WikiLeaks: US On LTTE’s Invocation Of The ‘Eritrea’ Mantra
“The popular perception of the Sri Lankan government as anti-Tamil is reinforced by the apparently random manner in which the army lobs artillery shells into Jaffna. The Reuters correspondent recounted two such incidents which occurred during the week he has in Jaffna. In one case a shell landed in a crowded fish market, killing two civilians and wounded seventeen. Two days before, a woman and her two children were injured when a round fell on their house while they were sleeping. ‘I can’t understand why they do this,’ the Reuters man said, ‘because the LTTE doesn’t even have camps in the areas being shelled.’” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.
The Embassy wrote; “LTTE Spokesman Anton Balasinghamtold the visiting journalists that the Tigers’ see newly-independent Eritrea as the model for their own independence struggle. By setting up civil administration in areas under their control and working towards economic self-sufficiency, the Tigers hope to achieve de facto sovereignty. When the Reuters correspondent pointed out to him that the central government was still running schools, staffing hospitals and distributing food in the north, Balasingham reportedly said shrugged and said ‘We can’t do that, so we let the government to do it.’”
Placing a comment the US embassy wrote; “The LTTE frequent invocation of the ‘Eritrea’ mantra conveniently leaves out the fact that Eritrea achieved its independence because the central government in Addis Ababa collapsed; the Sri Lankan government is unlikely to follow suit. Nonetheless, the burgeoning Tiger civil administration indicates that the LTTE is steadily working to make ‘Tamil Eelam’ is a fact.”
