Anton Balasingham

Anton Balasingham Stanislaus (; 4 March 1938 – 14 December 2006) was a Sri Lankan journalist, rebel and chief political strategist and chief negotiator for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.

Early life and family Balasingham was born on 4 March 1938. His father was an electrical foreman from Mandur in eastern Ceylon and his mother was a midwife from Jaffna in northern Ceylon who met whilst they were both working at Batticaloa Hospital. Balasingham's paternal grandfather was a Hindu priest. He was in charge of foreign news which entailed translating Reuters and other articles into Tamil. The couple married on 16 July 1968 at Kollupitiya Methodist Church. Balasingham obtained a M.A. degree from the South Bank Polytechnic after completing a dissertation on Marxism.

Balasingham's interest in left-wing politics continued in London, getting involved in Marxism and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Following the failure of the peace talks the Indian government expelled Balasingham who returned to London. He was at Prabhakaran's side when the LTTE leader met various Sri Lankan politicians. The cancer spread to his liver, lungs, abdomen and bones. Speaking of his illness, Balasingham told the TamilNet website "when compared to the vast ocean of the collective tragedy faced by my people, my illness is merely a pebble". Balasingham died on 14 December 2006 at his home in South London. On that day the LTTE conferred the title Thesathin Kural (Voice of the Nation) on Balasingham. Balasingham's funeral was held on 20 December 2006 at Alexandra Palace, London with a parallel service in the Vanni region.