by NSSP
In recent times, US officials have taken it upon themselves to warn both in Sri Lanka and abroad, that the LTTE should renounce violence. And now, after the June 9/10 Tokyo donor parley comes a veritable threat from the Deputy Secretary, Richard Armitage, that the LTTE will be hunted down and their funds blocked unless they renounce violence and return to the negotiating table. US has no right to take the moral high ground given its own track record, besides its blatant interference in Sri Lanka´s internal affairs.
It needs hardly be stressed that, whether one likes it or not, the LTTE is presently the key actor for the Tamils in the search for a solution to the vexed Tamil national question. In this context, it is besides the point that the LTTE is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in the US.
As is known LTTE had temporarily withdrawn from the peace talks after the 6th round for certain reasons already stated, and also boycotted the Tokyo donor parley, particularly due to the failure of the Govt. to concede their demand for an innovative interim administrative structure for the North East with a significant role assigned to them.
Given the Govt´s constitutional intransigence and its disinclination to take new realities into account to introduce producetive interim mechanisms, there is a stalemate. It cannot be gainsaid that not only the LTTE but the Tamils at large themselves are dissatisfied with the Govt´s attitude.
Against this scenario, if the LTTE, as the Chief negotiator for the Tamils, were to be duressed back to the negotiating table, once can see a politically duplicitous attempt to thrust a solution unacceptable to the Tamils down their throats as is being tried out in Palestine, and that would prove to be absolutely counter-productive, we condemn any such sinister effort.
Dr Vickramabahu Karunarathne
Presidium Members – NLF
24. 06. 2003
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