A SECOND ANTON BALASINGHAM WOULD NEVER BE MADE TO GUIDE PRABHAKARAN OUT OF THE JUNGLES OF VANNI

By Walter Jayawardhana

Anton Balasingham, (68) advisor to one of the most ruthless terrorist leaders of the world, Velupillai Prabhakaran, died of cancer Thursday at his London home.

Fondly called Bala Annan by the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran , the well read Balasingham guided the ruthless terrorist movement of suicide bombers , the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during times of good and bad and was able to keep the confidence of his leader when other associates of the LTTE leader have been tortured and killed in dungeons like Mahaththaya, his one time deputy.

For more than three decades when the LTTE had its ups and downs Anton Balasingham worked day in and day out to give some respectability to a terrorist movement that has been considered an international pariah by many nations.

He knew quite well that it was a Herculean task to save the LTTE from the depths it fell after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and even tried to come over the difficulties created by it by issuing a sort of apology through the New Delhi TV channel NDTV before his death. He always dreamt of taking Prabhakaran back to the good books of India like before by his diplomacy and his contacts in the intelligence organization RAW but failed. That was considered to be his last attempt to save the terrorist movement from the unavoidable deterioration it is going through now.

Apologizing to the Muslims by calling the ethnic cleansing a monumental mistake, for the wrong done to them by his leader Prabhakaran by ordering them out of Jaffna within 24 hours with their bag and baggage was another attempt Anton Balasingham did to save his movement from the complete rejection by the Tamil speaking Muslims in the Eastern province. He was not successful in that either. But he tried.

Although he tried , he was tactful enough not to face the same fate of Mahaththaya , second in command of Prabhakaran who died for suspected allegiance to the Indian government after many months of torture in a dungeon.

Unlike any other terrorist movement through his personal friendship with Eric Solheim and Ranil Wickremesinghe he was able to help create a Ceasefire Agreement that has been implemented and accepted by the international community although it contravened the supreme law of Sri Lanka, the republican constitution of the island nation.

Like many other diplomats he was ready to lie for his movement. When Ollara Otunu of the United Nations visited him in Kilinochchi he brazenly gave an assurance to discharge all the child soldiers from the army of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) knowingly he could not do it since their military future depended on them. He bluffed the UN and other Agencies so long that the child soldiers grew up to become adult soldiers and suicide bombers while his movement continued to kidnap more children from Tamil homes. He has never been condemned by anybody for his action although his movement has been condemned for it.

His life long achievement is considered to be his ability to manipulate peace negotiations and postpone them indefinitely under various ruses until his movement could raise enough funds from the Tamil Diaspora and rearm the Tamil Tiger cadres strong enough to face the Sri Lanka army.
His leader was a school drop out. So, his presence was always felt essential at all meeting and discussions where international community wanted to meet them. In a safe haven in London, also directing the illegal movement there without getting caught to the British authorities, he worked very swiftly until his death.

Addressing a heroes’ day meetings he even issued threats without suffering any consequences. He once told such a meeting that they could not wait until they garlanded their enemy, minister Douglas Devananda. This was in reference to the garlanding of Rajiv Gandhi by a suicide bomber in South India and killing him. Even with such utterances the British authorities continued to allow him for his activities. He was a British citizen married second time to an Australian white agency nurse called Adele, who also became part of the movement by helping to train female LTTE cadres including suicide bombers.

Bala Annan’s absence was very much felt when Prabhakaran made his Heroes’ Day speech last November from an undisclosed place in Vanni. It lacked all the luster Balasingham used to put by twist of words to an otherwise dull speech Prabhakaran would be able to put together with the other available advisors. For Prabhakaran , the ominous signs are there that there would not be a second “Bala Annan” made to guide him out of the Vanni jungles.