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Journalism of Courage
In trying to get the international community to squeeze the LTTE of its funds, Sri Lanka has asked India to use its diplomatic weight with the European Union to ban the group in the continent from where most of its finances flow. It also plans to reach out to political parties in Tamil Nadu later. India has banned the LTTE and US designates it as a foreign terrorist organisation.
It’s learnt that the EU will take up the matter in the coming few weeks and Sri Lanka feels New Delhi’s word will help. This was indicated by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in his meetings with key Indian officials including National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.
Further, sources said, Colombo will make an effort soon after the election process is over in Tamil Nadu to “engage” with important Tamil political parties there. The Rajapakse government already practises a mechanism of consultation with Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka.
The major concern from Colombo is that there is not enough pressure being put on LTTE to cooperate in the peace process. Banning LTTE, Samaraweera said, will be a step towards ‘‘curtailment of its fund-raising activities’’ and could be a ‘‘negative incentive or a means’’ to get the LTTE to the negotiating table.
While this international effort continues, sources said, political parties in Tamil Nadu can help in using their influence with Tamils in Lanka. It is important to note here that this is an extremely sensitive issue in Tamil Nadu and has had a bearing on the Centre while framing its response to Colombo.
The comprehensive defence cooperation agreement with Sri Lanka has been one such effort that has not taken off due to domestic political consideration. Even now, India is willing to help but is clear that this must stay away from the public eye. For the moment, Colombo is satisfied with this assurance.
On the LTTE’s demand for disarming the Karuna faction, Samaraweera said his government views Karuna as a dissident group within the LTTE. This fact, he adds, is agreed by LTTE and two years after it has failed to deal with this split, the LTTE wants to put the ‘‘burden to disarm’’ on the Sri Lankan government.
In the last round of the Geneva talks, the LTTE had handed over a list of 19 camps apparently belonging to the Karuna group. On verification, Samaraweera said, it was found that 16 of them fell in the ‘‘uncleared areas’’, where the ceasefire understanding does not allow Lankan troops to operate. The three in the cleared area, he added, were offices of Tamil political parties like the EPDP and EPRLF.
The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister made it clear that the LTTE is using evasive tactics and unless decisive pressure is put on them, their seriousness towards the peace process is suspect. He, however, emphasised that Colombo still has faith in Norway as a facilitator and does not want change. Besides the peace process, India and Sri Lanka also discussed the progress on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. ‘‘The agreement could be finalised and signed well within the course of this year. In fact, we agreed on a meeting of senior officials in the very near future to expedite the process,’’ said Samaraweera.
pranab.samanta@expressindia.com
