UNP's offer to overturn EU travel ban on Tigers

IF THE policies of the UNP have been seen as a bundle of contradictions with the publication of its manifesto for the Executive Presidency, Tissa Attanayake, the Deputy General Secretary of the party has shown his entrapment in the coils of the UNP's current contradictions.

His statement to the "Thinakkural" on Sunday, October 2 says Government statements that the LTTE was responsible for the assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, had led to the European Union imposing the travel ban on LTTE members.

This shows a lack of understanding of how the EU works and why it did impose this travel ban on those still engaged in terrorism.

Attanayake has made his situation worse by stating that when the UNP comes to power this situation [the LTTE travel ban by the EU] will be completely reversed.

The clarifications made by Attanayake about the Thinakkural report of his statement being distorted by the State media do not carry weight, when one reads the original in Tamil.

If the report has been distorted in any media, for political gain, as he says, he should send a clear contradiction to the Thinakkural, giving the newspaper the opportunity to have its own say on the matter.

UNP strategy

What Attanayake has done, is to portray very well the UNP's strategy of seeking to win over LTTE support at the Presidential Election, or at least not to make the Tigers in any way hostile or even indifferent to its fortunes at the coming polls.

Despite his twists about what he told the Thinakkural, at a later TV discussion on the subject Attanayake said what he meant was that putting pressure on the LTTE in the manner the EU has done, will not help bring it closer to the peace process or the negotiating table.

This is once again a rebuff of the EU's travel ban on the LTTE as being counter-productive vis-...-vis LTTE participation in the peace process.

Attanayake has also claimed that the need for a move such as the travel ban on the LTTE by the EU would not arise once the LTTE comes into the democratic mainstream of politics, which we must presume will somehow happen if the UNP candidate is elected President.

The EU position

It is first necessary to clear whatever misconception Attanayake and the UNP seem to have about the EU decision on the LTTE and international travel.

It did not impose the ban because it believed the Government's statement that the LTTE was responsible for the assassination of Kadirgamar, although the assassination certainly pushed the EU into taking its decision.

The EU statement announcing the travel ban said: "The European Union repeats its condemnation of the shocking murder of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and of so many others in Sri Lanka in recent weeks".

It condemns the shocking murder of Kadirgamar and of so many others in Sri Lanka in recent weeks. It has not accused the LTTE of the assassination of Kadirgamar, but as many other observers did notice, the EU must have also observed a certain trend in the killings which pointed to the LTTE, although not able to produce the smoking gun.

The EU was also concerned about the continued recruitment of children for war by the LTTE, and its refusal to move away from terrorism after so any years of treating it with more than velvet gloves.

As an EU diplomat told this writer, very clearly the time had come for it to act; however, the travel ban did not in any way shut the door for the LTTE to participate in the peace process.

Ranil should come clean

Using Attanayake to make its position with regard to the EU action clear to the LTTE, through the columns of a Tamil newspaper supportive of LTTE politics is clearly a tactical move by the UNP.

However, what is necessary now is for the UNP's leader and Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe to come clean about its position regarding the EU action against the LTTE, and not heap the blame for it on the success of the Government's diplomacy over the years.

In fact senior Sri Lankan diplomats are on record stating that what the EU delivered was short of what Sri Lanka expected, which was a ban on the LTTE, as done by the USA, the UK and India.

This is of course very difficult to achieve as long as Norway is so involved in the peace process while being perceived as pro-LTTE, because a total ban by the EU needs unanimous consent by all its members.

Having come thus far, what the Government must persist is on getting individual members of the EU to impose bans or any other restrictions on the LTTE and its activities in those countries.

Now that Attanayake, has brought this matter into light, it is necessary for the UNP leader to state what he genuinely feels about the EU ban on travel by the LTTE. Is he in favour of it or not ? If not, what are his alternatives or does he not want any pressure on the LTTE to abandon terrorism and enter the democratic mainstream ?

The policies of appeasement of the UNP when in office, after signing of the CFA did not make the LTTE abandon terrorism and all its attendant evils.

The many concessions by the present Government too, specially by way of the P-TOMS on which the President placed great faith, did not make the LTTE abandon terrorism.

In fact President Kumaratunga told the United Nations and the World Summit that it was an unprecedented situation when a party to a ceasefire agreement, engaged in a peace process, continues to carry out acts of terrorism, showing no signs of abandoning such strategies.

Can Wickremesinghe throw some light Attanayake's explanation, that pressure moves on the LTTE such as the EU travel ban will be history once the LTTE enters the democratic mainstream?

How indeed is the UNP hoping to bring the LTTE to this mainstream in the foreseeable future? From the UNP's own past experience it surely cannot be through a policy of continued appeasement of the Tiger.

It is necessary to conclude with the words of that outspoken Tamil politician and fearless leader of the TULF, V. Anandasangaree. He described Attanayake's statement as a sign that the UNP was expecting LTTE help for the Presidential Poll.

He says that in the context of there being no evidence to prove the LTTE was giving up political killings, child conscription and other acts of terror the UNP was acting in an opportunistic manner with the election in mind.

It could not have been better said than by such a forthright Tamil leader.