'Terrorism does not pay'

With new parties entering into the conflict, the Tigers unwilling to negotiate and the European Union's decision to list the Sri Lankan separatist fighters as a terrorist group, prospects are worse than ever for a peaceful resolution to the long-simmering war on the southasian island nation. In an exclusive interview with SPIEGEL, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera discusses the latest developments.

INTERVIEW: In an exclusive interview with SPIEGEL magazine, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera welcomes the European Union's decision to place the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on its list of international terrorist organisation and reaffirms his government's commitment to peace talks and a 2002 ceasefire.

Samaraweera also concedes that LTTE isn't the only separatist force today and that newer armed players have created a third front in the conflict, further complicating efforts to stake out a peace agreement. Since the separatist conflict in the north and northeastern part of Sri Lanka, more than 65,000 people have been killed. Since talks broke down in February, 650 people have been killed in the worst rush of violence since 2002.

SPIEGEL: Peace talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the separatist LTTE, mediated by Norway since 2002, remain stalled. Violence is the order of the day in the island-state and Scandinavia monitors warn that the ceasefire agreement has deteriorated to the point that it's little more than a 'piece of paper.' Even as the world continues to urge LTTE to return to peace talks, the EU last week listed LTTE as a terrorist organisation. Was Brussels off in its timing?

SAMARAWEERA: Not at all. LTTE is already proscribed in the United States, Britain, India and Australia - the EU should have done it earlier. LTTE has been escalating violence even before the EU ban, so we see the listing as a 'negative incentive' for the LTTE to lay down their guns and start talking again. (LTTE's) lifeline - the worldwide largest expatriate Tamil diaspora of Europe - has been cut off. Curtailing their funds will lead to a reduction of their violent activities and show them that terrorism does not pay.

SPIEGEL: For more than two decades, Europe sheltered Tamil refugees in the name of human rights. In doing so, however, the EU also turned a blind eye to money transfer made by the Tamils living here to the militant LTTE back home. But now, in the name of the international war on terror, the EU has declared LTTE to be a terrorist organisation.

That completes the international isolation of the Tigers, and observers say they can only return to war. Indeed, the Tigers are now demanding the departure of all EU-members participating in the Scandinavian monitoring mission, which would leave only the Norwegians and Finns.

SAMARAWEERA: There is no magic wand to wish away LTTE terror. Their funding may not totally dry up, but the EU ban will certainly make things more difficult. But at least there won't be an open European checkbook now. We have to realise the sad truth: members of the LTTE do not want a negotiated settlement for the Tamil people at all, they are fighting only for their own survival.

SPIEGEL: But like Colombo, the Tigers did come to the negotiating table in 2002 and both sides did adhere to the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) for four long years, give or take the many undeniable violations on either side. Why would the LTTE have come so far if they weren't serious?

SAMARAWEERA: After two decades of civil war during which more than 65,000 people were killed, the CFA certainly reduced the violence. But most importantly, it gave the LTTE the cloak of political respectability which they yearned for but had lacked for years.

But that's precisely why the CFA is at the center of our problems today. The LTTE is now claiming all kinds of things like air and sea rights, which the CFA did not envisage for it at all.

SPIEGEL: Both sides signed the CFA. In the interim, there is a large and strong breakaway faction under former LTTEer Karuna that now controls eastern Sri Lanka. Its battle against LTTE has opened up a third front in the conflict. LTTE claims, and Scandinavian monitors have confirmed, that your army not only provides protection for Karuna's faction, but that it also serves as your own paramilitaries.

SAMARAWEERA: This talk of paramilitaries is a smokescreen. When Karuna broke away from LTTE, both the Norwegian mediators and the Tigers told us not to interfere in what was the latter's 'internal problem.'

I guess they thought they could deal with him as with all dissenters and bump him off. Now they find he's too powerful - and they want us to disarm him. To us, Karuna is a part of LTTE, he's no different. He has not renounced violence either, so Karuna is very much a terrorist, too.

SPIEGEL: Then why is he not on your most wanted list ? How has it been possible for him to survive for so long, without the help and connivance of the Sri Lankan Government and Army?

SAMARAWEERA: He is, just as much as LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been for 35 years. Still, we're talking to Prabhakaran, aren't we? Even so, we could talk to Karuna as well, provided he is willing to lay down his arms.

SPIEGEL: But it's not just Karuna. Anti-LTTE armed factions of some Tamil political parties in your parliament in Colombo are reportedly also on the rampage. Many of these armed fighters earlier trained under LTTE. Yet, you blame almost all CFA violations and terror attacks on LTTE.

SAMARAWEERA: Our intelligence tells us that most new armed groups slugging it out with the LTTE are dissidents of the Tigers themselves. Frankly, we still don't know conclusively who killed my predecessor, Lakshman Kadirgamar, last year. In February when we last met with LTTE for talks, they gave us a list of 'paramilitary' camps.

Most were located in areas under LTTE control, where it is very difficult for our government to carry out investigations. The ones allegedly in "our" areas turned out to be regional offices of two Tamil parliamentary parties - the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).

SPIEGEL: Both parties sit with you in parliament in Colombo. Did you confront them with the LTTE report of their alleged armed factions?

SAMARAWEERA: Certainly. But what do we have on hand to prove they were behind any of the recent spate of violence since February - which continues every day, even as we speak? For instance, one of our top army generals was seriously injured by a female suicide bomber. Who else but the LTTE would use them ?

This interview was conducted by Padma Rao (SPIEGEL correspondent). Published on the 9. June 2006 .