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Wickremesinghe’s
visit coincides with Rajapakse’s visit to Pakistan
where Lanka and Pakistan signed three minor agreements
and promised to fight terror together. Wickremesinghe
is seen as a major peace-dove that had the support of
LTTE in previous elections. However, in the last
elections, the LTTE did not endorse him leading to his
loss.
Analysts
have speculated on reasons for the lack of LTTE
endorsement of Wickremesinghe. Some say that the LTTE
wanted more from Lanka and punished Wickremesinghe for
not delivering enough—referring to the stalled peace
process. Most others believe that the LTTE wanted to
escalate the situation by getting a non-peace process
politician into power so they can pick a fight and
continue the civil war. Many accuse the LTTE of not
really desiring peace.
The
LTTE says that it desires peace but at respectable
terms. They accuse the Lankan Government of lack of
goodwill negotiations, encouraging militia to kill
their cadre, and inciting
the Tamil Muslims to fight them. The Lanka
Government rejects this charge.
However,
the lack of unity or political consensus among both
the Government and the Tamil leadership is creating a
stalemate situation. That is what Singh was asking
Wickremesinghe to do.
An
obviously unimpressed Wickremesinghe said that while
India has been talking about this “southern
consensus” for a while, he encouraged the country to
be more transparent. India has repeatedly insisted
that it wants a unified Sri Lanka and for the
promotion of a pluralism in Lanka. However,
Wickremesinghe wants more but acknowledges that India
is doing its “best” and India is unable to give
more.
The
reasons are multi-faceted. Firstly, India’s southern
state of Tamil Nadu shares ethnic, history, language,
and culture with Lankan Tamils and will not accept any
deal that will marginalize them. Secondly, it is now
widely acknowledged that the Lankan Tamils have been
systematically oppressed, discriminated against, and
denied development and further denial of rights and
growth is not acceptable in India. Thirdly, India has
banned the LTTE and blames it for the assassination of
former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi but also recognizes
that it has large support in Sri Lanka and hence the
conclusion that it cannot be ignored in any
settlement. Fourthly, India’s failed military
experiment with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in the
80s has made it shy of taking any military position on
this conflict. Fifthly, since Lanka itself is not
clear how to proceed, it is impractical for India to
advocate a path. |
