SRI LANKA: Rebel Leader Says Right Words, but Real Test is Ahead

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Apr 11 2002 (IPS) - Most Sri Lankans agree that Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, made the right statements about peace in his first press conference in 12 years Wednesday, but continue to wonder whether he can really be trusted this time.

“He appeared relaxed and looks like he wants to settle the problem through peace but can we trust him?” asked security officer Susith Gunatillake after watching the rebel leader’s press conference on local television.

“Everyone wants this war to end but the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has a history of breaking ceasefires and abandoning peace talks after saying the same nice things,” he argued. “Will this change this time?”

Indeed Prabhakaran, occasionally breaking into smiles while facing local and foreign journalists for the first time in more than a decade, has in recent weeks made every effort to show the world that he is ready for peace.

Even before Wednesday’s press conference at Kilinochichi, a northern town that is a Tamil Tiger stronghold, he has been appearing at recent meetings with Norwegian negotiators dressed in smart safari suits instead of his trademark military fatigues.

His wife recently appeared in public for the first time, when Prabhakaran greeted his chief negotiator Anton Balasingham and wife Adele after they returned to the rebel-controlled north two weeks ago, after three years in exile in Britain.

Clearly, Prabhakaran’s recent moves were designed to show the world that he was an ordinary family man — reading newspapers, dressed in civilian clothes and seen with his wife, says Neela Marikkar of SriLankaFirst, a peace group from the business community.

Some Tamil analysts also said that Prabhakaran’s son, believed to be around 15 years old, is said to be a proponent of peace and has had long discussions on this with his father. “This could be another surprise element this time — in favour of peace, ” one analyst noted.

Ahis week, Prabhakaran was also meeting politicians from other Tamil parties, the leader of the biggest Muslim political party and political leaders representing plantation workers of Indian origin.

“This is a major shift from the past. He has not gone this far in the past in meeting political leaders,” said Marikkar. “We must give him the benefit of the doubt this time.”

Prabhakaran, whose group has been waging a bloody war for a separate homeland since 1983, freely answered all questions posed by some 400 journalists at the briefing in Kilinochchi, some 250 km from Colombo.

Contrary to expectations that he would duck sensitive questions or limit the briefing to a few questions, Prabhakaran’s press conference ran on for two hours. He responded to questions on the rebels’ demand for a separate homeland, proposed peace talks in Thailand, their position on a free market economy, and the continuation of their armed struggle if the peace process fails.

He said he believed that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, who won power at December’s parliamentary poll, was sincere in his commitment to a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict, which has killed up to 64,000 people since 1983 and is one of Asia’s longest civil wars.

Prabhakaran also surprised analysts like Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council, a Norwegian-backed peace group, by saying they would give the new government as much time as possible to build a consensus for peace in the majority-Sinhalese dominated south.

“That was a surprise. He was in fact speaking for Ranil (premier),” said Perera, referring to Prabhakaran’s statement that the rebels were satisfied with the formation of an interim administration in the war-torn north and the east for a two to three year period.

The rebel leader acknowledged that Wickremasinghe’s government was not powerful enough to push a quick solution because of political obstacles, like doubts about the peace process by Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her opposition People’s Alliance. The last time talks were held was in 1995, with the then Kumaratunga government.

Prabhakaran said an interim administration would give the government space to build a consensus in the south — where radical Sinhalese groups led by a sizable segment of the Buddhist clergy are opposed to Tamil demands for regional autonomy — before tackling the next step of a permanent solution to the ethnic crisis.

The rebels have been demanding a separate state, but Prabhakaran said the Tigers would consider giving up the armed struggle if a solution was offered that satisfied the Tamil community.

In many ways, Prabhakaran’s responses to questions from journalists were a repeat of what the rebels have been saying in the past with one exception — the leader himself was saying it.

Perera said the rebel leader’s comments showed a lot of confidence in the peace process. “He demonstrated a liberal attitude and concretised the proposals for proper autonomy. He also did not renounce the armed struggle or the goal of Eelam (separate state), saying that it was too early to review the strategy at this early stage of the peace process. I think that was the right answer,” Perera noted.

Prabhakaran’s credibility lies at the core of the current peace process.

Sunil Jayatillake, a Sinhala-language journalist, says there have been some immediate gains so far, but that the future remains uncertain. The peace process has so far resulted in an end to bomb attacks in the capital and relief for rural Sri Lanka where soldiers were regularly sent home in body bags, he explains.

“There is some relief but on the overall aspect, no one trusts the Tigers. Everything they want they are getting in the current peace campaign,” he said.

For instance, the rebels have insisted on running their own bus service on a section of the main highway that links the north and the south and are charging a toll for passengers and vehicles.

The Tigers also want a Sri Lankan government ban on it lifted before peace talks start in Thailand next month, a point that was reiterated at Wednesday’s news conference.

But for many in the business community, which saw the war last year ruin the economy and hit profits of companies across the board, the rebel leader appears ready — at last — for peace and an end to the conflict.

“I think he is serious this time. That’s why he has also brought his wife into the open,” says Marikkar, who is also managing director at Grant McCann advertising agency.

Business dropped sharply after July’s rebel attack on the Colombo International airport, which destroyed half the fleet of national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, and half a dozen military fighter planes. Foreign airlines pulled out of Sri Lanka and tourists stopped arriving.

But while the elite social classes are prepared to give Prabhakaran another shot at peace, others need much more convincing about it.

Samantha Senaratne, a retired navy driver who now works for a journalist-couple, says Prabhakaran has cheated Sri Lankans in the past and this cannot be forgetten.

“Can we forget the atrocities and civilian massacres by the Tigers? Prabhakaran would have to show more conciliatory gestures apart from statements at press conferences or nice family pictures to prove that his intentions this time are honourable,” he said.