International

Where Prabakaran didn't do his homework

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO APRIL 12. If it was the intention of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to boost the image of its leader, Velupillai Prabakaran, by presenting him to the world media, the all round verdict is that the strategy failed.

Mr. Prabakaran addressed the media for the first time in 12 years at a suburb of Killinochchi, a town in the LTTE-controlled northern Sri Lanka, on Wednesday. Contrary to the handful of local Tamil reporters who attended his last press conference on April 1, 1990, in Jaffna town, hundreds of international journalists spent more than 24 hours in the LTTE guest houses and camps in the town and in surrounding areas on April 10 and went through a 10-hour security drill before the conference began.

But more planning seemed to have gone into the screening of journalists than into the possible questions they would ask. The LTTE leader seemed ill-prepared for many questions and not at all at ease before the media. ``He has not done his homework,'' exclaimed an astonished Western journalist as Mr. Prabakaran was tongue-tied when he was asked how he expected India to lift the ban on his organisation when he was still a wanted man for the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

His habit of lengthy consultations with his political adviser, Anton Balasingham, before replying to most of the questions, was completely at odds with his image as the all-powerful leader and master strategist of a ruthless guerilla group. Several times, Mr. Balasingham took it upon himself to reply, prompting a journalist to ask if he was speaking for himself or for Mr. Prabakaran. He interpreted questions into Tamil for the benefit of the LTTE leader and provided him with a sanitised translation of the word.

``My leader's voice''

The 62-year-old LTTE ideologue, who described himself as the "theoretician'' and "chief negotiator'' in the ongoing peace process with the Sri Lankan Government, replied that he and Mr. Prabakaran were the "same'' and that he was the LTTE leader's `voice.' The two dodged several questions, especially those relating to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. The lengthy pauses as they went into consultations, only to say "no comments,'' were noticed also by those who watched the event on television, with many channels here and in India doing a near-live telecast of the proceedings. ``Prabakaran had no clear answers to any of the questions.

He did not even seem to have the ability to think for himself,'' said Abbo Yusuf, deputy leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, one of the constituents of the pro-LTTE four-party Tamil National Alliance. ``The replies were so vague that anyone can interpret it in the way they want.'' Mr. Yusuf, however, clarified that these were his views and not his party's.

A prominent Tamil leader could not help drawing a comparison between the suave non-militant Tamil leadership of the 1970s and the1980s, and their ability to field any question from journalists, with Mr. Prabakaran's visible confusion before the media. A Tamil viewer phoned his MP to say that the LTTE leader had lost much of his aura after the press conference and come out of it a below-average politician.

An unsmiling Mr. Prabakaran arrived at the conference venue flanked by a posse of bodyguards, some of them in civvies, sporting Ray Ban shades and carrying no visible weapons, and others in fatigues holding guns on the ready. Journalists were warned not to create a "situation of panic'' during the press conference as all the cadres were fully armed. One scribe wanted to know how anyone could believe the LTTE was a democratic, political organisation after all the secrecy surrounding the press conference. He also commented on the arrival of Mr. Prabakaran at the venue surrounded by "goons.''

Over-hyped event

However, Colombo has given the event a positive spin. Despite the fact that no new political ground was broken at the over-hyped event, the Government sees hope in the LTTE reassertion that it would be ready to give up its demand for a separate state if offered self-rule with what Mr. Balasingham described as "internal self-determination.'' But the hardline Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna said Mr. Balasingham's statement that his leader was the President and Prime Minister of Tamil Eelam was a "slap in the face of those who lived in a dream world of so-called peace.''

Whatever the interpretations given to the LTTE statements at the press meet, the journalists could not help noticing the preferential treatment given to the Westerners, who were put up at a more comfortable guest-house — also used by Norwegian mediators — while almost all the Sri Lankan and Indian journalists and a sprinkling of Western reporters roughed it out at a LTTE camp. The only form of entertainment was a continuous showing of LTTE war-video films.

And while Mr. Balasingham was a prominent figure in the last as well as the latest press conference, two notables who flanked Mr. Prabakaran in 1990 are no more in the Tiger ranks: Mahattya, former number 2 in the LTTE who was executed for alleged treason, and Yogaratnam Yogi, who has since disappeared into oblivion.

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