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| Sunday, 8 June 2003 |
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Editorial |  |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Hope The eyes of millions of Sri Lankans will be fixed on Japan's capital city, Tokyo, over the next two days. The hopes of an entire nation lie on the deliberations and decisions of the international aid donor conference that begins in Tokyo tomorrow. The Tokyo aid conference represents a most significant step in the current Sri Lankan peace effort. Never before, since the ethnic conflict worsened into a fully-fledged secessionist war, has a peace initiative gone this far. Not only has the current Cease-fire Agreement held for the longest period of any suspension of hostilities in our two-decades-long war, but the concrete steps being taken towards social recovery by both sides have won the confidence and support of the international community to the degree that a formal, collective pledging of resource assistance is now under way. This alone is an achievement that must be appreciated and celebrated by the Sri Lankan people. Although the 'substantive issues' of the structures of power-sharing and devolution are yet to be tackled, the progress of social and economic recovery from the devastation and deprivation caused by the war in all parts of the country has been found to be a critical foundational stage of the on-going peace process. While the Tamil people are looking forward hopefully for the settlement of their political and cultural problems as a distinctive ethnic community with aspirations for some form of political and social identity, both sides of the conflict have found it necessary to give priority to meeting the urgent economic, social and infra-structural needs of the war-affected communities and regions. The Government has been quick to place the urgent and immediate socio-economic rehabilitation needs within the larger context of a giant national effort at post-war recovery for the whole country. It is this comprehensive and mature conception of 'Regaining Sri Lanka' that has encouraged the worldwide response to our national effort for peace and post-war recovery. But no peace effort is simple and straightforward, as we, Sri Lankans, know all too well from our own past experience. That this current effort has gone this far does not cloud our perception of the tremendous complexity of the overall problem that has to be resolved nor of the difficulties and pitfalls that must be overcome on the way to a final settlement. The current non-participation of the LTTE in the actual negotiating process is the sharpest challenge so far to this peace initiative. The various factors that led to this impasse must be fully understood and the peace process can only go forward if it is ensured that the same mistakes that caused this impasse are not repeated. Most important is the fact that while the negotiating process is in suspense right now, the overall peace effort remains on track. Both parties have clearly and substantively demonstrated their complete lack of desire to resort to military action again to achieve their political goals. If the LTTE has been careful to make this clear to the whole world, the Government's own, positive, non-belligerent posture on the current impasse has demonstrated its own commitment to peace. That is why the Tokyo donor parley signals progress despite the current problem. Now, all efforts must be made towards fulfilling the requisites for overcoming the impasse. If the critical problem being raised by the LTTE leadership is their exclusion from certain aspects and activities of the peace process, then every step must be taken to ensure that such exclusion does not occur in the future. The setting up of an institutional mechanism that will structurally involve the LTTE in the post-war recovery process in the North-East will go far not only to ensure that organisation's continued participation in the negotiations but also to guarantee the re-integration of whole areas of the country that have been pushed outside the national mainstream by the war. |
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