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LTTE Holds Press Conference

A synthesis of the comments made by Mr. Tamilselvan follows:

"The purpose of this press conference is to highlight to the world the LTTE position on the peace process in the present political context. The letter from Dr. Balasingham, released yesterday, has already been highlighted in the media. We consider this meeting as a process of delving further to analyse it and answering any questions on the statement issued yesterday by our leadership. You all are aware of the fact that fifteen months have passed since the implementation of the cease-fire and six rounds of negotiations have taken place. Every round of negotiations and discussions that took place and mutual understanding and decisions arrived at and widely publicised, were looked upon by the civilians debilitated by the war, with enthusiasm thus leading to high expectations.

We have reached a state now, where the civilian population has become totally frustrated and lot of despair and disgruntlement has set in the minds of the people, who have had high anticipation of the benefits of the peace process. We, the Liberation Tigers, as their representatives have to make decisions, which do not go contrary to the wishes of our people. Primary objective of the peace initiative and cease-fire agreement in particular was to alleviate the hardship of the civilians, who have faced a war for nearly two decades, and to bring about a sense of normalcy. This was to be achieved, and it was mutually agreed upon, by reducing the military pressure and the omni presence of the military and ensuring the facilities for the people to recommence their life by first starting on the process of resettlement and then go on to rehabilitation. Both the parties had identified this problem well before the signing of the cease-fire agreement. The cease-fire agreement itself contains various paragraphs and articles that enunciate that alleviation of hardship of the war affected peoples and bringing about normalcy and building confidence is the basic theme of the entire exercise. Both the parties mutually agreed upon this.

At the beginning, when the agreement was announced and immediately thereafter when the negotiations were progressing, people had high expectations of the various promises given. However, as time went by, people began to get disappointed because none of the promises expected to have alleviated their hardship were being fulfilled. In addition, at the implementation level there was not any thing tangible that the people could see. This has therefore created a situation of crisis, when we say 'crisis' we go onto define it as, the state of disappointment and frustration felt by the people which prevents us making them partners in the exercise. We had to build confidence in the minds of our people that the peace process is going in the right direction. Having failed to demonstrate to them that it is possible to fulfill what has been promised, we have been forced to enter into this crisis situation, that exists today.

Our temporary withdrawal from participation in the negotiations is only to provide the necessary space and time to the implementers, that is one party to the agreement, to make arrangements to fulfill the promises and to put in place the mutually agreed upon conditions that would provide the people with the sense of normalcy and to restart the resettlement process.

The next important question being very much talked about today is the donor conference in Tokyo. We appreciate the initiative, the endeavors and the efforts taken by the international community to ensure the Liberation Tigers' participation in the Tokyo Donor Conference. Whilst appreciating these initiatives, we would like to reiterate the point that an atmosphere conducive to our participation needs to be in place first. Enabling the Liberation Tigers to participate in the conference as legitimate representatives of the Tamil people, for whom we have been fighting, is essential.

If one could classify this as a state of stalemate, well, our leadership has expressed its commitment to go ahead and work for the upliftment of the Tamil people. The commitment to a meaningful political negotiation remains in place as far as our leadership and the organization is concerned. It is this commitment, which prompted our national leader to meet with the Honorable Foreign Minister for Norway, Mr. Petersen and the special Ambassador from Japan Mr. Akashi. He explained to them the present context and the circumstances that led to the non-implementation of the various promises made and spelt out in detail the steps that have to be taken to ensure that the peace process moves on steadily and on track. The measures recommended and the proposals submitted to them speak for themselves as regards what should be done now to break this stalemate, if it is one.

You all are aware of the two important tenets of the decisions reached so far. One is the resettlement of the civilians who have been displaced for nearly two decades and the other is the appointment of a sub-committee, during the second round of talks, to look into the immediate humanitarian and rehabilitation needs of the people who were to commence resettlement. The purpose of formulating this mechanism that was identified as SIHRN, was only for the immediate needs of the people needing resettlement and therefore essentially a short term one. Matters that required immediate attention to alleviate the hardship of the people were to be handled by SIHRN, and both the parties mutually agreed upon this during the second round of talks. This sub-committee met about four times, identified various immediate humanitarian needs, prioritized them and formulated them in to projects. Unfortunately, when the civilian population found out that none of it had been implemented, the people have become disgruntled.

The Oslo pledge conference was the forerunner to the formation of the Subcommittee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs. Several nations participated, pledging aid for immediate humanitarian needs and volunteered to put funds in this subcommittee. Unfortunately, in the last so many months SIHRN has been ineffective as regards implementing any of its identified plans. Under the conditions explained, now it has become necessary for us, as representatives of the Tamil people, to venture into a process of new thinking about new arrangements. As a nation of people who have been facing this war for more the two and a half decades, they definitely need an immediate helping hand in bringing about at least some semblance of normalcy in their lives. They need assistance to get back to their homes and it is a moral obligation on the part of our organization to ensure that they are provided with all that is necessary to recommence to their lives.

Based on our commitment to continue with the process of negotiations to reach a political settlement, our leadership has come forward with some tangible proposals, which are workable. We have to think about future progress. We would like to place on record our sense of appreciation for the international community for the initiatives, interest and the support extended to the entire peace process and alleviation of hardships of the Tamil people. However, we do wish to request the international community at large, to ensure that they take into account the failures of the process to date and to adopt new approaches influenced by a perspective that has developed over time. They need to bring about a conducive atmosphere in which the new thinking can give rise to an effective mechanism that will bring about implementation of the decisions and promises hitherto mutually agreed upon."

22 May 2003

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