This is not the first time that the LTTE has timed their beach landings of weapons to coincide with specific sessions of the peace talks. It happened before, and it is happening again.

What conclusion can the common-sense observer of events draw from this sort of behaviour? Quite apart from phased out decommissioning to show the bona fides for peace, the LTTE is carrying out a campaign to acquire more and still more weapons for its arsenal.

"We do recognise that there are ups and downs,'' said negotiator Minister G.L. Peiris from Berlin after yet another round of 'peace talks'- "but this won't result in a breakdown in the talks because both sides realise that there is no alternative to a negotiated settlement. The talks will go on'' .

He might as well have been in Munich and not in Berlin, and echoing the words of the hapless British Prime Minister of that time Neville Chamberlain, who having met Hitler announced to the world we have "peace in our time.''

This was after Hitler's promise that he has no ambitions of overrunning Czechoslovakia. That was in 1938, but by the next year his tanks were rumbling into Poland Czechoslovakia, Hungary France etc., and what followed is history. Is Hitler to Chamberlain what Balasingham is to Peiris? It is also worth recalling here, the Heil Hitler Nazi salute at the first LTTE organised Pongu Thamil rally in Trincomalee after the MoU was signed exactly a year ago.

When Peiris's co-negotiator Milinda Moragoda made a public attempt to put his foot down by asking the LTTE hierarchy to pull down a pandal erected in the eastern Batticaloa district, the LTTE hierarchy dismissed the issue saying the pandal was the work of some indisciplined cadres. What would the LTTE call the smuggling of weapons while peace talks are in progress? That's not the work of indisciplined cadres, it is cold and calculated design of some scheming leaders of the LTTE.

The question is not whether peace talks should be called off or put on hold - but is why the Government should be pussyfooting with the feline, the big bad cat?

What signal is Peiris giving to the LTTE when he says 'talks will go on, come what may.'' This is to say that the show will go on, no matter what, which is quite an attitude. Will he say 'talks will go on' the next time the LTTE blows up a Sri Lankan Navy boat? He surely will.

It is hilarious if it is not tragic that Sri Lankan negotiators keep covering up so absurdly for all the acts of sabotage and subterfuge carried out by the LTTE.

Our Defence correspondent points out clearly that Soosai the Sea Tiger leader gave instructions to the LTTE cadres to blow themselves up with the cargo. This was a clear attempt at an arms shipment while the talks were on, and the SLMM version that there was a communications problem which resulted in the cadres committing suicide is a bad lie which further dents the terribly damaged credibility of the Norwegians.

If Balasingham and Karuna are to be taken on their word that they knew nothing about an arms shipment, then that is exactly what should worry the Government -- the fact that there is a secret agenda behind the smokescreen of the talks.

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