to become the democratic alternative to the LTTE, and to be accepted as such nationally and internationally, eventually.