|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
LSSP urges LTTE to clean up its act by Batty Weerakoon The LTTE's reported announcement at the last Oslo sittings that it is willing to discuss a political solution to the ethnic problem in the context of a united Sri Lanka has not come as a surprise. Separatist ideology could only serve the purposes of an armed struggle. It has to give way at the negotiating table. Dr. Anton Balasingham showed understanding of this reality when he announced at the outset that a separate state is not an operative concept in the current negotiations. The LTTE leader Prabhakaran's speech on his 'hero's day' has been variously reported in the Sinhala and English media. Any negative attitude in its should not be allowed to interfere with the peace process. What is important to realise is that not Prabhakaran himself could with impunity sabotage that process even if that be his intention. The Tamil community is certainly aware that the LTTE's positions (as those of the government) in the peace process have to be justified to the international community. The concept of 'self-determination' has come to the fore in the Oslo discussions in the context of the self limiting position of internal self-determination.' The UN's Conventions and Declarations give precise meaning to these terms and define their relation. The Supreme Court of Canada had in its determination of August 1998 made a careful study of these positions and concluded authoritatively that: "The various international documents that support the existence of a people's right to self-determination also contain parallel statements supportive of the conclusion that the exercise of such right must be sufficiently limited to prevent threats to an existing state's territorial integrity or the stability of relations between sovereign states". The Canadian SC determination also mentions the international positions that inhibit 'any action that would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States conducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and thus possessed of a Government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction'. The LSSP commends these positions to the parties deliberating on these issues in Oslo and other arena. The LSSP also recognises as an encouraging and healthy development President Chandrika Kumaratunga's reported decision to be helpful in the peace process in keeping with the PA positions on the unity of the Sri Lankan nation. This is what was projected in the PA's Constitutional Amendment Bill presented to Parliament in August 2000. The LSSP urges the LTTE that it is necessary to clean up its act in the North/East if it wishes to gain credibility for its protestations on the nature of its 'political' objectives and related activity in this region. The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) shows it in very poor light concerning respect for democratic and human rights. The political thuggery it encourages against the EPDP cannot be condoned by democratic society. It is the responsibility of the SL government and the Monitoring Mission to ensure that the LTTE cannot either by itself or by proxy interfere with the democratic rights of other parties both in the North and the East. The LSSP does not see that pre-conditions for negotiations are helpful. Nevertheless it stands to reason that if, as claimed by the Prime Minister the pursuit of peace is a process, such process can be meaningful only to the extent that the LTTE is progressively and efficiently weaned away from its terrorism. It is to the extent that this is achieved that peace and normalcy will be restored to the day to day life of the people living in the North and East. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
