SRI LANKA: TAMILCHELVAN'S DEATH - AFTERMATH AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 001523

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/07/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER PHUM MOPS PREL PINR CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: TAMILCHELVAN'S DEATH - AFTERMATH AND
REACTIONS

REF: COLOMBO 1509

Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr. Reasons: 1.4(b, d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: LTTE Police Chief Nadesan has replaced the
deceased Tamilchelvan as head of the LTTE political wing, but
will continue to serve as head of the LTTE "police." A
former Sri Lankan government peace negotiator noted that
Nadesan has little experience in the negotiating field. A
Norwegian Embassy political officer who knows Nadesan
personally said he was thoughtful and less ideological than
his predecessor. Still, he expected LTTE military and
intelligence leaders to keep Nadesan on a short leash.
Government officials and Sinhalese nationalists celebrated
Tamilchelvan's demise. Although the government apparently
did not specifically target Tamilchelvan, the killing of a
senior LTTE leader may boost the government's prospects for
obtaining nationalist support for its budget. The main
opposition UNP, believing Tamilchelvan organized the forced
Tamil poll boycott in the North and East, said it would not
miss him. Most Tamils in government-controlled areas mourned
his death as a severe blow to the prospects for peace.
However, the Government Agent in the LTTE-controlled district
Mullaitivu held Tamilchelvan responsible for child
recruitment, telling us that there was little regret about
his death among ordinary people in the Tiger-controlled
Vanni. End summary.

NEW HEAD OF LTTE POL WING: POLICE CHIEF NADESAN
-------------- --


2. (U) On November 2, within hours of the death of LTTE
Political Wing Chief Tamilchelvan in an aerial attack on an
LTTE camp near Kilinochchi (reftel),the LTTE announced his
replacement. LTTE police chief Nadesan will exercise both
the police and political head functions in the future.


3. (C) Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda, a former Sri
Lankan government peace negotiator under the Ranil
Wickremesinghe government, told Ambassador on November 1 that
Nadesan did not have significant experience in peace talks.
The three principal LTTE negotiators in 2002-3, Moragoda
pointed out, were Balasingham, Tamilchelvan and Karuna -- all
of whom are now either dead or under arrest. Nadesan was not
a member of the 2002-3 negotiating team, but was on the LTTE
negotiating team that met with the Rajapaksa team led by
Health Minister de Silva in two rounds in Geneva in 2006.
However, Tamilchelvan did almost all the talking, so Nadesan
remains an unknown quantity, Moragoda observed. Foreign
Minister Bogollagama told Ambassador on November 7 that
current Inspector General of Police Victor Perera, a member
of the GSL's most recent Geneva delegation, recognized
Nadesan when they met at a negotiating session. It seems
that Nadesan once served as a young police constable under
Perera. Bogollagama questioned whether Nadesan was to be
taken seriously as political wing head, observing that "what
the LTTE needs is a communicator."


4. (C) At a meeting of the Co-Chairs Heads of Mission on
November 6, the Japanese and EU Ambassadors agreed that
Prabhakaran has sent a signal with his selection of the
relatively inexperienced Nadesan that he wants to pull back
from the international community. However, the Norwegian
Embassy's Political Chief, who has accompanied his Ambassador
and senior Norwegian facilitators on many trips to
Kilinochchi and observed the peace talks in Geneva, had a
more positive assessment of Nadesan's qualifications. He
noted that Nadesan is married to a Sinhalese and, unlike his
predecessor, speaks Sinhala and English fluently, which
should prove a great asset in any future negotiations. He
said he knows Nadesan well and has been impressed with his
intellectual capacity and ideological flexibility. He found
Nadesan to be thoughtful and a more independent thinker than

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Tamilchelvan. However, he believed that now that Nadesan has
become the political wing head, LTTE supremo Prabhakaran and
intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman will probably keep him on
a shorter leash.

GOVERNMENT CROWS OVER TAMILCHELVAN'S DEMISE
--------------


5. (U) Following Friday's attack, Defense Secretary
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa stated publicly that the military has
information about the locations of all LTTE leaders and vowed
the GSL would go after them one by one. Prime Minister
Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, introducing a resolution in
Parliament to extend the emergency regulations, said on
November 6 that the military cannot tie its hands and wait
for the LTTE to attack. He added that security forces have
no choice but to retaliate against the LTTE through missions
such as the one that killed the LTTE political head, which he
called a great victory for security forces. He asserted that
Tamilchelvan was responsible for many murders in the country.


6. (U) The government defense spokesman, Foreign Employment
Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, said Tamilchelvan was not a
peace negotator, but a ruthless terrorist. He claimed thatTamilchelvan participated in peace negotiations ony to
satisfy the international community and wasin fact a
stumbling block to a peaceful solution. Rambukwella alleged
that each time Tamilchelvanwent overseas for peace talks
(note: he apparenty visited 17 countries),he raised funds
for theLTTE, and was also involved in arms procurement.Rambukwella added that the GSL hoped Tamilchelvan's killing
would help win JVP support for the goverment's budget
presentation beginning November 7.

TAMILCHELVAN NOT SPECIFICALLY TARGETED
--------------


7. (C) However, to the best of our information, Tamilchelvan
was not personally targeted in this attack. Rambukwella
confirmed publicly what military spokesman Nanayakkara told
us the day of the event: that the GSL had intelligence that a
senior LTTE member was at the location and therefore decided
to bomb it. They did not know that the senior LTTE leader
present was Tamilchelvan.


8. (C) UN resident coordinator Neil Buhne informed Pol Chief
on November 3 that his organization had concluded that
Tamilchelvan had not personally been the object of the
attack. The Norwegian Embassy told us it had also formed the
same conclusion and prepared statements for its senior
facilitators Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer based on that
assumption. However, the Norwegian Pol Chief noted
ironically that the point was perhaps moot, since he doubted
that the Air Force would have refrained from bombing the
targeted bunker had it known Tamilchelvan was inside.

REACTIONS TO TAMILCHELVAN'S DEATH
--------------


9. (U) The chauvinist, Buddhist monk-based JHU said that the
elimination of LTTE leader Tamilchelvan had proceeded in
accordance with the laws of natural justice. In a press
briefing, the left-wing, Sinhalese nationalist JVP made it
its exuberance over Tamilchelvan's demise clear, calling it a
victory for the nation and urging the government to continue
the war against the LTTE. JVP third-in-command Wijitha
Herath told Pol FSN that in fact his party now planned to
vote with the government during the forthcoming budget
debate, with the justification that the war against the LTTE
had priority over other issues like government corruption or
the cost of living.


10. (C) The main opposition United National Party (UNP),

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somewhat surprisingly, did not condemn the killing of the
LTTE's peace negotiator. Former Member of Parliament and
current UNP national organizer S.B. Dissanayake, when we
contacted him, said that Tamilchelvan's death was a morale
boost for the security forces. He claimed that Tamilchelvan
was instrumental in arranging the LTTE-enforced boycott of
the 2005 presidential election in the north and east that
resulted in Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory over UNP candidate
Ranil Wickremesinghe. Dissanayake said that his party would
therefore not regret Tamilchelvan's death.

TAMILS GENERALLY MOURN TAMILCHELVAN
--------------


11. (C) Jaffna Government Agent Mr. K. Ganesh told Pol FSN,
"People feel an inner anger, though they cannot outwardly
express their views. The feeling is there will be heavy
retaliation, which can be a surprise act. North and East is
the same where the plight of the civilians is concerned, who
bear the brunt of this exchange of warfare. We cannot always
be giving up lives." Member of Parliament and human rights
activist Mano Ganesan of the Western People's Front said, "He
was the Political Head of the LTTE and killing him is
virtually an attack on a political solution."


12. (C) R. Yogarajan of the Ceylon Worker's Congress, a
Deputy Minister in the current government said, "We have sent
a condolence message. All the Tamil people feel sympathy.
The Sinhalese people seem to be happy about it. We have
sympathy because we consider him a political leader of the
Tamil people and he has been an activist of the peace
process. It is unfortunate the government did this because
the location of the Peace Secretariat was not hidden from the
security forces and the LTTE believed they would not be
targeted and moved about freely. The government has taken
advantage of this and we feel this is not fair. It is a
counter to the Anuradhapura debacle."


13. (U) During the debate over extension of the emergency
regulations, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem
(also Minister of Posts and Telecommunications) offered his
party's condolences to the LTTE. Hakeem noted he had met
Tamilchelvan in several rounds of peace talks. He urged all
communities, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim, to try to live in
amity as one nation.

TAMILCHELVAN RESPONSIBLE FOR CHILD RECRUITMENT?
-------------- --


14. (U) These views were not unanimous, however. Tamil
United Liberation Front leader Anandasangaree, whose party is
not represented in Parliament but currently supports the
government, said that the LTTE had "invited this destruction"
by not taking the peace process seriously; "his outfit has
taken the Tamils and the whole world for a ride and
ultimately deceived everybody. What I could say is by playing
hide and seek Tamilchelvan dug his own grave."


15. (C) Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar of Mullaitivu
noted, "Tamilchelvan was responsible for the recruitment of
children in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi. People in those
areas feel a lot of anger because of this. He was sidelined
by the LTTE hierarchy for about six months because of the
issue of child recruitment. There is not much mourning by
the civilians in those areas."


16. (C) COMMENT: Reactions to Tamilchelvan's death fell
fairly predictably along Sri Lanka's ethnic and political
divides. We do not share the assessment that his death
represents a great victory, since his value as a military
target was negligible. However, it is not surprising that
the government would seek to leverage the propaganda win to
help itself out of a jam on the budget vote -- and that

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strategy may well succeed. After the demise of chief LTTE
negotiator Anton Balasingham in December 2006 and
Tamilchelvan's killing, we consider it likely that LTTE
hardliners will become even more dominant. Nadesan's
relative inexperience in politics and as a negotiator may
signify that LTTE military leader Prabhakaran and his
intelligence head Pottu Amman intend to exert greater
influence over a weakened political wing. Nevertheless, the
assets Nadesan brings to the job, including his linguistic
accomplishments, could prove useful in future negotiations.
BLAKE