COLOMBO: Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva who headed the government delegation to peace talks in Geneva in February is proving to be a staunch optimist.
A week after an LTTE suicide bomber exploded herself at the army headquarters in Colombo, killing 11 and plunging the country onto the brink of war, Mr de Silva still believes that peace talks will prevail.
This, despite the total number killed in the month of April reaching the figure of 191, 118 of them civilians, according to statistics provided by the foreign truce monitors.
“Yes, the killings have reached an unbearable limit. That is why our immediate concern is not to give the LTTE any excuse to play truant. We want them at the discussion table as soon as possible,” Minister Mr de Silva Dawn.
The minister’s comment comes despite a general feeling that the rebels would seek to avoid meeting the government for talks. Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports from the LTTE with regard to the transporting of its top cadres from the east to the north for an internal meeting which the rebels say has to be held prior to any resumption of talks with the government. While LTTE spokesperson Daya Master told the local media on Tuesday that the LTTE was considering the government’s latest offer of a State-owned sea plane to transport rebels, a pro-Tiger website claimed that the guerrillas had decided to use their own vessels, violating the ceasefire agreement.
The LTTE was not available for a formal response to clarify the rebel website statement that quoted the LTTE’s naval chief, Col Soosai, on the pro-LTTE Tamil website www.puthinam.com stating the Tigers would use their own boats.
Meanwhile, analysts say that if the LTTE begins to use its own vessels to transport its cadres it would be the start of yet another series of skirmishes with the Sri Lanka Navy.
“If the LTTE decides to ferry its cadres using LTTE vessels it will be a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement,” warned a top military source.
The LTTE backed out of peace talks in mid-April on the grounds that the government was not providing transport to its cadres to travel for the internal LTTE meeting.
When contacted for comment over the issue, the Norwegian embassy said on Wednesday that the transport issue was ‘still being worked out’. “We cannot comment about anything else. All we know is that we have communicated the government offer of the sea plane to the LTTE and that transport arrangements to transfer the rebel cadres are being worked out,” Norwegian Embassy spokesperson Eric Nurnverg said. Meanwhile, suspected anti-LTTE Tamil militants continued to target LTTE cadres and supporters, provoking the Prabhakaran mainstream Tiger faction who observers say see a thin line between anti-LTTE Tamils and the military. Following the Sunday’s attack in the east on militants supporting Tiger dissident Karuna, the breakaway group said it had retaliated killing 8 LTTE cadres. But analysts say this deadly internal war between the Tigers is even more deadly for the country’s peace prospects. “For every one LTTE cadre killed by its breakaway members, our military is targeted. Despite every kind of assurance by the army that we are not supporting the Tiger dissident Karuna, the LTTE will continue to intensify attacks on the military as long as it cannot eliminate its breakaway members,” says Major General (retd) Sarath Munasinghe. “Yes, the LTTE split has certainly aggravated the situation. But the two sides (the LTTE and the government) have already decided that they do have to talk. It could be sooner or it could be later. But eventually both the government and the LTTE will realize that they have to take the issue of peace talks seriously. Then it is up to the government to focus on paramilitary groups operating in government-controlled areas,” notes the head of the truce monitoring mission, Ulf Henriccson.
