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PRABHAKARAN THREATENS TO SECEDE IF HIS DEMANDS WERE NOT MET IN LTTE’S “HEROES DAY MESSAGE”ON HIS 49TH BIRTHDAY

The LTTE news website Tamil Net published this photo of Velupillai Prabhakaran with the map of proposed separate state of Eeelam carved out of Sri Lanka and the separatist flag in the background with this year’s Hero’s Day speech. According to this map he should get two thirds of Sri Lanka’s national coastline and the sea resources for him (Caption by Walter Jayawardhana / Photo by Tamil Net)

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

November 28, 07.30 AM:Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) issuing his birthday statement, which is also called the Hero’s Day message said if their demands were not met they would not have any alternative but to secede from Sri Lanka and carve an independent state out of the Indian Ocean island nation

Speaking before a map of the putative state of Eelam that claimed two thirds of Sri Lanka’s national coast and its territorial sea waters and one third of the land mass and its proposed national flag of the ferocious leaping Tiger, Prabhakaran said if the rulers continued to deny the rights of his people then they would “have no alternative other than to secede and form an independent state invoking the right to self-determination of our people. We urge the Sinhala political leadership not to create the objective conditions that would drive our people to seek this ultimate option.”

Prabhakaran made this threat immediately after he was strengthened in his morale by the visit of the Commissioner of Foreign Relations of the European Union (the equivalent of a foreign Minister), Chris Patten, who was also the last British Governor of their last colony of Hong Kong, in the midst of his birthday celebrations in Kilinochchi.

Blaming “Sinhala chauvinism” for Tamil troubles he said, having renounced violence the LTTE have been making every effort through non violent means to promote peace and reconciliation.

But most opposition Tamil parties and security forces have been blaming the LTTE for continued violence and assassinations of their members since LTTE signed its ceasefire agreement with the Ranil Wickremesinghe government. In fact Chris Patten himself requested the LTTE to shun violence and stop violating Ceasefire Agreement.

Although immediately after the Ceasefire Agreement was signed, taking advantages granted to them, the LTTE smuggled in so many shiploads of arms and ammunition to the country according to the Sri Lanka Navy. But Velupillai Prabhakaran said, he vehemently rejected accusations made by President Chandrika Kumaratunga that his organization was strengthening its military power and preparing for war. “ I wish to deny categorically that there is any truth in these allegations. These false allegations are leveled against us to tarnish the credibility of our liberation organization and to disrupt the peace process.”

Speaking as a military leader of a one party province where some Tamil leaders have succumbed to his military power and those who opposed it were being constantly killed by his assassins, Velupillai Prabhakaran had an analysis of the polity of the country’s South run under a multi-party parliamentary government: “There is no coherent structure in the form a government in the Sinhala nation. The power of the state is torn between the heads of the two most powerful Sinhala political parties. The Presidency and the Parliament are in conflict with each other. Ranil Wickremasinghe’s administration is severely weakened and paralyzed following the President’s take-over of the Ministries of Defense, Interior and Media. The power struggle between the two leaders has resulted in the de-stabilization of the state and the peace process has come to a standstill. Frustrated by the confused situation the Government of Norway has suspended its facilitatory role. Because of this sudden development in the south, the conditions of peace are endangered. The peace talks as well as the peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict are threatened. The Tamil speaking people and the international governments committed to peace are concerned and disappointed over this crisis.”

While international agencies like UNICEF, the United Nation’s Children’s Fund were accusing the LTTE for forcefully and illegally recruiting Tamil children for its guerilla army , Prabhakaran only admitted that they were only recruiting small scale since they needed manpower for their administrative structures but did not say they were children or adults.

While attacking President Chandrika Kumaratunga who blamed for her statement that Ranil Wickremesinghe rewarded the LTTE, Prabhakaran said instead the LTTE came under heavy losses. Referring to the Navy’s attack on some allegedly arms smuggling ships of the LTTE he said, “During the ceasefire period, two of our merchant ships were attacked and destroyed by the navy in the international waters. Furthermore, several of our fishing trawlers were destroyed. As a consequence of these events we lost twenty-six of our Sea Tiger cadres including senior commanders.”

In his speech Prabhakaran also accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for making use of the peace process only to receive international aid: “Ranil’s administration was only interested in projecting the peace process as an ideal model countries to build up the economy that collapsed as a consequence of war. At the same time, the government was also engaged in a plan to set-up an international safety net with the assistance of certain countries. This strategic ploy of Wickremesinghe’s government allowed the space for the increased interest and intervention of several international governments in the peace initiative as well as in the negotiating process. Some countries have even stipulated parameters within which the Tamil national question has to be resolved. It is because of these international interventions that the peace negotiations became more complex. It was during these circumstances that a crucial meeting of donor countries took place in Washington in April this year marginalizing our organization. As the main party in conflict enjoying equal status in the peace process, we were disappointed and saddened by such humiliation. It is because of these factors we decided to suspend our participation in the talks and to review the multiple dimensions of the entire peace process."

(28/11/03 go2lanka.com)