by Wakeley Paul; published May 11, 2004
Based on the multitude of inconsistent, illogical and contradictory positions taken by the two K¹s [Kumaratunge and Kadirgamar] on the peace talks, it is quite obvious that they have already done everything in their power to quash the Peace negotiations for good. Yet they pretend to be committed to making a success of these negotiations from the bottom of their transparent hearts. How much more fraudulent and malignant could any Sinhalese government be?
Let us begin with Mr Kadirgamar’s statement to The Hindu reported May 2, 2004, and compare them with the statements of Mr Thamilchelvan on behalf of the LTTE.
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Kadirgamar says, “Everything I say in regard to doing anything in the NorthEast means with the LTTE and no one else….. The government has received messages from the LTTE which do not talk of preconditions at all.”
Here is what Mr Thamilchelvan said on behalf of the LTTE to Journalists on May 3, 2004, after meeting with the Norwegian delegation:
“The Liberation Tigers are fully prepared to resume peace negotiations on the same principles and in the same atmosphere the peace talks were carried out by the previous government in Colombo.” He added that the LTTE is prepared to continue talks based on the ISGA, emphasizing that over 90% of the people in the N.E. have endorsed this stand by giving them the overwhelming mandate in the last election.
He also emphasized that the government has given their commitment to the M.O.U.
Does Mr Kadirgamar pretend that he was unaware of the fact that this was the consistent position of the LTTE ever since the talks were prematurely terminated by his President? What Mr Thamilchelvan has stated are not attached preconditions. They were already on the table. The question then is, how does it comport with the vehement opposition the President and her coalition partner the JVP expressed, condemning the concepts espoused in the ISGA?
Mr Thamilchelvan added two more significant statements to the Norwegian leaders [i] “That Norway’s role was vital and must continue and [ii] That there cannot be any preconditions attached to resuming the talks.”
Mr Kadirgamar having asserted uncategorically that “We would be totally opposed to any solution from outside” went on to claim that the “Norwegian facilitation suffered the ill effects of a high profile, possibly conferred upon them by the last government…..we would encourage the facilitators to reduce their profile.”
How and why? What have the Norwegians done to violate their role as third party facilitators? Mr Kadirgamar is extremely adept at covering his tracks with vague and unsubstantiated generalities.
Then comes the new Indian factor. In a report dated May 3, 2004, the Indian Foreign Minister stated, “Sri Lanka wants India to play a direct role in the peace process and India is not averse to playing a role to establish a ‘home grown’ peace in the island.”
The Indian Minister accompanied this statement with the startling revelation that “All political parties and sections of the island want India to play a more direct role in the peace process.” Whoever told him this? The arrogant Mr Kadirgamar, who speaks not only for himself but for all and sundry? Did the TNA ever make such a statement? Did the JHU? Did even their own coalition partner, the JVP, seek another foreign facilitator?
Now they are all jumping on this bandwagon and claim they all do, in an obvious effort to silence the talks. How does the inclusion of India as a facilitator comport with Mr Tamilchelvan’s fully expected assertion that the Tigers are completely prepared to resume the peace negotiations on the same principles and in the same atmosphere that the peace talks were carried out under the previous government?
Why is India’s participation needed at all? Is it to control the Norwegians or contain the LTTE? Even the Indian Foreign Minister said he awaits word from Sri Lanka ‘on the kind of role to be played by us.’ Would Mr K oblige with another vague explanation for introducing this ‘attached precondition’ to the talks? How does this square with Mr Thamilchelvan’s uncategorical assertion that there will be no preconditions attached to the resumption of the talks? Or did Mr K assume that the introduction of preconditions was a one sided partisan privilege reserved for the GOSL? [Government of Sri Lanka]
Not satisfied with plugging this new spoke into the wheel of the peace talks, Mr Kadirgamar continues in his to calmly add that the government wants a ‘collegiate’ and involved approach in the next phase of the talks. “Efforts are being made to revise existing structures to enable all those concerned in our country who we consider to have a legitimate interest and stake in the developments, which we are hopeful will culminate in a final solution. The President will play an important role in consultation with others……..If you have a high profile with chief negotiator, second negotiator and third negotiator, you are making something structurally rather rigid and I do not think that is desirable.”
Really? Why? What a bunch of unadulterated patent hogwash this is. They want to shower the talks with every conceivable opponent of the LTTE position and hope for it to succeed? Who does Kadirgamar think he is kidding? His beloved collaborator in political chicanery, the Daily News, or the Tamil people?
Does he even imagine that any of his analytical constituents will buy this heap of polluted crap? No he does not. All he wants to do is bamboozle an uncritical public into giving his crippling of the talks legitimacy. No sets of the most sophisticated crutches could ever restore the negotiations based on Mr Kadirgamar¹s latest deceptive schemes to end them. The two Ks have already jointly delivered their death blow to the talks, which they wanted to topple from the very outset.
Is this the promised end? As sure as death, it will become so.
The President¹s latest about turn indicating her willingness to continue with the talks with the Norwegian facilitators and the LTTE as the only other party to the talks; with the ISGA as its foundation, will ricochet on her immediately.
The JVP & JHU are vigorously opposed to the ISGA as the foundation for the talks, as was the President before the election. Both the JVP & JHU now crave Indian intervention. Her attempt to run with the hares [the TNA] and hunt with the hounds [the JVP] to balance her precarious presence in Parliament, just cannot survive the hours of the day. The Norwegians are fully alive to her desperate ploys, when they insist that it will take time for the talks to be resumed.
Dishonorable alliances with dishonorable motives always wind up where they belong, on the mortuary table. A new election seems most imminent, whether for the Sinhala supremacists to voice their intolerance separately, or in unison, is yet to be seen.