Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03COLOMBO939
2003-06-02 11:13:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

In reaction to latest Tiger letter, GSL

Tags:  PGOV PTER EAID CE NO JA LTTE 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000939 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, EUR/NB, EAP/J
NSC FOR E. MILLARD
LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/13
TAGS: PGOV PTER EAID CE NO JA LTTE
SUBJECT: In reaction to latest Tiger letter, GSL
proposes "clear the air" meeting with group

Refs: (A) Colombo-SA/INS 06/02/03 fax

- (B) Colombo-SA/INS 05/30/03 unclass e-mail
- (C) Tokyo 3490 (Notal)
- (D) Colombo 910, and previous

(U) Classified by Ambassador E. Ashley Wills.
Reasons: 1.5 (b, d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000939

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, EUR/NB, EAP/J
NSC FOR E. MILLARD
LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/13
TAGS: PGOV PTER EAID CE NO JA LTTE
SUBJECT: In reaction to latest Tiger letter, GSL
proposes "clear the air" meeting with group

Refs: (A) Colombo-SA/INS 06/02/03 fax

- (B) Colombo-SA/INS 05/30/03 unclass e-mail
- (C) Tokyo 3490 (Notal)
- (D) Colombo 910, and previous

(U) Classified by Ambassador E. Ashley Wills.
Reasons: 1.5 (b, d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The GSL is proposing to hold a "clear
the air" meeting with the Tamil Tigers. The
government's proposal is in response to the Tiger's
stark rejection of the latest GSL plan re control of
assistance to the north/east. It is by no means clear
whether the Tigers will take the bait and agree to a
meeting. It is also not clear where all of this leaves
the group's earlier decision not to attend the Tokyo
donors conference. END SUMMARY.

====================
GSL proposes Meeting
====================


2. (C) The GSL is proposing to hold a "clear the air"
meeting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE). In a June 2 discussion, Ambassador Bernard
Goonetilleke, the chief of the government's Peace
Secretariat, told us that the offer was contained in a

SIPDIS
letter dated June 1. Goonetilleke said the government's
letter had been provided directly to the Norwegian
government facilitators late June 1 and had, as far as
he knew, already been passed to the LTTE. (Note: Late
June 2, Mission received a text of the GSL's June 1
letter referred to by Ambassador Goonetillke. This
text is being e-mailed to SA/INS.)


3. (C) When queried, Goonetilleke said the government's
letter made clear that the GSL wanted to use the
proposed meeting to work out all outstanding problems
with the LTTE. The meeting would be useful, for
example, in reviewing the LTTE's concerns expressed in
its May 30 letter rejecting the GSL's latest proposal re
assistance delivery to the north and east (see below).
Part of the GSL's letter, Goonetilleke noted, reviewed
these LTTE's concerns, seeking to provide the group
further assurances that the proposal was fair and would

involve the LTTE in all key decisions made in regard to
assistance for the north/east. Regarding the possible
timeframe for the proposed meeting, Goonetilleke said
the GSL basically wanted it to take place as soon as
possible and even before the June 9-10 Tokyo donors
conference if that could be arranged. (Note:
Goonetilleke was not clear on whether the GSL's letter
mentioned the Tokyo conference, which the Tigers have
said they will not attend -- See Para 9 for more on this
issue.)


4. (C) Goonetilleke said he was not optimistic or
pessimistic about whether the LTTE would take the GSL up
on its offer for a meeting. He said he thought the
group would do so if "it was sincerely interested in
getting to the roots of the problems affecting the peace
process," however.

==============================
Latest Letter from Balasingham
==============================


5. (U) The government's request for a face-to-face
meeting came in response to the Tiger's stark rejection
of the latest GSL proposal re assistance to the
north/east. (Note: The LTTE's letter to the GSL
rejecting its latest proposal was posted on a pro-LTTE
website late May 30. The text of this letter was passed
to SA/INS in Ref B. The GSL's latest proposal, which is
sketched out in Refs A and D, was passed to the LTTE by
the Norwegian facilitators on May 28. End Note.) In
his tightly-worded letter addressed to Prime Minister
Wickremesinghe, the Tiger' London-based spokesman Anton
Balasingham made clear that the government's proposal
did not go nearly far enough in giving the Tigers
effective administrative control in the north and east.
On this point, Balasingham -- making clear that the
Tigers wanted to control an interim structure with
responsibility for political aspects, as well as those
assistance-related -- said the following:

"Having studied the contents of (the GSL's) proposals,
we are surprised, and at the same time dismayed that
your government did not address the critical issue of
setting up an interim administrative structure for the
northeast as suggested by the LTTE leadership. Instead,
you have proposed a development-oriented structure with
extremely limited powers in which the participatory role
of the LTTE is not clearly defined, or rather, left
deliberately ambiguous."


6. (U) Balasingham's letter went on to criticize the
government's (very complex) proposal in some detail. He
stated that the GSL plans to form a joint GSL-LTTE
"apex" body for supervision of assistance implementation
was not acceptable because the body "had no
administrative powers, but is only an advisory council."
In addition, the "failure to define the participatory
role of the LTTE in the apex body is a major flaw in the
entire project." Balasingham also asserted that other
key functions provided for in the government's plan,
including those involving a "special commissioner" and a
"management board," did not include clear references to
LTTE participation in their deliberations.


7. (U) In other passages of note:

-- Balasingham states that the Tigers were very
disappointed that the GSL had allowed "international and
regional players...to treat the LTTE shabbily as a
proscribed entity with the `terrorist' label to be
excluded from international forums." (Note: This is a
reference, at least in part, to the fact that the LTTE
could not attend the Washington seminar in April, as it
is on our Foreign Terrorist Organizations, "FTO," list.)

-- Still on international issues, Balasingham again
takes the government to task, asserting that the GSL is
trying to set up "a grand international `safety net' to
bring undue pressure on the freedom of our people to
determine their political status and destiny."

-- The letter hits out at President Kumaratunga, the
PM's partner in a stressful cohabitation arrangement,
stating: "We can certainly understand the fragile
position of your government caught up with an enraged
president seeking revenge and an entrenched constitution
that allows no space for maneuver."

-- Balasingham also categorically rejects a reference
in the government's proposal to the effect that the GSL
and the provincial government have "responsibility" for
administration in the north/east. Balasingham states:
"You have conveniently ignored the stark reality that
the LTTE runs a de facto administration of its own in
vast tracks under its control in the northeast."

=======
COMMENT
=======


8. (C) The idea for a "clear the air" meeting is
certainly a good one. (Note: At the risk of falling
victim to the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy, we
should point out that this is exactly what we proposed
to the PM and Minister Moragoda on three occasions in
May.) If the Tigers really want to get the peace
process unstuck quickly, one would think the group would
jump at the opportunity for such a meeting. It is by no
means clear whether the Tigers will do that, however.
The group has been quite truculent of late and it is not
clear whether it wants a quick solution to the problems
it sees, or whether it prefers to keep bashing the GSL
for its alleged failings.


9. (C) It is also not clear whether all of this might
lead the Tigers to reconsider their earlier decision not
to attend the Tokyo donors conference. It is
interesting that in their long letter dated May 30 the
Tigers never mentioned Tokyo even once. Some observers
take this as a hint that the group may not have finally
foreclosed on being represented at the key conference at
some level. One idea that might be in the GSL's and the
Norwegian facilitators' minds might be to try to hold
the proposed face-to-face meeting in Tokyo before or
after the conference. This would be a fine idea, too,
but it all hinges on the Tigers, who have not been very
cooperative of late. END COMMENT.


10. (U) Minimize considered.

WILLS