SRI LANKA: Political Squabbles Will Not Undercut Peace Talks

By Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Oct 28 (IPS) - Political squabbling between Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Chandrika Kumaratunga is feeding fears of instability, but analysts say it is unlikely to undercut peace talks with Tamil rebels that will enter their second round on Oct. 31.

In fact, some say, the latest tensions in the fragile cohabitation between rivals Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe may in a way be helping the peace process by creating a release valve for opposition to the peace process.

Kumaratunga has maintained that the government led by Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) has been giving too in much, too quickly to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers rebels are formally known.

Still, ''all this talk of polls won't affect peace, because remember there has been a ceasefire since December and that is continuing without any major problems," said Jehan Perera, media director at the National Peace Council, a Norwegian-funded peace promoter.

"No side can afford an election though the government may be saying it wants to hold one,'' he added. ''The talk of polls may cause some instability in the economy but it won't affect the peace process.''

''In a way, I think the peace process would move forward using the little chaos in the south (the Sinhalese political scene),'' Perera said. Some say that discussion of the peace process, including opposition to it, at least creates space for non-violent, democratic discussion of the issue.

"I don't think the cohabitation will break down,'' agreed Kethesh Loganathan of the private think tank Centre for Policy Alternatives. ''It would be rocky but would continue, since no side wants elections. It won't hurt the peace process.''

Last week, the rivalry between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe led to talk that Wickremesinghe's UNP may seek fresh polls to strengthen the fragile majority it has in the legislature and deal with Kumaratunga's challenges.

Friction was aggravated by the Supreme Court's decision last week that rejected constitutional amendments that the UNP-led government wants in order to clip the powers of the president.

Still, analysts say the peace process to end the country's 19-year-old civil war must go beyond domestic political differences.

As the Sri Lankan government prepared for the talks in Nakhon Pathom outside the Thai capital Bangkok, Kumaratunga stuck a conciliatory note and urged an end to bitter differences between political parties.

"The petty political bickering must now be confined to the pages of history. We should join hands and formulate clear programme for peace acceptable to all (communities) including the LTTE (rebels)," she said on national television on Thursday.

But she also pointed to ceasefire violations that she says are hurting Sinhalese and Muslims.

Kumaratunga said that learning from the five previous attempts to solve Sri Lanka's war, ''it would not be wrong for me to say that the absence of war is not peace. It has proved to be only a period of respite for further continuation of war.''

On Oct. 23, Kumaratunga snubbed visiting Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen, saying she had other engagements.

Helgessen, the official spearheading the Norwegian government's role as a facilitator of the peace process, also met Wickremesinghe and Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

At the first round in September, chief Tiger negotiator Anton Balasingham said that the rebels had scaled down their demand for a separate state to that of greater regional autonomy for the Tamils.

The Oct. 31-Nov. 3 talks are expected to focus on three key issues, says Constitutional Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, head of the government delegation.

The government and rebel sides are expected to create a Joint Task Force (JTF) for humanitarian and reconstruction activities in the north and east. Its creation is also key to a donors' summit for Sri Lanka to be held in Norway on Nov.25.

Peiris said the two other key issues are the resettlement of displaced persons and ''strengthening the ceasefire implementation''.

Unrest in the eastern region, which has a sizable number of Muslims and Sinhalese in addition to the minority Tamils, would also be an issue.

It is actually threatening the fragile UNP-led coalition. Some MPs of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a key government ally, are boycotting parliament over the government's alleged failure to stop extortion, kidnapping and harassment of Muslims by the Tigers.

Muslims are also demanding a separate council in areas where there are sizable Muslim populations in the east, saying they do not want to be ruled by another minority group.

Kumaratunga cited seven major incidents of violence in the eastern province in the last two months, which she said ''have caused serious problems to the Muslim people and in some instances to the Sinhala community living in the east''.

But despite these difficulties, some encouraging events took place ahead of this week's talks.

In a show of confidence in Wickremesinghe's government, Tiger chief negotiator Anton Balasingham was whisked off to the rebels' northern jungle base in a Sri Lankan military helicopter after he arrived mid-October from London, where he is based.

No ministers accompanied him on the internal flight - probably his first here since the ethnic conflict broke out in 1983.

Balasingham's use of a military helicopter was a far cry from his trip to Tiger-controlled areas a few months ago. Because he is still a wanted fugitive in Sri Lanka and India, he landed in the Maldives Islands and was flown to the northern Wanni region in a seaplane, bypassing Colombo.

The LTTE team in this week's talks includes new faces like S P Tamilchelvan, the group's political advisor, and Col Karuna (one name), the rebels' top military commander for the east. The team's composition is another sign that the eastern crisis is likely to figure in the talks.

The Sri Lankan government delegation will have three advisors, including a military representative, Maj Gen Shantha Kottegoda. (END/IPS/AP/IP/FS-JS/JS/02)