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What the LTTE needs to remember

LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran's annual "Heroes' Day" address which was run in full on Tamilnet, gave once again the now familiar and stale rationale for its war of aggression against the Lankan State. Some of the Tiger leader's contentions in this annual harangue are so controversial that he could very well have been talking with his tongue in his cheek.

Take for instance his claim that the LTTE is a national liberation organisation fighting for the rights of an "oppressed minority". We in Sri Lanka have seen the glaring difference between this often-mouthed myth and the hard, ground reality. Prabhakaran's loud claims to national liberation movement status proves to be empty rhetoric when the Tigers' utter ruthlessness and barbarity is taken into account. Civilian lives, for instance, count for nothing in the LTTE's pursuit of its bizarre aims. Nor are the critics of the LTTE spared. The Tigers' bloody "liberation war" testifies to the sheer brutality of the LTTE, for which it has earned worldwide notoriety. Accordingly, the LTTE leader's empty rhetoric could impress only the gullible.

We note, however that nowhere in the Tiger chief's address is there a reference to a separate state. Instead, he speaks of a negotiated political settlement to the ethnic conflict. He has also been at pains to emphasize that "self determination" for a national minority doesn't necessarily imply secession and a separate state.

We grant these theoretical points but hasten to indicate to the LTTE leader that proscription could never be an impediment to a negotiated, peaceful settlement of the conflict. We find that the burden of the "Heroes' Day" speech is to impress on the Lankan Government the need to deproscribe the LTTE and accept it as the sole representative of the Tamil People.

A government committed to democratic principles is likely to find these conditions unacceptable, although it must be conceded that there is no alternative to a negotiated political settlement of the ethnic problem. First, the LTTE must prove its sincerity on bringing peace to Sri Lanka by peaceful means. Thus far, it has failed to do this and has only "agreed to disagree" on numerous occasions. The readiness with which it has got back to arms makes a mockery of the LTTE's claims to resolve the conflict peacefully.

If the LTTE is seriously considering thrashing out an agreement with the Lankan Government it is obliged to establish the sincerity of its intentions. We find that the LTTE is drawing red herrings across these gut issues by decrying the bans which have been clamped on it abroad. A durable peace can be brought about by only the local parties to the conflict, including the Lankan Government and the LTTE. External actors are of secondary importance in this conflict.

Deproscription could only come about as and when the LTTE proves reliable.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 28.11.2001:Un-banning the LTTE

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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