Conflict Resolution or Counter Insurgency?

In February 1995 the President, Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, completed her third month in office; and the Peoples Alliance (PA) government has been in power for six months.

During this period the Action Group of Tamils in Colombo (AGOTIC) has repeatedly emphasised two major issues:

1. We urged the President to put forward without delay a proposal for the resolution of the Tamil Question. Nine months have passed after the President indicated in her interview published in the Virakesari on 1st of May 1994 that a peace package was being formulated. But the President has not placed the proposal before the people.

2. In our 1 January statement we cautioned the Government against debasing the "peace process" by turning it into a counter insurgency tactic. Before the presidential election the "peace process" was projected as the way to a negotiated solution which would end the civil war in the north-east. Members of the so-called "peace lobby" in Colombo campaigned for a PA election victory. In fact they almost guaranteed that a future PA government will on being elected immediately put forward a peace package and begin negotiations with the LTTE.

But after the election, the "peace mood" changed. The first indication that conflict resolution is becoming counter insurgency came immediately after the presidential election. The President shifted emphasis from putting forward a peace package to reconstruction of roads, public library etc in the Jaffna District. A Rs 39 Billion carrot was dangled before the Tamils, if only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would allow the reconstruction to start. The evident intention is to demonstrate that the LTTE are opposed to a return to normalcy. The vain hope is that in this way Tamil people could be pitted against the LTTE and thereby isolate and defeat the LTTE BEFORE a peace package, if it does really exist, is placed before the country. Thus the "peace process" which began as a strategy for conflict resolution has been corrupted into a counter insurgency political tactic.

The "peace lobby" and especially its Tamil members colluded in this unprincipled and opportunistic tactic. They implicitly supported the shift in emphasis from negotiations with the LTTE to infrastructure development in the north. They stopped demanding that the Government must first put forward a peace package. In contrast the LTTE has consistently invited the Government to put forward its proposals.

Today sending bull-dozers and heavy machinery for construction purposes has become more important than formulating a viable peace package. Opening of the Elephant Pass road is more important than working out the modalities of negotiations.

Today the "peace lobby" is less interested in inducing the government to honour its election pledge to submit a peace package to the nation. They are more interested in showing that the LTTE is not cooperating by opening the Elephant Pass road; that LTTE is perpetuating the misery of Tamils in the north.

This divide and rule strategy, of putting the Tamils against the LTTE, is naive in the extreme. It is a strategy which is bound to fail.

There is a more ominous aspect to the "peace process". It has its roots in the only previous instance when a President held talks directly with Tamil Militants, in Thimpu in 1985. The then President J R Jayawardene sent a delegation headed by his brother and Attorney-at-Law, Mr H W Jayawardene. Doubts were raised as to the official standing of the delegation because Mr H W Jayawardene was not a member of the Sri Lanka Government. President Jayawardene conferred Plenipotentiary status on his brother and it was assumed that the delegation officially represented the Government.

But President Jayawardene pulled another rabbit out his opportunistically bottomless hat. Mr H W Jayawardene placed his signature on the August 1985 "Draft Framework of Terms of Accord and Understanding" finalised in New Delhi. But it was announced that Mr H W Jayawardene placed his signature for purposes of identification only. President Jayawardene explained that the Draft Framework will become the official position of Government only after it is placed before his Cabinet and it is adopted by the Cabinet. The Draft Framework was never placed before the Cabinet.

Today we are facing a disturbingly similar situation. The delegation to Jaffna is led by the President's Private Secretary and includes two prominent individuals from the private sector. None of them has official standing within Government. The participants from the security forces have remained essentially as observers. No member of the PA Government has joined the delegation to Jaffna. Indeed on 5 March, Sunday Times reported that the delegation for the fourth round of talks "is expected to include Cabinet Ministers and MPs". All of this can only mean that the delegations which participated in the first three rounds were unofficial groups. The "peace process" therefore appears to be a personal initiative of President Kumaratunge. This conclusion is reinforced by the President's choice of a French mediator, Mr Francois Michel (The Island, 12 March 1995). He is a private individual acting in his personal capacity and without any official status whatsoever in the French Government.

Given the precedence set by the former President Jayawardene, will President Kumaratunge announce later that any agreement reached by her delegation or through her mediator will have to be placed before her Cabinet for approval before it becomes official policy?

It is unfortunate that the "peace lobby" and especially its Tamil members have been silent on these issues.

The long, 9-month wait for the President's proposal has also fuelled speculation whether or not the "peace process" is an official response of the PA Government. If the LTTE and the international community are to take the Government's actions seriously, it is necessary to dispel these doubts.

It is imperative that the Government should set the record straight. AGOTIC considers the following actions to be necessary at this stage:

1. The President must respond to LTTE's invitation and announce a peace package.

2. The peace package must be placed before the Cabinet and adopted, as the official position of Government.

3. After the PA Government - and not merely the President - has acknowledged responsibility for the "peace process", negotiations must begin between the Government (not merely the President) and the LTTE.

Dr S Sathananthan Ph D
Secretary
13 March 1995