For a while, in a disconcerting five month period from April to last month, it seemed that the Sri Lankan peace miracle might be in danger of breaking down. In April 2003, the LTTE suspended peace talks with the Sri Lankan government. They also boycotted the important donor conference that took place in Tokyo that month. For the first time, the LTTE also strongly criticised the government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for trying to deny the Tamil people their just rights.
However, more recently the LTTE appears to be reconsidering its strategy. There appears to be a serious effort being made on the part of the LTTE to reach an understanding with the government. The core of the LTTE's continuing partnership with the government is its preference for dealing with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe rather than with the opposition political parties that are led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The fortnight that has followed the Paris meeting, at which the LTTE's constitutional committee finalised its deliberations, has hardly generated any negative news worthy of attention. The main news items pertain to the LTTE's flouting of rulings by the international monitors regarding the setting up of its camp (or camps) in government-controlled territory in Trincomalee. The LTTE claims that these camps are in territory they have controlled in the past. The photographs of a camp carried in the news media do not indicate any militarily significant construction.
The area in the Trincomalee district where the highlighted LTTE camp has been set up is in contested multi-ethnic territory. The three communities of Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese are equally represented in terms of numbers in the district. Recent months have seen an increase in tension between the Muslims and Tamils in particular, with violence against the Muslims by the LTTE. It is possible that the LTTE's determination is to stake a Tamil claim to that part of the east, as part of the Tamil-Muslim rivalry for land, rather than being an LTTE-government military rivalry.