Tamil `Cobra' takes over at Sri Lankan peace-accord talks

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."