SRI LANKA: Political Squabbles Won’t Undercut Peace Talks

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Oct 28 2002 (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.”