by Wakeley Paul, October 21, 2004
sangam.org/articles/view2/615.html
Is an endless war what President Kumaratunge has in store for the Sinhalese and for us Tamils? It would certainly appear so, unless someone from somewhere intervenes.
The leader of the opposition has recently emphasized to the Indian authorities the urgent need to continue with the peace talks. He indicated to them that the talks must continue in accord with the spirit of the Oslo Accords, which envisaged a Federal Constitution, which is what the ISGA presages.
The President, while initially expressing her disapproval of the entire ISGA proposals, later shifted her position. She changed from that extreme stance to one where she expressed displeasure with some of its provisions. She agreed to accept the ISGA and recommence the talks using its terms as the basis upon which the talks would continue. There was at that moment, a whiff of hope that the renewal of the peace process was imminent.
The President then shifted her stance. With characteristic guile, she introduced a new obstacle to be overcome before a return to the peace table. She and her new closest aid, the disarmingly charming Jayantha Dhanapala, introduced the idea of intervening with alternative proposals to be discussed before the talks were to be resumed. This is patently meaningless. Alternative proposals can be discussed at the peace table with the ISGA as its base. By this new approach she played her usual game of shying away from present obligations and ignoring past commitments.
Faced with the realization that there was yet stiff opposition by her coalition partner to the resumption of the talks, the President came up with yet another idea for stalling them. The posture of loyal complicity between the partners to the coalition is proclaimed with gusto at times and torn wide apart with equal gusto at other times. In a new effort to regain the offensive, she now summoned an All Party Conference with the futile prospect of coming up with a solution that is satisfactory to all parties. Anyone with the dimmest intelligence has to realize that such a compromise is impossible to achievement, knowing the fiercely stark differences that divide the LTTE from the JVP & JHU. Such pompous all-consuming schemes enhance existing antagonisms rather than promote compromise.
The President’s ambiguous agenda is an obvious effort to delay every effort toward attaining a lasting peace. She whirls around with a blizzard of new strategies in an obvious effort to find an exit strategy, while pretending that the resumption of the talks is her top priority. The simple fact is that she cannot possibly placate the JVP and pacify the JHU who are voluble in their opposition to the talks, and keep insisting that her main objective is to return to the peace table. The JVP & JHU are bound together by one common mission, an uncompromising opposition to a non-unitary, Federal Constitution. The Oslo Declaration, on which the talks are founded, is based on the expectation of a Federal Constitution emerging in the near future. There are starkly defined differences between the object of the talks and the opposition to them by these two extremist parties. One of the parties is Marxist, more committed to promoting Marxism and Sinhalese supremacy than peace with the Tamils. The other is more addicted to maintaining Buddhist supremacy than yielding to Tamil aspirations.
The intensity of the differences between the Tamil expectations and the resistance to them by these Sinhalese parties is bound to make separation ultimately inevitable. The President, like her father and mother before her, has done nothing to ameliorate that possibility. She is allowing herself to become a pawn and a prisoner of JVP/JHU mechanizations. The three of them will wind up being united in creating conditions for a united nation to fall apart. This is not the result of a policy on her part; it is based on an abdication of leadership.
The fear that the SLFP entertains, if analyzed carefully, is not that the ISGA spells independence. This is what they claim, but this is impossible as long as the Northeast retains a dependence on the consolidated fund which is controlled exclusively by the government at the center. The ISGA retains that dependence. Their real fear is that it spells out too much non-dependence on the central government by the regional government. Our fear on the other hand has been a continuing need to be freed from imperial overreach. Any debate on this conflict of concerns should be aired at the peace table, not blown away by preliminary objections.
The international community must see through the President’s porous determination to fool the world with a clutch of inconsistent strategies. The only party that has been consistent in its determination to revive the peace talks is the LTTE. The President’s dubious efforts to blame the LTTE as violators of the CFA are specious. Her government has done all in its power through use of its armed forces to undermine the power of the LTTE in the Northeast by supporting and fanning the flames of the Karuna renegades. If that is not a violation of the CFA by her, what is? All the LTTE has done is to quash these renegade forces from undermining the authority of the government in power in the Northeast. Isn’t that the role of all governments as long as such efforts are not inhumanely brutal? There has not been the slightest basis for suggesting that they were. The I.C should condemn the SL government for its provocative military operations in the East; not the LTTE for protecting themselves and their populations from these unforgivable efforts to topple the ruling power in the Northeast.
The President’s efforts to convince the world that she is genuine in her desire to electrify the peace process, should have lost its luster by now. The question we must ask is, has it, and if not, why not? It may well be that we are at fault for not effectively countering the false propaganda that the government spreads generously like rice over everyone else’s plates. Our expatriot forces need to galvanize our efforts to reach those who matter. We need to inspire the world into realizing how right we are from any standpoint, whether you look at it morally, politically or practically.
While it is true that insurgences are long struggles, measured in decades, not months, we had reason to believe that the corner was turned when Mr Wickremesinghe renewed the talks. Unfortunately, the President keeps turning corners of her own to turn the tide backwards rather than forwards. Her obvious tactic is to play a waiting game, with no end in sight. While her own Sinhalese peasantry and lower middle class fall precariously behind their urban elite, the people in the NorthEast are regarded by her as a disposable nuisance.
The time may have come for the international community to do more than threaten to withhold aid. This situation calls for stiffer thrusts of the international sword to swirl the President off her stool of complacency and compel her to act. Perhaps an arms embargo combined with sharp, targeted sanctions would prick the bubble of her complacency. Perhaps even restrictions on the right of her roaming officials to enter certain countries would daunt their enthusiasm for living off the meager fat of the land. This combined with a more focused attention toward the starving, the homeless, the displaced and their ravaged environment, instead of paying attention to the claims of a corrupt, unconcerned government, could help further diffuse the dangers that face the nation now.
Something has to be done now, before there is an unstoppable deterioration in relations between all parties to the conflict. A small dollop of international intervention by the UN Food program in Darfur has saved and changed hundreds lives for the better. Can you imagine what might have been possible with more effective humanitarian assistance? These are factors the I.C. should ponder and act on if the peace effort is to be revitalized. The I.C. cannot be content with traveling on the edge. They must realize that wishful thinking is no substitute for prudent action. It is not military intervention that is called for; it is larger mouthfuls of humanitarian aid to the needy victims, combined with sharper sanctions against their tormentors.