End of Round 4

Anton Balasingham has quite categorically stated the obvious which would have been known by any school kid. There is no way he says, that the LTTE is going to disarm and march down civilian street, because the armed cadres are the strength of their bargaining power. For good measure, the LTTE has been parading the Black Tigers with their face masks on for better effect, and this is to send the blood curdling message to all and sundry, that their suicide cadres are still in business, just waiting for orders to blow themselves up.

So, what follows? Is it only theoretical then to argue that Anton Balasingham the self- proclaimed voice of Prabhakaran has reaffirmed the fact that the LTTE is still a terror organisation?

Whether the LTTE military wing leaders cast off their jungle fatigues and wear suit and tie for talks, Anton Balasingham the author of the book "Politics of Deceit" keeps saying to himself that there will be no war, to the applause of the Sri Lankan government. But at the same time he threatens war, a fact which the Sri Lankan government chooses to ignore.

With that realpolitik staring us in the face, let us take a look at Round 4 of the peace talks, just concluded in Thailand.

The government clearly wants to play down the fact that the LTTE has just kicked a side table over at the talks. This is the sub committee on de-escalation. The LTTE will no longer participate in the sessions of this committee after the Sri Lankan army, backed surprisingly by the Norwegian led monitoring mission, refused to budge until the LTTE adheres to certain conditions mainly concerning de-escalation. Whereas the government had a chance to test the credibility of the LTTE by confronting them on this issue, the government negotiators have let them off the hook and let them live to fight another day.

The issue of the High Security Zones is now in the back burner, and for the moment a phased resettlement program outside the HSZs will begin.

What must have prevailed on the LTTE not to topple over the main negotiating table as well? Clearly there was the lure of greenbacks in the form of dollars, euros and the yen promised under the World Bank supervision for reconstruction. So, we will go onto the fifth round of talks next month.

In the meanwhile, the LTTE carries on with their own way of life in the North and the East. They are arm-twisting the Sri Lankan army to send a lawyer to their courts, which the government of Sri Lanka has all but recognised as officially permissible. This is for the release of a soldier in their custody.

Off the sea of Kalmunai, the Sea Tigers apprehended some 38 South Indian fishermen, on December 28th and wanted them to be produced before the LTTE courts/mediation boards. But some international pressure was being applied and they were released on January 2nd.

Now, the LTTE will no longer deal with the Sri Lanka army on the HSZ issue and will instead deal with the Sri Lankan negotiators on military matters. They will, beginning next week, start broadcasting from their newly acquired duty free VoT radio station obtained courtesy the governments of Sri Lanka and Norway.

The peace talks cannot be equated to a pugilist match-up to keep the score to see who is ahead on points, especially when one party is pulling its punches being unable to deliver them for various reasons. But at least there is some relief that there was no complete cop-out on the HSZ issue, given the fact that the government has been succumbing to the constant shivers going down its spine that the Tigers will walk away from the peace table.

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