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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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LTTE back in action The Hindu editorial, July 15, 2004 The liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is back at its old game of assassination and terrorist strikes. In fact, the re-emergence of the dreaded woman suicide bomber, the execution of `death sentences', and the triumph of the ruling alliance in the Provincial Council elections have all a message of their own. The suicide bomber who blew herself up at a Colombo police station last week was a hallmarked Black Tiger, reportedly No. 263 on the organisation's honour roll. She tried but failed to `meet' Douglas Devananda, a Sri Lankan Minister, leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, and a longstanding target of the LTTE. The target escaped but the episode ended tragically with the death of four policemen and injury to more. On such matters, a formal denial by the LTTE does not carry any conviction. However, the organisation had no problem in admitting that it `executed' two young men in the east for being `traitors'. There has also been an attack on a Buddhist temple in Polonnaruwa district in the North-Central Province, supposedly in retaliation for providing shelter to rebel Tiger V. Muralitharan alias Karuna's cadres. The violence, significantly, has not been one-sided: an LTTE town leader was shot on Black Tigers' day, presumably by a rebel cadre. This recidivism has an ominous message. Aside from seeking to take out a key political target, the suicide mission in Colombo may have been intended to demonstrate that the LTTE can strike in the heart of Colombo if it chooses to. Its denial of authorship of the suicide bombing can be linked to the active involvement of the international community in Sri Lanka's peace process. The incident is one more violation of the ceasefire agreement, even though the Government for constructive reasons does not say this openly. The United States and the European Union have promptly condemned the violence and called upon the Government as well as the LTTE to ensure that the ceasefire holds and peace talks resume. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has shown courage as well as sagacity in making it clear that these outrages will not be allowed to derail the peace process. There is opportunity in the new turn brought about by the sweeping victories of the Kumaratunga-led alliance in the Provincial Council elections. President Kumaratunga is a gifted and brave political leader with a non-chauvinistic and progressive vision. With a majority in Parliament now within grasp, with Arumugan Thondaman's Ceylon Workers Congress expected to join the ruling alliance, she has a new opportunity to take forward her commitment to a negotiated federal solution to Sri Lanka's principal national problem - the Tamil question. She knows more than anyone else that the peace process can succeed not through a policy of appeasement of the Tigers but only through establishing sound fundamentals for a political package along federal lines that will be acceptable to all constituents of Sri Lankan society. One factor working in her favour might be the desperation that seems to underlie the Tigers' renewed extremism. Militarily as well as politically, the LTTE is a tremendously weakened presence in the east. With Mr. Karuna moving resourcefully to mainstream himself and his followers in national democratic politics, Velupillai Prabakaran's organisation finds itself in crisis. With political stability beginning to return to the South, this is an excellent time for President Kumaratunga to accelerate her big-ticket plans to achieve a negotiated political solution, which will demand a constitutional change. Whether the LTTE will be part of this process or is in the process of driving itself beyond the pale yet again cannot be predicted with any confidence at this juncture. |
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