LTTE CHIEF SAYS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001601

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS AND PM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/14/2017
TAGS: PREL PTER MOPS PGOV PHUM CE
SUBJECT: LTTE CHIEF SAYS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURE OF PEACE EFFORTS

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires James R. Moore. Reasons: 1.4 (b, d)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In his annual "Heroes' Day" speech, LTTE
supremo Prabhakaran reiterated his litany of charges against
the majority Sinhalese community in Sri Lanka. However,
Prabhakaran went further than he has before in condemning
what he sees as the international community's passivity in
the face of increasingly aggressive actions of the current
government. About an hour before the speech, the Sri Lankan
Air Force bombed the radio transmitter "Voice of Tigers" in
an apparent attempt to block the broadcast of the speech and
possibly to kill Prabhakaran. International journalist
organizations condemned the air raid as a violation of the
international rules of war. In Embassy's estimate, the
speech could help to rally Tamils in Sri Lanka and the
Diaspora to the Tigers' cause. End summary.


2. (SBU) Prabhakaran spared no one in his annual "Heroes'
Day" speech -- other than the fallen Tiger war heroes he
praised. (Note: the complete text of the speech is available
on Tamilnet.com.) As in years past, he reviewed the history
of the conflict, noting the failure of successive
Sinhalese-dominated governments to offer an acceptable
political settlement to the Tamil community. "None of the
Southern parties are ready to accept the core principles for
a lasting peace: the Tamil homeland, the Tamil nation and the
Tamil right to self-determination." He condemned the present
government as "genocidal." He called the efforts of the
All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) to develop a
devolution proposal "a smokescreen over the misery that (the
government's) military adventures are creating in the Tamil
homeland and to deceive other governments to get their aid
and support."


3. (SBU) His message to the international community was
equally blunt: stop propping up the "Sinhala state." He
argued that economic and military assistance to Sri Lanka
should end. He was particularly caustic in his assessment of
the failures of the Norwegian mediators, the Sri Lankan
Monitoring Mission, the Co-Chairs, and India to bring about
an end to the conflict through meaningful negotiations. "By
only paying lip-service to peace the international community
has contributed to the killing of an extraordinary son of our
nation, Tamilchelvan... The Co-Chairs, acting as guardians
of the peace process, have failed in their responsibility...
What exactly is the purpose of their meeting from time to
time in different places. Is it their intent to assist the
Sinhala regime to wipe out the Tamils?"

ATTACK ON TIGER RADIO TRANSMISSION FACILITY
--------------


4. (SBU) The Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the LTTE radio
station "Voice of Tigers" shortly before Prabhakaran was due
to give his November 27 "Heroes' Day" speech. The pro-LTTE
website Tamilnet said that twelve bombs had struck the site.
The Sri Lankan military confirmed the raid. The broadcast
continued though a backup transmitter, but the speech could
not be monitored in Colombo. (The speech was available on
the internet in English and Tamil within minutes.) The LTTE
Peace Secretariat said that all the buildings at the site had
been flattened and claimed five radio station employees and
four bystanders near the site had been killed.


5. (SBU) Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa told the news
agency AFP on November 26, "The killing of Tamilchelvan sent
a very powerful message: they know we have good intelligence
on their movements." Noting that it was Prabhakaran's 53rd
birthday, Rajapaksa said that if all goes to plan it will be
his last. "We are after him. We are specifically targeting
their leadership... For the last few months he has been even
more restricted in his movements. We want to keep the
pressure on. We are gathering intelligence, information." A
military spokesman confirmed to us privately that the Air
Force had targeted Prabhakaran specifically in the raid.


6. (SBU) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

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criticized the attack on the radio transmitter, saying that
it was a non-military target: "While the IFJ does not endorse
or support the views of any particular media organization, we
maintain that all media should be treated as non-combatants,"
IFJ President Christopher Warren said. "The journalists at
the VOT are unarmed citizens and thus should not be
considered military targets under any circumstances."
Reporters without Borders went further, saying "the rules of
war are clear - military bombardment and bombing must be
limited to strictly military targets. The government in
Colombo uses the Geneva Conventions to condemn LTTE crimes
but forgets the conventions when it bombs what is a civilian
installation and therefore protected by the conventions."

COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO UN
--------------


7. (C) United Nations resident representative Neil Buhne
told us that at about 4:30 p.m., an SLAF bomb landed within
about 200 to 500 meters of the building housing the World
Food Program and OCHA offices in Kilinochchi. While no one
was hurt, because all employees had moved to an air raid
shelter, all the windows were blown out, the suspended
ceiling in five rooms collapsed and a large piece of shrapnel
landed in the office. Buhne communicated his concern to
government ministers and to Chief of Defense Forces Donald
Perera. Perera asked for the coordinates of all UN offices.
Buhne believed that the UN had previously shared these, but
communicated them again. He noted that the WFP building roof
was painted with UN symbols.


8. (SBU) An LTTE spokesman accused a Sri Lankan Army Deep
Penetration Unit (DPU) of blowing up a bus 25 kilometers west
of Kilinochchi on November 27, killing 11 children, the
driver, and an accompanying adult. The children were
reportedly traveling to a cemetery for a ceremony to honor
slain Tamil Tiger fighters. The military denied having any
forces in the area.

REACTIONS
--------------


9. (SBU) A well-known businessman and a respected Hindu
priest, both from Jaffna, separately called the political
section to register their reactions to the speech. In their
view, the ball was now in the court of the Co-Chairs, India
and other international players. They appealed to the
international community to protect the Tamils by helping to
find a solution. The publisher of the largest circulation
chain of Tamil newspapers in Sri Lanka told us that the
speech showed that Prabhakaran clearly wants the
international community to change its policy in order to save
Tamil culture and the Tamil people.


10. (C) Defense analyst Iqbal Athas told us that the two
incidents, the rebel claim that a long-range reconnaissance
patrol targeted a vehicle carrying school children, and the
air raid on the Voice of Tigers station, would accelerate the
trend toward increased violence. He thought revenge attacks
by the Tigers were not far off. Prabhakaran biographer and
expert on the Tamil Tigers M.R. Narayan Swamy told us the
speech was "the cry of a man in distress, seemingly on the
run, desperate to get support from other countries for his
war. (He) knows it will not happen, but (is) reassuring the
Tamils that he is still a man to reckon with - which he is."


11. (C) COMMENT: The new message in this year's speech is
that Prabhakaran is clearly disappointed with Norway and the
SLMM, chastising them both for remaining passive in the face
of increasing Sinhalese aggression. It is clear that he is
ready for war, although this is couched in such terms that it
does not seem, at first glance, belligerent. With this
speech, Prabhakaran appears to have ruled out any peace moves
for some time. By placing the blame on the international
community, he reinforces his argument that there is no other
option for Tamils but to continue the military struggle.
Although largely directed at the international community, the

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deceptively mild tone of the speech is likely to play well
among Tamils in Sri Lanka and abroad. As a propaganda
exercise, it will probably succeed in rallying support among
Tamils in government-controlled areas of Sri Lanka and in the
Diaspora to the Tiger cause.
MOORE