The Ghost of Prabakaran offers GOSL another carrot

Shenali Waduge

Norway's ambassador Hans Brattskar having met LTTE leadership has conveyed to the GOSL the willingness of the LTTE to resume peace talks. Everyone was naturally expecting this call from the LTTE. What is more interesting is the curiosity of how the message was conveyed by the reclusive tiger supremo? This comes after the recent googly by the Norwegians on the GOSL claiming that the GOSL had agreed to peace talks when nothing of the sort had been discussed going by the statement issued by Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.

So far as peace talks have been concerned the GOSL has been quite naïve to say the least. The GOSL delegation might recall the last peace initiative in Oslo wherein the LTTE delegation refused to meet them. We have lost count of the peace talks held over the years. A question on anyone’s mind would be “peace talks for what”. Clearly no one wants interim peace. We have had enough of that. We all want a final settlement for this curse that has befallen us & all Sinhalese & Tamils alike are in unison for the need to rid the country of the terrorism that persists. This obviously leads to the question of whether the LTTE and most importantly its head V. Prabakharan is ready to give up forthright his claim for a separate nation. No peace talks should commence without getting this cleared. The question the public may ask the GOSL is whether it is ready to lay on the table a solution that the LTTE must commit itself to. Has the GOSL done its homework and come up with a solution that can be offered. It is just pointless going to for talks if the same exercise of discussions that occurred in the past is to continue. Now that the GOSL is in a very strong position it must not bow down to pressures that will sacrifice national integrity. Since the GOSL has rightly dismissed any discussions with the ever grinning Thamilchelvan it would be apt to suggest that the GOSL will only have discussions directly with V. Prabakaran.

Petty political gains of yesteryears have led to the debacle facing the country today. The terrorist element has led to the 12% of the minority Tamil people making strong demands upon the 74% of the majority population. One thing that needs to be reiterated is that no one can deny that the Sinhalese are the majority race. Majority races exist in every country round the globe. No legislation can change this fact. India despite its federal framework has only one single official language (with 22 link languages) and only one national army. Sri Lanka on the other hand has gone a step further to include Tamil alongside Sinhala as its 2 official languages. Is there any country that has offered this status to such a small minority? Today any ethnic group can work in both the public and private sector. Tamils are today living mostly amongst the Sinhalese even the very Tamil politicos who are claiming that the Sinhalese are discriminating them live in the South of Sri Lanka.

Coming to the Armed Forces the public today values their efforts and has come to appreciate its operational success in targeting LTTE positions. The precision attacks are one reason that has ignited this sudden gesture for “peace talks” by the LTTE who obviously finds itself in a vulnerable situation. Now it is the turn of the GOSL not to demoralize the forces by making decisions to gain personal or political mileage.

Immediate action must be taken by the SL Foreign Ministry Officials to step up pressure upon foreign governments to take action to ensure no more “fund raising” for the LTTE occurs, no illicit ships carrying arms & ammunition reaches the territorial shores of Sri Lanka. If the fancy speeches about terrorists by world leaders (“War on Terrorism”) holds true then it should definitely apply to our terrorists as well. As President Musharaff rightly said why the need to only target “Muslim Terrorists”, a terrorist is a terrorist and the world leaders need to quickly unite in seeing that their barbarism does not continue any further.

There is much at risk and all leaders should realize their duty as world leaders in making the world terrorist-free.