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| Sunday, 7 July 2002 |
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'Peace process - two main parties not explaining to people' Harry Goonatillake by Ramani Kangaraarachchi "No bullet has been fired between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE since last December on the initiative of new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, when the LTTE announced a truce that was accepted by the government within 24 hours.There will be no war, but also no peace settlement in the immediate future in Sri Lanka,."Air Vice Marshal Harry Goonatillake said in the course of a speech on" Sri Lanka's Debilitating 19-year Ethnic Conflict," on the invitation of the Director-General of the Institute of Strategic Studies at Islamabad last week. He explained that the protracted negotiations between the Government and the LTTE may lead to a lasting peace in the North but that it is a possibility in the distant future. His personal view is that there will be no war either this or next year. Air Vice Marshal Goonatillake said, that the majority Sinhalese fear that the Government was conceding too much to Tamils though he believed this would not lead to a separate Tamil state, because the LTTE wants only the internal administration of the north and east but total independence if internal administration was not acceptable. The people of Sri Lanka do not understand their demand as the two mainstream political parties did not explain this to their voters. Therefore, since 1983, three governments have tried to solve this problem through negotiations but failed. Moving on to the MoU signed with the LTTE, Air Marshal Goonatillake said that the modalities of talks such as evacuation of temples and allowing fishing in the troubled area in the North, the LTTE complains that there are many temples still under Army occupation while the government claims to have evicted ninety per cent of churches and kovils. However, it was a bold and courageous decision on the part of the Prime Minister to have declared that he would implement all the clauses in the MoU from the Government side and expect the same from the LTTE too by August 2. Winding up his speech, the Air Vice Marshal pointed out that 72% of Lankans were against the war,with the ratio rising to 80% early this year. World pressure is mounting on Colombo to put an end to this conflict. The US is more interested in blocking the export of terrorism. In fact, the US ambassador in Sri Lanka, Ashley Wills, on a TV broadcast last week said that a very substantial degree of self-rule should be given to the Tamils...." These sentiments of the US were also expressed in different ways by other members of the international community." India will not come to Sri Lanka's assistance fearing a backlash in Tamil Nadu. It is better to get rid of the notion that other countries will help to solve our problem, he said. Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Pakistan, Lt General Sri Lal Weerasuriya, diplomats, military hiarachy, both retired and in serving academics, and representatives of NGOs and the news media were present at the event. |
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