Gearing up for a new quot;frontquot;

At the conclusion of Kadirgamar8217;s visit, both countries said they were committed to improving economic relations and would soon set up a joint commission to explore the possibilities. Sri Lanka, which only last year established a High Commission in Pretoria, said it would appoint two honorary consuls in Cape Town and Durban.

For its part, the South African side was full of assurances that the LTTE would 8220;never8221; be allowed to open an office in that country. This was in response to the specific Sri Lankan concern that the LTTE was planning to close down mostof its London-based propaganda operations and shift these to South Africa.

Getting such an assurance was the easy bit. The next, much more difficult, task on the Sri Lankan agenda is to lobby South Africa to enact a legislation that would make it difficult for the LTTE to operate out of there. The foreign office here is well aware that without legal backing, such assurances could be meaningless. For years, Sri Lanka has been pleading with both Britain and Canada to clamp down on the LTTE, but both have pleaded helplessness to do so as long as the group does not violate their laws. Experts say even the new anti-terrorist laws in the UK will not change the 8220;legal geometry8221; very much. But now, much more than Britain or Canada, it is South Africa that has zoomed up on Sri Lanka8217;s priority.

Sri Lanka fears that the LTTE8217;s influence and activities in South Africa over the past four years could now be close to the honeymoon that the group enjoyed with India between 1983 and 1987.

Sri Lanka says it hasevidence that LTTE members have been trained in camps in South Africa with the connivance of some members of the African National Congress ANC. Press reports here suggest that after a personal request by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, raids were ordered on three such training camps by Nelson Mandela last year.

But the camps are now said to be back in place. Sri Lanka is also worried about the support the LTTE has among the people of Indian origin, most of whom are Tamil. There are a number of pro-Eelam groups in South Africa, some of which are known to raise funds for the LTTE. But the main cause of worry for the Kumaratunga Government is the easy access that LTTE members and supporters reportedly have to top notches in the South African establishment, including ministers, members of Parliament, the police and intelligence.

For Sri Lanka, the pattern is uncomfortably close to the situation that prevailed in India and Tamil Nadu pre-1990. To complicate matters, it is an open secret that since 1985, SriLanka has done business with the South African apartheid regime, buying arms to quell the growing rebellion by the LTTE and other militant groups in the north-east.

The first hint of the LTTE8217;s influence came when Mandela declined to accept Sri Lankan invitation to be the chief guest at the country8217;s 50th freedom anniversary celebrations, which South Africa explained away by claiming that a wrong entry in the presidential diary had necessitated the cancellation.

But when Mandela made a reference to the need for UN intervention to resolve the island8217;s ethnic conflict at the General Assembly last month, the Sri Lankan establishment began to be seriously worried, just as his reference to Kashmir during NAM worried the Indians.

That was when Sri Lanka decided to take the bull by the horns. First, the envoy to New Delhi, Jerry Matsilla also accredited to Colombo, flew to Sri Lanka at the Kumaratunga Government8217;s request. His meeting with Kumaratunga lasted three hours.

Days later, a team of South Africandiplomats flew down from New Delhi. At the end of their week-long visit, they addressed a press conference 8212; unprecedented for middle-level diplomats anywhere 8212; during which they were at pains to stress that the Sri Lankan fears were 8220;unfounded8221; but that investigations were nevertheless being conducted into them. They also emphasised that 8220;Sri Lanka is more important to South Africa than LTTE politics8221;. Kadirgamar8217;s visit followed soon after.

But underneath the hosannas to Kadirgamar8217;s diplomatic skills, there is a realisation that the chapter is not closed yet. Last week, the Foreign Ministry hand-delivered to journalists a glossy publication8217;s 12 pages of print and photographs on the ties between Sri Lanka and the ANC, as if to remind the present rulers of South Africa of those who had rallied around it during the days of the anti-apartheid struggle.

The glossy gave special emphasis to the 1976 Colombo NAM anti-apartheid declaration. A sepia picture of the leaders who attended that conference wascaptioned: 8220;The ANC attended the conference as observer, led by Secretary General Alfred Nzo.8221; It now remains to be seen how much post-apartheid South Africa is prepared to rally around Sri Lanka.