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| Sunday, 27 June 2004 |
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Peace Trail by Ranga Jayasuriya In politics, there are no permanent enemies or allies. This old adage is apt in the Sri Lankan context as renegade LTTE Eastern Commander Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna phones his one time sworn enemy Douglas Devananda to seek political advice or as the UNP stands accused of political duplicity following revelations of Ali Zahir Moulana escorting Karuna to Colombo. Indeed, UNP national list MP Moulana had little to do with the peace process even though he was a political advisor on Eastern affairs to the former Prime Minister. But last week when Moulana rose from obscurity, the whole episode was a shock to the UNP. Moulana on Wednesday admitted that he helped Karuna flee the East. The next day Moulana himself left the country. Moulana was a victim of a political drama. He confessed that his action was on the request of Karuna's successor Ramesh who wanted Karuna to leave the East without a confrontation with his troops. "My action was on the request of the LTTE area leader, Ramesh. I advised Karuna, that he should give way, as a direct confrontation would endanger life and property of the civilians who have still to recover from the ravages of war," he said in his resignation letter. However the LTTE let Moulana down, which cost him his Parliament seat. The LTTE Eastern hierarchy led by Ramesh himself leaked the story to the media through LTTE female Commander Nilavini, a former Karuna associate who switched sides. While resigning his parliamentary seat, Moulana said his party was not aware of his action. The UNP lost no time doing damage control. The party said in a media statement: "The leadership of the UNP has no knowledge of this particular incident. The policy of the UNP has been to let the LTTE resolve any internal organizational problems it may have, by itself without interference from outside. This has been our policy while in Government or in the Opposition. "Having signed the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE, it is our position that negotiations must proceed between the Government and the LTTE. The leadership of the UNP is making its own inquiries into this matter". But this was indeed a fatal blow to UNP's integrity which soon after the LTTE split publicly announced a policy of non-intervention in what it described as LTTE's internal affairs. Indeed, the UNP stalwarts like Rajitha Senaratne had been charging the UPFA Government of cooperating with Karuna, which he once pointed out as the reason for the recent killing of two Sinhala intelligence officers in Batticaloa allegedly by the LTTE. When the Karuna affaire erupted, it was the Government's turn to shoot back. Cabinet Spokesman Mangala Samaraweera accused the UNP of endangering the peace process by its duplicity over Karuna's incident. It was Nilavini, who stirred the hornet's nest by disclosing that Karuna and his associates were escorted to Colombo and housed in a military safehouse. The Tigers were irked by the alleged military role in the Karuna affair. The LTTE initially suspended their routine meetings with the Army held monthly to evaluate security in the East. The Tigers' wrath was directed at the Army. When the LTTE representative phoned the Scandinavian truce monitors, he specifically said they would not attend meetings with the Army (not with the Special Task Force or the Police). The silver lining in the Karuna saga is that he is making overtures to enter mainstream politics. EPDP spokesman Nelson Edirisinghe told the Sunday Observer that Karuna had a few telephone conversations with Devananda on entering mainstream politics. "We don't know how he will do it, but he had a few telephone conversations with Devananda." Edirisinghe said the EPDP, itself was a former militant outfit which entered the mainstream under the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, saw it As a national duty to assist Karuna to enter politics. "We however know it will be pretty difficult for Karuna because he is now a prime target of the LTTE. But, we believe it is our duty to help Karuna." He sounded truly reconciled with the former LTTE strongman. Indeed, Karuna had plans to enter politics long ago. A key Karuna loyalist, late Rajan Sathyamoorthy told the media during the run up to the April 2 election, that Karuna wanted Eastern Tamil MPs to join a coalition Government in return for a cabinet portfolio. But Sathyamoorthy didn't live long he was killed by an LTTE pistol gang member. And Karuna was trounced by Prabhakaran's troops. As the 'Karuna affaire' is making rounds in political circles, Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim is expected in Colombo tomorrow. Solheim, arriving on a four-day visit, will meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the LTTE leadership in a further bid to restart the negotiation process. Meanwhile, the LTTE lost another battle for international recognition as the United States announced it will not remove the terrorist tag on the LTTE till it gives up terrorism and child recruitment. "We will not remove our designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation until it has firmly and decidedly given up terrorism and such policies as recruitment of children as soldiers," US Under Secretary on South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca told a congressional hearing. As for peace negotiations she said:"We are hopeful that they will start sometime soon, because there is the will on the part of the Government to move forward." |
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