The Price Of Alleged “Peace Talks”

“The fourth ceasefire was occasioned by the second round of alleged ``Peace Talks’’ at the Hilton Hotel in 1990. Characteristically, the LTTE used the opportunity to recruit new cadres, re-arm and otherwise prepare for `war’, partly with the material aid willfully given by the then UNP Government.”
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by S.L.Gunasekara

(July 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Peace can never be achieved through `Peace Talks’ where one party utilizes those `talks’ and the attendant `ceasefire’ to strengthen itself and strike the other at an opportune moment. This has been the experience of Sri Lanka, where every set of so called `peace talks’ only resulted in the LTTE getting stronger and the carnage and suffering among our People increasing in Geometric Progression.


It is indeed a paradox that while no set of so called `peace talks’ brought us even a fraction of a millimeter closer to peace, and every one of them only aggravated the conflict, the current military operations of our Armed Forces have brought us closer to peace than ever before.

Peace is clearly anathema to the LTTE – for it was terrorism, not peace, that made `somebodies’ of a bunch of `nobodies’ like Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman, Soosai etc., and the dawn of peace will end once and for all, the absolute power they exercised over hundreds of thousand helpless People, principally Tamils; their ability to murder, kidnap, abduct, imprison or torture whom they wished, how, when and where they wished; extort money and other property from anyone they wished in those areas where they enjoyed usurped power; and live lives of relative luxury and educate their children abroad with money robbed and extorted from the poor, the weak and the helpless and that contributed by their gullible supporters at home and abroad. `Peace’ to them, therefore, is a consummation devoutly to be `AVOIDED’ and not `wished’.

It is in this background that the LTTE, with their backs to the wall, watching what to them is the `spectre’ of peace coming closer and closer, are now trumpeting, with all the hypocrisy they can muster, another call for another ceasefire and another set of so called `peace-talks’ so that they can strengthen themselves once more and avoid the restoration of peace

It is pertinent, in these circumstances to recall the bitter fruits of the four previous sets of so called `peace talks’ and six ceasefires we in Sri Lanka have had to stomach in the past 23 years.

The first set of ``Peace Talks’’ were at Thimphu [the capital of Bhutan] in mid 1985. The LTTE came for those talks in ostensible brotherhood with eleven representatives of the TULF, PLOTE, TELO ,EROS and EPRLF. All those Groups sabotaged those talks in unison with the LTTE and left Thimphu as `brothers in the cause of Tamil Eelam’.

However, so much had the LTTE strengthened themselves by taking advantage of the ceasefire that accompanied those talks that they achieved a total stranglehold on almost the whole of the Jaffna Peninsula, and were so confident of their strength and ability to establish a separate State of Tamil Eelam by themselves that they, to whom any kind of `power sharing’ was [and continues to be] anathema, murdered about 140 cadres of their `erstwhile brothers’ of the TELO including its leader `Tall’ Sri Sabaratnam and about 70 cadres of the EPRLF shortly after their return to Sri Lanka.

They also forbade their other `brothers’ the TULF to engage in any politics in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and commenced murdering their leaders. They later murdered the leader of the EPRLF, Pathmanabah, Yogashangari MP and almost the entirety of its Politbureau on 19.6.90 at Chennai, but failed to murder Suresh Premachandran MP [who is now one of the LTTE’s most loyal acolytes] because he was not present when the attack took place,

Of the 11 representatives of other separatist organizations who came to Thimphu with the LTTE as brothers, the LTTE have, SO FAR succeeded in murdering 3, namely, Amirthalingam (TULF), Vasudevan (PLOTE) and Ketheeswaran (EPRLF)], narrowly missed murdering a fourth, Sivasithamparam (TULF)] and caused a fifth Varadarajah Perumal (EPRLF)] to live in exile in India through fear for his life, while a sixth Sampanthan (TULF)] is now reduced to the pathetic fate of leading a band of lackeys/vassals of the LTTE, named the TNA. Thus the LTTE have, by such conduct, proved their incurable allergy to any kind of `power sharing’ and their total inability to arrive at a `political solution’ to conflicts EVEN WITH THOSE ESPOUSING THE SAME POLITICAL `CAUSE’ OF SEPARATION AS THEY.

The stranglehold the LTTE achieved over the Peninsula as a direct result of the ceasefire attendant upon the Thimphu Talks necessitated `Operation Liberation’ to liberate the Peninsula from the LTTE. This operation was sabotaged by India. The second `ceasefire’ was an unilateral `ceasefire’ declared by Minister Athulathmudali from the 11th to the 21st April 1987. The LTTE reciprocated by murdering 127 Sinhalese men, women and children at Kituluttuwa on the 17th April and a further 107 of all races and injuring 289 by exploding a powerful bomb at the Pettah bus terminus two days thereafter.

The third ceasefire was that occasioned by the Indo Lanka Accord. The LTTE who fraudulently claimed to have surrendered all their arms in terms of that Accord, continued hunting and murdering their erstwhile `brothers’ in the EPRLF, TELO,PLOTE and the TULF, many of whom fled to and found refuge in the camps of our Armed Forces in the North and East.

Later, commencing on the 29th September 1987 they murdered about 200 Sinhalese and Muslim Civilians between Trincomalee and Chenkaladi within one week, attacked our Army Camps at Point Pedro and Thondaimannar on the 5th October and murdered eight helpless soldiers in their captivity on the 6th while the IPKF did nothing to halt the carnage. Finally the IPKF began fighting the LTTE only after the LTTE murdered some Indian soldiers.

The fourth ceasefire was occasioned by the second round of alleged ``Peace Talks’’ at the Hilton Hotel in 1990. Characteristically, the LTTE used the opportunity to recruit new cadres, re-arm and otherwise prepare for `war’, partly with the material aid willfully given by the then UNP Government.

While their `delegates’ were in Colombo under the protection of the Police and the Forces, the LTTE foully broke the ceasefire’ and scuttled the `Peace Talks’ by attacking all police stations in the East and then murdering in captivity, over 600 unarmed police officers who had surrendered to them on the orders of the then Government.

Until those `Peace Talks’, the LTTE had never been able to over-run a single camp of the Army, Navy or Air Force, however small. The opportunity given to them by the `Peace Talks’ changed all that. So much had they strengthened themselves during the `Premadasa Peace Talks’ that the LTTE were able, within one week of the 11th June, to attack 20 Police Stations and 18 Army Camps in 8 Districts, over-running 13 Police Stations and causing the evacuation of 4 Army Camps. In this period they murdered 1120 troops and police officers and injured 412. Shortly thereafter, the LTTE over-ran the Army Camps at Kokavil, Mankulam, Mandativu and Janakapura and still later those at Mullaitivu, Pooneryn, and Elephant Pass and many others as well as the Naval Base at Nagathevanthurai.

Then came the fifth ceasefire consequent to the 3rd set of `Peace Talks’ which was initiated by CBK. That ceasefire lasted from the 5th January 1995 until the 19th April 1995 when the LTTE with characteristic perfidy broke the ceasefire and scuttled the talks by blasting two Naval Gunboats anchored at the Trincomalee Harbour, murdering 12 sailors and wounding 21. Thereafter on the 28th and 29th April the LTTE shot down and destroyed 2 Avro Aircraft of the Air Force using Surface to Air Missiles, murdering 48 soldiers, 24 sailors, 23 airmen, 2 policemen and 2 journalists who happened to be on board.

Until those `Peace Talks’ the LTTE had never been able to bring down a single aircraft.

From the 19th April onwards the LTTE, `revelling’ in the strength they had gained during those talks went on a spree of murder and mayhem and by the 31st August 1995 they murdered 445 soldiers, 39 sailors, 24 airmen, 49 policemen and 53 civilians and injured 388 soldiers, 37 sailors, 42 policemen, destroyed 3 aircraft in flight and sunk 4 ships. Further the LTTE’s gang of Pirates called the “Sea Tigers” which was really nothing to speak of before the 1995 `Peace Talks’ and ceasefire became a very formidable force thereafter.

Then came the 6th ceasefire and the 4th set of `Peace Talks’ from 2002 to 2006. How the LTTE sabotaged those talks and the disastrous consequences of that ceasefire during which the LTTE captured Manirasakulam, fortified Sampur, murdered bus-loads of unarmed soldiers and sailors proceeding on and returning from leave by exploding Claymore Mines, sought to murder thousands of civilians living down-stream of the Mavil Aru Anicut by cutting off water to them, murdered loyal Tamil informants all over the country, attempted to murder the Army Commander, the Defence Secretary and Minister Devananda are too fresh in our minds to need repetition. Suffice it to say that the then Minister of Defence Marapana admitted that the LTTE had doubled their strength in about the 1st year of that ceasefire.

At long last we are recovering, and the elusive goal of PEACE is now within sight for the first time, thanks to the blood, toil, tears and sweat of our troops. Let not that goal elude us once more by another ceasefire and/or set of talks which can only end in disaster.
- Sri Lanka Guardian