EXCLUSIVE: GoSL –LTTE meeting.

Government secrecy mellows very well with LTTE’s secrecy

EXCLUSIVE TO SRI LANKA GUARDIAN

(June 28, Colombo-London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Point scoring is Sri Lanka government’s agenda and this agenda has extended to incorporate the secrecy that the LTTE imposed and maintained for the past three decades.

By leaking the news to the media confirming that a hardcore LTTE diaspora is arriving in Colombo with the effort of LTTE’s Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, who is currently held in a luxury detention in Colombo, the GoSL engineered a campaign to weaken the section of the pro-LTTE diaspora. The paranoia of the GoSL is so great that it brands the entire Tamil diaspora as pro-LTTE and it is finding hard to connect with the expatriate Tamils with this estranged mindset and its inability to take a mature and wide ranging approach to bring the Sri Lankan’s together.

Both the GoSL and the LTTE delegation are tight lipped on the recent meeting in Colombo. Speculative news is being opportunistically published in the e-media to confuse the public.

On another front, the facts about the meeting are slowly creeping in, despite strenuous efforts by the GoSL and the LTTE delegates to maintain silence.

It is now confirmed, with the pressure from the Defence Ministry and to get concession on his detention, KP had telephoned his Diaspora contacts to come and meet him in Colombo. According to very reliable information, 22 contacts had agreed to go to Colombo but in the Colombo airport only 9 had turned up.

It is also now emerging that the Deputy High Commissioner (Mr Hansa) of the Sri Lanka High Commission in London was liaising with the group and making arrangement for their travel.

It soon became known one of the nine members was the controversial former TELO militant Charles Antonidas who had become an active member of the British Tamil Forum just a year before the defeat of the LTTE in September 2009. Charles was contacted by many to obtain the details about the meeting. He is said to be tight-lipped and would not reveal the names of the other eight members in the team. He has said the others do not want to reveal their names and are keen to maintain secrecy. He has also confirmed that a meeting of the delegates will take place next Wednesday to respond to the pressures from the public.

Charles has only confirmed that meeting was about development work in the north and east and also to help KP to come out of his captivity.

The second persons name was revealed in a text message circulated amongst the diaspora. It stated: ‘Dr Arudkumar, Central Committee member of the BTF took London delegation to meet KP, Gotabaya and Pieris in Colombo. Agreement reached to spend BTF, TRO, THO and Vanangaman funds through the Sri Lankan government. The meeting was organised by Sri Lanka High Commission in London. BTF & LTTE is organising a meeting on Sunday to discuss the outcome’.

There is widespread concern why both the government and the LTTE men are maintaining silence about the meeting. An LTTE top-gun close to the BTF confirmed his displeasure about the meeting. He said: ‘This is unnecessary and unwanted’. When asked about the text message news, he said: ‘How can we pass the large part of borrowed money of the Tamil people that has not been returned yet to the lenders’.

(Sri Lanka Guardian will publish further news when more information is gathered)