The hard work done by the likes of the former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar cannot be regarded lightly by saying that the isolation of the LTTE took place after the Oklahoma bombing or the September 11 bombing of the WTC. Undoubtedly those considerations drove the US and the West to act decisively against global terrorism, when even the United Nations did not have this subject on its agenda for discussion last September at the UN General Assembly. But, Kadirgamar's assiduous pushing of the Sri Lankan government's case cannot be shrugged off, as at that time the LTTE had gained the global propaganda advantage through its effective lobbying mechanism. With the ban came a crunch on its legitimacy and its fund-raising capabilities.

But none other than Mr. Kadirgamar himself says the LTTE ban can be lifted, even though he has attached a caveat to it, which is, that the lifting of the ban should be linked to the progress of the peace talks.

The peace talks themselves are a different cache of arms. It is entirely another tricky mess how the problem of whether the talks should revolve around the issue of the interim administration or the 'core issues' should be resolved.

The Prime Minister is only too well aware that he has been able to get away so lightly on so sensitive an issue such as de-banning a fascist terrorist organisation (for its symbolic significance more than any real effect) only as there is a yearning for peace among the general public of all communities and faiths. There is no need to try and spell this out by way of artificial Jana Bala (people power) shows in the city. But, equally there is a genuine concern and a fear that the LTTE will use the peace talks as a ploy in the current global environment against terrorism, in order to lie low until better times arrive, to strike.

It is tolerable that a government is duped by the LTTE once, maybe twice, thrice, but a fourth time is too much to take. If that is to be the outcome, then Mr. Wickre-mesinghe might end up in the pits, the laughing stock of all cynics who would say "we told you so" - and the one lesson would have been learnt from history, which is that nobody learns from history.

What has won Mr. Wickremesinghe support for the peace process is his apparent sincerity in the exercise. But history is strewn with cases in which appeasement failed, the most notable being the kind of appeasement adopted by Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which ended only when the Nazi armies rolled into Czechoslovakia, Poland and the gates of Paris.

Mr.Wickremesinghe may have bent over backwards to finally have the LTTE negotiating at the table in Thailand, but when asked under what circumstances the ban on the LTTE would be re-imposed, the Premier could only wistfully say; "I hope such circumstances will never arise.''

The West, despite the element of duplicity in which these things are set about, has a certain professional way in which terrorist organizations are classified. What's important is that a classification process is in place, which indicates the criteria these countries adopt in proscribing terrorists. It would not be a bad thing if the government of Sri Lanka makes it known to all what criteria it would adopt if it should have to ban the LTTE all over again. This would at least put the LTTE on notice, and appease the wary public who wonder whether their government is about to be suckered one more time.

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