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Rebel LTTE faction gets five seats in Lankan parliament

PK Balachanddran
Colombo, April 4

The breakaway faction of the LTTE, led by Col.Karuna, has secured five of the 22 seats won by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), which fought the April 2 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections as a proxy of the LTTE.

Indications are that the Karuna faction will help President Chandrika Kumaratunga's United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to form a government.The UPFA is to be asked to form a government as it has emerged as the single largest party, albeit short of a clear majority.

Initially, the ITAK was to be a proxy of the united LTTE led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. But in the run up to the elections, the LTTE broke into two with the Batticaloa-Amparai commander Col.Karuna forming a breakaway - "Batticalao-Amparai District Liberation Tigers" and fight for the development of this region exclusively.

Col.Karuna's had earlier seen to it that the ITAK's candidates in the Batticaloa-Amparai area were largely persons owing allegiance to him personally. Karuna's candidates swept the Tamil votes and got four seats in Batticaloa and one in Amparai.

The lone candidate owing allegiance to Prabhakaran, the senior politician Joseph Pararajasingham, was defeated. His rival and Karuna's nominee, Rajan Sathiyamoorthy, who was assassinated by the Prabhakaran group during the campaign, got 24,627 "sympathy" votes, posthumously. Interestingly though the dead Sathiamoorthy got only 200 odd votes less than Pararajasingham.

It is yet to be ascertained how the five members of the Karuna group would function in parliament and whethr they would position as a part of the larger ITAK or as a separate entity. General opinion in Batticaloa however is that they may be in a dilemma because they face a threat from both Karuna and Prabhakaran.

The ITAK leadership,which is steadfast with the Prabhakaran group, may initiate legal action against them for breaking party discipline and snatch their parliamentary seats.However, experience shows that these political matters tend to languish in courts for years.

The victory of Karuna's men and the defeat of Pararajasingham are a major blow for the LTTE top leadership ensconced in Kilinochchi in the North. The killing of Rajan Sathiamoorthy had not given the desired results. In fact, it had spread terror and kept a majority of the voters indoors. The voting in the government controlled areas,where Prabhakaran had support, was barely 35 to 40 per cent, while voting in the Karuna controlled areas was as high as 70 per cent, sources said.

Karuna however is likely to support Chandrika though there has not been any formal announcement of its decision about which party it would help to form a government in Colombo. Speculation however is rife thatv it would support the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga which has emerged as the single largest party in the elections.

The Karuna group is also likely to ask for ministerial posts in the government in conformity with its policy that state administrative power is necessary for carrying out economic development works. He had earlier asked his candidates to be ready to join the government. Hence, perchance Kumaratunga offers ministerial posts to this group, she could get the support of five ITAK MPs.

For Kumaratunga however there will be no embarrassment in taking Karuna's support because he would not insist that the government should accept the radical proposals by the mainstream LTTE led by Prabhakaran.

Karuna only wants regional administrative power for development. His demands have no political overtones, in sharp contrast to Prabhakaran's.

Prabhakaran's proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the Tamil-dominated North Eastern Province (NEP), is a radical political document, which, per se, is not acceptable to the Sinhala-dominated mainstream political parties of Sri Lanka, be it Kumaratunga's UPFA or the United National Front (UNF) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Thanx: Hindustan Times