International

Muslims strike deal with LTTE

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO APRIL 14. Following the realisation that the LTTE is on its way to becoming the legitimate ruler of the north-east, the Muslims of the region have struck a deal with the group's leadership that ensures their safety and security under the coming dispensation.

The leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and senior Cabinet Minister, Rauff Hakeem, on Saturday announced that the LTTE had given him an undertaking that the harassment of Muslims would stop and invited back members of Sri Lanka's second largest minority. .

The agreement was reached at an unprecedented meeting between Mr. Hakeem and the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran, at Killinochchi in northern Sri Lanka on Saturday morning.

Implicit in the agreement is the acceptance by the Muslims of the de facto authority of the LTTE in the north-east, soon expected to be legitimised by the Sri Lankan Government through an interim administration. Describing Mr. Prabakaran as "genuine and sincere'' , Mr. Hakeem said the preliminary confidence-building measures on "practical day-to-day matters'' would enable the two side to discuss the more "contentious'' issues of power sharing in the proposed interim administration in the north-east later.

"I am sure from the mood and friendliness he was displaying that he meant business. The sincerity was very apparent in his attitude which was relaxed and reassuring,'' he told journalists after returning from the meeting by an Air Force helicopter.

Mr. Prabakaran and Mr. Hakeem signed a joint agreement under which the two sides agreed on the SLMC's participation in the talks on the interim administration that are to be held in Thailand later this year.

``Our role in the interim administration will be discussed in Thailand and we will be a party to the negotiations,'' Mr. Hakeem said.

Under the agreement, the LTTE has undertaken to stop extortions from Muslims in the east with immediate effect and promised to return paddy fields it forcibly took away from Muslims.

Mr. Hakeem said the two sides had agreed to appoint a joint committee to facilitate the return of 1,00,000 displaced Muslims who were expelled from Jaffna and the northern mainland by the LTTE 12 years ago. They are at present living in refugee camps in Puttalam. Refugees from 35 displaced villages in the east are also to return.

For Mr. Hakeem, the main victory is that the LTTE has endorsed his party as the representative of Muslims in the agreement, which should keep his rivals at bay, at least for the moment.

A day earlier, Mr. Prabakaran met parliamentarians of the pro-LTTE four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA). He was scheduled to meet two leaders of Sri Lanka's Indian origin estate Tamils today.

The meetings were all called by the LTTE and are assisting it to consolidate its supremacy in the north-east prior to its taking over the north-east, as well as the leadership of the plantation Tamils in central Sri Lanka.

A statement issued by the TNA today said the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the Government, the proposed interim administration and a permanent political solution came up for "intensive discussion''.

``The need for the LTTE and the alliance of Tamil parties to work unitedly was accepted by all participants,'' the statement added. Days before the meeting, the LTTE political adviser, Anton Balasingham, had said at a public meeting in the northern Sri Lanka that the Tamil parliamentarians would be given "guidance'' on how to function.

Fourteen parliamentarians attended the meeting in Killinochchi. The veteran TULF leader, M. Sivasithamparam, who once narrowly escaped the LTTE bullets, did not go because of his ill health.

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