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Lunstead makes US position even clearer

There was another killing of an EPDP cadre last week, and another demonstration before the Norwegian Embassy. How many more deaths are needed to satisfy the bloodlust of Velupillai Prabhakaran and his fellow fascists in the Vanni?

Is it the blood of all members of the EPDP and what is left of the EPRLF and PLOTE? What is the assurance that even with all that blood, those who dream the dream of a Greater Eelam as the Sun God in the Vanni does, will be satiated?

The now regular pilgrimage by Western and Japanese diplomats to Kilinochchi to jaw-jaw with Thamilchelvan, prompted EPDP leader Douglas Devananda to tell Norwegian Peace envoy, Eric Solheim, before his recent ritual visit to Kilinochchi, it would be meaningful if members of the International Community meet Prabhakaran instead of meeting Thamilchelvan at Kilinochchi, to move forward with the peace process because it was Prabhakaran who was calling all the shots, and not the sanctimonious charm of Thamilchelvan.

Respond to President's call

The US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead, after a holiday and briefings in Washington had a very clear message to the LTTE in discussions with media representatives. Referring to discussions with Richard Armitage the Deputy Secretary too, Ambassador Lunstead said: "We think that talks have to resume, that the President has shown her desire to resume the talks, and that the Tigers need to respond positively to those talks, and that there has to be an end to violence in the countryside in order for the progress to move forward."

He was in fact underscoring what the State Department's Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Ambassador J. Cofer Black said earlier of the need for the LTTE to renounce violence and prove by word and deed that they were negotiating in good faith.

Having stressed that the President had clearly demonstrated her desire to resume talks, the US Ambassador made it clear it was the Tigers who were delaying them when he said: "...the Tigers need to respond positively to those talks, and that there has to be an end to violence in the countryside in order for the progress to move forward."

What Ambassador Lunstead did was not only to ask the Tigers to resume negotiations; there was also more in this call for discussions.

He said the US was also telling the Tigers plainly that if they do renounce violence in word and deed, "our hope is that [action] could begin the process of their entering the political mainstream. I think that's an important thing to mention because there's been a lot of stress lately on the U.S. position, what some people would call the 'hard line' on the Tigers. I don't call it a hard line; it's just a realistic assessment that the Tigers continue to perpetrate violence and that that has to stop."

So if anyone saw a stick in the hand of the US, there was also an important carrot, the possibility of entering mainstream politics, and also the greater possibility of being taken off the list of those identified International Terrorist Organizations, with whom the US will have no truck.

The US Ambassador dismissed so-called fears among the LTTE and Tamils about the recent visit of high level US military and naval personnel to Sri Lanka. He made it clear it was the view of the US that there was no military solution to this issue.

Those in the Sri Lankan armed forces thought so, as did the Government that was committed to the peace process. The US military personnel who visited Sri Lanka shared the same view.

He made light of such fears, being spread by the LTTE and its supportive media, by saying it was hard for him to see how any visit of a US Marine Corps General to Sri Lanka could alter the balance in favour of anyone.

At the same time he stressed the Government had a sovereign right to take care of its own self defence, and the US wants to assist Sri Lanka in that effort.

There was prominent news last Sunday that the LTTE was losing its patience with the Government's delays over talks. It was all part of the UNP's present moves to create a war psychosis.

The news item virtually let the cat out of the bag when it said the LTTE wants the UPFA Government to come into alliance with the UNP and resume negotiations. What it really gave out was not the LTTE's but the UNP's impatience to be back in the seats of power. The UNP was urging the Government to rid itself of the JVP and accept its deadly embrace, using the LTTE as its proxy voice.

How dare the LTTE speak of impatience if it did say so, and what right has the LTTE to dictate the composition of the Government, above the electors of Sri Lanka that gave the UPFA the largest number of votes as a single party, 700,000 higher than the next the UNP, which suffered its worst defeat ever on April 2, 2004.

On the matter of patience, it was the LTTE that unilaterally abandoned negotiations in April 2003. They delayed till end October 2003 to present its ISGA proposals. The same LTTE is now delaying talks by insisting on the ISGA being established before it; wanting the Government to solve its own problems with Karuna before the talks, and various other clearly unfeasible proposals, to delay the talks.

It is not the LTTE but the Government that has every right to say it is losing patience with the LTTE's dragging of its feet over talks. Yet, the Government still says it is ready for talks, and does not threaten war if they are delayed.

It is all very well for Thamilchelvan to tell Southern journalists taken to meet him by the National Peace Council that they are flexible on the ISGA.

But such messages should come via the proper quarters such as the Government's Peace Secretariat or the Norwegian facilitators. It would be foolish to rush in for talks with no agenda, based on the so-called flexibility of the LTTE on the ISGA told to a group of journalists taken for a good ride to Kilinochchi. Diplomacy requires more than such naivete even by peace activists in the NPC.

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