Wickramanayake not to impair peace process

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, DEC. 4. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr. Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, known for hawkish posturing, has said he would never impair the peace process if the LTTE genuinely sought to begin negotiations.

``If an individual has been engaged in a protracted campaign of terrorism, and if that individual is saying that his movement is ready to enter the peace process, I would not impair it even in the slightest way,'' he was quoted as saying at a public function in his constituency by the state-run Daily News today.

Last week, the LTTE leader, Mr. Velupillai Prabhakaran, offering to talk to the Government, said he remained suspicious of its intentions as it spoke in many voices - some promising peace, others threatening war.

``This Government has several tongues each addressing a different audience. Chandrika and Kadirgamar present an amicable picture to the international community while the Prime Minister and the Army commander placate the local chauvinistic forces,'' he said in his `Heroes' Day' speech of November 27.

The allusion was to Mr. Wickramanayake's refrain through the campaign for the parliamentary elections, and afterwards - that the Government would prosecute an all-out war against the LTTE. But the LTTE leader should have no complaints after the Prime Minister's recent dove-like statements.

``We are obliged to give a helping hand to an obdurate individual if he wants to pursue a path of redemption,'' Mr. Wickramanayake is reported to have said.

In an interview to the state-run Tamil daily Thinakaran last week, Mr. Wickramanayake declared in response to a question on the LTTE leader's extradition to India, that ``when a fugitive wants to talk peace, it would be the priority of the Government to think on those lines rather than act to extradite him''. Meanwhile, according to a report on the Internet, the LTTE's representative in London, Mr. Anton Balasingham, set his own conditions for peace talks, demanding that the Sri Lankan Government lift the ban on the group, instead of asking the U.K. to proscribe it.

``Sri Lanka must lift its own ban on the LTTE before peace talks are possible. So why is Kadirgamar asking Britain to ban the LTTE,'' he asked, speaking at a `Heroes' Day' function in London attended by Tamil expatriates.

Mr. Balasingham also said the Government's continued silence on the LTTE's offer of ``unconditional'' talks cast a doubt over the its commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Nevertheless, the Liberation Tigers were seriously considering a Norwegian proposal for staggered and gradual de- escalation of the conflict, he said.

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