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Courageous verdict: says Kadirgamar
Well founded suspicions that Tiger guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran directed assassinations and mass murders of innocents have transformed beyond reasonable doubt over one incident - the bombing of the Central Bank - and now been proved legally to a certainty by proof beyond reasonable doubt, Lakshman Kadirgamar, advisor on International Affairs to the President and former Foreign Minister declared yesterday.

However, he cautioned Sri Lankans not to be drawn by "gusts of emotion" when assessing the political consequences of the verdict. Speaking to The Sunday Times by telephone from Chennai, Mr. Kadirgamar praised the judge for his courage and for doing his duty by the law.

"The law is supreme. We must applaud the courage of the judge who did his duty according to the law in analyzing the evidence before him and delivering his verdict fearlessly. Mr. Prabhakaran like every other citizen of Sri Lankan convicted of a crime has a right of appeal," he said.

"On the other hand, we should not be driven by gusts of emotion when assessing the political consequences of the verdict. We cannot pretend that negotiations with the LTTE for a political solution to the armed conflict by President Premadasa, President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe were predicated on the premise of Mr. Prabhakaran's presumed innocence of criminal conduct until he was proved guilty.

"I know of no law in Sri Lanka that prohibits the conduct of political negotiations with a person convicted of criminal offences, even the most heinous crimes. The situation is different in countries which have these laws prohibiting dealings with proscribed or banned terrorist organizations," he said.

Mr. Kadirgamar said negotiations with the LTTE being going on even when the organization was banned, and the important question was not whether talks which began with a suspected criminal should or should not be discontinued when the suspect is convicted, but whether talks begun by the government in good faith should be continued when the good faith of the LTTE was thrown seriously into question by arms smuggling, extortion, child abductions, insensitivity to the aspirations of other citizens of Sri Lanka and the flaunting of its so-called independent regime.

He said the People's Alliance would continue to insist that the core issues be addressed sooner than later, that there should be a clear acknowledgment of the authority of the central government, and that human rights and the legitimate concerns of other communities will be respected.

Foreign countries which seek to help the peace process should remember that when they have left our shores, it is successive generations of Sri Lankans who will have to live with the consequences of a patchwork accommodation that does not solve the existing problem, but creates a series of new problems, Mr. Kadirgamar said.

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