Why can't they even fight in peace?
I don't know whether you heard this, but I heard this story about how the rift first got to the Norwegians. Somebody told the Norwegians via satellite phone that there is a big rift in Sri Lanka.

We are not telling who took the call, but the powerful Norwegian in Oslo replied "oh no -- one more rift. We are stopping all aid. Last time we pulled out the facilitators in a huff. We might consider taking very severe action this time.. We might stop all aid unless that Prime Minister and that President can get together.''

"But Sir….'' The man on the satellite phone replied. "No buts…. We are getting the hell outta there…we might even consider taking out the ceasefire monitors. Yes we will pull out the ceasefire monitors.''

"But Sir, it is not the Sri Lankans that are fighting, it is the LTTE. One of their top notch Colonels has turned against Prabhakaran.''

The next thing we know, all bandwidths from Oslo to Sri Lanka were clogged. The man at this end of the satellite phone is still wondering why the word rift has two different meanings. One sort of rift means the Norwegians will get out of Sri Lanka in a mighty huff. The other meaning -- he swore to check up the dictionary for this -- is that the Norwegians will stay put, be as kind and gentle as possible and do everything possible to put humpty dumpty together again. Somebody also told me that Akashi was told that there was a fight in Colombo. Two factions were at each other they informed him. He said "stop all aid at once - period.''

Then he was told that the wires got somehow crossed - - the fight was not in Colombo but in fact in the Wanni. Aksahi came back pronto saying all aid to the North East will continue despite all setbacks in Sri Lanka. Gee-whizz. The word rift certainly has two meanings.

Another organization, we will call it the Peaceful National Council was sent a message about the rift. There is a chance for peace in Sri Lanka without any of the fuss or grants from foreign countries the messenger also wrote in small print. We hear from very informed sources that the peace-man who read the message at the PNC passed out and had to be revived with smelling salts.

When he came to, he told everybody including the messenger who has notified him about the rift that the PNC will expend all its energies to get the fighting Tigers back together again to kiss and make up.

But the messenger was baffled. He said he thought the PNC stood for peace, then why is it trying to mess up the best chance yet for peace? Peace without presenting any long-winded papers, peace without having to go to Norway and Thailand a hundred times for it, peace for the mere asking. Just when there is that chance, the PNC is asking the Tigers to kiss and make up. He finally decided that whatever the PNC must be looking for in this country, it just couldn't be peace..

But in his mind, people have always been waiting for just this kind of thing to happen. But soon as it does, they are looking for a venue for peace talks between Prabhakaran and Karuna. Maybe it will be Hakone. Ranil Wickremesinghe can have observer status.

BBC says Sri Lankan soldiers might get involved in this any time, and the whole situation will become very explosive. Last time they reported Sri Lankan soldiers are all over the streets they were actually in their barracks. So we asked the soldiers themselves. They said they have been told one thing. If Thambi and Anna get involved in a fight, stay out of it. But yet, the BBC insists they must get involved? What to do?

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