The Hindu : An outrageous quest for ligitimacy

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Friday, Apr 12, 2002

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An outrageous quest for ligitimacy

THE SIMULATED CANDOUR of the terrorist-leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Velupillai Prabakaran, does not at all enhance his credibility as a serious interlocutor for peace and a political settlement of the endemic ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka. At a press conference at Killinochchi in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, Mr. Prabakaran sought to whitewash and erase from collective memory his sordid record as a terrorist, in the present context of a globalised mood against the politics of terror, and also hoodwink the international community about his actual political agenda at a different level. In the process, he remains as unconvincing as ever in his botched up quest for political legitimacy. Unavailing really is his latest attempt to appear reasonable and resolute. The explanation has much to do with the many fault lines in his small and insular political universe. In reaffirming that he cannot at this stage give up his demand for a separate and sovereign state of `Eelam' in the long-term interests of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, Mr. Prabakaran has only succeeded in turning the spotlight towards his emphatic refusal to give up an armed struggle. However, the objective situation is that the so-called ideology and actual practices of his armed struggle can hardly ever be distinguished from political terrorism of the most heinous forms. Disingenuous in these circumstances is his insistence that terrorism must be so defined as to legitimise the ostensibly inevitable violence of a purported liberation struggle such as his. It is significant that he should now repeat this new refrain which he first voiced so as to appear different from those who masterminded the terrorist outrage in America last September. No amount of window-dressing by the LTTE will help.

The manner in which Mr. Prabakaran fielded questions on his complicity in the assassination of India's former Prime Minister and political leader, Rajiv Gandhi, testifies to the LTTE leader's total lack of remorse for the ghastly act. His unrepentant attitude is compounded by a complete absence of any denial of the LTTE's involvement in what he dismissively characterises as a "tragic" incident. It is high time that New Delhi took steps to seek Mr. Prabakaran's extradition. On a separate yet somewhat related front, Mr. Prabakaran is obviously desperate to influence the Sri Lankan Government to annul the proscription of the LTTE. If his demand is being portrayed as a pre-condition for the proposed talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan authorities under Norway's "facilitatory" auspices, the other side of the story reflects his eagerness to secure through these talks a definitive administrative control over the traditional Tamil areas of Sri Lanka pending a final settlement.

The absolute sterility of the LTTE's outdated and unrealistic worldview, anchored as it is to the stale Thimpu formulations emphasising self-determination as the key point negates any real scope for negotiating progress. Significant, too, are the LTTE's latest claims that it does not intend to turn its back on India, which has been described as a regional superpower, despite the partially explained emergence of Norway as a "facilitator". Now, it requires no clairvoyance to see that the substance of the LTTE's demand for `Eelam' is mirrored in the organisation's renewed insistence on the recognition of the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils to a homeland of their own as also to the status of a nationality and the like. The question now is whether the LTTE has already begun to raise the political stakes in respect of any possible talks with Colombo through Norway's intercession. The LTTE's intransigence at Thimpu and on other occasions thereafter is a matter of authentic contemporary history. It is against such an overall background that the LTTE's latest profession of a desire to befriend India should be seen as no more than a false promise.

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