Weekly Review
Sri Lanka Scene
Norwegian Effort to Revive Peace Talks Fails
By T. Sabaratnam, July 29, 2004
Norway’s latest attempt to revive the government- LTTE peace talks failed but the current uneasy truce is likely to continue as both sides have pledged to uphold the ceasefire and had reiterated their commitment to the peace process..
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen said on Wednesday there is “little reason for optimism” and warned the country of “low intensity war.”
Saying the current situation was very risky Helgessen said, “The ground situation now gives little reason for optimism.”
Helgessen who met LTTE Political chief S, P, Thamilchelvan on Monday and President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Tuesday and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday told the media yesterday, “Peace talks are not likely to resume in the near future, but we’re not abandoning the peace process.”
Helgessen who reviewed the ground situation with Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission head Trond Furuhovde yesterday said the security situation was the biggest impediment to resume peace talks. He added that he had told the government and the LTTE the action they should take reduce the incidents of violence in the east and its overflow to Colombo.
“They know what action should be taken and I hope they take those actions, he said.
The actions that the government and the LTTE should take are: the government to disarm all para military groups including the EPDP and the small Karuna supporters and the LTTE to desist from suicide bombings and attacks on Tamil groups.
“The level of trust is pretty low and the ground situation is not conducive to resume talks,” Helgessen told the media briefing.
“The peace process is now in its most serious situation. Given that fact, I’m disturbed by this complacency and the fact that people tend to take peace for granted,” Helgessen said.
He urged the people and peace activists to pressurize both sides back to the negotiation table. “People want peace but they don’t want to support the peace process. People must realise that nothing comes free.”
He said it was not possible to delink the peace process from the peace. If the people want to enjoy peace they should support and maintain the peace process.
”The ceasefire agreement is not a peace agreement. It only means that the war has been frozen,” Helgesen said. ”Today, a frozen war is melting at the edges. It is not a good situation.”
Both sides, he said, needed to understand there was no middle ground between a military solution and pursuing a peace process.
Helgessen also blamed the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the opposition UNP for not strengthening Kumaratunga’s hand. He said the hard stand the JVP had adopted had tied Kumaratunga’s hands and restricted her flexibility.
He praised Kumaratunga’s commitment for peace. He said Kumaratunga was flexible and had agreed to LTTE’s condition of discussing the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) exclusively, but the JVP has continuously insisted that the core issues for a final settlement be taken up simultaneously.
Kumaratunga’s office Tuesday said she “is willing and keen to commence negotiations on an interim authority within the framework of a united state and to reach a durable solution to the conflict.”
She had earlier conveyed this stand to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians last month but reneged when JVP said she had no right to take that decision without consulting them.
Kumaratunga conveyed to Helgessen her new stand after the Norwegian envoy told her that no accord had been reached with the LTTE on a proposed agenda to reopen talks that have been suspended since April last year. He told her that the LTTE was sticking to the position that its ISGA proposal should be discussed first.
“Helgessen briefed the president on his discussion with S P Thamilchelvan of the LTTE, indicating that there was no agreement on the proposed agenda for the commencement of the direct negotiations between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE,” the statement of the President’s office said.
It said the government had hoped the LTTE would agree to resume talks on the new basis.
But the JVP is continuing a public campaign against the ISGA proposals. It launched a poster campaign last week saying it would never agree to talk about the ISGA. Its leaders have made public statements that they would block any decision by Kumaratunga to discuss ISGA proposal first.
LTTE remains suspicious of Kumaratunga’s new proposal because she has the history of positions. Thamilchelvan had told that to Helgessen and had exclaimed, “How can we trust a President who says different things at different things.”
Thamilchelvan also told Helgessen that even if Kumaratunga was genuine she is not in a position to back her words with action as her government is still in a minority in parliament and JVP, a partner in her government, is against ISGA.
“We want to see how the JVP react [to Kumaratunga’s offer],” Daya Master, LTTE spokesman, said. “We don’t believe they will agree to this. We will wait because we are committed to the peace process.”
Apart from Kumaratunga’s inability to match her words with action the security situation is giving worry. “The past two-and-a-half months had been the most dangerous period,” Helgessen told the media referring to a series of killings in the eastern province and Colombo, in which LTTE cadres and supporters are being targeted by paramilitaries backed by the Sri Lankan military and counter-killings of the gunmen by the LTTE.
The upsurge in violence comes after a renegade LTTE commander, whose six-week rebellion in March was crushed by the Tigers in a lightening offensive over the Easter weekend, sought sanctuary with the Sri Lankan military.
The LTTE says the military is now assisting Karuna’s loyalists wage a covert war against their cadres and supporters and has begun hitting back.
On Sunday, seven of Karuna’s men, including his deputy Kuganesan and a Sinhalese person whom the LTTE says was a Sri Lankan intelligence officer, were shot dead at a safe house in Kottawa, a Colombo suburb. The LTTE denied responsibility, however, blaming the internecine fighting amongst Karuna’s cadres. LTTE charges that the Kottawa house was an army intelligence safe house.
Tigers on Tuesday accused the government of having a “hidden agenda” to weaken them. Tamil people generally believe that Kumaratunga government is using the army intelligence to attack the very basis of the LTTE demand for a separate state of Tamil Eelam, Tamil nationalism
LTTE declared on Tuesday through K Semmannan, its Deputy Political Head, its determination to fight back such attempt.
Semmannan said, “For the last two and a half years, LTTE is adhering to the cease-fire agreement and maintaining utmost patience to make the peace talks a success. But the Sri Lanka Government is trying to use the peace climate to weaken us. We will defeat government’s hidden agenda to weaken our military and political strength.”
Helgessen’s warning of a ‘low intensity war’ and Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama’s panicky reaction to falling value of the Sri Lankan rupee against US dollar had upset the foreign exchange market. It is expected to further dip the value of the rupee.
The price of the US dollar which was 98 Sri Lankan rupees two weeks ago rose to Rs. 103 last week when the Sri Lankan Central Bank intervened to bring it down to Rs.102.50. With the news about the failure of the Norwegian peace effort it shot to Rs. 103.50. This rising trend led exporters to hold on to the dollars expecting to profit from the rising value of the dollar.
Amunugama has threatened to make it mandatory for exporters to bring back their export earnings.
With donor countries linking aid to progress in the peace talks the signs of an economic collapse is hovering over the horizon.