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by Ranga Jayasuriya

Tigers' Eastern military chief "colonel" Karuna is hardly a moderate.

Understandably, fears that Karuna and his eastern boys would scuttle the peace process led Prabhakaran to include this battle- hardened guerrilla in the LTTE's peace delegation- Karuna was the only military cadre in the LTTE peace delegation comprising movement's political members.

Now Karuna speaks of diplomacy. Returning home after a two- week European tour aimed at exploring Scandinavian federal systems, Karuna was quoted saying rejecting the Tigers' counterproposals would risk the Government "severe international displeasure".

This was a change from his previous mode when he warned a couple of months ago of "disastrous consequences", should the Government reject the counterproposals, in an apparent threat to resume fighting. Metamorphosis of Karuna's character is within comprehension. Perhaps, a string of foreign trips have brought about the change.

Remember, those pics of a battle hardened guerrilla playing with snow balls, or beaming for international photo journalists.

What is however the most notable is Karuna's pronouncement that the Tigers are ready to resume talks even before the Government reviews his movement's proposals. Despite his inclusion in the LTTE's political team, Karuna is not an authority to make a statement on his own on the Tigers' peace moves, an area reserved for Velupillai Prabhakaran. Obviously what Karuna is echoing is the stance of his leader.

This is in total contrast to the Tigers' earlier position, when the movement kept on demanding the finalisation of the Interim Administration as a prerequisite to resume peace talks.

The Tigers earlier rejected two government proposals claiming they had not offered enough powers to the proposed North-East interim set up.

The change in the LTTE's mode came in the wake of reports of a possible preliminary meeting between the Government and the LTTE.

The Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim is due in Colombo early next month to make arrangements for the meeting which will be the first face to face negotiations since the Tigers walked away from talks in mid April. The meeting will focus on working out a format for the future peace negotiations and the participation of a separate Muslim delegation in the talks.

However speculation is rife that bridging the differences between the LTTE demands and the Government's original proposals for a Provisional Administrative Council for the North East will be one priority concern in any preliminary meeting.

Separate Muslim representation in the peace talks, however, remains a thorny issue with the Tigers' reluctance to accommodate a Muslim team at the peace table. While assuring that Muslim interests will be secured in the counter proposals, Karuna tacitly ruled out the issue for which SLMC has been campaigning for months.

"We regard Muslim people living in the Northeast as a segment of Tamil people. We are firm in our commitment that Muslim people shall enjoy every right the Tamil people enjoy. We would like to stress the need for the Tamils and Muslims to live together in amity in the homeland of the Tamil people," Karuna was quoted saying.

The LTTE's stance on separate Muslim representation seems to be endorsed by the non-LTTE Tamil parties which met the LTTE political chief on Wednesday.

"Our position (TNA) is that there is no need for the participation of a third party in peace negotiations right now," EPRLF MP Suresh Premachandran told the reporters after a meeting with Thamilselvam.

However, when Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem raised the issue in Parliament on Tuesday, Leader of the House W.J.M.Lokubandara assured him that Muslims will be given a separate representation in the future peace talks.

After their Wednesday's meeting with the LTTE political chief, the TNA MPs endorsed the Tigers' counterproposals, which A. Vinayagamoorthi (ACTC) called a "clear reflection of Tamils aspirations". He, like all others, stopped short of explaining the content of the proposals. Wednesday's meeting was the first in a series of planned briefings of the non-LTTE Tamil parties on the Tigers counterproposals.

Upcountry People's front leader P.Chandrasekaran and Radhakrishnan were expected to meet Thamilselvam yesterday (23), while Ceylon Workers Congress leader Arumugam Thondaman and R. Sellaswamy will meet the LTTE political chief on Saturday.

This is while the regional power, India backed the Government in its peace efforts, while expressing hope that the Tigers would not make unreasonable demands.

"India expects that the response to the proposals made by the Sri Lankan Government in July 2003 will be reasonable and comprehensive," a joint statement by Indian and Sri Lankan governments at the end of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to Delhi said: It went on to stress that any interim arrangement should be an "integral part of the final settlement and should be in the framework of the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka".

India's support and her concern in Sri Lanka's territorial integrity are of crucial importance not only because of her geopolitical interests in its southern backyard, but it would have a direct impact on the Tigers, who are trying to patch up strained relations with India.

Yet the Indian remark on the Interim Administration will impress the Opposition PA which has been reiterating the same concern since the issue of the IA was raised.

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