SRI LANKA: Political Consensus Boost for Geneva Talks

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 26 2006 (IPS) - As the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse prepares for talks with Tamil Tiger rebels in Geneva on the weekend, it goes in with hands strengthened by a political understanding arrived at with the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

Soon after the country&#39s largest political parties, the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the UNP, signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, the air was filled with optimism and hopes were expressed for the success of the Oct. 28-29 Geneva talks.

"Bravo, they did it," was how the influential ‘Daily Mirror&#39 newspaper summed up the deal in its Tuesday edition.

The two traditional rivals have agreed on a two-year plan which would mean that the UNP would support Rajapakse&#39s SLFP in five key areas, including finding a negotiated settlement for the country&#39s long-standing ethnic problem and improving the country&#39s human rights record, under international scrutiny.

"The UNP reiterates its commitment to extend support to the government in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict while opposing terrorism in all its manifestations and upholding human rights," the MoU said.

Many in Colombo view the deal as strengthening the government&#39s hand at negotiations. "Even the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) once said that they find it difficult in seeking a solution to the issue because whoever comes to power changes their agendas. The LTTE will find it difficult to wage war with the latest developments in the south," Itthapanne Dammaloka, a leading monk, told IPS.

The deal could not have come at a better time for Rajapakse whose SLFP leads a coalition that includes hard-line pro-Sinhala parties that are pressing for a military solution to the ethnic conflict.

As a result, after Rajapakse assumed office in November, Sri Lanka has seen the worst fighting in the last five years with a February 2002 ceasefire mediated by Norway now remaining only on paper.

More than 550 combatants were killed in fighting in October alone and, according to figures maintained by the United Nations, as many as 1,600 people may have been killed in violence since Rajapakse assumed office. The ministry of defence acknowledges that 664 civilians have died in that period while truce monitors, counting troops, rebels and civilians, put the toll at over 2,000.

The Rajapakse government&#39s hard-line military strategy produced a string of successes in the north and east of the island, where ethnic Tamils are concentrated, but the Tigers retaliated with recent suicide attacks in the Sinhala-dominated south. The deadliest of these was in Habarana, 120 km north of Colombo, on Oct. 16 when more than 100 sailors were killed.

The fighting has also resulted in great hardship for the civilian population in the north and east where international and local aid organisations have been struggling to provide aid for an estimated half-a-million people, mostly ethnic Tamils.

‘&#39It is becoming ever more difficult to get help to the most vulnerable,&#39&#39 Louis Michel, European Union commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said in a statement from Brussels on Tuesday following the release of 5 million euros (6.3 million US dollars) in aid to conflict-affected people in the north and east and to those who fled to India&#39s Tamil Nadu state.

"We have placed the country first – with this coming together it would be possible to eliminate terrorism, and build a country at peace where all people can live together without fear," Rajapakse said after signing the deal with the UNP.

Without the support of the UNP, the SLFP is in danger of being reduced to a minority should the hard line People&#39s Liberation Front (PLF) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a party represented in parliament by Buddhist monks, pull out.

Both the PLF and the JHU are against devolution of power to the LTTE, as agreed upon by an earlier UNP government, and have said that the Tigers should be disarmed before any negotiations begin. They have also accused the Norwegians of being sympathetic to the LTTE and have demanded their removal as facilitators.

Rajapakse appealed to both his coalition partners to continue supporting the government, an unlikely scenario if the government opts for negotiations over military gains. "We invite all other parties, including the PLF and JHU to also join the government to help better serve the country, and solve the key issues before the country and people," he said in an appeal.

The PLF has reacted to the MoU by declaring that it is against the pledges made by Rajapakse when he contested for the presidency in 2005. The main criticism is levelled against the approach the President now proposes to take on negotiations with the Tigers.

According to the PLF, Rajapakse who stood for a unitary state while running for office has now changed his stance to return to the idea of federal power sharing. "The MoU has become an agreement that paves the way for the negotiation table which is advantageous to Tiger terrorists and would dampen the limited measures that have been launched militarily at present to defeat Tiger terrorism," the PLF said. It has launched an island- wide campaign to protest against the MoU and the talks with the Tigers.

The JHU too has said that it would campaign against the new political understanding. Both hard line parties also see the MoU as an indication that the government is giving in to international pressure. ‘&#39There is also the possibility of Tiger-friendly international forces such as Norway interfering further in our affairs," the PLF said in a statement.

The SLFP-UNP understanding has been welcomed by the United States, Japan, the European Union, Norway and India, countries which provide aid and see the deal as the first step towards building a southern consensus.

"We believe they (Norway) have been playing an extraordinary role and we are doing everything we can as co-chairs (of a support group consisting of the U.S., EU, Japan and Norway) to support the efforts of Norway. I think it is only through those efforts that we are going to see the kind of political progress and the kind of progress in people&#39s lives that can really make a difference," U.S. assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher said in Colombo last week.

Already, the government is facing a barrage of international criticism over its recent human rights record. The MoU singles out the issue as an area where the two parties would cooperate. Officials from the U.N., Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have all called for the setting up of an international human rights monitoring body on the island.