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LTTE worried `only about India', says Kadirgamar

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO AUG. 23. The Sri Lankan President's senior adviser on Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is of the view that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is worried "only about India", and is "not afraid of taking on" any international player in the island's latest peace process.

"The only party they are worried about is India," Mr. Kadirgamar, who recently concluded a visit to New Delhi, said. Though the Sri Lankan Government was "talking to the Indians a lot", the former Foreign Affairs Minister was "concerned that India may go into a somewhat sleepy mood".

"It is a fatal mistake to make that the LTTE is afraid to take on anybody," Mr. Kadirgamar told the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka on Friday. Asked about the possible effectiveness of the Sri Lankan Government's international safety net, Mr. Kadirgamar said the Tigers were "not the slightest bit bothered of the U.S." or other countries.

`India should take greater interest'

On his discussions with the Indian political leadership, he said it was "time for India to take a much sharper interest in the possible constitutional configuration that might soon emerge". Apart from keeping India informed, particularly on the security situation, "I certainly did not suggest any specific activity that a sovereign state should take. I don't do things like that. That is for India to decide," he said. "India cannot live with a constitutional arrangement here with which they are uncomfortable."

On the internationalisation of the conflict resolution process, he said: "There are too many players with each getting in the way of each other." Moreover, when there are "too many people whispering into your ears, you tend to get a bit confused and I fear the Government is abdicating certain central decision-making powers to foreign powers," he said. The present Government, he said, "is taking a backseat" to international powers in decision-making.

`Things getting out of control'

On the current state of play of the peace process, Mr. Kadirgamar was of the view that the policy of "keeping the LTTE happy" had resulted in things "getting out of hand". The LTTE, he said, was in a "wonderful position" and that they "are hoping to get 75 per cent of what they want without firing a single shot".

In the worst-case scenario, Mr. Kadirgamar said the Tigers could overrun the eastern Trincomalee area "in about four hours" because of the "encirclement of the harbour and the new camps".

Conceding that there had been a long spell of non-fighting since last year's ceasefire agreement, Mr. Kadirgamar, however, cautioned that "there are different kinds of peace, one is the peace of the dead, the peace of the surrender, the peace of an unhappy surrender".ferring to the several partitions since the World War II, he said: "Any kind of drawing of lines creates a permanent living haemorrhage which will go on for generations."

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