BALASINGHAM IN LONDON (99 Jun 09)
The "Hindu" on Tuesday the 9th said that, according to informed LTTE sources, Anton Balasingham has relocated to the British capital of London from the Wanniya. It is said that he has first gone to Phukhet in Thailand in a LTTE ship, then to Singapore, from where he has boarded a plane to London. His wife Australian born Adele Balasingham has accompanied him. Both are said to be British passport holders.
It is said that Prabhakaran has sent Balasingham for two purposes. Firstly to restructure the so called LTTE international secretariat in London and then to work on third party facilitation to start negotiations between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka. While in London Balasingham is expected to attend to his health problems as well.
Balasingham is in London on a special mission. It is very likely that he will seek for third party facilitation or mediation to commence talks with the government. There are number of western countries prepared to be the facilitator or the mediator and Balasingham will not have much work to do in this respect.
What is more interesting is the way he has taken to London. It is clear that in spite of all the denials Thailand is increasingly getting involved in LTTE activities and the Buddhist organisations will have to do something, though Thailand may be under American influence. Secondly if the Balasinghams are British passport holders how did they get their visas? Did Britain know in advance and help them with their visas? These are some questions for which the government will have to find out answers soon.