The LTTE unilaterally calls off talks between it and the Sri Lanka government, declaring that unless its core demands are met, it will not participate in the donors’ conference scheduled to be held in Tokyo in June. These core demands are an interim administrative structure and the de-escalation of the military situation in the northern Jaffna peninsula. Major donor countries declare that the conference should go ahead irrespective of the LTTE’s participation.

Sources
Tamil Tigers reject peace move, BBC, 30 May, 2003; Peace process on the brink, Front Line Magazine, Volume 20 – Issue 12, June 7 – 20, 2003.

Quotation

“In his deliberations with the Norwegian Foreign Minister Mr Jan Petersen, Mr. Pirapaharan suggested an innovative interim administrative structure vested with adequate authority and legal status ‘with greater participation of the LTTE in both decision making and delivery of the tasks of rebuilding the war damaged economy and restoring normalcy in the Tamil speaking homeland.’ You would have observed that we did not elaborate on the powers, functions and mechanisms of the proposed administrative structure. We entrusted the task of formulating the framework to your government with the hope that you will act with courage and creativity to accommodate the aspirations of our people since your government has an overwhelming mandate from the Sinhala masses to establish an interim administrative structure for the northeast.

As we have already explained to you our leadership was compelled to seek an interim administrative structure set-up for two reasons. Firstly, we realised that a permanent political settlement in the form of regional autonomy and self-government for the Tamils through radical constitutional transformation is not feasible under the current unstable political environment created by the dual, ferociously opposed power centres in Colombo. Secondly, the institutions created by laborious dialogue at the negotiating table failed to function effectively to address and redress the immense humanitarian problems faced by hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees who need immediate and urgent relief. …

Having studied the contents of your proposals we are surprised, and at the same time, dismayed that your government did not address the critical issue of setting up an interim administrative structure for the northeast as suggested by the LTTE leadership. Instead, you have proposed a development orientated structure with extremely limited administrative powers in which the participatory role of the LTTE is not clearly defined, or rather, left deliberately ambiguous…. You have commented that the government has to operate within the laws of the land. We can certainly understand the fragile position of your government caught up with an enraged President seeking revenge and an entrenched constitution that allows no space for manoeuvre. You will certainly agree that if the political system is unstable and your administration is powerless, it will be impossible to resolve the ethnic conflict either by interim means or by permanent settlement. How long can our people wait and tolerate their hardships if your government seeks refuge under legal and constitutional obstacles? Have they not been waiting for more than half a century for redemption while the Sinhala political classes fought ferociously among themselves to deny the inalienable political rights of our people?

As a liberation organisation which has fought a freedom struggle for more than two and half decades with enormous sacrifices, the interests and welfare of our people are of paramount importance to us. You must understand our predicament when no progress has been made through the peace effort towards alleviating the extreme hardships and suffering of our people. The people are loosing confidence in us as if we are involved in a futile exercise that produces no dividends. …

We wish to point out that the envisaged new structure does not offer significant participatory role for the LTTE, except in the low level Development Committees and in administering the North East Reconstruction Fund. Situating the development structure within the parameters of the constitution you have effectively placed the proposed institution under the authority of the central government, particularly under the authority of your office and Parliament. Having completely rejected our suggestion for an interim administrative structure with significant role for the LTTE, your proposal clearly states that the ‘administration of the Northeast is the responsibility both of the Northeast Provincial Council and the central government’. In this context, you have conveniently ignored the stark reality that the LTTE runs a de-facto administration of its own in vast tracts of territories under its control in the Northeast.

As you are aware we have been critical of the functions of multiple government structures and agencies that work at cross purposes at various levels of administration and have created serious impediments for rehabilitation and development activities. We are of the opinion that the proposed new structure for rehabilitation and development will turn out to be a new apex bureaucracy administratively linked to several other inefficient and defunct state agencies and mechanisms and will not be able to carry out the immense humanitarian tasks efficiently. For the reasons set-out in our critique the leadership of our liberation movement regrets to inform you that the new proposal submitted by your government for our perusal is unacceptable to us.” Anton Balasingham, LTTE chief negotiator, in a letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, 30 May 2003.

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