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LTTE'S CALL TO END THEIR PROSCRIPTION IN INDIA

DRAWS NO RESPONSE FROM TAMIL POLITICAL PARTIES

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

Not a single Tamil political party in India has responded positively to the call of Sri Lanka's Tamil National Alliance backed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to lift the proscription of the LTTE in India, where 60 million Tamils live.

The traditional friends of the Tamil Tigers, the tiny Marumalarchy Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) headed by the maverick politician, Vaiko Gopalasamy said though they liked the idea of lifting the proscription of the Tamil Tigers they have to abide by the majority decision of the coalition of parties of which the MDMK is a member.

The MDMK is a party of the ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, which took a decision months ago to extend the proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The other coalition partners reportedly despise any kind of lifting of the proscription of the LTTE.

Vaiko Gopalasamy was quoted by the LTTE website Eelamnation as stating that the NDA and his party does not have any agreement regarding the LTTE question. But said Gopalasamy, that they would abide by the majority decision of the coalition and would keep supporting the NDA government politically.

The proposal to lift the proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was cold shouldered by the Tamil political parties in India after the rebel group and its political wing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called for it last week.

Wanni District Member of Parliament of the TNA, A. Adaikalanathan told the pro-government weekly in Colombo, the Sunday Leader that any Indian involvement in efforts to solve the conflict would be futile if that country failed to de-proscribe the LTTE.

Adaikalanathan charged that if India kept the proscription on the LTTE, it would reflect India's bias on the issue of resolving the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. "If India intervenes," he severely warned, "without lifting the ban on the LTTE, it would simply earn the wrath of the Tamil people."

Both the supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabhakaran and the intelligence chief of the rebel group, Pottu Amman have been convicted and are wanted by India for the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. They were convicted for the murder of Gandhi by employing a female suicide bomber.

According to Indian intelligence services, the LTTE is also involved in training and arming separatist groups both in and out of Tamil Nadu, home to 60 million Tamils.

Both the LTTE and the TNA have demanded that Sri Lanka also should lift the ban on the terrorist group as a pre-condition to the peace talks.

But political observers in Colombo said many sections of the government are adamant that such a lifting of the proscription should not be allowed before any progress is made in the process of peace. But a leading newspaper in the United States, the Boston Globe in its leader editorial recently said, that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has promised the rebel group, the LTTE that he would lift the ban within one month of coming to power. The government of Sri Lanka is yet to contradict the editorial.

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