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Ship attack to dominate Japan talks
By Christopher Kamalendran
Tiger guerrillas will use Tuesday's peace talks in Japan to raise issue over the Navy's sinking of their tanker and the re-settlement of civilians in High Security Zones in the Jaffna peninsula, their Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham, declared last night.

"Discussions on other matters earlier scheduled would be gone into only if time permits," Mr. Balasingham told the Tamil media at a news conference in Kilinochchi. One key issue earlier listed was detailed talks on fiscal aspects in a devolved setup. He said the LTTE delegation had received specific instructions from their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to raise the two major issues.

He said the tanker sunk by the Navy in the deep seas off Mullaitivu last Monday was one of the cargo vessels that belonged to the LTTE. Men on board carried some small arms to protect themselves if they came under attack from pirates, he said. "The entire world knows we are operating several cargo ships in the South Asian region," he added.

Commenting on a list of weapons reportedly found on board and widely reported by the media that attributed it to official sources, Mr. Balasingham said it is "totally false." Like the attack on the tanker, if the Security Forces behave in a similar manner, the LTTE would have no choice but to take a tough decision, he warned.
Mr Balasingham also complained that there were no Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) members on board Navy vessels that were involved in the encounter with the LTTE tanker.

He said the LTTE decided not to keep away from the upcoming peace talks since it would affect them internationally and give the Government a propaganda advantage. Hence their leader had decided the LTTE delegation should take part and make their position clearly known. He charged that "ceasefire violations" by Security Forces were causing immense problems to their cadres, affected their morale and posed threats to their security. It was with great difficulty they were maintaining calm since the LTTE was genuinely committed to the peace process, he said. He accused the Government of being too slow in its approach.

Mr. Balasingham said there was an urgency to re-settle civilians in the High Security Zones to bring about normalcy. He said the Government was dragging the issue and there was still no word about the report of retired Indian Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar. He said this had also caused serious concern for the LTTE. Hence, he said, the LTTE would seek a categoric response from the Government over this issue.

LTTE sources said last night that Mr. Balasingham would also defend moves by the Tiger guerrillas to procure weapons. This is on the purported grounds that acquisition of military hardware is not prohibited by the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government and the LTTE and hence there is no impediment. Responding to The Sunday Times report last week about guerrilla attempts to acquire sophisticated military items from Russia including surface to air missiles, Dr. Balasingham told Tamil journalists early this week the Sri Lankan military was also procuring weapons.

The LTTE delegation to the Japan peace talks comprising Mr. Balasingha, his wife Adele, S. P. Tamilselvan and Karuna are due in Colombo this morning by an SLAF helicopter. They will board a Tokyo-bound flight tonight. The Government has already defended the Navy's action in sinking the LTTE tanker said to be loaded with a huge quantity of small arms and heavy weapon ammunition.

The matter was discussed at length this week during a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and later the same day during a conference of service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police chaired by Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe at Temple Trees. On March 6, Russian Ambassador Mikhail G. Karpov, handed over to Foreign Secretary, Nihal Rodrigo, Non Paper - a document that does not reflect the official position of a government but is the basis for further dialogue between them and the host country. In that, he said two Sri Lankans, found to be members of the LTTE, had approached the representative of the Russian state organisation Rosboronoexport to procure small arms, anti-aircraft missile complex IGLA, communication means and other types of military equipment.

Although Mr. Rodrigo has brought this to the immediate attention of UNF leaders, there has been no official Government response so far. However, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told The Sunday Times that the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII) had been told to investigate the matter.

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