The Norwegian facilitators' late-June announcement that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was willing to re-enter peace talks with the government, which LTTE chief spokesman Dr Anton Balasingham confirmed in London, came as welcome news. The London meeting between the LTTE and the facilitators was the first in nearly a month, and the timing of the announcement, coming during a prime ministerial state visit to the United Kingdom, helped to bolster Ranil Wickremesinghe's credibility.
As the LTTE's chief political negotiator, it appears that Balasingham can act with relative authority to help or to hinder the peace process. On this occasion, as on several others, he chose to help. However, accompanying this softening of stance was a call from Balasingham to redefine the peace talk agenda. He would rather address crucial issues relating to the harsh realities of the people in the underdeveloped north and east than pursue guidelines, milestones and roadmaps for what he described as an imaginary solution. Balasingham's statements since the LTTE suspended participation in peace talks on 21 April have uniformly called for a radically "new, innovative" approach to the peace process.
The demand for a radically new and innovative approach indicates uneasiness in the ranks of the LTTE with the manner in which the peace process has progressed. What seems to be most frustrating for the LTTE is its inability to administer the north and east in the manner promised by the federal system to which it publicly committed itself at the peace talks in Oslo last year. After a year and a half of ceasefire, the powers of governance remain legally vested with the Colombo government, making federal-based power sharing seem a distant dream. The LTTE's ability to deliver material benefits to the north and east remains negligible due to a combination of factors.
International expectations
When it signed the ceasefire agreement with the government in February 2002, the LTTE may have anticipated rapid progress toward its domination of life in the north and east, either by means of an interim administration or through the joint committees that were established at the peace talks. But this has not happened, and legally, the central government remains the mainstay of governance in that region.