US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO358

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000358 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/3/13 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, PHUM, CE, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  Chief LTTE negotiator in Sri Lanka to prepare 
for next round of talks 
 
Ref:  (A) Colombo 229 and previous 
 
(U) Classified by Lewis Amselem, Deputy Chief of 
Mission.  Reasons 1.5 (b,d) 
 
1. (C) Summary:  The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's 
chief negotiator Anton Balasingham is visiting Sri Lanka 
from March 2 to 16.  The visit is seen by many as an 
opportunity for Balasingham to prepare for the next 
round of peace talks and to brief the LTTE leadership on 
the international community's view of the LTTE.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. (C) On March 2 LTTE chief negotiator and leading 
theoretician Anton Balasingham arrived in Sri Lanka for 
discussion with the LTTE leadership in preparation for 
the March 18-21 round of peace talks being held in 
Japan.  Balasingham is scheduled to meet with a wide 
variety of LTTE representatives during his stay of 
almost two weeks.  He is reportedly scheduled to meet 
with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran sometime on 
March 3. 
 
3. (C) In reviewing the reason for Balasingham's visit, 
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of the All Ceylon 
Tamil Congress and member of the Tamil National 
Alliance, believes that clearly the most important 
reason for the visit is for Balasingham to receive 
instructions for the next round of talks.  Particular 
emphasis, according to Ponnambalam, will be placed on 
the financial structure between the GSL and LTTE and on 
the steps the government must take to attain "normalcy" 
for Tamil civilians.  Ponnambalam, who recently met with 
the LTTE leadership, commented that the LTTE is 
concerned about how it will raise taxes and how it will 
be able to distribute any funds donated by the 
international community.  The LTTE believes it has a 
right to tax the people in the north and east and wants 
to make sure that its right to do so is acknowledged by 
the GSL. 
 
4. (C) Ponnambalam further reported that the issue of 
normalcy for Tamils, with a focus on resettlement of 
IDPs and the military security zones in Jaffna, is of 
paramount importance to the LTTE.  He commented that the 
LTTE had considered postponing the talks scheduled to 
take place in Japan March 18-21, because the GSL was not 
working towards normalcy quickly enough. Particularly 
the ministry responsible for resettling IDPs had no 
plans and was just permitting a bad situation on the 
ground to get worse.  Multiple families claiming the 
same house, families not being able to return because of 
security zones, and families impoverished for more than 
a decade were among the problems Ponnambalam cited. 
Based on this assessment, Ponnambalam believes that 
Balasingham will hear a chorus of voices, including 
Prabhakaran's, instructing him to push for the 
government to implement further humanitarian 
improvements.  The hard-line LTTE cadre will argue that 
they are unable to see improvements on the ground and 
will push Balasingham to get concessions from the Sri 
Lankan military. 
 
5. (C) Other observers add that although the stated 
purpose of Balasingham's visit is to prepare for the 
next round of talks there are a number of bonuses to the 
trip.  Perhaps most importantly, according to Jehan 
Perera the director of a well-regarded local think tank, 
is that Balasingham will expose the LTTE to the views of 
the international community.  He commented that many of 
the cadre isolated in the LTTE controlled Wanni, in 
northern Sri Lanka, rely on each other to reinforce 
their preexisting views while Balasingham will expose 
them to new trains of thought.  Kethesh Loganathan of 
the Center for Policy Alternatives, another local think 
tank, agrees that the trip might expose the cadre to a 
more moderate view of the LTTE's struggle, but he 
questions how much influence Balasingham will have on 
the second tier of LTTE leadership. 
 
6. (C) All of the interlocutors agreed that having 
Balasingham in the Wanni would increase the 
international community's access to Prabhakaran.  Tomas 
Stangeland, Political Officer at the Norwegian Embassy, 
commented that Prabhakaran tends not to meet with 
representatives from the international community when 
Balasingham is not present.  The Norwegian Embassy has 
confirmed that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen 
is scheduled to meet with Prabhakaran on March 14.  The 
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has also confirmed that 
Tryggve Tellefsen the new Head of Mission is scheduled 
to meet with LTTE leadership on March 5.  Some Tamil 
National Alliance MPs are scheduled to meet with 
Balasingham on March 7.  Other likely visitors include 
representatives from UNICEF and Ian Martin, formerly of 
Amnesty International, who will address humanitarian 
issues.  (Note:  The press is speculating on numerous 
possible visits, only a few of which may actually take 
place.  For example, Tamil Net states that Yasusi 
Akashi, Japan's special envoy to Sri Lanka, will be 
meeting with Balasingham and Prabhakaran, Koji Yagi of 
the Japanese Embassy, however, has confirmed that Akashi 
does not plan to visit Sri Lanka again before the next 
round of talks.) 
 
7. (C) Comment:  Balasingham attended two rounds of 
peace talks without first visiting the Wanni.  Observers 
have commented that this isolated the hardcore LTTE more 
from the peace process and limited what Balasingham 
could commit to.  Now everyone supporting the peace 
process sees Balasingham's visit as crucial in 
forwarding the peace agenda.  At the same time that the 
LTTE is expecting Balasingham to get the GSL to deliver 
on its demands during the talks, observers are hoping 
that Balasingham will be able to drag hard-line LTTE 
cadre into the peace process.  End Comment. 
 
8. (U) Minimize considered. 
 
WILLS