POLITICS: Blueprint Emerges for Future Peace Talkss

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Jan 10 (IPS) - In the agreements reached during the just-concluded round of Sri Lankan peace talks here, the negotiators laid out the route they wish to use to cross the political minefields that lie ahead.

For starters, they prefer to avoid seeking an immediate remedy for explosive issues, particularly those that could destroy the still fledgling peace process between Colombo and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

But this does not mean shying away from politically sensitive matters. Rather, the two sides appear to be willing to soldier on by seeking solutions that will, in the end, satisfy the warring parties.

This was how the negotiators overcame the first major obstacle at the just concluded talks -- a sharp difference of views between a Sri Lankan military commander and the Tamil Tigers over the resettlement of Tamil civilians in lands under military occupation in Sri Lanka's north.

It arose after the military commander suggested that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are known, should disarm and decommission its heavy weapons in the north before Tamil civilians are permitted back to their homes.

During this fourth round of talks, which ran from Jan. 6-10, the LTTE pulled out of a special committee set up in the war-ravaged island's north to discuss the sensitive issues such as de-escalation and normalisation.

It marked the first major setback to the negotiations since the LTTE and Colombo began their peace talks at a Thai naval base in September last year. The rebels declared that this committee was redundant, since among its members was the military commander who wanted resettlement tied to the Tigers giving up their weapons.

Nevertheless, this act of protest did not result in the collapse of the talks.

On the contrary, the LTTE agreed to Colombo's proposal to speed up resettlement in areas beyond the disputed territory and, further, to seek the views of an Indian military expert on striking a balance between humanitarian and security needs.

After this compromise was reached, Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's chief negotiator, said: ''The peace talks are going on very well. There is no crisis.''

A similar pattern emerges in the way the negotiators tiptoed around another sensitive subject - the political concerns of Sri Lanka's Muslim minority - during the talks at a resort here some 32 kilometres west of Bangkok.

The LTTE has maintained that the negotiations had no room for direct talks between the rebels and a Muslim delegation. The government, though, has included a Muslim member on its delegation. The Muslims are Sri Lanka's second largest minority, making up seven percent of the country's 19.6 million people. The Tamils make up 18 percent of the population and the majority Sinhalese, 74 percent.

The Tigers' resistance to talking to the Muslims did not prevent the fourth round of talks from ending with a statement where Muslim issues received mention for the first time. ''The particular needs of the displaced Muslim population will be duly accommodated in the resettlement process,'' the statement said.

It added later on that the current negotiators, who are perceived as representing the Sri Lankan government -- hence the country's Sinhalese majority -- and the Tamil minority, have agreed to invite a Muslim delegation in the future to discuss pressing political issues.

The LTTE's reluctance to permit a Muslim delegation at the talks stems from a tense relationship between the rebels and the Muslim community in Sri Lanka's north and eastern province, the region where the LTTE has been waging a war to carve out the separate state of Tamil Eelam.

Currently, there are over 70,000 Muslims from Sri Lanka's north seeking to be resettled in their homes after they were driven out at gunpoint by the LTTE in 1990.

Over 64,000 people have been killed during this almost two-decade long conflict.

This approach to negotiations - not evading the sensitive issues completely, but finding a way around them or expressing willingness to take them up in the future - was not lost on officials from Norway, who are facilitating this peace process.

In particular, the government and Tiger rebels agreed to stay on course with the talks despite the troubling issues remaining unresolved.

''It (the fourth round of talks) has been a historic meeting,'' said Vidar Helgesen, Norway's deputy foreign minister. ''History is in the making, and that requires hard work, and the parties have displayed a lot of hard work in a constructive manner in this meeting.''

''Both parties recognised that there are issues that have to be addressed in earnest,'' said Gamini Lakshman Peiris, Colombo's chief negotiator. This attitude will be tested in the forthcoming rounds of talks, now that Colombo and the LTTE have agreed to take up human rights concerns during the peace process.

The development agenda for the war-ravaged north and east, ranging from infrastructure needs such as rebuilding roads to rebuilding hospitals and schools, is also another political minefield the negotiators will have to face.

Yet, if the language emerging from this pivotal round of talks is an indicator, both warring parties appear willing to stay engaged and talk, and not shy away from difficult issues.

It is a view reflected in a plea made in the final statement from the latest talks. The negotiators wanted the Norwegians to create a mechanism to ''ensure rapid corrective action by the parties in case of incidents that are or can be perceived as disrupting the peace process''. (END/IPS/AP/IP/HD/MMM/JS/03)