DESPITE ASSURANCES OF LOKUBANDARA NEVER TO LIFT BAN OF TIGERS LTTE ORGANS CATEGORICALLY SAY THE PROSCRIPTION ENDS ON MAY 1

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

Despite repeated asuranceses of the Minister of Buddhasasana W.J.M.Lokubandara to Buddhist monks at government sponsored bhikku meetings that the proscription of the Liberation Tigers would never be lifted both the official organ and the news website of the rebel group The Tamil Guardian and the Tamil Net said the LTTE would be de-banned very soon by the Ranil Wickramasinghe administration.

The Tamil guardian said, "The Sri Lankan government is preparing to lift the proscription of the Liberation Tigers to pave the way for the first direct negotiations between the LTTE and Colombo in seven years."

The Tamil Tigers official news website The Tamil Net quoting UNP Minister for Hindu Religious Affairs T.Maheswaran said the proscription of the Tamil tigers will be lifted on May 1 . He reportedly said so, whilst speaking at a conference for Jaffna Divisional Secretaries, April 7, 2002.

Minister of Justice and Buddhasasana , W.J.M.Lokubandara was assuring voters at the last general election campaign that there was no agreement between the UNP and the LTTE, which the opposition parties christened "Ali-Koti Givisuma"

Despite his denials the government has implemented the MOU and now getting ready to implement an interim council of the LTTE to run the administration of the North and East, known long before the last parliamentary elections among LTTE circles. The current plan of the so-called peace process is done allegedly under the publicly denied pre-election plan and mainly directed at making Ranil Wickremesinghe the President of Sri Lanka with the help of Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Critics of the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration charge the government was using Lokubandara to mislead rural voters and Buddhist monks of the real intentions of the government.

Maheswaran’s statement is the first public statement of a UNP Minister of a definitive date of lifting of the proscription of the Tamil terrorist group..

The London based main organ of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil Guardian, in its latest issue on April 3 said, "As the Norwegian sponsored peace initiative gathers momentum following intense diplomatic activity in the past two weeks, the …government has completed the necessary legal review on the ban on the LTTE."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil has demanded de-proscription of the terrorist group imposed by the former People’s Alliance regime in 1998 following the bombing of the sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy by the LTTE, as a pre-condition to start peace talks with the Ranil Wickramasinghe administration.

The editorial of the Tamil Guardian said, " The proscription of the LTTE in 1998 was a corner stone of the former People’s Alliance government’s strategy to crush the LTTE and the Tamil Liberation struggle.

By denying its legitimacy – and then pursuing it in other countries –President Chandrika Kumaratunga sought to rationalize a purely military solutions to the Tamil question. The Tamil question was illegitimate and did not require a dialogue, Kumaratunga and the architect of the proscription project , Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar argued."

But Kadirgamar has very eloquently argued that foreign proscription was necessary to prevent the LTTE from collecting millions of dollars in Western countries and stop them from practicing rampant terrorism and human rights violations against Tamils, Moslems and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.

Kadirgamar’s successor, Foreign Minister, Tyronne Fernando of the UNF government of Ranil Wickremesinghe has however alleged that it was a mistake for Sri Lanka to proscribe the terrorist group at home and pursue it abroad.

The LTTE organ, Tamil Guardian, commenting on Colombo’s Sunday Times story that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government was expected to de-proscribe the LTTE at least for a temporary period said, "However, with both sides refusing to put a time limit to negotiations political analyst did not expect a sunset clause on the deproscription."

Actually, while the government was all out to de-proscribe the terrorist group some sections were wondering how to do it while not antagonizing the Sinhala electorate, some commented.