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Nambiar's de-escalation proposals criticised

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO MAY 10. Sri Lanka's main opposition party and the Tamil alliance backing the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have criticised the proposals of Satish Nambiar for a phased, simultaneous de-escalation of the island's northern High Security Zones (HSZs). Lt. Gen. (retd) Nambiar is advisor to the Sri Lankan Government on relocating troops in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

While the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) charged the Government with ``misleading the public'' and strongly hinted that not all was well with the involvement of the retired Indian Deputy Chief of Army staff, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) rejected it as one that did not understand the ``nuances'' of the conflict.

In his report on the HSZs, Lt. Gen. Nambiar, the first head of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in erstwhile Yugoslavia, ruled out any scope for unilateral de-escalation of the Sri Lankan military from Jaffna, a key rebel demand. Along expected lines, pro-LTTE parties denounced it as

``militaristic'' in approach and wanted it ``confined to the waste-paper basket''.

The report, submitted to the Government on Thursday, was reproduced in Daily Mirror and Sudar Oli on Friday.

The Opposition spokesman charged the Government with ``giving the impression'' that the Nambiar report was ``an official Indian position though the proposals were made in his personal capacity.''

On Thursday, before the proposals were made public, the SLFP prepared a case for arguing that the Government had set the course for the report. Defending the sovereignty of Sri Lanka in Parliament, the former Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, implicitly suggested that Colombo could have influenced the second report.

While pointing out that his first report had ``strongly supported'' the Sri Lankan Army's case against any unilateral de-escalation, Mr. Kadirgamar said: ``for some mysterious reason'' Colombo

had ``commissioned'' the retired Indian General to prepare a ``second report''.

As Lt. Gen. Nambiar was ``visited more than once by important Government personalities,'' Mr. Kadirgamar said, ``if there are any substantial changes in the second report, serious questions will arise''.

The second report by Lt. Gen. Nambiar, however, was consistent with his preliminary observations that there could be no unilateral de-escalation of troops.Sri Lanka's sovereignty, Mr. Kadirgamar said, ``was not a marketable commodity'' and ``cannot be compromised''. On expert reports requested by Colombo, he said the island had become a ``carnival ground'' for ``foreign experts peddling their wares''.

If any of these ``recommendations impinge on our sovereignty, we of the Opposition will be duty bound to denounce such reports whoever the author may be,'' he said, adding ``he who pays the piper calls the tune''.

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