COLOMBO: Somewhere between the killings by the LTTE, (which has riddled bullet holes in the three-year old peace process), its recruitment of child soldiers and its build up of its air base, there are some-things that stand out clearly. Fact one. That the Tigers have blamed the government for ‘not stopping’ the killings carried out by the LTTE in government controlled territory.

Fact two. That the LTTE has been unable to prove that it has not been recruiting children in the past three years of peace.

Fact three. That the LTTE has made no qualms that it has been harnessing its military power, the chief of which is its air power, maintained within the past three years of its truce with the government.

Of these enumerated ceasefire violations of the LTTE, what stands out both in its significance to local and international security, is the fact that it has openly admitted that it has air power, totalling, latest reports, to at least two aircraft.

The London-based LTTE theoretician, Anton Balasingham, admitting to the LTTE possessing air power, recently claimed that he did not see it as a violation of the ceasefire agreement signed with the government military in 2002 February.

The LTTE’s justification is of course that it needs to build up its military might in its attempt to be “on par” with the military.