By Amantha Perera
KILINOCHCHI, Jul 6 2004 (IPS)

It is difficult to imagine Kumudini Ramalingam as a female Tamil Tiger cadre fighting the Sri Lankan army if one observes her working at the Vocational Training Institute for Women in northern Sri Lanka.

Four years ago she lost a leg in heavy fighting with government troops near the sprawling Sri Lankan Army complex at Elephant Pass. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are officially known, overran the place in 2000.

Ramalingam served in LTTE military units for 10 years, rising to the rank of captain before her injury.

Today she is married and works at the institute, which helps women get back to civilian life.

”I prefer peace, it is better,” Ramalingam who uses an artificial leg told IPS during an interview in Tiger-controlled Kilinochchi.

The two-year ceasefire between the Tigers and the Colombo government has no doubt improved civilian life in the war-affected areas in Sri Lanka, especially in areas held by the Tigers.

With the ceasefire, the government lifted a goods embargo easing both civilian and commercial traffic. A new vehicle service station that is being built in Kilinochchi is symbolic of the changes peace has ushered in.

Donors and non-governmental agencies have increased work in the areas. Two weeks ago the World Bank announced a loan of 64.7 million U.S. dollars to develop agriculture in the North-east of Sri Lanka.

The Tigers too have made use of the ceasefire to develop and strengthen its civilian administrative structure.

However, the rising tension between the new government in Colombo led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Tigers and the lack of goodwill between the two parties have brought considerable amount of strain on the Norwegian brokered peace process.

Since it came into power in April the new United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has been plagued by lack of a parliamentary majority and a cohesive policy, which have thwarted attempts to get talks, stalled since April 2003, recommenced.

In the Apr. 2 polls, Kumaratunga’s narrowly defeated former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party. But the UPFA lacks a majority in parliament to pursue its legislative agenda.

Last week Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim met with both Kumaratunga and the Tiger leadership separately to break the deadlock but left the country without any deal.

In fact, during talks with Solheim, LTTE political wing leader S.P. Tamilselvan conveyed a much toughened stance.

On top of a demand that their proposals for an interim administration be implemented, the Tigers last week requested the government to refrain from aiding and harbouring renegade former eastern commander Vinayagamorthi Muralitharan alias Colonel Karuna who defected to government controlled areas in April.

”If the Sri Lankan President and government are serious about the cease-fire agreement and peace talks they should stop sheltering Karuna and backing the murder and mayhem in which some of his henchmen are indulging in Batticaloa (in the east),” Tamilselvan told the press soon after meeting with Solheim.

”This is what we told the Norwegian facilitators,” he added.

The LTTE negotiator warned that future talks would now depend on Colombo.

”If this situation is allowed to continue, it will jeopardise the ceasefire agreement and the entire peace process,” the official Tiger website quoted Tamilselvan as telling the Norwegians.

But the Sri Lankan government rejected allegations that the country’s armed forces were aiding Karuna.

Two weeks ago cabinet spokesperson and minister Mangala Samaraweera told the press that elements within the army had aided Karuna without the knowledge of the government.

On the issue of the interim administration proposals while Kumaratunga said in a national address last month that she was willing to accommodate them, a powerful coalition partner in her government – the People’s Liberation Front – has rejected it outright.

The Front is steadfastly demanding that negotiations should tackle the interim administration and a final solution simultaneously.

Tilvin Silva general secretary of the Front said last week that there was no change in the policy.

”If you allow the process to drag on, all gains would be nullified,” said Tamil National Alliance MP, M.K. Eelaventhan, warning that patience was running thin among the Tigers.

Even before last week’s meeting, the Tigers had been complaining of a lack of a clear policy on the part of the new government.

”The lack of cohesion in the leadership is the most important thing,” LTTE’s Tamilselvan told IPS adding ”she (Kumaratunga) has to make her words come true by implementing them.”

The impasse led the London based ‘Tamil Guardian’, which is close to the Tiger thinking to warn last week that the ceasefire was unravelling.

”We cannot recall a time when the prospects for peace have been lower,” it said in its editorial.

And this is a fear shared by many observers in Colombo.

”The prospect for recommencement of peace talks is quite bleak. LTTE will agree to recommence talks with the new UPFA government only if it would accept their demands,” Colombo based economist Muttukrishna Sarvananthan told IPS.

The unease is heightened even more due to the fact that despite the ceasefire, both sides are well armed and continue to recruit. The Tigers have been conducting interviews for new police recruits during the past two weeks while the Sri Lankan Army also called for applicants for its commando units.

”The (Sri Lankan) army is buying weapons and recruiting. We accept that,” the highest-ranking female Tiger commander Tamilini said during an interview with IPS.

”On the other hand, we are preparing for peace, but staying ready for war,” said the head of LTTE’s female political wing.

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