US embassy cable - 04COLOMBO1181

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001181 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS; NSC FOR E.MILLARD 
PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/15/2014 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, PREL, PHUM, CE, LTTE - Peace Process, Political Parties 
SUBJECT: TIGER RHETORIC CONTINUES TO INCREASE AFTER COLOMBO 
SUICIDE BOMBING 
 
REF: COLOMBO 1158 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead.  Reason 1.5 (b,d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  After the July 7 suicide bombing of a 
police station in downtown Colombo, Tiger rhetoric is heating 
up.  The uptick in the group's rhetoric is accompanied by an 
increasingly fearful climate in the east, where the Tigers 
have been flexing their muscles.  Assassinations and child 
recruitment continue.  Meanwhile, Karuna reiterated his 
intention to form a political party and denied responsibility 
for violence in the east.  While the Tigers are turning up 
the heat, the GSL seems trying to cool down the rhetoric -- 
but faces problems within its own ranks.  END SUMMARY. 
 
LTTE RHETORIC HEATS UP 
---------------------- 
 
2.  (U) After the July 7 suicide bombing of a police station 
in downtown Colombo, Tiger rhetoric is heating up.  Although 
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) issued a rare 
denial of the bombing on July 8 via pro-Tiger website 
TamilNet, other recent Tiger statements from Kilinochchi and 
the east take a harder line.  LTTE Political Leader S.P. 
Thamilchelvan, in a July 10 interview with BBC, noted that 
the GSL was responsible for the violence in the east and that 
the peace process was at its lowest point.  At lower levels 
of the organization, the rhetoric is stronger still.  Various 
media reports quoted LTTE Batticaloa Political Leader E. 
Kousalyan's comments, "...the Sri Lankan state is not 
interested at all in taking forward the peace process but is 
only bent on using the talks and the ceasefire to wage a 
terrorist war on us in the baseless hope of weakening us 
militarily and politically.  We are ready to face the war 
that the Sri Lankan state has decided to thrust on us." 
 
CLIMATE OF FEAR INCREASES IN THE EAST 
------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C) The uptick in Tiger rhetoric is accompanied by an 
increasingly fearful climate in the east, where the Tigers 
have been flexing their muscles.  On July 15, at a prison in 
Batticaloa, a suspected LTTE cadre shot dead another LTTE 
cadre who was one of Karuna's senior deputies.  The alleged 
shooter surrendered to police in the presence of the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Sri Lanka 
Monitoring Mission (SLMM) representatives.  Earlier on July 
10, media reports noted that the Tigers executed two 
pro-Karuna cadre in Senkaladi, near Batticaloa.  The cadre, 
who an LTTE court found guilty for sedition, had been bound 
and shot in the head and were dumped by the side of the road 
in adjoining government-controlled territory, as one 
interlocutor put it, "to remind people that anyone who 
refuses to be re-recruited into the LTTE is better off dead." 
  In the meantime, the Tigers continue to forcibly recruit 
children.  In a conversation with poloff, UNICEF Chief of 
Child Protection Victor Nyland noted that the Tigers' 
accelerated underage recruitment and re-recruitment, which 
had shifted to the north, has in recent weeks returned to the 
east.  Moreover, the Tigers are using more threats and 
violence.  Families in the east who resist giving up their 
children have been beaten with wooden sticks and have had 
their houses set on fire.  In a July 7 statement, Amnesty 
International condemned these activities and called on the 
Tigers to "stop these violent and intimidating tactics 
immediately." 
 
KARUNA SPEAKS 
------------- 
 
4.  (C/NF) Meanwhile, the drama with breakaway Tiger rebel 
Karuna continues.  In a July 11 interview with BBC Tamil 
Radio Service Tamil Osai, he reiterated his intention to form 
a political party and denied responsibility for violence in 
the east.  Karuna claimed to be back in Batticaloa, although 
there is no way to confirm his location.  Copious press 
reports have chronicled how Douglas Devananda, Minister of 
Agricultural Marketing Development, Hindu Affairs, and Tamil 
Language Schools and Vocational Training (North), and leader 
of the anti-LTTE Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and 
the intended target of the July 7 suicide bombing, is helping 
Karuna to form a political party.  One theory is that Karuna 
is forming a political party because he lacks other options. 
In a July 13 conversation with poloff, Neil Wright, Head of 
UNHCR, noted that Karuna and nine of his lieutenants had 
approached the Batticaloa UNHCR office to discuss asylum, but 
were informed that Article 1F of the Geneva Convention 
(denying asylum because of involvement with crimes against 
peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity or crimes against 
the purposes and principles of the UN) prevented them from 
seeking asylum under international law.  Wright also noted 
that Karuna and his people had attempted to negotiate a 
bi-lateral political asylum solution with several nations, 
but were also unsuccessful.  Karuna, who it seems will have 
difficulty leaving Sri Lanka, is probably trying to re-cast 
himself politically  -- a la former paramilitary leader 
turned politico Douglas Devananda. 
 
BRIGHT SPOTS? 
------------- 
 
5.  (C) While the Tigers are increasing the heat, the GSL 
seems ready to cool down the rhetoric.  The President's 
post-Provincial Council election statement (July 12) noted 
that she considers the election outcome -- her party won all 
districts being contested -- a clear endorsement of her 
government's policies, including its peace policy of 
maintaining the Ceasefire Agreement and resuming peace 
negotiations with the LTTE.  The caveat that those 
negotiations would be geared toward the establishment of an 
interim authority and a lasting solution to the conflict 
"within a united and democratic Sri Lanka" were possibly 
meant to soothe the Tigers, who demand that their Interim 
Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) be at the top of the agenda 
when peace talks resume.  The President also publicly offered 
to establish a National Peace Council for all parties in the 
south to discuss and contribute to the peace process. 
Meanwhile, some contact between the GSL and LTTE is 
happening, albeit at a much lower level.  While 
representatives from the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE refused 
to meet in the east, they did meet in Vavuniya on Monday for 
what a SLMM interlocutor characterized as a regular meeting. 
Pro-LTTE website TamilNet offered more color, and called it 
an attempt  "to bring the violence and murders in Vavuniya 
district under control."  The Vavuniya Government Agent, who 
attended part of the meeting, said it was cordial. 
 
6.  (C) In a separate development, Tiger Political Leader 
S.P. Thamilchelvan opened the LTTE Human Rights Office in 
Kilinochchi last week.  According to press reports, 
Thamilchelvan noted that LTTE supremo Prabhakaran respected 
human rights more than other leaders.  A committee to take 
action against human rights violations in the north and east 
was also formed, complete with a TNA MP.   Human rights 
interlocutors in Jaffna who ventured to Kilinochchi to speak 
with the head of the committee noted that the office would 
investigate violations of human rights, including those 
perpetrated by the LTTE, in the north and east.  (Comment: 
How do you say "chutzpah" in Tamil?) 
 
7.  (C) Despite the President's efforts to move forward with 
the peace process, she has problems within her own ranks. 
Her major alliance partner, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna 
(JVP), continues its public agitation against the process. 
The JVP released a July 10 statement hitting the Tigers hard 
for the July 7 suicide bombing.  At the same time, the group 
began an island-wide poster campaign denouncing the Tigers' 
commitment to peace.  In a July 14 conversation with poloffs, 
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that his party would 
consider peace talks with the LTTE, but only on matters of a 
"final solution," dismissing the idea of discussions on an 
interim administration. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
8.  (C) The Tigers continue their quest to conquer the east, 
with more and more violent results.  International pressure 
to stop this violence is coming from many directions: 
Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar journeyed to Kilinochchi 
to speak with the Tigers on July 13, the UN is planning a 
private sit-down with Thamilchelvan to press him to end the 
pattern of violence in the east, SLMM efforts are ongoing to 
keep the Tigers and the SLA talking, the EU and Canada, in 
addition to Mission, issued press statements condemning the 
violence.  The opening of an LTTE Human Rights Office in 
Kilinochchi, as hypocritical as that is, could be a signal 
that the Tigers feel a need to respond, at least 
symbolically, to the concerns of the international community. 
 Now that the Provincial Council elections are settled -- and 
the President's party victorious -- the GSL may feel 
empowered to make more positive (and public) noises about the 
peace process and work to calm the situation in the east. 
However, the President still has to deal with her own 
minority situation and the continuing problem of the JVP's 
dissent from her direction on peace.  Septel will describe 
Ambassador's discussion with Brattskar and Peace Secretariat 
Head Dhanapala.  END COMMENT. 
LUNSTEAD