A response to Ambassador Julien Wilson and those advocating ‘talks’

K GodageCourtesy The Island 05-03-2007

We do agree with the principle incorporated in your statement "both sides return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of a constructive proposal for a sustainable resolution of the conflict", but my dear friend whilst it is true that we have yet to formally place a proposal before the LTTE, have they ever endorsed even such far-reaching proposals as the 1995 proposals (the LTTE assassinated the chief architect of that proposal, a truly great humanist, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam) or the 1997 (the Union of Regions) or even the 2000 August proposals ---- the LTTE rejected those proposals out of hand and that helped the Sinhala Supremacists and the UNP to also ‘kill the proposals).

If you study the 1995 proposals they were quite far reaching, those proposals virtually created semi-autonomous regions. We doubt very much whether the much-awaited proposals could go that far. Please understand that the LTTE has only a one-point agenda and that is Eelam which would be a separate state, so what is there to talk to them about? Do the Tamil people living amongst us want such a separate state? Most definitely not; they wish to live where they have lived for over one hundred and fifty years here in the south; all they seek is equal opportunity, equal rights and to live in dignity, in security and to have a say in deciding their destiny in a democratic state in which the rule of law prevails. The last thing they seek is a partition as that which took place in India with all the horrifying consequences that followed.

Ambassador, you should be aware that we have indeed ‘talked’ to the LTTE; we ‘talked’, or rather negotiated, with the LTTE through the Indians between 1983 and 1987; thereafter, between May and September 1989 President Premadasa negotiated with the LTTE. You should be aware that in an act of sheer treachery the LTTE mounted a Pearl Harbour type attack in May 1990 and very nearly killed Foreign Minister Hameed who had gone to Jaffna in good faith for talks with the LTTE; they also killed 640 Policemen who surrendered to them on an undertaking given by the LTTE that they would be given safe passage; but they killed them in cold blood, such is their treachery. Are these the people you and the rest of the international community want us to engage in talks with?

The next round of Talks came in 1994 with the Kumaratunga Government and the LTTE, once again having used the period of the ceasefire to rearm and re-train, indulged in yet another surprise attack on our armed forces. Then came Ranil Wickremasinghe’s turn to be duped by Prabhakaran –we held talks again between 2002 and 2003 and the LTTE, having exploited the ceasefire agreement to the maximum, and after having obtained fresh stocks of arms, pulled out of talks on the 21st of April 2003. Therefore, when the EU advises us to talk to the terrorists they do not seem to know what they are talking about. As stated earlier, the LTTE has only a one-point agenda and that is the establishment of a separate state---- they are as much opposed to devolution as the Sinhala supremacists.

As you would, no doubt, be aware, the LTTE reneged on the undertaking given at Oslo, to explore a federal solution within a united Sri Lanka; they also went back on the agreement to examine the possibility of de-escalation and rejected the Nambiar Report on High Security Zones; they also pulled the plug on the Sub- Committee established to address the urgent humanitarian needs in the north and east after 624 projects had been identified and 70 million US Dollars pledged for the purpose. The LTTE feared that if the hospitals, schools, temples, homes, roads and irrigation works were rebuilt and rehabilitated it would be to their disadvantage; that was how they cared for their people.

To revert to the subject of talks, you know as well as anybody else that this Government went the extra mile to reach out to them and went to Geneva and Oslo more recently– and you know what the LTTE did and you still want us to engage in talks---come on Ambassador please, I know you mean well but people may conclude unfairly that you are patronizing; if your own country faced a situation such as this what would be your response --- a Churchillian type response or a weak-kneed cowardly Neville Chamberlain type of response?

When you suggest that we talk to the LTTE; what do you want us to talk to them about ---- Granting total autonomy to establish their separate state? Which is what they seek; yes that is what they are interested in and they have stated so many times over and that is what this war is all about. However they are not the sole spokesmen for the Tamil people ---- ask the people of the east or for that matter the people of the Vanni as to whether the Jaffna Tamil based non-Velala LTTE speaks for them or represents them or wishes to be even ruled by them? --- you will without doubt have the answer—an emphatic NO!

It is only because the successive Sinhala majoritarian governments have denied them equal opportunity that they have been driven into the arms of the LTTE. If the Government wishes to ‘save’ them from the LTTE they should mount a sincere effort to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary Tamil people—the Tamil civilian is today living in fear they have been the ham in the sandwich over the years; they have, indeed, suffered enough. Just as much as we feared the JVP and put out lights and did not venture out when they declared their unofficial ‘curfews’, the Tamils through fear obey the LTTE but every Tamil is not an LTTE sympathizer. The LTTE has assassinated more Tamil leaders than Sinhala leaders.

Let us pause to consider this incessant call by the LTTE to negotiate with the LTTE terrorists despite their horrendous record. Their record of assassinations of political leaders including a President and Foreign Minister of this country, is without parallel anywhere, they even assassinated Rajiv Gandhi withy impunity! They violated the CFA endorsed by the international community over 3000 times, they broke promises to the Norwegians and the international community; they almost assassinated the Pakistan High Commissioner and would almost have ended the lives of the American, Italian and German Ambassadors and now claim that we "did not follow proper procedures" – that is indeed rich ---- and these are the people with whom the EU the American and other members of the international support group wishes us to ‘Talk’.Do you still believe the LTTE; please divorce the LTTE from the Tamil people --- their just grievances MUST be addressed but this cannot be done through talks with the LTTE.

The Government must certainly come up with constitutional proposals that would address the just grievances of the minorities and enable them to live in dignity, in security and make them feel that this is as much their country as it is of the majority Sinhalese; they must not in any manner feel alienated but must become stakeholders, having a say in the determination of their destiny and the destiny of this country. Negotiating only with the LTTE is not the answer; all Tamil parties should be represented if talks are held. If constitutional proposals that envisage "devolution to the furthest possible extent" ensuring a just peace as the President himself has indicated could be agreed upon and endorsed by the international community as a just basis for a settlement, then negotiations as such may not be necessary; None of this can be achieved until the LTTE’s military capacity is wholly negated.

If the political will is present and the international community honestly wishes to see

a settlement of this problem, and they are opposed to the establishment of to any form of a separate state in this country, then they should demand (for they do have the capacity to make such a demand and follow it up if their demand is rejected) that the LTTE gives up its goal of Eelam and surrender arms to the custody of the UN as happened in Northern Ireland on the undertaking that it would ensure a fair and just settlement.

This would be the only way to avoid another bloodbath in which thousands of innocent civilians would certainly die. If the LTTE does not heed the international community then the Government would be left with no other option but to resort to force, which would be most unfortunate. That is the price this country would have to pay to achieve a just, enduring / sustainable peace. This is the price which Europe paid in 1815 for one hundred years of peace in Europe after Waterloo and Versailles and the price Europe and the US paid between 1939 and 45 for sixty years and more years to follow of peace in Europe and the world.