The countries of the EU and also the US (for its support) should be thanked for imposing this ban on the LTTE; it is the first time that the EU has acted meaningfully for it did not assert itself when our President Premadasa was assassinated or when President Kumaratunge was almost assassinated or when Foreign Minister Kadirgamar was assassinated; that travel ban was a gentle tap on the wrist. It is hoped that this ban would make the LTTE more amenable to seeking a negotiated settlement of this issue and putting an end to the misery of the Tamil people in particular and the misery of all the other people of this island country.

The banning of the LTTE by the European Union opens up a huge window of opportunity for the government of Sri Lanka. The governments of the EU member states could freeze the assets of the LTTE and its support organisations and cripple them financially; the LTTE could be isolated internationally.

They used the provisions in the CFA to infiltrate and virtually take over the administration in areas which were supposed to be under government control. It should be realised that the LTTE used the CFA to progressively obtain a measure of legitimacy internationally and to project an image abroad as leaders of a de-facto separate state. They also used the opportunity to mobilise their Diaspora. So it must also be realised that though the LTTE is banned they do have a powerful international Diaspora organisation.

The governments of the EU countries could always look aside and the LTTE could under various other disguises operate, unless the will obtains in the EU to crack down on them. Yes they would do so only if we make use of the opportunity afforded to reach out and come up with a credible proposal to share power. It is now incumbent on the government to take the next step.

For the EU to come to this point has taken perhaps 22 years since it first evinced serious concern about the situation in Sri Lanka, that is from 1984 when the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers first passed resolutions and issued statements. Times without number have they warned the LTTE but they did not move beyond the warnings for a few reasons, one this country is not strategically important to them, next we had no resources such as oil or gas, thirdly we had nationalised foreign owned interests such as the tea plantations and they had no economic interests in this country but perhaps most important of all was their perception that the state too was intransigent and would not accommodate Tamil interests or legitimate Tamil grievances as they perceived them to be and the LTTE was too much of a terrorist / fascist group to justify any support to them. They were of the view that we deserved each other and this was the principal reason why they did not go beyond passing resolutions and making statements. It is this perception that the state is intransigent and would not concede anything to the Tamil people that we need to relate to if we are to make the ban bite. Yes if we are to make use of this window of opportunity we must come up with a credible proposal that ensures justice for the Tamil people in the minds of India and the international community.

The government seems to be getting its act together. The statement issued by the President’s office after the ban was imposed certainly is in the right direction. The government has reiterated its "commitment to the continuation of Talks with the LTTE on the ceasefire and substantive issues relevant to the peace process". It also states that "work has begun on defining President’s vision of the maximum devolution of power". We do hope that the expert group would take off from where the power-sharing exercise began, namely the 13th Amendment and move further and have the political will and strength to make a reality of the devolution of power not only to entities in the north and east but to the rest of the country which can be administratively re-imaged. The President must convince his fellow party or coalition members that there is no sanctity in labels, whether they be Federal or Unitary.

It is absolutely vital that the government gets its priorities right; it must do all that’s within its power to achieve that elusive consensus in the South. The President himself must set about a major confidence building exercise and ensure that his party-men stop playing politics. Let us leave the ‘sillera’ stuff of Municipal politics and of wooing UNP members for another time; building a consensus should be national priority number one.

It is for the President to reach out to the UNP in particular for it is the second largest political party in this country. He must also at the same time assuage the fears of the JVP and the JHU and make them realise that just as much as the EU has now banned the LTTE and in the process sent the first meaningful signal yet that it would crack down on the LTTE, we too need to win them over permanently by addressing the principal issue of power sharing. What the LTTE fears most is the imposition of democracy and respect for human rights. This is why they did not attend the Donor Conference in Tokyo for they feared that they would be compelled to make a commitment to embrace these values.

This is where we identify ourselves with the international community; we should never give them cause to fault us on both these counts. The EU has also given us a message; we have been given space by them and we need to make use of it; let us hope that this would also not be another missed opportunity for history of this conflict is strewn with missed opportunities starting in 1958, the other efforts were in 1965, 1972. 1978, 1987, 1995, 1997 and finally in August of 2000. Is this not a damning indictment on our politicians who have played football with this issue and along with the murderous LTTE caused the deaths of thousands of our people and also of Indians including Rajiv Gandhi, whose assassination, Subramanium Swamy says, should be avenged.

To conclude, the Co-Chairs meeting in Tokyo also appear to be turning the screws on the LTTE but this should not give us any comfort for in their statement they also fault the government and puts it on notice. They have unequivocally denounced and ruled out any recognition of a separate state but called upon the government to address the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and drawn attention to the agreement in Oslo to explore a solution based on the federal principle of power sharing. They have called for maximum devolution within a united Sri Lanka. They have spoken the same ‘language’ as the President himself. This statement on behalf of the 25 countries of the EU and Japan with India no doubt in concurrence cannot be ignored. We cannot afford to lose their support. We must indeed stop quibbling over words which have lost their meaning in this globalized world and deliver peace and prosperity to the people of our country.

Whilst getting our act together and doing the needful we must always remember the advice of a General during the American Civil War who on seeing his soldiers praying stated, "Yes pray to God by all means but for heavens sake keep the powder dry!"