POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Impatience for Peace Growing

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Feb 21 2002 (IPS) - The first phase of political negotiations between the Sri Lanka government and Tamil separatist guerrillas may take between six months to even a year — a process that has many people now impatient to see an end to the country’s 19-year-old conflict.

“Why aren’t peace talks starting? We are all waiting for this peace,” said a disappointed Sri Lankan staffer working in a United Nations agency here, in a view that is shared by many people hoping for quick-fix solutions to the country’s nearly two-decade old ethnic conflict.

The fact that the current peace process is secretive — the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is not prepared to divulge anything that would jeopardise interaction with the rebels — has also seen the initial euphoria over a negotiated peace evaporating.

The stock market is a classic example. It soared to unbelievable levels just before the United National Front (UNF) won the Dec. 5 poll on a platform of peace, but fell to disappointing levels as peace seems a long way ahead.

But political analysts and diplomats are not unduly worried and in fact support the government’s measured progress and strategies on the peace front.

The first step of this lengthy process will be determined by a memorandum of understanding that is to be signed between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the next few days.

The memorandum requires the two sides to abide by a ceasefire for a year – thus extending the unilateral ceasefires declared by both the LTTE and the government since Dec. 24.

For its part, the government is also expected to either lift or suspend the ban on the LTTE sometime in March as part of this initial phase. Such measures by the government are part of its “confidence building” exercise that it has pursued since winning the December polls.

“It is not a bad idea to move slowly in this process and delay it until a full-fledged truce agreement is in place. Both sides won’t mind the delays. It is to the advantage of the two sides to have a formalised ceasefire in place,” says Kethesh Loganathan, a peace analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a private think tank.

Dr Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political scientist attached to Colombo University, believes the government and the rebels may jointly rebuild and reconstruct the war-ravaged north and the east, at least parts of it, and develop the regions with the help of the international community before talks begin.

That argument seems sound, given growing interest by foreign donors to fund rehabilitation and infrastructure projects in the two regions, which have been devastated by the conflict that has cost more than 60,000 lives.

“It is a sound strategy to solve humanitarian measures like providing enough food and medicines in addition to opening up roads closed for years to the people before getting into the nitty gritty of political discussions,” said an Asian diplomat.

Most analysts said the government has not even thought of the agenda for political discussions with the LTTE, focusing mainly on the proposed memorandum of understanding with the rebels on the formal ceasefire that would be monitored by a committee chaired by Scandinavian representatives.

Norway, in fact, has been facilitating the peace process and meeting the two sides to work out details of the memorandum and future talks. There has been speculation in the media that there would be a “talks on talks” before political negotiations begin.

Some ministers have been having separate discussions with junior leaders of Tamil Tiger guerrillas in rebel-controlled areas in peace- building efforts. And the Norwegian facilitators have been shuttling between Colombo, Oslo and London, where chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham lives, to smoothen the road to peace.

Colombo’s current approach to securing peace marks a distinct departure from the way previous governments went about it in 1989-90 and in 1994-95. In those previous efforts, the governments and the Tamil Tigers opted to commence peace talks immediately a ceasfire was agreed.

The memorandum, however, has also raised some problems. Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is demanding that he would sign it only if President Chandrika Kumaratunga reciprocates, which the latter is unwilling to do.

Kumaratunga’s reluctance stems from the concern she has expressed that the government’s push for peace is going too fast and her faulting the Tigers of using the current cessation of hostilities to conscript Tamil children into its ranks. And the UNF government cannot ignore Kumaratunga’s position, since under Sri Lanka’s current political reality of cohabitation the head of the government, in this case Kumaratunga, hails from one party, and the prime minister and his cabinet from another party.

But Kumaratunga is not the only one expressing concern about the Tigers forcing children into their ranks. Civilians and international groups including Amnesty International and UNICEF have also raised concerns over rebel recruitment of children to the rebel army.

Last Friday, Amnesty accused the rebels of using child soldiers and published the names of 13 missing children it feared had been conscripted.

“Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of the children who are thought to have been recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),” it said in a statement.

The girls and boys aged 12 to 16 were all members of the minority Tamil community for whom the guerrillas want a separate state in north- east Sri Lanka.

The rebels have said they were recruiting men and women over 17 to their administrative wing while volunteers were joining fighting units to keep the balance of military power.

Analysts said that the Norwegians were planning to set up eight monitoring committees in the two regions, which would monitor the ceasefire and look into complaints of violations from both sides.

These committees would comprise of representatives from the government and the rebels with Scandinavian officials chairing these groups.

Loganathan, who was involved in the first-ever peace talks in 1985 in the Bhutanese capital of Thimpu as a representative of one of the Tamil political parties, said hopes are up this time also because Norway is a country with a lot of experience in peace-making.

“It has been involved in peace-making in Palestine, Guatemala and in the latter stages in Sudan,” he said.