09-03-2003, 09:51 PM
<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>The ''Cobra'' rears his head in Sri Lanka peace bid </b></span>
COLOMBO, Sept. 2 A hardened guerrilla nicknamed the ''Cobra'' has edged out an ailing London-based intellectual as the negotiating face of the Tamil Tiger rebels in their talks to end Sri Lanka's two-decade ethnic war.
The change, whether by design or due to the poor health of Anton Balasingham, puts S.P. Thamilselvan into a more prominent role as the Tigers and government get set for renewed talks expected to be much tougher than the initial round.
''Balasingham was the moderate of the lot,'' said Lakshman Kadirgamar, a former foreign minister who led the peace process under the previous government.
''Those who have emerged now are the hardliners,'' he said of Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Thamilselvan earned his nickname because of the way he bobs his head and the way he smiles ''just like a Cobra before it strikes,'' said one diplomat who has met him.
He returns to Sri Lanka on Thursday from Europe, where he ran a meeting in Paris of LTTE officials and expatriate Tamil experts studying a government proposal for a power-sharing body for the minority Tamil-dominated north and east.
The meeting was unusual because it did not involve Balasingham, an academic dubbed the ''theoretician'' of the party whose home in London made him more aware of the international criticism of LTTE practices such as recruiting child soldiers.
Some saw Balasingham's absence as proof of rumours he has been sidelined because of political differences with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Others said it was due to health problems connected to his diabetes and kidney transplant.
FROM CHILD WARRIOR TO NEGOTIATOR
Thamilselvan's life has been inseparable from the LTTE and the reclusive Prabhakaran since, as a teenager, he went for military training in India, which in the 1980s backed nascent Tamil groups against the Sri Lankan government.
He was a bodyguard for Prabhakaran and worked his way up the military ladder before switching to the political side.
Now 36, Thamilselvan needs a cane to walk since suffering a leg wound fighting in the Jaffna peninsula where he was once the Tigers' commander.
In addition to his limited international experience, Thamilselvan's warrior life in the jungles of northern Sri Lanka is thought to have kept him in tune with Prabhakaran.
''He does not have a mind of his own, he reflects Prabhakaran's thinking, he is Prabhakaran's man,'' said one political observer in Colombo.
A secret government profile seen by Reuters describes Thamilselvan, whose wife is a soldier in the LTTE Women's Wing, as ''a strong character and good at handling both military operations and political activity.''
It is not known why he he does not use his real name: Selvakumar Paramoorthy Kanagarathnam.
His hometown is Chavakachcheri in Jaffna, which was almost totally destroyed when government and LTTE troops fought over it with rocket launchers in late 2000 in one of the last big battles of the war.
The two sides signed a ceasefire in February 2002 and started direct talks which the rebels suspended last April, although a Tiger response to the power-sharing plan is expected to lead to renewed talks in the next several months.
Diplomats said the absence as chief LTTE negotiator of Balasingham, fluent in English, Tamil and Sinhala, would also change the talks as Thamilselvan is comfortable only in Tamil.
COLOMBO, Sept. 2 A hardened guerrilla nicknamed the ''Cobra'' has edged out an ailing London-based intellectual as the negotiating face of the Tamil Tiger rebels in their talks to end Sri Lanka's two-decade ethnic war.
The change, whether by design or due to the poor health of Anton Balasingham, puts S.P. Thamilselvan into a more prominent role as the Tigers and government get set for renewed talks expected to be much tougher than the initial round.
''Balasingham was the moderate of the lot,'' said Lakshman Kadirgamar, a former foreign minister who led the peace process under the previous government.
''Those who have emerged now are the hardliners,'' he said of Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Thamilselvan earned his nickname because of the way he bobs his head and the way he smiles ''just like a Cobra before it strikes,'' said one diplomat who has met him.
He returns to Sri Lanka on Thursday from Europe, where he ran a meeting in Paris of LTTE officials and expatriate Tamil experts studying a government proposal for a power-sharing body for the minority Tamil-dominated north and east.
The meeting was unusual because it did not involve Balasingham, an academic dubbed the ''theoretician'' of the party whose home in London made him more aware of the international criticism of LTTE practices such as recruiting child soldiers.
Some saw Balasingham's absence as proof of rumours he has been sidelined because of political differences with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Others said it was due to health problems connected to his diabetes and kidney transplant.
FROM CHILD WARRIOR TO NEGOTIATOR
Thamilselvan's life has been inseparable from the LTTE and the reclusive Prabhakaran since, as a teenager, he went for military training in India, which in the 1980s backed nascent Tamil groups against the Sri Lankan government.
He was a bodyguard for Prabhakaran and worked his way up the military ladder before switching to the political side.
Now 36, Thamilselvan needs a cane to walk since suffering a leg wound fighting in the Jaffna peninsula where he was once the Tigers' commander.
In addition to his limited international experience, Thamilselvan's warrior life in the jungles of northern Sri Lanka is thought to have kept him in tune with Prabhakaran.
''He does not have a mind of his own, he reflects Prabhakaran's thinking, he is Prabhakaran's man,'' said one political observer in Colombo.
A secret government profile seen by Reuters describes Thamilselvan, whose wife is a soldier in the LTTE Women's Wing, as ''a strong character and good at handling both military operations and political activity.''
It is not known why he he does not use his real name: Selvakumar Paramoorthy Kanagarathnam.
His hometown is Chavakachcheri in Jaffna, which was almost totally destroyed when government and LTTE troops fought over it with rocket launchers in late 2000 in one of the last big battles of the war.
The two sides signed a ceasefire in February 2002 and started direct talks which the rebels suspended last April, although a Tiger response to the power-sharing plan is expected to lead to renewed talks in the next several months.
Diplomats said the absence as chief LTTE negotiator of Balasingham, fluent in English, Tamil and Sinhala, would also change the talks as Thamilselvan is comfortable only in Tamil.
Truth 'll prevail