SRI LANKA: Peace Hinges on Talks With Tamil Rebels in Geneva

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

COLOMBO, Jan 26 2006 (IPS) - Another February promises a period of hope for Sri Lankans struggling to reclaim normalcy after over 20 years of civil war. This time, government negotiators and Tamil Tiger rebels are to meet in Geneva to help breathe life into a faltering ceasefire agreement.

It was four Februarys ago that the government of the day cemented the ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are officially known, ushering in the longest spell of peace in this South-Asian nation since the Tamil-Sinhala ethnic conflict erupted in the early 1980s.

The 11th hour decision, this week, by the belligerents brought to an end widespread speculation that a return to fighting was inevitable- more so because of the bloodshed in the country’s north and east since December. Close to 120 people – including about 80 soldiers and sailors – have died in a surge of violence.

While the Tigers have a hand in some of the recent attacks, the Sri Lankan state has not been an innocent bystander, either. Interviews conducted by IPS have revealed that shadowy groups linked to maverick sections of the country’s armed forces or para-military groups are linked to the murders of Tamil civilians in the east and the north.

It is to end such deaths and other violations of the four-year-old ceasefire that Colombo and the LTTE will resume talking. The planned face-to-face encounter is important because it comes nearly three years after the Tamil rebels pulled out of peace negotiations, though the ceasefire has held.

But the Tigers have pointed out that the resumption of dialogue with their adversaries will not mean that the peace talks are back on track. Since September 2002, Colombo and the rebels held six rounds of peace negotiations on a range of issues, including an announcement by the LTTE in Oslo that it would settle for a federal solution rather than outright separation.

”A conducive atmosphere and a peaceful environment is essential to resume peace negotiations,” Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s chief negotiator, told reporters this week in the LTTE-held town of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka. ‘’At the initial stage, the talks will be centred on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”

The other guarantees by Balasingham: ”There should be a cessation of violence. On our part we have pledged that there will not be any acts of violence” – could not have come at a better time for Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, Mahinda Rajapakse, who has been described by his critics as a hawk who will lead the country to war.

The change of heart by the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, after threatening gestures earlier to resume his separatist struggle, was also a triumph for Norway’s peace envoy Erik Solheim. His visit to Sri Lanka, this week, was viewed as the last hope for putting the brakes on a country sliding rapidly towards open hostilities.

Before leaving Colombo for a meeting with the Tiger supremo, Solheim told reporters that ending the violence was a key issue. ‘’The most important issue is to find some ways to stabilise the ceasefire and reduce the violations.”

”Trust and credibility between the two parties for future round of peace talks can be built during the negotiations about implementing the CFA (ceasefire agreement) in Geneva,” Somasundaram Sandrasegaram, a Tamil academic at the University of Colombo, told IPS. ‘’Rather than blaming the CFA for the problems, both parties must honestly abide by what they agreed to stop.”

Among guarantees breached in the ceasefire agreement are the firing of weapons in the disputed territories, armed raids, assassinations, abductions, sabotage, and possible activities of deep penetration units.

The LTTE, according to a Nordic mission appointed to monitor the ceasefire, has committed more violations than Colombo. Between February 2002 and November 2005, the Tigers have been faulted for committing 3,423 violations, as opposed to 153 by government troops during the same period, states the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The five worst LTTE violations are the forced recruitment of Tamil children in north and east Sri Lanka (the areas the Tigers are fighting for to create a separate ‘Tamil Eelam’ state), abduction of adults, harassment, abduction of children and provocative acts like hoisting the LTTE’s flag.

Government troops have been faulted by the SLMM for harassing Tamil civilians, hostile acts against the public, placing restrictions on movements and the occupation of private property.

The northern district of Jaffna and the eastern district of Batticaloa are where the LTTE violations are the worst. Government excesses have been most marked in Jaffna, by far the worst affected region in a conflict that has killed over 60,000 people.

Any hope of the Tigers salvaging their reputation will depend on the new commitments they make towards good behaviour during the Geneva talks – and keep. Inevitably, there will be a need to convince the SLMM, which has sounded increasingly sceptical about LTTE explanations, that violence directed at government troops will cease.

For President Rajapakse, the February test in Geneva and after lies elsewhere: just how sincere the state and its agents are to protect Tamil civilians from attacks by alleged rogue elements within the defence forces and para-military groups roaming freely in the disputed north-eastern region.

”The state cannot claim to be innocent with reports of killings, disappearances and rapes,” said an analyst. ‘’If the President doesn’t know it, then he must find out and stop these violations, to appear sincere.”