"LTTE Engineered boycott, virtually guaranteeing
Rajapakse election" - Ambassador Schaffer
"The election of Mahinda Rajapakse as Sri Lanka’s president puts the country’s
already fragile peace efforts at a watershed. By engineering a boycott of the
election, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) virtually guaranteed
Rajapakse’s election, but also served notice that their position has hardened."
says former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Teresita Schaffer.
In a publication released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), based in Washington D.C., where Ambassador Schaffer heads the South
Asia Program, Ms Schaffer further says: "A key ingredient in Rajapakse’s victory,
ironically, was the LTTE’s successful call for a poll boycott by Tamils in northern
Sri Lanka. Tamil voters would almost certainly have voted overwhelmingly for the
UNP; with their support, Wickremasinghe would have won. The boycott was
undoubtedly intended to show the LTTE’s power. It was also touted by LTTE
spokesmen both in Sri Lanka and elsewhere as a way to clarify the Sinhalese
population’s warlike attitudes. If the Sinhalese population left to its own devices
would elect a man with Rajapakse’s campaign platform, the argument went, this
proved that the LTTE had no choice but to insist on a separate state."
Characterizing the presidential campaign as a polarizing one, she says, "in post-
election statements, Rajapakse gave a conciliatory tone to some tough positions,
while LTTE chief Prabhakaran repeatedly said that he had given up on Sri
Lanka's Sinhalese politicians."
Concluding she says that "the international friends of the Sri Lankan peace
process need to proceed with bracing realism and appeal to the most urgent self-
interest on both sides. Without a new commitment to a real cease-fire and a
serious dialogue, all of Sri Lanka’s communities stand at the brink of tragedy."
