SRI LANKA: Focus on Dialogue Marks Start of Peace Talks

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

SATTAHIP, Thailand, Sep 16 2002 (IPS) - The chief negotiators for both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels struck a conciliatory note — and delivered verbal bouquets to each other — at Monday’s opening of peace talks to resolve Sri Lanka’s long-running ethnic conflict.

In their opening statements, the negotiators spoke of a shift in thinking to resolve the 19-year-old separatist conflict — one that places greater emphasis on negotiations and dialogue, rather than violence and military means, as the way forward.

“We turn our backs on war as an instrument for realising the dream of a nation,” Gamini Lakshman Peiris, head of the four-member Sri Lankan delegation, said at the opening ceremony, held in the nearby town of Jomtien.

‘We renounce war and embrace negotiations as the key to our island’s future,” he said the rites attended by many diplomats here in Thailand.

Anton Balasingham, chief negotiator of the Tamil Tigers, added that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) shares the same determination to opt for dialogue than war to reach a political settlement.

“As far as the Liberation Tigers are concerned, I can assure you that we are seriously and sincerely committed to peace and that we will strive our utmost to ensure the success of the negotiations,” Balasingham affirmed.

The talks at a naval base here in Sattahip, south-east of the capital Bangkok, went into full swing after the opening ceremony. They are the first peace talks in seven years and the fifth round of negotiations since the conflict exploded into a bloody war in 1983.

The morning’s ceremony also saw the Sri Lankans articulating a position that would not only have soothed the ears of the LTTE negotiators, but also served as a boost toward the peace process itself.

Colombo does not view the current round of negotiations as “a zero sum exercise,” Peiris said during his prepared statement. “It is not a question of the winner taking all. Indeed it is plain for all to see, at this watershed in the meandering course of a fratricidal conflict, that there are no winners and no losers.”

The Tigers matched this spirit of compromise, by having Balasingham’s statement omit references to the state of Tamil Eelam, which the LTTE has been fighting to create in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces.

On Monday, Balasingham only spoke of the LTTE playing “a leading and pivotal role in administration as well as the economic development of the North-east”.

But an official from the Norwegian government, which has been mediating in the peace talks, says that the process that lies ahead will be far from smooth, given how bloody the Sri Lankan conflict has been.

“It is likely there will be setbacks, ‘hiccups,’ walkouts and breakdowns,” said Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s deputy minister of foreign affairs.

“Such incidents should not be seen as signs of failure. On the contrary, they should be seen as a success for both parties each time they settle their differences by heated discussions and not by the heat of the gun,” added Helgesen.

The Norwegians stepped into this intermediary role in 1998, following interest shown by both the LTTE and Colombo.

Colombo’s team for the talks, in addition to Peiris, include Milinda Moragoda, minister for economic reforms, Rauff Hakeem, minister for port development and shipping and leader of the country’s largest Muslim political party, and Bernard Goonetilleke, director-general of the country’s peace secretariat.

On the LTTE side, in addition to Balasingham, is Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, the Tigers’ legal advisor, Jay Maheswaran, rehabilitation and development expert, and Adele Balasingham, the delegation’s secretary.

In an effort to ensure the spirit of equality, the table around which the negotiators will sit in Sattahip naval base will not have either the Sri Lanka flag or the Tamil Tiger flag on display.

The agenda during the 12 hours of negotiations at the talks, which will run from Monday until Wednesday morning, is expected to range from the daily issues that civilians living in the war-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka face, to broader problems such as reconstruction, rehabilitation and the refugee problem.

The negotiators are also due to work out the pace and frequency of future rounds of talks, and what the two teams should address their minds to for each forthcoming encounter.

The more contentious issues that aim to seek a solution to the political problems between the Sri Lankan state and the Tigers — such as power sharing and the amount of it – will come up in later stages of the talks.

Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, which arose as a result of the country’s Tamil minority feeling marginalised by the state that has favoured the majority Sinhalese community since 1956, has resulted in over 64,000 deaths.

In addition, nearly two million people have been forced out of their homes, majority of them in the war-ravaged north-east region. Of that number, one million people are internally displaced and living in dire circumstances.

Since late February, the country has enjoyed a seven-month lull in the war, the longest such period of peace ever. It follows the formal signing of a ceasefire between Colombo and the Tigers.

“This is the furthest we have gone in terms of a ceasefire that holds, and it has created a mood of optimism among the people that peace is possible,” says Sunila Abeysekera, a member of the Peace Support Group, a coalition of Sri Lankan peace activists and non-governmental organisations.

“I think the negotiators are under huge pressure due to this sense of optimism among the people from all communities,” adds Abeysekera, who attended Monday’s ceremony. “There is a clear demand for the continuation of the peace process.”