Floods and aid
The floods came to the unsuspecting like a thief at night, and swept villages and villagers off their moorings. It took some time to get relief operations off the ground, but at the end of the day the mass mobilisation of hands-on relief operations, and the outpouring of public donations towards the victims was overwhelming. The damage is going to cost this nation some money by way of rebuilding and rehabilitation - while the human cost cannot be estimated.

The southern parts of Sri Lanka have shown great resilience in the past. The wanton damage inflicted on its economy -- and on human life by the atrocities of the JVP from 1987-89 cannot be easily forgotten. The people and the economy however bounced back within a short period, thanks to the determination of these people. On the eve of the Tokyo aid conference, there appears to be a great big shove, to have the LTTE at the table, so that monies can be pledged for the rehabilitation of the war ravaged economy of the North and the East.

Last week's flash floods in the Sabaragamuwa and Southern provinces have turned the lives of people who live in these areas upside down. The Tokyo aid conference might also consider this aspect when they sit down to discuss the economic plight of this unfortunate nation.

LTTE's back flip
….and so, the somersaulting LTTE has done a back-flip by reverting to the call for an interim administration for the North and the East, so that the finances that are due for pledging at Tokyo next month can be managed by themselves.

This time though they say an interim administration should be outside the Sri Lanka constitution, conceding themselves that the setting up of such a body is unconstitutional, but justifying it on the basis that they cannot get it approved through a 'Sinhala' parliament and a 'Buddhist' constitution.

Now with leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in charge of the negotiating table - that's a good thing because we have always said that Anton Balasingham was but a glorified errand boy at the negotiations - the LTTE's entire philosophy is becoming patently clear.

They want the army out of Jaffna, they want the Sea Tigers to control at least part of the Eastern seas, they want the Mahaveer families to own land possessed by traditional Jaffna families, they want to control foreign funds without being accountable to the rest of Sri Lanka, even though the rest of Sri Lanka has to pay back these funds borrowed from world lending institutions.

Where is the LTTE talk about multi-party democracy in the North and the East, and of free elections, and about forcible child conscription?

The LTTE's cockiness is due to the government's remarkable ability to soak up all the muck dished out by it. The government may be doing itself a disservice through this absorbent approach. The more they bend, the more they are getting kicked in the behind and getting into still more difficulty. Granted that there is a heavier responsibility on them to ensure that the peace process is on track. But whether this means having to do most of what they have done since the MoU came into existence is another question.

The LTTE themselves have answered this poser by saying that six months of peace talks have been "a waste of time", and this despite the fact that both G.L. Peiris and Balasingham smiled before the cameras saying all those nice things about breakthroughs and successes at the negotiations.

It may be that crunch time is nigh - that the government has to consider that the unpalatable (who knows whether it is inevitable?) day of reckoning is near, if the LTTE continues to adopt these acrobatics and pyrotechnics in their approach to a peaceful negotiated settlement.

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