SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers Want to Become a Political Force

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Nov 3 2002 (IPS) - In a resounding endorsement of the Sri Lankan peace process, the Tamil Tiger rebels announced here Sunday that they are committed becoming a political force and entering the ”democratic political mainstream” in their country.

”It is the ultimate aim of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to finally enter into the democratic political mainstream,” Anton Balasingham, chief negotiator of the Tamil Tigers, said at a press conference here at the end of the second round of peace talks.

”We are aiming at a political solution where the LTTE can enter into a political framework,” he said, in remarks that underscored the surprisingly rapid progress in the current peace talks.

Balasingham’s announcement is the most emphatic indication that the Tigers are prepared to change their stripes from a guerrilla organisation to one keen on embracing a democratic culture and all its complexities.

The Tiger negotiator also declared that the LTTE would not suppress voices within the Tamil community in northern and eastern Sri Lanka who are opposed to it or disagree with its policies. This region in the South Asian island nation is where the LTTE has been battling for nearly two decades to establish a separate state of Tamil Eelam.

”Since we are committed to enter the political mainstream, which is of course a democratic political mainstream, we have to accept and assimilate other political groups and to allow them free exercise in the electoral processes,” Balasingham pointed out. ”So we will allow other political parties and groups to participate in the north and east.”

During the course of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, which has resulted in over 60,000 deaths, the Tigers did not brook any opposition or dissent from Tamil civilians and groups living in Sri Lanka’s north-east.

Not only were other Tamil militant groups killed by the LTTE, but others that stood in the way – ranging from Tamil politicians, human rights activists and other critics – have either been threatened or killed.

Among the Tigers’ high-profile victims was Neelan Thiruchelvam, a moderate Tamil politician and internationally recognised scholar on human rights and minority rights who was killed by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in July 1999.

This sea change in the LTTE’s position has ”not been articulated in this form,” Gamini Lakshman Peiris, minister of constitutional affairs and Colombo’s chief negotiator, told IPS soon after the press conference. ”They have under gone a kind of metamorphosis.”

But Colombo, he added, had noticed signs that the Tigers were interested in taking the road toward democracy since the peace process began with the signing of the ceasefire agreement in February.

”They are making the transition to a democratic political culture,” he said. ”We feel that; we are convinced by it.”

The only time the Tamil Tigers showed a similar inclination before was in 1989, when during the peace talks at the time the LTTE formed a political party called the People’s Front of Liberation Tigers (PLFT).

But the PLFT never contested an election because those talks broke down in mid-1990, and it has remained defunct ever since.

The Tigers’ announcement here Sunday comes in the wake of Balasingham’s announcement after the first round of talks in September that the LTTE was prepared to scale down its long-term demand for a separate state to substantial regional autonomy. The Tiger’s declaration overshadowed the impressive achievements made at the Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 talks, held at a resort in this town 32 kilometres west of Bangkok.

A statement released Sunday by the Norwegian peace brokers said that the two sides agreed to the shape and form of a body that will oversee the rehabilitation efforts in Sri Lanka’s north and east.

This body, called the Sub-Committee on the Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs in the North and East, will consist of four members from the LTTE and four members from the Sri Lankan government.

Its first task will be to assist the Norwegian government in preparing for a meeting of donors in Oslo on Nov. 25, the statement said.

This meeting will be the first of two donor meetings aimed at attracting funds to rebuild the war-ravaged regions in Sri Lanka. Officials estimate that rehabilitation costs would be 500 million U.S. dollars. The second meeting will be hosted by the Japanese government early next year.

This committee, which will be a subsidiary unit of the negotiating body has authority to act on identifying humanitarian and rehabilitation needs and deciding on the allocation of financial resources.

”This committee was the compromise reached during the talks,” a government official close to Colombo’s negotiators told IPS. The initial proposal of calling it a ”Joint Task Force” ran into some difficulty due to differences between the two sides on its mandate and operations.

Colombo and Tiger negotiators also appointed a 19-member committee, with equal representation from both sides and a seat for the Norwegians, to facilitate the reduction of the military presence in the north-east.

The LTTE named Karuna, who is the commander of its forces in eastern Sri Lanka and who took part in the talks here , to be among its representatives in this committee.

The Norwegian statement also said that Colombo and the Tamil Tigers were prepared to address the political problems in the ethnic conflict – even though tackling these difficult core issues was not expected until later on.

”The parties acknowledged that the peace talks must address a series of complex political questions in order to reach a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict, including constitutional, legal, political and administrative issues,” the statement affirmed.

In a move long demanded by rights activists, both sides in the talks agreed to permit an independent human rights expert to take an active role in the peace process. The man given this assignment is Ian Martin, a former head of Amnesty International and who also served as head of the U.N. mission to East Timor.

Said Vidar Helgessen, Norway’s deputy foreign minister and chief facilitator in the talks: ”The parties have exceeded our expectations.”

SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers Want to Become a Political Force

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

NAKHON PATHOM, Nov 3 2002 (IPS) - In a resounding endorsement of the Sri Lankan peace process, the Tamil Tiger rebels announced here Sunday that they are committed to entering mainstream politics.
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