US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO2025

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 002025 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR SA, SA/INS 
DEPT ALSO PLEASE PASS TO USAID/ANE/AA, GORDON WEST; 
ANE/ESA BERNADETTE BUNDY, ANE/SA CHARLES UPHAUS, AND 
DCHA/OTI RACHEL WAX 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PTER, CE, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  USAID WORKING-LEVEL MEETING WITH LTTE IN AMPARA 
 
REF:  (A) COLOMBO 01724 (B) STATE 256563 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
SUMMARY 
 
1.  (SBU) Based on recent State Department guidance 
approving operational/working-level discussions with 
counterpart LTTE representatives (reftel) and a subsequent 
meeting between the Embassy's front office and USAID/Sri 
Lanka staff, USAID staff met on November 14 with LTTE 
representatives at their office in Akkaraipattu, Ampara 
District, to introduce the USAID Office of Transition 
Initiatives (OTI) Regional Program Manager in Ampara and 
give an overview of USAID/OTI activities in the region. 
The previous day, in Kilinochchi, an USAID/OTI local staff 
member met with the head of the LTTE's Public 
Administration Office to streamline details governing the 
transport of USAID/OTI project supplies through the LTTE- 
controlled Vanni region to USAID/OTI grantees in 
government-controlled Jaffna. Both meetings were cordial 
and productive. 
 
AMPARA MEETING 
 
2.  (SBU) The Ampara meeting was the fifth between USAID 
and the LTTE in six weeks. USAID staff met with the LTTE 
to introduce the OTI program and discuss working-level 
issues on September 29 in Jaffna and Kilinochchi and on 
October 7 in Trincomalee, and then again on November 13 in 
Kilinochchi. 
 
3.  (SBU) In Ampara, USAID was represented by the 
USAID/OTI Regional Program Manager there and the Special 
Projects Officer from USAID/Colombo, both expatriates. 
Representing the LTTE were Mr. Kausileyan, Political 
Leader for Batticaloa and Ampara, and Mr. Kuliyinpan, 
Deputy Political Leader for Ampara. Although the LTTE had 
an interpreter available throughout the meeting, most of 
the conversation took place in Tamil with translation when 
necessary, as the USAID Special Projects Officer is 
conversant in Tamil. 
 
4.  (SBU) USAID explained that the main purpose of the 
meeting was to give an overview of OTI's work in the 
Ampara-Batticaloa districts as a basis for future 
discussions as needed on operational issues. The USAID/OTI 
Ampara Regional Program Manager described several of the 
ongoing activities supported by OTI in the region and 
handed out copies of a one-page OTI program overview, with 
contact information, written in Tamil. 
 
5.  (SBU) Given a chance to ask questions, the LTTE 
representatives asked how projects were identified and 
through whom they were implemented. Of particular interest 
was an activity involving YMCA Kallar in Batticaloa 
district, one of the few civil society organizations that 
has been willing to criticize the LTTE in recent years. No 
attempt was made, however, to dissuade USAID/OTI from 
working with this or any other grantee, or to suggest 
USAID/OTI to support other partners. 
 
6.  (SBU) Mr. Kausileyan gave the phone number of the 
LTTE's NGO Liaison Officer for Batticaloa and Ampara, one 
Mr. Thurei, whose office is in the Chenkadi Division of 
Batticaloa. He encouraged the USAID/OTI Ampara Regional 
Program Manager to make contact with Mr. Thurei regarding 
any future work-related issues or problems. The USAID 
staff took the opportunity to reinforce the point that the 
LTTE should route communication directly to the USAID/OTI 
Ampara Regional Program Manager rather than approach local 
USAID/OTI staff on work-related issues. 
 
A KILINOCHCHI MEETING TO FINALIZE LOGISTICAL DETAILS 
 
7.  (SBU) Building on a late October introductory 
meeting, an USAID/OTI local staff member arranged a second 
meeting with the Head of the LTTE's Public Administration 
Office in Kilinochchi to obtain a tax waiver for USAID/OTI 
project supplies ready for transport from Colombo to 
Jaffna through the LTTE-controlled Vanni region. As with a 
smaller goods shipment that was sent through the Vanni in 
October, USAID/OTI staff again were given preferential 
treatment to expedite the transport process. The approvals 
that might have taken another organization five days took 
only forty eight hours, a processing that will allow for 
project supplies to be sent expeditiously to grantees in 
Jaffna during the week of November 24. 
 
8.  (SBU) In addition, the USAID/OTI staff member 
requested and was given three "permanent access passes" 
for local staff. These passes minimize time and effort 
required for Sri Lankan nationals to travel through the 
Vanni and have been granted to staff members of very few 
international agencies or organizations - the United 
Nations being one. 
 
9.  (SBU) The LTTE again suggested that opening an office 
in Jaffna would minimize the logistical burden on USAID. 
The USAID/OTI staff explained that the Agency's resources 
were not sufficient to open a third field office beyond 
the ones in Trincomalee and Ampara, and that given the 
frequency of air transport to Jaffna the region could be 
effectively covered by Colombo-based staff. 
 
10.  (SBU) The LTTE continued to encourage USAID to 
support the activities of members of the Jaffna Consortium 
of NGOs. The Consortium historically has been branded as 
pro-LTTE and for a time during the late 1990s lost most of 
its international funding. Since the ceasefire agreement 
in early 2002, however, the Consortium - with limited 
support from some international NGOs working in Jaffna - 
has attempted to establish itself as an independent member 
of civil society. 
 
COMMENTS 
 
11.  (SBU) USAID's working-level meetings with the LTTE 
continue to be cordial, productive and low-key. The USG's 
redesignation in October of the LTTE as a foreign 
terrorist organization clearly has not dampened these 
relations or caused the LTTE to renege on its initial 
promise to facilitate USAID rehabilitation and development 
activities in the North and the East. 
 
12.  (SBU) It is expected that the GSL and the LTTE will 
begin discussions in the near future on an interim 
administration for the North and East.  These discussions 
will formalize the LTTE's role with regard to development 
assistance in these areas and will without doubt give the 
LTTE a significantly more prominent role.  For this 
reason, maintenance of the working-level relationships 
established with the LTTE in the North and East are 
critical to the continued relevance of USG development 
assistance in Sri Lanka. 
 
LUNSTEAD