BALASINGHAM WANTS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY NOT TO IMPOSE SYSTEMS OF THEIR LIKING ON TAMILS AND ASKS INDIA TO GIVE A FRIENDLY HAND FOR MUTUAL GOOD
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
December 08, 12.15 PM: The political advisor to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Anton Balasingham advised the “international community” not try to impose political systems of their liking on the Tamil people of Sri Lanka and reminded India that it was for the mutual good of the Sri Lankan terrorist group and the island nation’s giant neighbor in the North to forget about past enmity and show a friendly attitude towards the separatist Tamil group.
Reports from London said, Balasingham told a Martyr’s Day meeting in London, Saturday December 6, addressing thousands of Tamil expatriates who continue to contribute large amounts of precious foreign cash to the LTTE despite the ban on the group in the United kingdom that “Our people alone must decide on their political status and destiny, not international actors.”
LTTE abhors Western democratic systems depending on multi-party polity and publicly preaches a one party state where other parties should take guidance from the LTTE. Thos who oppose the policy are routinely killed mostly in the country’s Tamil areas of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Sources close to LTTE in London said Balasingham’s speech reflected the LTTE’s attitude of solving Sri Lanka’s civil strife on LTTE’s terms since Balasingham, during his speech emphatically stressed that donor countries that had promised rehabilitation aid for the war-devastated Tamil areas had also insisted on defining the parameters of a political solution the LTTE should accept in exchange and the Tamil terrorist group did not welcome it at all .
He said point blank, making ominous signs for the proposed renewed talks of Sri Lanka’s peace process:“we cannot accept the imposition of limits of the Tamil people’s political aspirations by them.”
Anton Balasingham kept away from the Peace process, after the LTTE started boycotting the peace talks last April complaining of ill health. But there is evidence that he was engaged in a writing project on “liberation struggles” that would aid propaganda of the ideals of the terrorist group in the Western countries. This is the first time Balasingham returned to a public platform after the prolonged break.
Repeating an earlier pledge that had failed to impress India on dozen or more previous times Anton Balasingham said the Tamil terrorist group , suspected to be maintaining strong relationships with Tamil separatist groups in India would not act in anyway prejudicial to India’s geo-political, strategic and economic interests.
“We are seeking, ‘ said Balasingham, “a radical change in India’s attitude.”
Balasingham’s speech came at a time when LTTE agents were attempting to capture power in the pro-Indian Tamil party, the Tamil United Liberation Front by ousting its President V. Anandasagaree. Balasingham called the LTTE an “authentic representative of the Tamil people.” So far the LTTE was calling itself the sole representative of the Tamil people. LTTE agents, Sambandan and others are attempting to expel the President of the party as he had refused to accept the notion that the LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamil people. In the past the LTTE had assassinated many TULF leaders including Appapillai Amirthalingam.
Balasingham attacked Sri Lanka’s second largest opposition party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for allegedly inviting Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka’s separatist crisis recently.
