"We tried our best to convince the International Community of our grievances. We are a small nation, struggling all alone to uphold our rights. But the International Community in an uneven judgement in applying its norms, scaled us with Sri Lankan government abounding with military and economic resources. The scale was not fair. The price we paid for the International Injustice is the life of Thamilchelvan," said Poddu Ammaan, the intelligence wing chief of the Liberation Tigers, in the obituary address of the funeral of Brigadier S.P. Thamilchelvan held in Ki'linochchi on Nov 5, 2007.

 

Narrating his close association with Thamilchelvan in his early days in the LTTE, Poddu Ammaan recollected events of exemplary bravery and leadership, shown by Thamilchelvan during IPKF times and the first Elephant Pass (EPS) operation.

 

However, he continued, "many of us were not aware of the inherent political abilities hidden in him, but our leader Pirapaharan rightly identified them."

 

"Our leader always use to say that fear comes from attachment to life. One who is fearless to sacrifice his own life to the welfare of people can only become a political leader. Thamilchelvan was one such."

 

"What is the payback for the killing of Thamilchelvan, many ask us."

 

"A few Sri Lankan soldiers, perhaps thousands, or a few Sinhala leaders cannot match the price for Thamilchelvan."

 

"The relentless effort to achieve Thamizh Eezham is the price. The Sinhala nation should realise that we will never stop in this effort."

 

In his address, Poddu Ammaan revealed that the LTTE came to know through subtle briefings of Norway, that the Sri Lankan government blocked Thamilchelvan's mother and siblings, living abroad, from attending the funeral.

Reacting defiantly to decisions by Sri Lanka and the United States to ban it, the leading Tamil charity in the island, the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation, vowed to continue its founding mission to help the victims of the Sinhala government’s military campaign and called on Tamils around the world to support its work.

 

“We assure you that our mission will continue in our homeland areas without interruption and we call on the international community and the Tamil Diaspora to continue to support our work with war and tsunami affected persons,” the TRO said.

 

Both the United States and Sri Lanka claimed the TRO was a front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

 

However, neither country has offered proof or ever charged the TRO or one of its workers with assisting the LTTE.

 

“One wonders what the goal of the US Government is since no proof of any wrongdoing has been presented that casts doubts on the work of TRO,” the charity said.

 

“The US Government currently does not provide any humanitarian relief to those in LTTE controlled areas and with the recent actions inevitably supports the GoSL's campaign to limit assistance to the Tamil people,” the TRO said.

 

The TRO said the Sri Lankan ban was a culmination of a campaign of harassment and violence against the charity and its staff carried out by the Rajapakse regime.

 

Last year the Sri Lankan government froze the TRO’s accounts. In January 2006 paramilitary groups, known to be working with and under the direction of the GoSL, abducted, raped, tortured and killed 7 TRO humanitarian workers.

 

The TRO, which has been the largest - and for long periods the sole - NGO assisting the hundreds of thousands of Tamils displaced by the conflict, said “with the banning of the TRO the final nail in the coffin of the peace process has been hammered home.”

 

Meanwhile the main Sinhala opposition parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) hailed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led regime’s decision.

 

The TRO said it was being banned with the “ulterior motive of unleashing untold hardships on the Tamil people as part of [the Sri Lankan government’s] continuing discrimination and oppression of the Tamil people.”

The Sri Lankan government has indicated that it may ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) once again, considering the stormy political developments in the Sinhala south and the stepped-up war against the armed movement in the north.

 

A ban on the LTTE will rule out the possibility of any negotiations to end the protracted conflict as the Tigers have consistently refused to talk whilst they are deemed outlaws.

 

According to Senior Presidential advisor and parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa, the ruling SLFP’s parliamentary group last week approved a proposal to proscribe the LTTE if the movement continued its terrorist activities.

 

Basil Rajapaksa, who is also a brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that although some SLFP MPs expressed reservations on the grounds that a proscription would complicate the peace process, the proposal was backed by a majority.

 

“How soon the proscription will come will depend on how the LTTE operates in the coming weeks. If the LTTE continues with its terrorist activities, then the ban will come. The ball is now in the LTTE’s court,” Rajapaksa, said.

 

Rajapakse’s comments came at a time the ruling party was trying to woo Sinhala hardliner parties to support the annual Budget. Last Monday the government comfortably won the vote.

 

Rajapakse told the heads of the state media at a weekly meeting on Wednesday that President Rajapaksa was "willing to re-ban the LTTE" and negotiate with the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sri lanka’s third largest party, in an effort to widen its base of support, while getting ready for a showdown in Parliament.

 

There is such a high premium placed on the Tamil nationalist struggle, human sacrifice is unimaginable. The loss of Tamil cadres, fighters and leaders in the past indicates that such sacrifices are unavoidable in the quest of national liberation.

 

The killings of Tamil Chelvan, LTTE’s political wing head, and his five of his colleagues once against demonstrate that the high premium paid by Tamils for national salvation and dignity.

 

National liberation movements are built and sustained on the basis of collective solidarity and vision. While individual leaders are important, there is, however, a general acceptance of the necessity of supreme sacrifice.

 

This would explain why national liberation movements do not falter when certain individual leaders are killed or maimed in conflicts. On the contrary, history of liberation movements has shown that death of leaders do not necessarily constrain movements from achieving their political goals.

 

However, no movement willingly sacrifices its leaders or cadres. Sacrifice, death and injuries are often sustained in the collective struggle for a national good. No sacrifice is bigger than the goals of acquiring freedom from oppression and servitude.

 

In this respect, LTTE is no different from liberation movements like the African National Congress, Irish Republican Army, Free Aceh Movement, Free Papua Movement and many others.

 

Tamils in the island called Sri Lanka have made huge sacrifices in the pursuit of freeing themselves from the oppression of the majoritarian Sinhala state. The movement to liberate Tamils from the oppression of the Sinhala majority is under the leadership of the LTTE.

 

While the LTTE shares many features with other liberation movements, however, it is different in the sense it is the most determined movement to seek a separate state for Tamils in the northeast of Sri Lanka—area of historical Tamil habitation and control.

 

However, the determination of the LTTE to push for a separate state is not something devised by it alone. The inability of the Sinhala state to conceptualize and understand the sentiments of Tamils, the continued military occupation of Tamil areas, the slow but sure attempt to colonize Tamil areas by Sinhalese, the difficulty posed by the international community and the opportunistic role played by India have left the LTTE with no option.

 

Under these difficult domestic and international circumstances, the LTTE is forced to rely on the strength of Tamils in the northeast of Sri Lanka and the support from the Tamil Diaspora to pursue the option of Tamil Eelam—a futuristic Tamil nation.

 

In comparison with other affected peoples, Tamils have put up with tremendous difficulty as result of the hardship imposed by the ruthless majoritarian Sinhala state.

 

In recent years, as result of the breakdown of ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians in February 2002, hundreds and thousands of Tamils have been displaced from their homes, hundreds have been abducted and killed by the combined forces of the Sri Lankan armed force and Tamil para-militaries and most importantly, sections of Tamils population have been denied food and other essentials by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the name of defeating the LTTE.

 

The suffering and humiliation of Tamils is something of a great worry and concern to the LTTE. While it is able to protect Tamils in areas under its control, it cannot do the same where the army is in control.

 

While the Sri Lankan armed forces have been beefed up with military supplies from the international community, the LTTE as a non-state actor has to rely on itself to acquire arms and ammunition to fend off attacks from the armed forces of the state.

 

In recent years, as result of the assistance rendered by countries like Pakistan and Israel, the Sri Lankan government has re-quipped its air force with bombers and fighter planes.

 

Aerial strikes in the name of defeating the LTTE have merely imposed further hardship on Tamils in the northeast. Hundreds of Tamils, women and children have been killed and injured in air strikes.

 

After each air strike, the government’s propaganda machine announces to the world of the killing of the Tigers. But in reality, known to the government, these strikes are merely to terrorize innocent Tamils from supporting the national cause.

 

The difficult and trying circumstances of the war has meant that Tamils in general and the LTTE in particular have to make supreme sacrifices in pursuit of their goal. Over the last three decades of so, the LTTE has lost hundreds and thousands of cadres in the fight against the armed forces of the government. A few weeks back, the LTTE had to use its Black Tigers to destroy the government’s air force based in Anuradhpura.

 

The LTTE has lost some very capable leaders in the past. This something very painful for the organization in general and to its leader Piraphakaran in particular. However, as I have said earlier, no sacrifice is greater that the dream of a separate and dignified Tamil state of Eelam.

 

Tamil Chelvan was great Tamil diplomat. If he had remained alive and the future of Tamil Eelam secured, he would have been the nation’s foreign minister. The death of Tamil Chelvan and his five dedicated men is a loss that will be mourned by the Tamil Diaspora for years to come.

 

But one thing is certain. Contrary to the prognosis of the right-wing Sinhala establishment, the loss of Tamil Chelvan is not going to derail the move to achieve an independent state.

 

In Aceh, the killings of some leaders of the Free Acheh Movement including the commander did not derail the struggle for independence in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the freedom movement gained strength after these killings with entry of new individuals.

 

Similarly, it would be wrong to assume that the demise of Tamil Chelvan will be blow to the Tamil liberation movement. Tamils will keep his dream and commitment alive by increasing their support for the LTTE.

 

As Sinhala colonization increases in the East, more and more cadres from here will be joining the LTTE. Do they have an option?

 

S. P. Tamilselvan, an internationally respected Peace negotiator for the Political Wing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

 

The Canadian Tamil Congress is profoundly saddened and deeply hurt on hearing this heartbreaking and painful news.

 

Tamilselvan was the chief negotiator for various peace talks with the Sri Lankan state since 1994. He voiced the concerns of the Tamil community at the Peace Talks with a clear unwavering commitment and determination to resolve the conflict through negotiations.

 

Many prominent international leaders, diplomats and media personal met with Tamilselvan regularly basis. He also met with Canadian elected officials from all political parties and members from the Forum of Federation to work towards a negotiated political settlement for the civil war in Sri Lanka.

 

"In the past, Mr. Tamilselvan had met with notable Canadians such as Bob Rae and Professor David Cameron to discuss peaceful solutions to the crisis in Sri Lanka." says David Poopalapillai spokesperson for Canadian Tamil Congress.

 

"To deliberately target a peace negotiator sends a clear message that the Sri Lankan government is not even interested in talking about neither in peace nor in negotiations." Poopalapillai added.

 

Tamilselvan had traveled to many countries and brought awareness about the plight of Tamils in the hands of the oppressive regime in Sri Lanka. He worked tirelessly to expose the human rights violations committed against the Tamils in Sri Lanka to the world community.

 

Canadian Tamil Congress extends its heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of Mr. Tamilselvan.

 

We believe that this deliberate and cruel action of the Sri Lankan government shuts the door for a negotiated solution. The Sri Lankan State has demonstrated its unwillingness to commit to peace by taking the life of a strong political leader of Tamils.

 

Canadian Tamil Congress unequivocally condemns this despicable act of aggression by the Sri Lankan government in killing the chief negotiator of the Tamils.

 

We urge the Canadian government and elected representatives to condemn this act and to pressure the Sri Lankan government to abandon its military aggression on the Tamils.

 

We request the Canadian government to exert diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka to respect Human Rights and to engage in negotiations towards peaceful political solution.

Leaders of major political parties in TamilNadu, India, including the ruling party, expressed their deep sorrow and paid tribute to Brigadier S. P. Thamilselvan, who was killed in an air raid on November 2.

 

In what is seen as a significant gesture, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and veteran leader of Tamils, M. Karunanidhi, paid tribute to the slain Liberation Tigers commander.

 

Kalaignar Karunanidhi, quite typical of his style, used the medium of poetry and pun to pass a subtle message that the Tamils of Sri Lanka haven't gone brotherless.

 

The Chief Minister's emotion-filled condolence gains significance in the background of a prevailing impression that the government of India is fully backing the war efforts of the government of Sri Lanka aiming for a military solution to the ethnic crisis in the island.

 

According to media reports for quite some time, the government of Sri Lanka was pressing the Indian government with a long list of sophisticated weapons for air combat.

 

It is speculated that advanced technology was put in use in the pinpoint bombing of the residence of the members of the political division of the LTTE, which claimed the life of their Political Head Brigadier S.P. Thamilchelvan, on Friday.

 

Mr. Karunanidhi has been an opponent to military option to resolve the Tamil ethnic question in Sri Lanka.

 

In March 1990, when the IPKF was withdrawn from Sri Lanka, Mr. Karunanidhi, who was then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, refused to attend the reception of the returning troops in Madras.

 

The veteran Tamil leader paid homage to the former LTTE political head by describing him as a man with an ever-smiling face but a heart that could annihilate the opposition.

Though young he had the strength of the Himalayas and was molded in the way of LTTE political ideologue Anton Balasingam, the poem said.

 

“The virtuous youth whom with determination offered himself to the War for Rights – his soul hasn't gone extinguished, he hasn't gone brotherless”.

 

“A beloved son who wrote his fame all over the earth, wherever Tamils live –Selva where have you gone?”  the poem further read.

 

Dr Ramadoss, leader of Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) which is in the ruling coalition, said the news of the killing of Brig. Tamilselvan has shocked Tamils around the world, in a statement released on Saturday.

 

Describing the killing as an attack against peace and human rights, the PMK leader said humanity will not forgive the war mongering Sri Lankan government’s racist act.

 

“Through the heinous assassination of Tamilselvan, the Sri Lankan government has clearly demonstrated its non-commitment to peace and its intention of wiping out the Tamil race from the island.”

 

He further said people of Tamil Nadu – who share the ethinicity, language and culture with Sri Lankan Tamils – should no longer be spectators to the suffering of Eelam Tamils. 

 

K. Veeramani, the leader of Dravidar Kazhagam, said the demise of Tamilselvan at a time when the struggle for independence by the Eelam Tamils is reaching decisive stage brings great sadness.

 

Expressing his sympathies to LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan, the LTTE and Eelam Tamils, Veeramani added that whilst these battle front losses are painful, Tamils around the world should show their solidarity to continue the struggle to realize the dreams of these fallen heroes.

 

D. Pandian, the Tamil Nadu State secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), described Tamilselvan as a person who fought for the fundamental rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and worked towards resolving the ethnic conflict through negotiations, in a condolence message.

 

CPI expressed its condolences to Tamilselvan’s family and described him as a man who gave his life for the Tamil peoples fight for rights.

 

The party also condemned the Sri Lankan government’s approach of solving the ethnic conflict through military might and intention of annihilating the Tamils

 

The Periyar Dravida Kazhagam held several commemoration meetings in Tamil Nadu to show respect to Tamilselvan. A commemoration meeting was held at the Boss stadium in Salem, where hundreds of Tamils took part to express their respect to Brigadier Tamilselvan.

 

The mourners chanted slogans and carried black flags, seeking condemnation of the Sri Lankan government for targeting peace activists and urging immediate action from the Indian government.

 

V. Gopalsamy (Vaiko), the general secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, described the demise of Tamilselvan as a great loss to the Eelam Tamils.

 

The air attack showed that the Sri Lanka Government had no faith in resolving the ethnic issue through negotiations, he said.

 

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam president Vijayakant also condemned the attack and expressed his condolences at the death of Tamilselvan.

Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday expressed its shock at the killing in a government airstrike of Mr S. P. Tamilselvan the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and head of its Political Wing and five other LTTE officials.

 

The TNA said the targeted killing of the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator underlined President Mahinda Rajapakse’s insincerity towards a negotiated solution, the TNA also said.

 

Saluting Mr. Tamilselvan's "selfless sacrifice for the Tamil Eelam struggle" the TNA said it joined the rest of the Tamil community in saluting him and the other LTTE officials killed by the Sri Lanka Air Force bombing.

 

"We salute his services to the Tamil people and selfless sacrifice for the Tamil Eelam struggle," the brief media release said.

 

"Although his death is destined to create thousands of new Tamilselvans who will doubtless serve our freedom struggle with dedication, we shudder at the repercussions for peace of this act by the Sri Lanka government," the TNA said.

 

The TNA said it joined the Tamil community and activists in saluting and paying tribute to Mr. Tamilselvan and the other LTTE officials killed in Friday’s airstrike on their residence.

 

Speaking to TamilNet Friday, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, of the TNA’s Foreign Affairs Committee said that the targeted killing of Mr. Tamilselvan underlined the insincerity of the Rajapakse government’s peace claims.

 

"In our meetings with numerous representatives of the international community, the TNA repeatedly stated that the Sri Lankan state was not committed to negotiating an equitable solution,” he said. “Despite our warnings, the state was fully backed in its hard line."

 

"When President Rajapakse came to power, the shift to a military track became much more pronounced. But when we protested to many members of the international community, we were told that this was only to get the LTTE to come to the negotiating table."

 

"The targeted killing of the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator, in our view, means there can no longer be any illusion as to the State’s interest in negotiating a lasting solution.

 

"In this context, the Tamil community will be closely watching the actions of the international community vis-à-vis its repeatedly stated commitment to a negotiated peace."

 

Translated by TamilNet

 

S. P. Thamilchelvan

(1967 - 2007)

 

Always smiling face -

A mind that sets ablaze opposition!

 

Young, young, yet a heart of

Himalayan strength, strength!

 

A commander seasoned in the line

of the old lion Balasingam

 

The virtuous youth whom with determination

offered himself to the War for Rights -

his soul hasn't gone extinguished

he hasn't gone brotherless

 

A beloved son who wrote his fame

all over the earth, wherever Tamils live -

where have you gone?

Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) has hailed the killing of LTTE Political Head and Chief Negotiator, S. P. Tamilchelvan, in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airstrike on his official residence Friday as “a victorious moment.”

 

Praising the Air Force, UNP spokesman Lakshman Kireiella said it was not possible to talk peace with the LTTE.

 

Mr. Kireiella told the BBC Sinhala Service, Sandeshaya, on Friday that the UNP congratulates the SLAF on its airstrike.

 

He said the killing of Mr. Tamilselvan and five other LTTE officials “a victorious moment.”

 

Mr. Kireiella said the LTTE has now been politically crippled by the loss of Mr. Tamilselvan and Mr. Anton Balasingham, the movement’s late theoretician, who passed away a year ago.

 

The LTTE is thus being defeated politically, he said.

 

Mr. Kireiella said that there was no point holding peace talks with the LTTE.

 

“You can’t have peace talks if only one party is willing to talk,” he said.

 

“When the UNP was in power we tried to negotiate with them. But they were not willing,” Mr. Kireiella said.

 

Mr. Tamilselvan was a member of the negotiating team that Mr. Balasingham led in six rounds of Norwegian facilitated negotiations with the then UNP government in 2002 and 2003.

 

It was during these talks that the controversial agreement by the LTTE and UNP government to explore federalism was reached (later referred to as the ‘Oslo Declaration’).

 

Last month the UNP announced a u-turn on its support for federalism, saying it was ‘repositioning’ itself on power-sharing as a solution to the island’s protracted conflict.

 

However, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway, who was responsible for the Oslo’s facilitation in the peace process, told the NTB agency Saturday that Mr. Tamilselvan played a key role in the talks.

 

Meanwhile UNP stalwart S.B. Dissanayake told media Friday that Mr. Tamilselvan’s death was no matter for regret.

 

The bombing raid on Mr. Tamilselvan’s residence was a “morale boosting victory” for the Air Force, he told the Daily Mirror.

 

He said even during peace talks between the UNP and the LTTE, Tamilselvan remained a stumbling block in attempts to reach an amicable settlement.

 

“So, there should not be any regret about his death,” Mr. Dissanayake said.

 

He said Mr. Tamilselvan was instrumental in engineering a boycott by Tamil voters of the 2005 presidential election in the northern and eastern provinces that eventually resulted in the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe being defeated at the poll by a narrow margin.

Hailing the Air Force bombing raid Friday which killed the Tamil Tigers chief negotiator and Political Wing head, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan and five other LTTE officials, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said his government would kill other LTTE leaders ‘one by one’.

 

Sources said he made his comments, quoted by Reuters, at a celebratory meeting at Temple Trees, the official residence of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also Mr. Gotabaya’s brother.

 

Meanwhile, the Colombo stock market soared on news of the deaths.

 

Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa welcomed the news of the killings of Mr. Tamilselvan and the others, and said the Sri Lankan military would pick off the rest of the Tigers' leaders one by one.

 

"This is just a message, that we know where their leaders are. I know the locations of all the leaders, that if we want we can take them one by one, so they must change their hideouts," he told Reuters.

 

"When the time comes only, we take them one by one."

 

Mr. Tamilselvan was one of the LTTE’s internationally recognized political officials, having been a negotiator for the Tigers since 2002 and having headed the Political Wing from several years before that.

 

The LTTE has conferred its highest military rank, Brigadier, to Mr. Tamilselvan.

 

Late last year Mr. Tamilselvan was appointed Chief Negotiator by the LTTE, taking over from Mr. Anton Balasingham, whose failing health compelled his retirement.

 

The Sri Lankan government’s decision to target Mr. Mr. Tamilselvan was a body blow to lingering hopes of a resumption of peace talks.

 

"The loss of Thamilselvan in this way would be a very big setback to any hope of peace talks in the near future - which in any case were not apparent either," Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council, an advocacy group, told Reuters.

 

Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has expressed its shock at the killings and praised Mr. Tamilselvan’s role in the Tamil freedom struggle.

 

"We shudder at the repercussions for peace of this act by the Sri Lanka government," the TNA said.

 

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's stock market rose on news of the death of Mr. Tamilselvan, closing a provisional 0.99 percent firmer in late trade, Reuters reported.

 

"Any sort of victory in the war will boost the market. So there was high activity after the news," said Harsha Fernando, CEO at SC securities.

 

In October 2006, when talks in Geneva between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government broke down, a journalist asked S. P. Tamilselvan whether the Tamil people had been given any hope by the discussions. The head of the Tamil delegation was to the point: "We ourselves are not hopeful, [so] how can the people be?"

 

In recent years, Tamilselvan had been the international face of the struggle by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers, as they fought for a homeland in Sri Lanka.

 

With the group's leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, declining to appear in public, Tamilselvan was one of the points of contact for a conflict that has taken an estimated 70,000 lives.

 

On 2 November, he, too, became one of its victims when he was killed during a Sri Lankan air -force bombardment.

 

Tamilselvan joined the armed struggle in 1983 as fighting broke out between the LTTE and the government forces. He took part in several military operations in north Sri Lanka, including an abortive bid to storm the Elephant Base camp in 1992 and the battles in Pooneryn. But he was wounded in both the stomach and the leg and had to refrain from any further active military service.

 

Many observers saw Tamilselvan as a moderate, but earlier this summer he told reporters that the LTTE were prepared to launch major attacks on both military and economic targets to try to cripple the country's economy.

 

"Let the Tamil people live in their traditional homeland," he said in an interview in Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s de facto headquarters. "Leave the Tamil people without any military occupation or persecution. That will be the day there is no war."

 

Tamilselvan was born into a humble background and worked originally as a barber, before rising through the LTTE ranks, partly through his association with the Tamil leader, Prabhakaran, for whom he once served as a bodyguard. His wife is a member of the Tigers' women's wing.

 

In 2001 he was considered of such importance that the Sri Lankan government dispatched its army's Deep Penetration Unit after him; on that occasion he survived the attempt to kill him.

 

His profile grew during the late 1990s, especially after Norway took an interest in the struggling peace process. When the Tigers' international spokesman, Anton Balasingham, became increasingly ill from kidney problems, Tamilselvan, who was already heading the organisation’s political wing, found himself being asked to take a more prominent role as a spokesman – even though he did not speak English.

 

Following Balasingham's death in 2006, Tamilselvan was the Tigers' chief point of contact for the outside world.

 

The path is long, my friends, and we have lost another companion.

 

A companion who walked besides us as he showed us the way forward. A companion who knew the ugliness of war and sought out an alternative path. A companion who told the world of our struggle even as they turned their backs on us.

 

Even as he walked with us there was no way of knowing how dear he was to the Tamil people or how crucial he was to our struggle. And there was none of the arrogance which comes with power. None of the distance which comes with authority. None of the coldness which comes with importance. Just a smile. A warm open smile which made you comfortable enough to speak your mind, to question, to criticize. A smile that we all see today when we close our eyes.

 

Behind that almost child like smile was a razor sharp mind that understood the path to freedom was long and dangerous. Behind that smile was a man strong enough to be humble; wise enough to seek the counsel of others. A man so sure of our cause that he was willing to negotiate with an enemy who ultimately took his life.

 

The path is long and lonely, my friends.

 

Thamilchelvan Anna understood better that many that we need many companions to reach our destination. As a young diaspora Tamil who was not fully accepting of the struggle, it was refreshing to meet a man secure enough in his own beliefs to allow them to be questioned. Although he had never been to the West when I met first him in 2002, I was surprised by how well he understood that young Tamils in the diaspora would have many questions about the struggle and the movement, and was willing to answer even the most trivial questions.

 

For some time now we have had two paths in front of us: the path of peace and the path of war. Our nation sent Thamilchelvan Anna down the path of peace. A path that was opened to us by the sacrifice of many lives. We sent him ahead and waited with bated breath; waiting for him to give us the all clear; waiting for him to tell is it was okay to move forward.

 

When a warrior comes to talk peace surely that must have a special significance? He has seen the ugliness of war first hand; he has seen comrades fall in the red soil of our homeland; he has seen parents grieve for dead children; he has seen our people driven like animals into the jungles. When a man who knows the loss of war sits across the table from you and offers a way to bring peace to the island - do you talk with him or silence him forever?

 

We sent Thamilchelvan Anna and we waited.

 

We waited hoping against hope that this path would lead us to freedom. Lead us to a life of dignity and security. Lead us to lives filled with laughter and joy.

 

But this path has led us only to misery and tears of loss. This path led us to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Tamils. This path led to daily killings and disappearances of Tamils across the island. This path led us to the assassination of Kausalian, Joseph Pararajasingam, Raviraj and now Thamilchelvan Anna and the five others who died at his side.

 

The Sinhala people have shown us that they are unwilling to walk down this path.

 

Despite all this we have been patient; our leaders have shown restraint in the face of provocation. Even as death rained down upon our people our leaders have kept the path to peace open. Now they have taken our messenger of peace. A messenger that went forward with the blessing of our people and our leadership. When our messenger is taken from us, the message is clear: the road to peace is closed.

 

My friends, we walk alone to our freedom. We are all tired for the journey has been long and we have lost many companions along the way. Many of us have lost flesh and blood; many of us have lost house and home; some of us have lost identity and self.

 

It is tempting to say enough. It is tempting to say I will walk no more. I must rest. It is tempting to lose hope, to fear where this road will lead us. This is what they want from us. They want us to forsake our revolution; to give up our dream.

 

Now is not the time, my friends. As long as we have the will and means to resist those who seek to oppress us we must stay the path to freedom.

 

We must show the world they may kill the revolutionary but the revolution will come. They may kill the dreamer but our dream will be realized.

 

We have lost another companion. But in his name we walk on. In his memory and the memory of so many others we remain strong.

 

Freedom will come one day. United as a people, we will reach that goal. Thamilchelvan Anna knew this. That is why he was always smiling.

The targeted killing last Friday of Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and the head of its Political Wing, along with five other LTTE officials, by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) shocked the Tamil community. Across Diaspora centres and in the homeland, there is palpable grief and anger. The specificities of the attack - whether the SLAF knew Mr. Tamilselvan was at the location, for example - are irrelevant: the military has been trying repeatedly to kill him for years, frequently bombing his offices, residences and convoys. The assassination is a quintessential reflection of the Sinhala mindset. President Mahinda Rakapakse, along with the vast majority of Sinhalese, see the island's ethnic problem purely as a Tamil terrorist challenge. For all the lip-service (and there's not much of that about now) about power sharing, the south is single-mindedly focused on a military victory. The abandon with which the military has for two years blasted Tamil villages, driven hundreds of thousands of Tamils from their homes and continues to abduct, torture and murder Tamils is underwritten by the confidence the international community, despite its distaste, is nonetheless solidly behind Colombo’s war.

 

Both the Sinhalese and the international community have their legitimating theories. For the Sinhalese, once the LTTE is destroyed, the Tamils will docilely accept whatever limited (and decidedly undeserved) powers they are given. The leading members of the international community in Sri Lanka agree. But they also believe that once the LTTE is destroyed, the island can be 'developed' whereupon Sinhalese, Tamils and, for that matter, the Muslims, will come to see each other as fellow Sri Lankans and live happily ever after. Despite the decades of Sinhala oppression the Tamils have faced by successive governments since independence (i.e. three decades before Tamil militancy was triggered), the international community bases its strategy today off a utopian vision of an ethnic harmony to come. It is not that such a vision is impossible that is staggering but, rather, the belief it can be realized by enabling a violent Sinhala conquest of the Tamils followed by economic development.

 

The various reactions to the Sri Lankan military's assassination of Mr. Tamilselvan should serve as food for thought for anyone out there who still believes either that peace talks might end the bloodshed or, even more naively, that the international community will act to protect the Tamils against the rampages of the state. As President Rajapakse crowed in Parliament this week, he has secured the assistance of the international community to defeat the Tigers. As we have argued before, for all the noise about human rights (and much of that has dissipated now), the state actually wants for nothing. Ironically, the more the international community is convinced the LTTE can be defeated, the freer the hand the Sinhala state will have.

 

Let there be no mistake; irrespective of the extent of the casualties or suffering the Sinhala military inflicts on Tamil civilians, the international community will not restrain the state. Not, that is, until the military is checked on the battlefield by the LTTE's counter-violence. At that point, as in 2001, international peaceniks will rush back to help Tamils and Sinhalese solve 'their' problem. The insistence by some international actors, especially those who proudly proclaim their support and assistance for the Sinhala state, that 'there is no military solution' is duplicitous. The solution must be political, we all know that. But it can be rammed down the Tamils' throats on the end of bayonet. Which is why several members of the international community advocating 'peace' in Sri Lanka have also banned the LTTE.

 

 

Last week Sinhalese reveled in Mr. Tamilselvan's assassination. Traditional drums were played in the street. Parties were organized at home. Some Buddhist temples held all night celebrations. For any Sinhalese who genuinely desires a negotiated solution, the killing of the other side's top diplomat should have been deeply worrying and regrettable. But very few in the south feel this way, something the Tamils need to bear in mind as they make their way in the time to come. For decades, when faced with violence and brutality by a Colombo government, many Tamils have rushed to the feet of the Sinhala opposition, voting it into power in a laughably futile effort to end their suffering, if only for a while. They have chased after the SLFP and UNP in turn, insisting, despite the evidence of their past suffering, that this time round it would be different.

 

In reality, for the Tamils, there is nothing to choose between the main Sinhala parties. This is because all of them are beholden to the sentiments of the majority of Sinhalese voters who, as is now starkly clear, bitterly oppose sharing of any power with the Tamils. The point was underscored this week by the reaction of the UNP - still the darlings, incidentally, of the 'peace through development' international community - to Mr. Tamilselvan's assassination. Firstly, the UNP hailed the killing as a 'great victory' for the (Sinhala) Air Force. It then went on to tacitly back Rajapakse's brutal war, saying there is 'no point' negotiating with the LTTE. Let us be clear; whenever the LTTE negotiates with the state, it is about the rights, powers and extent of self-rule that we, the Tamil people, are to have. The UNP, drunk with the same confidence in Sinhala military victory that the SLFP regime is, believes, like the government, that there is no point in negotiating with an enemy who is about to be defeated. The optimism may be misplaced, but the UNP sees no reason to hide it.

 

This week Tamils in the homeland and abroad have mourned Mr. Tamilselvan and his colleagues killed last Friday. We join them. Both Mr. Tamilselvan and Lt. Colonel Anpumani (Alex), who was also killed in Friday's airstrike, were friends of this newspaper. From the outset of the Norwegian peace process, concerned that the Tamil people be kept informed of developments, they, along with the LTTE's then Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, went out of their way to ensure we were briefed on the peace process. We will miss them.

 

 

Despite its bans on the LTTE, as the international community has openly acknowledged, every time the Tigers sit across the table from the Sinhala state, the interests they are negotiating for are those of the Tamil people. Whether it is a political solution - remember the fuss about the LTTE giving up independence for federalism? (Now the movement is thought to be weak, no one wants to use that word now) - or an interim administration or international aid for the Northeast, the Tigers were accepted by the state and the international community to be negotiating on behalf of the Tamils. Yet there is thundering silence after the Sinhala state assassinated the Tamils' chief negotiator. The international community has thus made it clear that any rights the Tamils secure depend entirely on the outcome on the battlefield. We therefore have to brace ourselves for an even more brutal military onslaught in the time to come. We must therefore be united in our resolve. Despite our skepticism, Tamil efforts to argue our case abroad, to win hearts and minds, must continue. But not in naïve optimism. If the state fails to defeat the LTTE then it will be compelled to negotiate with the Tamils. If it wins, we are lost. But, then, it was ever thus.

S. P. Tamilselvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers Political Wing, was killed in Kilinochchi Friday morning.

 

P. Nadesan, the head of the Tamileelam Police Force, was appointed as the new head of the Political Wing later that same day. He will be in charge of the two departments from now on, Irasiah Ilanthirayan, the LTTE's military spokesman said.

 

The Head Quarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a press communiqué said it was conveying the loss of Brigadier Tamilselvan with profound sadness to the people of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil Diaspora and the Global Community.

 

He was killed in a Sri Lanka Air Force attack that had specifically targeted the residence of the members of the Political Division.

 

The LTTE military spokesman described the aerial attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force on Tamilselvan's residence as a cowardly assassination.

 

The LTTE conferred its highest military rank, Brigadier, to Tamilselvan.

 

Others who died in the bombardment alongside Brigadier Tamilselvan were Lt. Col. Anpumani (Alex), Major Mikuthan, Major Neathaaji, Lt. Aadchiveal and Lt. Maavaikkumaran.