The cat is out of the bag. After a month long stalemate in the Sri Lankan Peace process, the LTTE has come out openly with the demand for an interim administration in North-East Sri Lanka. The LTTE announced its decision to review its participation in the Donors Conference in Tokyo in June 2003 citing its exclusion from the preparatory Washington seminar on 14 April 2003. It expressed disappointment at the fact that the Sri Lankan Government and the Norwegian facilitators have failed to select an appropriate venue for the preparatory aid seminar. It also charged the Sri Lankan Government with failure to vacate High Security Zones in Jaffna, in terms of the ceasefire agreement, leading to continued internal displacement of the Tamil people and using the Donors conference to promote development in the South at the cost of the North-East.

The LTTE's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham followed up with a letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on April 21, stating that his organization has decided to temporarily suspend its participation in the peace process and would not participate in the Donors conference. Recalling the early stages of negotiation, where it was agreed that both LTTE and Sri Lankan Government would jointly appeal for Donors support, Balasingham stated that the LTTE's exclusion from the conference appeared to be a deliberate omission by Ranil's Government and has eroded the confidence of the Tamil people in the peace process.

Hectic diplomatic activity had taken place in the last few weeks with Norwegian Foreign Minster Jan Petersen, Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, Special Envoy Erik Solheim and Japanese Special Envoy for the Peace Process Yashushi Akashi shuttling between Killinochchi and Colombo carrying messages between the LTTE and Sri Lankan Government to revive the peace process and ensure LTTE's participation in the Donors Conference. Now the LTTE has clearly stated that Colombo should reach an agreement on setting up an interim administration to handle rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in North-East Sri Lanka. The LTTE's Political Chief SP Tamilselvan stated on 22 May 2003 that the LTTE was not concerned about the constitutional difficulties, if any, that might be faced by the Sri Lankan Government in setting up an interim administration.

By raising this proposal now, the LTTE is trying to exacerbate the cohabitation problems in Sri Lankan politics between the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. It is aware that the proposal for an interim administration would require the assent of the President but the latter has rejected LTTE's proposal. Anton Balasingham in his letter on 21 May 2003 to the Prime Minister through the Norwegian facilitator referred to the LTTE's demand for an interim administration before the 2001 Parliamentary elections and Ranil Wickremasinghe's support for this proposal. The LTTE's reference to the interim administration would provide the Opposition enough ammunition to repeat its allegations about a nexus between the LTTE and Ranil Wickremasinghe during the last Parliamentary elections.

It is strange that the LTTE has raised this demand when it had agreed at the end of the sixth round of peace talks in March (18-21) at Hakone, Japan, that it would support the holding of local elections in North-East Sri Lanka in June 2003. The LTTE has formed a Political Affairs Committee consisting of twenty-one leading members of the organization who have undertaken a tour of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany to prepare for establishing internal self-determination within a united, federal Sri Lanka. It appears that image building exercises are designed to portray its transformation from a military outfit into a politico-military outfit for international consumption.

The sub-text of the latest LTTE demand is that it is weary of the peace process. There is some merit in its contention that the Sub-Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs in the North-East (SIHRN) with equal representation of the LTTE and Sri Lankan Government, set-up after the second round of peace talks, has failed to effectively address the feelings of the displaced people. To that extent the Government is at fault. But, the LTTE's various acts of omission and commission like its attempts to smuggle arms and ammunition through the sea in Feb and Mar 2003 in violation of the ceasefire agreement cannot be ignored. Further, the LTTE military leaders have been raising the rhetoric, as evident from their speeches during the commemoration of the third anniversary of the fall of Elephant Pass at the end of April. While proclaiming that it is against war the LTTE, by its actions, is probably trying to ensure that political instability or failure of peace talks result in confrontation with Sri Lanka, which it is more familiar with.