Tigers do it again

The LTTE did it again, we should say, with that token acknowledgement to the now threadbare Editor's headline. The Oslo talks which were uncertain to begin with are definitely not taking place, and there is such haphazard apportioning of blame that it almost seems there are more players to this farce than we would have imagined. But, the most hilarious aspect of that blame game is seen with the European Union being lambasted for sabotaging the negotiations.

The Tigers can and will say so, but it has been said reliably that Norway is gong down the same road in this latest twist to the blame games.

If every independent act by every remote player is considered one that is aimed at killing the talks, saboteurs could probably be unearthed from under every tree tombstone and lamppost. But the moral bankruptcy and the obduracy of those who do not want to see the LTTE as the only real force in scuttling this round of talks, is amazing as it is absurd.

Even the remotest observer of events cannot but have the sneaking feeling that Norway was so enamoured of making these talks a success that when the LTTE pulled its stunt, it was Norway's disappointment that was greatest.

As a result, Solheim went looking not for reasons, but for scapegoats, and the European Union, nothing but a bystander in the entire negotiating process between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, was the convenient fall guy.

This bit of opera based on who caused the breakdown of talks could go on until the anxieties of those who make these statements are subsumed, but Sri Lanka needs to know the truth abut the talks. That needs sober assessment, not street theater. The most sober assessment of the situation is that the LTTE does not want these talks to continue.

At a certain point in time, it appeared that the LTTE wanted to talk, but only on its own terms. Its demands looked as if they were aimed at achieving some given objective, however unreasonable those demands appeared.

It's clear now that the LTTE is not interested in brinkmanship. Its leaders are not just gun shy about these talks, they are downright gung-ho about them.. Yasser Arfat in his heyday didn't behave with this measure of arrogance, and Arfat had the ammunition sometimes to be as arrogant as he wanted to be.

This is reason to conclude that the LTTE is beyond the pale in its behaviour on this matter of negotiations. The international community should take notice that a banned organisation is attempting to embarrass the banning organisation the European Union.

It should be demeaning for the EU, the emerging super power to be treated in this way but what's more shabby about it is that the Norwegians are being garrulous about it as well, by implying if not saying out loud that the EU is to blame for the non-starter in Oslo.

Europe didn't cave-in to Hitler, and there is no reason to believe that the EU would cave-in to a shadowy group of suicide bombers from a backwater of a small Indian Ocean island. Its with a degree of certainty that we could say there are bound to be repercussions for the LTTE with this kind of cavalier attitude to those in the international community that are doing their utmost to help them be rehabilitated, by bringing them to the Table.

But the hoary adage had it right. Bring the horse to water, but yet, you can't make the horse drink. The only player on the horizon that seems under these circumstances to be able to put the LTTE in its proper place is the United States, which is not a putative super power, but is superpower incumbent.

We could say there are many interested parties waiting for the US to get the LTTE off its high dudgeon. None better than the Americans these days to call a spade a spade, and put these group of gung-ho brigands in the doghouse.