S.Lanka rebel negotiator Balasingham dies of cancer
Source: Reuters
(Updates with analyst comment, details) COLOMBO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger chief negotiator and ideologue Anton Balasingham, who marshalled the rebels through many rounds of abortive peace talks with the Sri Lankan state, has died of cancer in London, the rebels said on Thursday. "He is dead," a Tiger official told Reuters by telephone from the rebels' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi. He was 68. Balasingham was a trusted confidant of shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and wrote his speeches. He oversaw negotiations that clinched a 2002 ceasefire which now lies in tatters amid a deadly new chapter in the island's two-decade civil war. Balasingham, who had a doctorate in social sciences and became a British national after working at the British High Commission in Colombo, spearheaded successive rounds of peace negotiations for the Tigers from 1985. He had lived in Britain since a 1999 kidney transplant, and announced last month he was suffering from bile duct cancer. Analysts said Balasingham's death had deprived the rebels of an experienced negotiator who had a wide view of the conflict, and could well hamper efforts to revive the island's peace process, which has collapsed into renewed war. "Balasingham was a veteran of most negotiations between the LTTE (the Tigers) and government of Sri Lanka, so he brought wide experience and expertise to the negotiating table," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank. "So yes, it's probably the case that Balasingham's demise is going to be a gap in the LTTE's ability with regards to negotiations," he added. In March, Balasingham told Reuters the Tigers would push for an independent state unless President Mahinda Rajapakse agreed to wide autonomy for the island's minority Tamils. "Unless Rajapakse ... accepts the demand of the Tamils for regional autonomy, there won't be any prospect for a political solution," he said at the time. "If ... internal self-determination is rejected, then only we will invoke the right to external self-determination -- that is the right to form an independent state." Last month Prabhakaran declared the Tigers were resuming their fight for independence, which analysts said meant the renewed civil war would intensify. Balasingham's death comes as the Tigers and the military are locked in near daily artillery battles in the island's east, which the rebels say have killed dozens of civilians since the weekend and driven thousands to flee their homes. More than 3,000 troops, civilians and Tiger fighters have been killed so far this year in ambushes, military clashes and suicide bombings, taking the death toll from the conflict to more than 67,000 since it erupted in 1983.
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