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Responding to calls from many parties and despite afterthought caveats introduced by the Sri Lankan Government (SLG), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said that his organization is ready to resume stalled talks on a peaceful future in the island. The SLG said that it has gotten “positive signals” from the LTTE and directly from the leader Vellupillai Prabakaran through Norwegian facilitators in “some form a commitment.” Apparently, the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka visited Kilinochchi to obtain this commitment in a bid to assuage Colombo ’s “concerns” about “factual accuracies” in a statement by the facilitating Co-Chairs in Brussels .
The LTTE also had some concerns that the SLG will not use this opportunity to rearm and adhere to the territorial demarcations and the terms and conditions of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).
The SLG had also complained that the LTTE was not allowing supplies to the population in Jaffna , but the LTTE has refuted this claim saying that they had already informed International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that it would cooperate fully to transport humanitarian supplies through demarcated land routes. In turn, it accused the SLG of not opening the supply routes and operating an unannounced embargo.
Local activists who are able to communicate to the outside world talk of unending stream of human rights violations including abductions, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, and extra-judicial killings. Many human rights activists in Colombo , who are not Tamils, say that white unmarked vans abduct Tamil merchants for ransom and many disappear. Prices of essentials and staples in the Jaffna Peninsula have sky-rocketed even as thousands uprooted from their homes due to indiscriminate air raids live under trees and the sick do not have access to medical facilities as the SL Army (SLA) will not allow them to leave the area.
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In the meanwhile, the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Opposition United National Party (UNP), have started a joint meeting to explore ways to cooperate in the national interest. President Mahinda Rajapakse and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had earlier agree to cooperate and this meeting was a follow-up to that agreement.
India has been conspicuously absent in any solution or consensus building except to counsel peace. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had met Rajapakse and asked him to “seize the opportunity and resume talks” and cease hostilities while conceding SLG’s right to initiate military action to address challenges to its unity and national integrity. The problem is that violence is definitely not the answer nor is the death, destruction, and hatred of millions of Tamils. India has unfortunately been displaying a remarkable lack of interest in officiating, interfering, or even facilitating a solution; Chidambaram was the first senior Cabinet member to have visited SL since Rajapakse assumed power.
However, even though Colombo seems to have received a commitment “in some form,” it is unclear if it is going to abide by the wishes of the international community. A statement issued by the SLG’s Peace Secretariat said that while it was important “the peace process in Sri Lanka is conducted between a democratically elected government of a sovereign State and an armed group practising terrorism,” its “experience in the past” did not bode well for peace. It says that “the LTTE has always used peace talks as a period to enhance its military capabilities” while hiding the fact that it too has done exactly the same. It wanted the “Co-Chairs and the Facilitator” to “ensure that the past practices of the LTTE are not repeated in this instance” but refused to give any indication that it would abide by the same principles. The SLG wants “a practical mechanism to prevent the illegal procurement of arms” through “an effective blockade” so the “induction of weapons by the LTTE” is arrested. The SLG says that this is an “essential element to ensure a successful progression towards a political settlement.”
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While the LTTE is definitely guilty of arming and consolidating its power during a lull from fighting, the SLG is also guilty of the same crime. While the SLG is a democratically elected Government and is a sovereign state, it is also required to abide by international norms of humanity and humanness. The Constitution of SL is flawed, discriminatory, and stacked against the Tamils. When even uninvolved civilians are routinely assaulted and abused by a democratically elected Government, the legitimacy of the Government itself is in question.
This is where India needs to step in to do more demanding a cessation of these wanton abuses, asking for an international ban of sale of arms to both parties, asking for international human rights monitors on the ground, and a clear checks and balances mechanism that do not compromise the lives of innocent civilians. Memories of terrorism by the LTTE on India continue to hamper decision making and objective reasoning in India . The policy making apparatus needs a serious change in attitude and process to make the right decisions on SL.
Journal of Sri Lanka
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