Asia Times: India dragged into Sri Lanka peace move


	January 15, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

India dragged into Sri Lanka peace move
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Sri Lanka, it seems, has started the new year determined to push ahead with the peace process. As the month-long ceasefire between government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) enters its third week, hectic efforts are under way to extend the truce indefinitely and to make it a more stable cessation of hostilities.

The Norwegian delegation that is facilitating the peace process in the country arrived in Colombo on January 10 on a two-day visit during which its members engaged with Lankan leaders. Earlier, the delegation met the LTTE's spokesperson and key negotiator, Anton Balasingham, in London.

While details of what transpired in the meetings are not publicly known, it appears that the talks between the Norwegians and the Lankan government centered on preparing the ground for direct talks between the government and the LTTE by establishing a formal ceasefire and getting the government to take some steps with regard to humanitarian issues, such as lifting the embargo on the flow of food and essential items to the Tiger-controlled areas.

But even as tentative steps forward were being taken on Sri Lanka's "peace process number five" - there have been three failed and one deadlocked attempt to negotiate a peace settlement to the 19-year long strife in the country - reports that the LTTE has asked that India be made the venue for the talks has caused a storm on both sides of the Palk Strait.

A Toronto datelined report by D B S Jeyaraj in the Indian daily The Hindu said that the LTTE had told the Norwegian delegation that it wants India's help to conduct negotiations with Colombo. It requires this help in two phases. First, it wants India to allow Balasingham to be allowed to stay in the southern Indian city of Chennai before and during the talks. Second, it wants India to let the talks be conducted in a south India city, such as Chennai, Bangalore or Thiruvananthapuram.

The LTTE is reportedly willing to allow Indian officials to be present at the talks as "non-participant observers".

So, what prompted the LTTE's request? According to the report, Balasingham's poor health is behind the LTTE's request that he be based in India and that the talks be held here. The Tigers claim that during the talks he will need to consult with the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran, who is holed up in the Vanni jungles in Sri Lanka, and shuttling back and forth between Chennai and the Vanni would be easier for Balasingham than traveling between London and Vanni.

However, the general view in India is that the LTTE request is an attempt by the organization to seek legitimacy from India and gain a foothold again on Indian soil. The argument is that if it is communicating with the leadership that the Tiger negotiating team is worried about, the LTTE can well use the sophisticated communication equipment it possesses.

The LTTE has had a roller-coaster relationship with India. The high point was during the 1980s when, even as Indian diplomats were engaged in pushing for a political settlement of the conflict, Indian soil was playing host to the LTTE leadership. The organization's political offices, training camps and financial and arms network were based in Tamil Nadu. It has been alleged that the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, provided the Tigers with arms and training during this period.

Late in 1986, India cracked the whip and Prabakaran returned to Jaffna. In October 1987, following the LTTE's rejection of the India-brokered peace accord, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was deployed in Tamil areas. That brought India and the LTTE into direct military confrontation with each other.

The IPKF experience in Sri Lanka was a disaster. Although the IPKF did succeed in breaking the back of the LTTE, its exit from Sri Lanka, when it was asked to leave by Colombo, was a slap in the face for India. Memories of that humiliating experience have not faded in India yet.

But it was the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, allegedly by the Tigers, that turned India decisively against the LTTE. It also signaled the start of India's "hands-off" approach to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

While the Indian government has not yet reacted to the LTTE's request, the government of Tamil Nadu has rejected the LTTE plea. Delhi, which only recently extended its fullest support to the peace process in Sri Lanka, might not want to be seen to be obstructing it in any way. Incidentally, at least two of the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) central coalition government, the DMK and the MDMK (both Tamil political parties), are known to be pro-LTTE.

The Times of India warned the government not to allow itself to be used by the LTTE. An editorial in the Deccan Herald said, "There should be no confusion in the mind of the Indian government - the request for a return to Indian territory has been made by a deadly terrorist organization, which is banned in this country. The LTTE is responsible for the assassination of an Indian prime minister; its leader, the prime accused in the assassination case, remains at large. Allowing Mr Balasingham and others to relocate to Chennai will legitimize the LTTE's return to operating from India. It will open the gates for the revival of the LTTE network in India, which has been broken to some extent over the years. It is not in India's interest to play any role in the negotiations, not even that of a 'non-participant observer'."

Meanwhile, the Lankan government has refused to be drawn into the controversy generated by the LTTE request. Reacting to speculation over the venue of the talks, cabinet spokesperson G L Peiris said that the process had "not reached a stage where substantial issues are being contemplated".

The government's immediate problem is getting in place a stable ceasefire. The economy is in the doldrums and a ceasefire will create conditions for a return of foreign investment to the country.

A solution to the decades-long conflict might be its long-term goal. But, for now, steps that will lead to a revival of the economy will be good enough.

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