BANGKOK: If the Sri Lankan peace talks in Thailand had convinced the Tamil Tiger rebels that they were on the way to achieving their Holy Grail — international legitimacy — then this week’s meeting of donors in Norway shattered that illusion.

The three countries that are key to granting the Tamil rebels the legitimacy they crave — the United States, Britain and India — delivered an unequivocal message about how they view the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are formally known.

The most stinging rebuke was from the United States, which was one among the over 20 countries that assembled in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, on Monday to pledge money and political support for Sri Lanka’s fledgling peace process. Norway has been playing a mediator’s role in the peace talks.

Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, told the one-day donors’ conference that the LTTE should declare publicly that it was renouncing “terrorism and violence”.

The Tigers have to “make it clear to the people of Sri Lanka and indeed the international community that the LTTE has abandoned its armed struggle for a separate state,” he asserted. “My nation stands firm in the resolve that the tactics of terror can never achieve legitimate aspirations.”

For Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s chief negotiator at the peace talks who was at the donors’ meeting, the implication of Armitage’s message would have been clear: the Tamil Tigers will remain on Washington’s list of terrorist organisations until they give up their killings.

Apart from being outlawed in the United States, the LTTE is listed as a terrorist organisation and consequently banned in Australia, Britain, Canada and India.

As significant a slight on the LTTE’s quest for international recognition was the snub delivered to the Tigers by Clare Short, Britain’s secretary of state for international development.

Short did not address the LTTE or acknowledge its representatives when she addressed the meeting to pledge Britain’s support for the peace process, aimed at ending the over two-decades-long ethnic conflict in the South Asian nation.

India was as clear about its distaste for the LTTE through its token diplomatic presence, rather than representation by a high-level government official, at the Oslo conference.

India, as a result, affirmed its long held policy towards the Tamil Tigers — that it will not recognise the rebel movement, a position that remains a significant obstacle in the LTTE’s quest for international respect, given India’s political clout in South Asia.

This tough line stems from the Tigers being linked to the 1991 assassination of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is among the men wanted in India for the murder.

Balasingham did little to help the Tigers’ cause by refusing to renounce violence as an LTTE strategy and disagreeing with Washington labelling the rebels as a terrorist organisation. It is “totally unacceptable,” he said.

What is more, by the LTTE’s reluctance to distance itself from its violent record — which has emerged as a prerequisite to gaining international legitimacy in the post-Sep. 11 political climate — the Tamil rebels have become more dependent on their arch foes, the Sri Lankan government, to gain legitimacy.

The irony of this situation was clearly so in the run-up to the Oslo gathering, where Colombo played a pivotal role in helping launder the image of the LTTE as a responsible and equal partner in the peace process.

The LTTE also gained a few notches in legitimacy when Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met Balasingham for closed-door discussions, in addition to the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE participating as equals at the donors’ meeting and signing a joint statement.

It meant that Colombo was prepared to accord its adversary in the ethnic conflict a status normally given to government representatives at this first-ever international coming out event for the Tigers.

The tone for this, however, was set during the first two rounds of peace talks in Thailand in September and November this year to end Sri Lanka’s conflict, which has claimed over 60,000 lives.

Colombo’s negotiators admitted that they could work with their LTTE counterparts, a sign of accommodation that helped boost the Tamil rebels’ image as a committed political partner in the peace negotiations.

The peace process have helped take away attention from the LTTE as a militant group that has used suicide bombers, conscripted Tamil children, killed its political opponents and ruled parts of Sri Lanka’s north and east under its control with an iron fist.

For Colombo, the talks are a political script with potential windfalls on a few fronts.

For one, it will mean the Tigers becoming increasingly dependent on the Sri Lankan government to portray it as a movement that has changed its stripes.

For another, keeping the LTTE engaged in the peace process will help attract the much-needed funds the country needs to rebuild its war-ravaged regions. The Oslo meeting resulted in pledges of around 70 million US dollars.

But as the Tamil Tigers learnt this week, international goodwill does not translate into immediate recognition and legitimacy — the United States, Britain and India have made sure of that.

The LTTE, consequently, has been forced to swallow an unpalatable truth: it is still a pariah on the international stage.—Dawn/InterPress News Service.