Asia Times: Tigers stick to their guns


	December 4, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Tigers stick to their guns
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabakaran's annual speech last week, on the occasion of Martyrs' Week, has been perceived outside Sri Lanka as signalling a softening in the LTTE's stand and a shift in its strategy.

Analysts are saying that for the first time, the LTTE has dropped the demand for a separate state of Tamil Eelam and appears willing to negotiate a political settlement.

Indeed, in his speech that was broadcast over the LTTE's clandestine Voice of Tigers radio, Prabakaran said that the LTTE was "prepared to negotiate with the Sri Lanka government on a political framework that would satisfy the basic political aspirations of the Tamil people>". (emphasis mine). The Tiger leader stressed that the Sri Lankan government would have to lift its ban on the LTTE, imposed in 1998, to enable the Tigers to participate "as equal partners" in the talks.

Does this mean that the LTTE is moving away from its slogan Puligalin thakam, Tamizh Eezhath thayakam (The Tigers' thirst is for a Tamil Eelam motherland)? Is the Tiger changing its stripes?

Neither the goal nor the stated willingness to negotiate a political solution to the conflict signifies a shift in the LTTE's perception. On numerous occasions in the past, the LTTE has expressed willingness to accept "a substantial alternative to Tamil Eelam" - but maintained that it would be forced to secede if "repression" continued.

In his speech last week, Prabakaran said that the LTTE is neither secessionist nor terrorist. The LTTE has never perceived itself as a secessionist group, but as one fighting for freedom. It does not consider the Tamils to be an ethnic group or a minority that wants to secede. It argues that the Sinhalese and the Tamils are two equal and separate nations that were yoked together by the British colonial administration. The LTTE considers the struggle as a national liberation struggle and itself as a Tamil national liberation movement, not a terrorist organization.

The "basic political aspiration" of the Tamil people is "to determine their own political and economic life. They want to be on their own," Prabakaran said. "The Tamil people favor a political solution that would enable them to live in their own lands with the right to rule themselves. This is what the Tamils mean when they emphasize that a political solution should be based on the right to self-determination."

This statement makes it clear that the right to self-determination for the Tamils continues to be very much on the LTTE agenda. All the Tamil groups regard this demand, as well as recognition of the "Tamil homeland", as the minimum demand. In fact, during the Thimpu talks in 1984, when the main Tamil groups negotiated jointly and put up a common position, they had demanded that the government recognize the Tamil right to self-determination.

The LTTE's willingness to consider "less than Tamil Eelam" is meant largely for international consumption. As far as its strategy is concerned, a separate state of Tamil Eelam remains its final goal.

For two decades, the LTTE labeled as "traitors" and even assassinated those who compromised on the Tamil Eelam issue. It can hardly accept less now. Its cadres have been fed on the "Tamil Eelam" slogan and motivated to die for it. Thousands of Tigers have lost their lives in the 18-year armed struggle. Tiger leaders point out that nothing less than Tamil Eelam will justify the loss of so many lives. Consequently, it is unlikely that the LTTE will change its long-term vision.

Alternatives to "Tamil Eelam" will be short-term and interim arrangements. Again, negotiating a final settlement is not on simply because the LTTE believes and has reiterated that freedom cannot be given, and certainly not at the negotiating table. It has to be fought for.

The LTTE knows that even the "substantial alternative to Tamil Eelam" is unacceptable to the Sinhalese (who regard any granting of autonomy to the Tamil areas as the first step to secession), thereby justifying its struggle for an independent state.

The LTTE, has in fact, hardened its stand since last year. In last year's Martyrs' Week speech, the Tiger leader said that he was not imposing any pre-conditions for talks. This time he has made the lifting of the ban on the organization a pre-condition.

But while the LTTE supremo talked tough vis-a-vis the Sri Lankan government, with a particularly scathing attack on President Chandrika Kumaratunga, he adopted a defensive approach with the international community. The LTTE has been banned by India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, this has not dented its capacity to wage a long war against the Sri Lankan army. However, developments since September 11 might have shaken the organization. It figures in the US list of terrorist organizations. The LTTE, perhaps, apprehends that things could change for it in the coming years.

A substantial part of Prabakaran's speech was devoted to distinguishing between terrorism and armed struggle by liberation movements, between violence of oppressors and that of the oppressed, between "freedom struggles based on the right to self-determination and blind terrorist acts based on fanaticism".

If the LTTE leader appeared to be softening his stance and toning down his rhetoric, it was to get the West off the LTTE's back and to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government.

Politically and militarily, the LTTE is not on the defensive in Sri Lanka and still holds the initiative. It is the Kumaratunga government, under pressure from the opposition, which is under pressure in the country and lacking maneuverability on dealing with the conflict. All this is to the LTTE's advantage as a government in Colombo that refuses to concede even basic Tamil demands adds to the LTTE's support and justifies its demand for an independent state. Given this, there is no reason why the LTTE would need to scale down its goals now.

Successive governments in Colombo have shrunk back from offering the Tamils real autonomy, blaming the LTTE's determination to carve out a separate state for their reluctance. However, it is only by offering substantial autonomy to the Tamils that the government can wean Tamil support away from the LTTE and its Tamil Eelam cause. That would pressure the Tigers to dilute their demands.

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