Over the past several weeks, Rajapakse had hardened his stand against the LTTE
by first refusing safe passage for LTTE negotiators traveling to the Geneva
talks, calling for a ban on worldwide ban on the LTTE, not sending political
representatives to Oslo, refusing to alter the composition of the Sri Lankan
Monitoring Mission (SLMM) personnel, etc. Even with its position on the SLMM
monitors, it seems to be taking an intractable position.
Accusing the LTTE of being unreasonable on the monitors, it says that “did not
represent their parent countries but were like international civil servants,
who represented only their organizations” and not “not to their countries of
origin or citizenship.” Drawing international parallels, it says that "As with
the principle applicable within the United Nations, individual staff members do
not represent their home countries when discharging official functions. They
function under the single banner of the organization and the goals and
objectives of the mission.” It cites examples of “nationals from the United
States and United Kingdom which have proscribed the LTTE, hold senior positions
in UN agencies, some as Country Representatives that have interactions with the
LTTE and are not inhibited in anyway from carrying out their official duties
for such international organizations.” It accuses the LTTE of “taking a very
selective approach and adopting superficial arguments when referring to the
neutrality of EU countries.”
While, this argument seems fair, it goes on to nitpicking diluting the force
of its main line of reasoning. It says that the LTTE does not seem to mind its
chief negotiator Anton Balasingham being an EU national or that they get most
of their money from EU expatriates. Such nitpicking is not worthy of a
Government seeking to build confidence with peoples discriminated and
marginalized by decades of officially sanctioned economic program that saw the
ethnic Tamils as colonized population.
The SLG needs to show leadership in making peace. It does not make sense to
destroy its own large investments to restart the peace process for parochial
considerations. At the same time, the LTTE cannot carry on inventing objections
at every stage. Peace can only be achieved through reciprocity.