THE THREAT OF THE USA
When young Milinda Moragoda who is fond of being photographed with the "world leaders" met Armitage, it is clear that the latter has given a warning to the president and the prime minister in respect of so called peace talks which the Americans want to be resurrected somehow or other. The warning is mostly to the president as the Americans think that it was she who upset the applecart by taking over three ministers while the prime minister was visiting uncle sam. Then soon after the American ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead has delivered two letters from US secretary general, Collin Powell to the president and the prime minister reminding both of them that a "speedy resolution of the current impasse is needed”. As these letters come on the heels of the warning by Armitage who has said that "the current political impasse cannot be allowed to continue" we have to take note of the threat involved. The US state department is clearly up to some mischief and I would not be surprised if Prabhakaran goes back to bombing innocent people in order to "convince" public as well as the leaders that the so called peace talks have to be "resumed". It is not only the "government" that is manipulated by the west led by USA, but the LTTE as well.
It has to be emphasised that the Americans were behind the so called MoU signed between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Velupilla Prabhakaran. They both signed the document in the presence of the former Norwegian ambassador to Sri Lanka, though not at the same time, as Prabhakaran refused to come down to Vavunia while Ranil Wickremesinghe was there. The Norwegian ambassador had been involved with some notorious activities, especially in connection with settling of estate workers who had been taken to Vavunia from the central province. However, he was only the agent of the west as he is now, and without the USA he would not have lasted a day.
Though the americans had been behind the screen, they have now been compelled to come open as the Norwegians and the others are not strong enough to dictate terms to the "leaders" in Sri Lanka. The "peace" talks or the talks initiated by the west to deprive the Sinhalas, the northern and the eastern provinces did not collapse as a result of the president taking over three ministers while the prime minister was with uncle sam . The talks came to an abrupt end, when the LTTE insisted that their sea tigers should be recognised as a navy. It is not surprising that Armitages and Powells would like to forget this fact and blame the president for the abandoning of the so called peace talks. It has to be emphasised that the west was also in favour of recognising the sea tigers as a navy.
The west is taking advantage of the fact that the Sinhalas have a short memory and that they are not accustomed to abstract theories and theorising. The Sinhalas as a nation are concrete experiential people and as such do not engage themselves with abstract theories. This makes them to forget as a nation as they live only in the present. The past as well as the future are forgotten as it is difficult to conceive a future with their experiential thinking. This is not a result of them being Theravada Buddhists for more than two thousand years, but they have been able to be Theravada Buddhists for so long because of this trait in their culture. More on this aspect could be found in the series of articles contributed Vidusara on the theme "Ape pravada".
Let us go back to the beginning of the "peace" talks. The MoU was signed in order to give equal recognition to the LTTE as the government and to recognise the terrorist outfit as a legal army. As we have explained in these columns the west wants these recognitions in order to hand over the northern and the eastern provinces to Tamil racism in general and the LTTE in particular. The west knows that it is almost impossible to achieve this through an act of the parliament as it is not feasible to obtain the required two third majority. Therefore it has to be a gradual exercise where the LTTE and its various terrorist components are recognised before the LTTE is recognised legitimately as the ruler of the northern and the eastern provinces. The so called interim administration has also to be considered as part of this "legitmising" process.
The LTTE understands this scheme and they know that they will gain by it finally. They know what is happening unlike the so called leaders of the Sinhalas, and they had even agreed not to bomb Colombo and the provinces as long as the "peace process" was in operation. Al that they are interested today is ethnic cleansing the eastern province and killing the officers and the rank and file of the intelligence unit in the army. The "government" and the west have given the LTTE the freedom to achieve this objective. At present no action is being taken to punish the LTTE for their various "strategies" including murders to chase the Muslims out of the eastern province. Once the Muslims are kicked out it is not a difficult task to cleanse the eastern province by chasing out the Sinhalas. The "government" is not only not taking any measures against the killings of the personnel in the intelligence unit but by their action have exposed them to the LTTE. The taking over of the three ministries including Defense and internal Defense by the president has worsened the situation. Previously at least there were protests when the LTTE built camps in the so called cleared areas in the eastern province. Today not even a murmur could be heard against these acts of the LTTE. What happened to the Manirasakulam camp? What happened to the report of the presidential commission on the Millennium city complex safe house?
However, those who drafted the MoU had forgotten a major factor in the legitimisation process known as the peace process. It could be that there was no way of incorporating it in the MoU. That was the recognition of the sea tigers as a legitimate navy. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, the latest mission to come to Sri Lanka after the missionary work began in the sixteenth century, was in a dilemma when it came to the recognition of the sea tigers. It was not spelt out in the MoU but by instinct and probably by order they knew that they had to recognise these terrorists in the sea. Thus finally they decided to help their agents, namely the LTTE and to give some recognition to the sea tigers. However, there were two obstacles that came in their way. One was the protests by the Sri Lankan Navy, that to their credit took the decision not to give into the pressures by the SLMM. The second factor was India. The Indians who would like to think that the Indian ocean is Indian did not want two Navies from Sri Lanka operating in the region of their influence. As a result of all these "obstacles" SLMM chief had to go back (are the other members of the mission still enjoying a paid holiday in the luxury of the beaches in the eastern province before they are handed over to Prabhakaran's interim administration?) and the LTTE pulled out of the "peace talks".
Even the LTTE does not say that the "peace talks" collapsed because of the taking over of the three ministries by the president. As far as they are concerned the situation has improved as a result as there is nobody to protest anymore against the establishment of the Manirasakulam camp and other such acts by the LTTE. According to the official version of the LTTE, which Armitage is trying to forget, they backed out of the so called peace process because the USA did not allow the LTTE to take part in "aid talks" held in that country. The USA has a problem. While they make use of the LTTE as a force against the Sinhalas (this is not a conspiracy theory as some so called political scientists think that the Sinhala "intelligentsia" propagate, but the way western Christian colonialism works) they cannot lift the ban on the LTTE in the USA as it would have repercussions on the banning of some Arab organisations that the LTTE has links with.
While the MoU has failed to recognise the sea tigers the LTTE after the conference with Pasupathy, Soronaraja and Co. forwarded a list of demands that cannot be given even by a UNF government that has a Muslim representation. The response by the LTTE amounts to a confederation paving way for an Eelam. A UNP government could have probably continued with the "peace talks" but not a UNF government. Since forwarding the list of demands the LTTE has come very hard on Muslim representation at "peace talks" as they claim that the Muslims are represented by the government, making life difficult for Rauf Hakeem.
The USA is now in a difficult position with respect to the resumption of the "peace process". It is the failure of the MoU to recognise the sea tigers and the demands of the LTTE that are behind the collapse of the "peace talks". It is the LTTE that backed out as the sea tigers were not recognised giving a flimsy excuse about not being invited to "aid talks". However Armitage and Powell are playing a different ball game and would want to blame the president for the collapse of the "peace talks". It is very likely that the west would use all the tricks in the book to "resume peace talks" and the possibility of the LTTE bombing Colombo cannot be ruled out.
However, we are in for an election year and we could see more involvement by India not for any love for the Sinhalas but to safeguard their interests in the Indian ocean. They are already having a foothold in our economy and very soon it will be the case in politics as well. Military after all is part of political weaponry and more and more Indian involvement is in the cards in this election year.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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