A hardened guerrilla nicknamed the "Cobra" has edged out an ailing London-based intellectual as the negotiating face of the Tamil Tiger rebels in their talks to end Sri Lanka's two-decade ethnic war.
The change, whether by design or due to the poor health of Anton Balasingham, puts S.P. Thamilselvan into a more prominent role as the Tigers and government get set for renewed talks expected to be much tougher than the initial round.
"Balasingham was the moderate of the lot," said Lakshman Kadirgamar, a former foreign minister who led the peace process under the previous government.
"Those who have emerged now are the hardliners," he said of Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Thamilselvan earned his nickname because of the way he bobs his head and the way he smiles "just like a Cobra before it strikes," said one diplomat who has met him.
He returns to Sri Lanka today from Europe, where he ran a meeting in Paris of LTTE officials and expatriate Tamil experts studying a government proposal for a power-sharing body for the minority Tamil-dominated north and east.
The meeting was unusual because it did not involve Balasingham, an academic dubbed the "theoretician" of the party whose home in London made him more aware of the international criticism of LTTE practices such as recruiting child soldiers.
Some saw Balasingham's absence as proof of rumors he has been sidelined because of political differences with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Others said it was due to health problems connected to his diabetes and kidney transplant.
Thamilselvan's life has been inseparable from the LTTE and the reclusive Prabhakaran since, as a teenager, he went for military training in India, which in the 1980s backed Tamil groups against the Sri Lankan government.
He was a bodyguard for Prabhakaran and worked his way up the military ladder before switching to the political side.
Now 36, Thamilselvan needs a cane to walk since suffering a leg wound fighting in the Jaffna Peninsula where he was once the Tigers' commander.
In addition to his limited international experience, Thamilselvan's warrior life in the jungles of northern Sri Lanka is thought to have kept him in tune with Prabhakaran.
"He does not have a mind of his own, he reflects Prabhakaran's thinking, he is Prabhakaran's man," said one political observer in Colombo.
A secret government profile describes Thamilselvan as "a strong character and good at handling both military operations and political activity."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of