by Wakeley Paul, Esq., December 21, 2004
In December, 2000 the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire. Four months of negotiations toward a mutual ceasefire with the President’s PA government came to nought. In July, 2001 the LTTE attacked the Katunayake Airport, but followed this up with a second unilateral ceasefire. In late 2001, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNF government won the parlimentary election and in February, 2002, the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the CFA [Cease-Fire Agreement ] with the LTTE. This, in turn, led to the commencement of the Peace Talks between the GOSL [Government of Sri Lanka] and the LTTE in Thailand in September of 2002.
The 2002 Oslo statement presaged the exploration of alternatives to separation for the Island of Sri Lanka. An alternative is necessary to correct the current ineffective representation of Tamils in a Central Parliament under a Unitary Constitution, in which Parliament the Tamils are a permanent minority, totally outnumbered by the Sinhalese majority in the South. It also recognized the fact that the Tamils were the regional majority in the NorthEast, despite Sinhalese government efforts to change the demography of the region by use of the calculated Sinhalese policy of Colonization of the region. Armed Sinhalese ex-convicts, among others, were given free land and support to farm lands in the Tamil-dominated NorthEastern Province. The Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims of the region were excluded from receiving these grants of land in their own territory.
In Oslo several countries pledged 70 million dollars to help the NorthEast of the island to return to a state of “Normalcy,” with particular emphasis on having refugees return to their homes. This money, which was to be administered by the World Bank, yet remains untouched, based on bureaucratic obstruction by the SL government and the action of the armed forces of the government, who were instructed to bar refugees from being repatriated to their homes in what have been classified by the government as ‘high security zones.’
In April, 2003, the LTTE pulled out of the Peace Talks because of the government’s inaction in regard to the resettlement of refugees, their failure to dismantle their high security zones and their failure to treat the LTTE as equal partners in the negotiations. In that same year, the Tokyo Conference donors pledged 4.5 billion dollars for reconstruction and development, subject to satisfactory progress of the Peace Talks.
Frustrated by the government’s obstruction preventing a return to normalcy in the NorthEast led the LTTE to submit their ISGA [Interim Self governing Authority] proposals on October 31, 2003. Mr Wickremesinghe’s UNF government was ready to continue the Peace Talks using these proposals as the basis for discussion. The President virulently opposed this stance taken by the government in power and proceeded to remove three key government ministers – Defense, Media and Interior – in 2004. Her action put an immediate end to the Talks. She then dissolved Parliament in February, 2004.
The current President and her communist coalition partner, the JVP, who bitterly opposed the ISGA proposals, were determined to resist the grant of any meaningful powers to the Tamils in their racist desire to preserve the status quo of Sri Lanka as a Sinhalese Buddhist State, to whom all other ethnic groups would be eternally subordinate. Consequently, when the LTTE presented the Interim Self Governing Authority [ISGA} proposals as a basis upon which the Peace Talks were to continue, as stated earlier, the President first fired three crucial Ministers of the UNF government, one of whom was spearheading the talks. Not satisfied with that, she then dissolved the Parliament and ordered a new election, which promptly ended the Peace Talks.
At that election, all the major Tamil parties unanimously supported the Tamil stance and its effort to continue with the Peace Talks based on the ISGA proposals. The proposals are consistent with the concept of having a Federal State as an alternative to separation, as envisaged by the Oslo statement in 2003. The former Prime Minister and present Leader of the Opposition also support this position.
The President finally agreed, despite her initial opposition, to continue with the Peace Talks based on the ISGA proposals. Her communist coalition partner the JVP opposed this agreement, as did the party of extremist Buddhist monks, both of whom wany to preserve a Sinhalese Buddhist State with everyone else subject to their discriminatory dictates.
The President, in an effort to placate the International community, who insisted at the Tokyo Conference that aid would only be forthcoming if the peace talks were continued, reiterated that she was ready to continue with the talks with the ISGA as the base. However, in a further effort to retain her coalition partner, the JVP, the President suggested that she would make counter-proposals before the talks were to continue. Counter-proposals could be discussed at the Talks, rather than made a pre-condition for the talks to continue. The ISGA were proposals for an interim regional government, the details of which could be modified at the talks.
The LTTE, the TNA – their representatives in Parliament – and the UNF are the only parties that have consistently insisted on the peace process continuing with the ISGA as its basis. The President, who has vacillated back and forth depending to whom she is talking, has been the principal staller of the Talks and continues to be just that. She is caught between her desire to placate the International community, who insist on the continuation of the Talks, and her coalition partner who oppose the talks with equal vigor. She keeps insisting on wanting to find an ultimate settlement to the National Question when a return to normalcy is everyone else’s primary concern. She has exhibited a determination to block any aid that would return the NorthEast to normalcy, which is what the pledgers of the 70 million dollars had made a top priority. Her effort to placate her coalition partner and pretend to abide with the International desire that the talks continue is not just a balancing act. She is playing with fire. Her vacillating has pushed the three co-chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference, H E Mr Akio Suda of Japan, H.E Mrs Susan Blankart, of the Netherlands and H E Mr Jeffrey Lunstead of the United States to express deep concern over the JVP’s actions against the Peace process and the JVP’s opposition to Norway’s efforts to act as facilitator.
The Government has also violated the CFA [Cease-Fire Agreement ] by fueling the efforts of Karuna’s supporters and other petty LTTE opponents to destabilize the LTTE and by encouraging the Sri Lankan Army to refuse to abide by its terms. The armed forces have refused to vacate schools and other buildings used by civilians in the region, they have denied refugees the right to return to their homes and they continue to disrupt farming, fishing and other economic activities.
The Government has entered into an Arms Agreements with India in an effort to prepare for further war rather than to pursue peace. The failure of the CFA cannot be laid at the feet of Eric Solheim, the Norwegian negotiator. The GOSL is solely to blame for doing everything in their power to make the CFA a farce. Every effort is being made to destabilize the LTTE in the NE rather than pursue the Peace Talks with them. What does one expect the Tamils and the LTTE to do? Watch these alarming efforts in preparation to annihilate them with calm non-concern?