POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Stakes for Peace Rise as Peace Talks Near

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Aug 19 2002 (IPS) - With peace talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels starting next month, most Sri Lankans believe this is where the hard bargaining starts — but still hope and pray that the talks will not break up and end in yet another cycle of violence.

There has been no shortage of signs of how expectations are rising for peace to end the nearly two-decade-old ethnic conflict in this South Asian island nation, in the wake of the Aug. 14 announcement that peace talks would start in Thailand between Sep. 12 and 17.

A day after the announcement of the talks’ date, thousands of pilgrims from the country’s two main ethnic communities, Sinhalese and Tamil, gathered at a historic Roman Catholic church in the north-west and prayed for peace and reconciliation.

“No one will benefit by war. Not only people but the whole country and even governments are destroyed by war,” Bishop Frank Marcus Fernando said in a homily Thursday, urging devotees to march towards peace. The church in Tamil-rebel controlled territory drew a record 400,000 devotees.

Thousands of members of the majority Sinhalese community, like the bishop himself, who celebrated the annual festival at the Madhu shrine off the north-west coastal town of Mannar along with thousands of Tamils, a minority community fighting for equality in the distribution of education, land and jobs.

“We want peace. We are tired of the war,” says a Sinhalese woman, jostling with crowds to get near the bishop.

Unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas, as the Tamil Tigers are called, were also reported to have mingled with the crowds.

It was the biggest ever crowd in 20 years at the Madhu festival, which normally draws large crowds if not for the raging ethnic conflict since 1983. For much of the period between 1983 to end-2001, the north and east has been inaccessible to the majority Sinhalese southerners due to fighting.

The yearning for peace is growing by the day. The longer-than-usual pre-talks period with a ceasefire on since December 2001 has in a way helped people to cherish the peace.

Again, for the first time in many years, many are visiting northern Jaffna and eastern Trincomalee which were no-go areas in the past. “I visited Jaffna when my daughter was an infant. Now an adult, she would like to visit Jaffna out of curiosity,” says Sarath Cooray, a Colombo-based journalist who says the peace process is for once cutting across political ideologies and other divisive forces.

“There is no doubt that people want peace and the talks to start,” says Cooray, a supporter of the opposition People’s Alliance led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

The alliance has said it supports the peace talks, despite angry squabbles between Kumaratunga and cabinet ministers of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Front (UNF) government, with whom is the president is at odds.

Previous peace talks and ceasefires in 1985, 1991 and 1995 collapsed as both sides accused each other of reneging on promises, particularly building up military might during the talks.

This time, the situation looks unlikely to end up in another bloodbath at least for the next six months.

“I don’t think both sides would get back to fighting even if there are serious differences in the next six months. The situation has changed from past times when peace talks were on,” explains Kethesh Loganathan of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a local think tank.

“The prolonged pre-negotiation period has enabled people to get used to a ceasefire and enjoy it. People-to-people contacts are also increasing between the north and the south. Southerners are also seeing for themselves the enormous destruction in the north and the LTTE’s dominance there, including run administrative units like the police force,” he says.

“There may be hiccups once the talks begin, but I believe these would be overcome as both sides appear to be determined not to go back to fighting,” he explains.

An unofficial ceasefire in force since December, when Wickremesinghe’s UNF routed Kumaratunga’s party at parliamentary polls, was formalised in February by the prime minister and Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The truce came amidst growing public opinion for peace and a negotiated settlement led largely by a section of the business community, which was forced to play a key role after rebel attacks on the Colombo airport virtually destroyed tourism and exports.

“That was a wake-up call,” said Jagath Fernando, deputy chairman of the giant John Keells group and leader of the business-peace SriLankaFirst lobby group.

World opinion, particularly after terrorist attacks in the United States in September last year, also put pressure on the rebels to negotiate a political settlement instead of continuing a war that has cost more than 64,000 lives.

The conflict has also ruined an economy that should be growing by eight percent or more per year instead of an average four percent.

“There are great hopes and expectations tinged with worry,” says K Kanag Isvaran, a top commercial lawyer. “It’s like setting a date for surgery.”

Like many, he believes that this time around, this is greater commitment toward peace: “You see the public mood and the yearning for peace. That is a good sign,” adds Isvaran.

Cooray says, “There has been a state of tranquility and now we are heading into the critical period. Now it is between peace and war. It is anybody’s guess.”

“It is like an adventure,” he added, referring to the tens of thousands of Sinhalese who have travelled to hitherto unvisited areas in the war-torn north and the east in recent months.

A mega trade exhibition in the beautiful port city of Trincomalee, with 400 local and foreign companies taking part, drew large crowds when it was opened by Wickremesinghe on Friday.

“The town is packed and we have never seen such crowds before,” says Sinniah Gurunathan, a journalist. “There is a huge military presence because several politicians are in the area but people are freely moving around without being questioned. There are no security checkpoints.”

Both sides want the ceasefire to continue and a few previous violations have quickly been resolved by Norwegian-led truce monitors.

In the end, “there are some doubts about the Tigers. You can’t trust them,” muses Nimal Ranjith, a taxi driver. “But I don’t see any other way out of this problem other than by talking to them.”