Meeting Prabhakaran

Will the combined efforts of the good Samaritans of the Western world to bring the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), locked in a civil war for over 17 years, to the negotiating table, succeed? As November ended, that question remained tantalisingly poised, with informed analysts veering to the view that talks are likely, but uncertain of whether they would lead anywhere except, perhaps, some period of peace for the people condemned to live in the war zone that the LTTE claims as a Tamil homeland. The external pressure for the renewal of peace talks between the government and the Tigers has mounted to a considerable degree. There have been high-level visits from Britain and the US, and neither can Colombo ignore the upcoming Paris aid meeting.

The 1 November talks between LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solhiem was a well-kept secret until Solheim, facilitated by the Colombo government, entered the Wanni fastness from where the seldom-seen Prabhakaran runs a war machine widely considered to be among the world´s most deadly. The global publicity value of the meeting between the Norwegian peacemakers and the LTTE leader, who had remained invisible to the world outside his guerrilla army for five years, was understandably immense. Prabhakaran had done away with the moustache he sported when previously photographed and had shed his military fatigues for a safari suit for the occasion. A picture of Prabhakaran with the Norwegians was later released to the press.