GOOD TO BE THE BOGEYMAN:

Who's behind the LTTE split? (Sudha Ramachandran, 3/25/04, Asia Times)

Speculation is rife in Sri Lanka over who might have engineered the recent split in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While some are pointing to a foreign hand - India and/or the United States - others are insisting that Colombo might have had a part in fomenting the rebellion. [...]

Some have suggested that it might be the Americans. After all, there is little love lost between the US and the LTTE. Washington has declared the LTTE a terrorist organization and has refused to remove this tag despite the Tigers engaging in negotiations with the Sri Lankan government. The US has in fact openly backed the government and has warned the LTTE of dire consequences if it walks out of the peace process. Less than a week before the rebellion, the US State Department issued a stern warning to the LTTE, blaming it for the assassination of Sinnathamby Sunderapillai, the United National Party's Batticaloa candidate, and the killing of P Yogeswaran, a member of the Eelam People's Democratic Party.

When it expelled Karuna, the LTTE blamed "malicious elements" for instigating Karuna's "traitorous act". It did not elaborate on the identity of these "malicious elements". In a subsequent interview to the Associated Press, Thamilselvan, the LTTE's leader of the political wing, accused "external forces" for the crisis. Although he did not identify the external force, he elaborated that it was one that "did not accept the LTTE's position of being the sole representative of the Tamil people and was jealous of the high regard and acceptance it was enjoying in the international community".

One of the very beneficial effects of the global hysteria over George W. Bush being an anti-terror fanatic is that every time something bad happens amongst these groups where bad things are rather routine will only serve to burnish his legend. We saw the same dynamic at work in Palestine this week, where it was simply assumed that he must have been in on the assassination of Sheik Yassin.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2004 7:33 PM