The Hidden Truth behind the Sri Lankan
Peace Process
By Dominic Whiteman
A week after publishing VIGIL
Network's shock-inspiring intelligence report on the activities of the
LTTE (Tamil Tigers) in the United Kingdom, it seems a good time - after
one successful infiltration - to release the details of another
successful infiltration some time ago and the factors behind the
initiation of the peace process between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan
Government in the late nineties.
To tell the world that it
took an outsider - just one man with the goal of peace and a shrewd mind
- to initiate the peace talks between a country and a terrorist
organization in conflict with that country.
This is an opportune time to
reveal this evidence - so that the LTTE right now wakes up to the
indisputable fact that it was as easily infiltrated then as it is now
(yes, LTTE, London, more evidence is on its way from the latest
infiltration of your group by VIGIL).
That it ought to fast to
realize that it is a particularly amateurish, hot-headed crowd. That its
members should just grow up, put down their arms and get back to the
negotiating table used by real men as soon as possible - unless it wants
to seem, increasingly in the world's eyes, like just another group of
gutless, suicide-bombing losers, mentioned in the same breath as those
other life-haters Al Qaeda, who, without asking their fellows, have
hijacked a whole religion while the LTTE have hijacked all Tamils' good
name.
Go back to the 10th April,
1998. VIGIL intelligence operative Glen Jenvey was sitting in his chair
at the LTTE's London headquarters at 211 Katherine Road. Jenvey had by
then infiltrated the LTTE so successfully - working at the time for an
SIS (State Intelligence Service) official - that, extraordinarily, he
was working as the LTTE's official press secretary, appointed by the
terrorist group's London leaders. The fax machine next to him rang at
some point that afternoon and a fax transmission began to emerge with
sender's details he recognized immediately.
This was a fax from Mr Danaka
- from the IRA's political wing's press office in Falls Road, Belfast.
Danaka was one of many terrorist contacts Jenvey had become connected
with through his role at the LTTE - contacts he passed intelligence
about onto the SIS on a regular basis, who then shared this intelligence
with the security agencies of other countries.
It was a fax of the Good
Friday Agreement, which had been negotiated only days before between the
IRA and the British Government. Jenvey had some time on his hands and so
read the faxed document in detail over a cup of tea and some digestive
biscuits.
Jenvey was in scheming mood.
Fed up with what he called the "forever-arguing Lord of the Flies
organisation" that is the LTTE in London, he decided it was about time
they were pushed onto the peace-negotiating table, rather than
continually arguing amongst themselves and stumbling mindlessly from one
terrorist atrocity to the next. Jenvey reached for some LTTE headed
paper and compiled a fax to the South African Embassy's first secretary
in London, Sue Singh, with words transferred from the IRA document
asking South Africa to hold peace talks with the LTTE and Sri Lankan
government. One of the lines lifted from the IRA document Jenvey
remembers was "in good faith on all sides." Much of his transmission was
a verbatim copy of the Good Friday Agreement's terminology - adjusted
here and there to seem more applicable and genuine.
A few days later the LTTE
press office fax machine whirred to life again. Out came a fax from the
South African Embassy saying they would agree to meet the LTTE with the
view to holding peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan
government. Jenvey was both surprised (that his scheme had worked) and
delighted.
To him it made sense to have
the South Africans as hosts - their truth and reconciliation committee,
reconciliatory governmental maneuvers and the high profile of Nelson
Mandela seemed like a perfect backcloth for a peace deal between the Sri
Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers.
A copy of the South African
Embassy's fax was swiftly passed onto the LTTE London hierarchy and to
the Sri Lankan government via the SIS official. Phone calls to the South
African Embassy by Jenvey revealed his request for the South African
government to hold peace talks went through to the number two of the new
ANC government in South Africa, who authorized the hosting of the peace
process.
Jenvey remembers the LTTE
were at first cautious about the talks and got in quite a fluster. After
several free-for-all arguments, the London leaders decided they would
have to contact the overall leader of the LTTE who would be the only
person sufficiently authorized to agree on peace talks.
The Sri Lankan President's
office was openly asking if the LTTE were ready to stop violence and sit
at the peace table for the good of the whole of Sri Lanka. The LTTE
eventually responded by saying that they were going to visit the South
African embassy in London to "talk about peace talks".
It was looking as if the
civilians on both sides were going to get a chance for peace because of
Jenvey's opportunistic fax.
Alas the LTTE leadership had
other ideas. In spite of claiming to be the "ANC of Sri Lanka" the LTTE
declared that the South Africans were not suitable hosts. The LTTE
wanted to have the talks chaired by Norway - a country where the LTTE
had managed to establish themselves sufficiently to engage in direct
dialogue with a sympathetic and listening government.
And thus the "peace process"
began. Today it teeters on the abyss, though its Norwegian peace envoy
Jon Hanssen-Bauer expressed today "cautious optimism" that both sides
might sit down shortly for more talks. This is against a background the
last week of highly-publicized sea battles and scores of yet more
pointless deaths.
Jenvey is proud that, from
his chair in London, he opportunistically paved the way for the first
steps to peace but he is saddened that today the war continues and the
LTTE is more inward-looking than it has ever been. "If there is to be a
meaningful peace which I worked for many years ago it's not the Sri
Lankan Government who are dragging their feet but the LTTE and its mafia
style organization who without war would have no hold over the Tamil
people or demand money from them for their own personal gain and
extravagant lifestyles," says Jenvey. "A real hope for peace in Sri
Lanka is slipping away and talks have been dragged out by the LTTE
leadership for many years in the hope that while peace talks persist,
even at a snails pace, the EU and other governments will hold off
enforcing anti terror laws against them."
What is clear, following
VIGIL's intelligence report published last week, is that the LTTE is all
about feathering its own nest. Like the IRA in Ireland it has become so
dependent on criminal activity that its ideals and goals have been
forgotten - relegated by its leadership's short-termism and the allure
of easy wealth from their criminal empire.
Real intent for peace talks
does not exist while big-bellied LTTE leaders bathe in their Jacuzzis
and dine in Europe's finest eateries at the expense of the Tamil people
- whether those paying mafia-style payments to the LTTE or those
thousands of Tamils who have been homeless for years and forgotten in
refugee camps.
If only the Tamil people
realized that the LTTE's dismissal of South African-led talks years ago
was in fact a self-preserving gesture on the part of LTTE leaders, who
feared a genuine peace and an end to their racketeering. That their
acceptance of Norwegian-led talks was the result of a decision by the
LTTE leadership, concluding that the Norwegians would be easier to play
along than the South Africans, who then seemed to be getting impossible
things done in a spirit of fairness, reconciliation and truth. The last
thing the LTTE wanted then or wants now is truth - shame for them that
VIGIL has to keep printing it.
Last words to Mr Jenvey,
whose opportunism is surely worthy of recognition by Nobel: "The very
first approach to the South African ANC Government for peace talks
between the LTTE and Sri Lanka was made in good faith in light of the
fact that it was the hope of many to see peace in Sri Lanka. The LTTE
who try and compare their war to the struggle of the ANC have shown as
years go by they are in fact nothing like the ANC - that they will
reside permanently in the gutter of history (save a brave volte face
now) alongside the lowest of the low of common terrorists as base and
depraved as Al Qaeda and the Real IRA."
Dominic Whiteman is
spokesperson for the London-based VIGIL anti-terrorist organization - an
international network of terror trackers, including former intelligence
officers, military personnel and experts ranging from linguistic to
banking experts. Glen Jenvey is a VIGIL terror tracker who has worked as
an intelligence operative in the past for various governments. An
account of his LTTE infiltration can be found in the upcoming book War
of the Web by Jeremy Reynalds [1]
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