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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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JVP changes stand on ISGA Peace Trail by Ranga Jayasuriya The Government, after an initial confusion over its stance on the peace process, which it attributed to inaccurate media reports, reiterated its commitment to the peace process last week. Within hours after newspapers hit the newsstands with headlines that the Government rejected talks on the ISGA, Minister Maithripala Sirisena, who was quoted in the reports, complained that he had been misquoted. Later, the Government said in a statement that the story carried by print and electronic media, both state and private, which was attributed to a statement by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at a UPFA Executive Committee meeting, was "totally misleading the public". "The Government is willing and keen to commence negotiations on an interim authority within the framework of a united Sri Lanka and to reach a durable solution to the conflict," it said. As the Government reiterates its established stance on the peace talks, last week's Cabinet briefing saw the UPFA's junior partner, JVP, indicating a marked shift from its previous rejection to negotiate an interim administration. JVP Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose party earlier rejected the LTTE's interim administration proposals as non-negotiable said the JVP's stance is that the "Interim Authority must be part of the final solution". "There should be an administrative structure for the North and East during the transition period from the current situation to a final settlement," Minister Dissanayake said when asked whether his party agrees to resume peace talks based on the ISGA. He said there were no differences of opinion between the SLFP and the JVP with regard to this matter, adding that they believe the solutions to issues must evolve with time. The JVP Minister's pronouncements of a consensus in the government's ranks over the peace process made things easier for Cabinet Spokesman Minister Mangala Samaraweera; he rejected speculations that the resignation of the President from the leadership of the ruling Freedom Alliance was triggered by the internal disputes in the party. Brushing away speculation that the President's action was intended to distance herself from the JVP which has a contrasting stand over the peace process, the Minister said the three front ranking JVP members were not even present at the Executive Committee meeting. JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa and General Secretary Tylvin Silva are not members of the UPFA executive committee. By resigning from the UPFA leadership, he said, the President intended to use her "quality time" in the peace process and development activities. He said her action would also allow her to be more flexible with the peace process and give her more time to focus upon matters of national interest. Humanitarian assistance Minister Samaraweera said the Government was also in the process of formulating a set of its own proposals for discussion which included development and humanitarian assistance. According to him these proposals are a combination of the 1995, 1997 and 2000 recommendations in addition to a fresh set of proposals. Resettlement and rehabilitation of the war affected population has always been a thorny issue on the peace front. Understandably, the absence of an accelerated rehabilitation, resettlement and reconstruction program left war affected communities without the peace dividends. When a delegation from the South met Thamilchelvan last week in Kilinochchi, the LTTE political leader lamented that the North-East population has been refused the fruits of peace. For the people in the Vanni and the East,Thamilchelvan said, normalisation means the right to go back to their homes and farmlands which he complained is being prevented by the Security Forces. He said the interim administration was necessary to carry out immediate rehabilitation and resettlement activities in the region, complaining that the political leaders in the South had misled the people over the objectives of the interim administration. However, if the Tigers wanted only a development oriented mechanism, peace talks would have resumed long ago. The Wickremesinghe Administration offered the LTTE two sets of proposals aimed at setting up a development-oriented mechanism to address the immediate humanitarian needs in the North-East. The second offer, a Provisional Administrative Council for the North-East gave the Tigers the lion's share in the council. But both offers were rejected by the LTTE, whose theoretician Anton Balasingham then charged the Wickremesinghe Administration of offering the Tigers a development oriented mechanism, when the latter had demanded a "politico-administrative structure". Accepted parameters When the Tigers' ISGA proposals were submitted, even the over-optimistic UNP peace negotiators were shocked seeing the proposals which went beyond all accepted parameters of any existing federal system. Only Prabhakaran knows whether he is dressing for a big bargain to ask the maximum from a Government dominated by the Sinhala majority who had prejudice over the devolution of powers to the ethnic minorities or whether he is hellbent over an imaginary political structure not in existence anywhere in human habitation. When the European Union's External Affairs Commissioner, Chris Patten met Prabhakaran - Patten later told a media briefing- he told the LTTE supremo "it is quite difficult to associate them (ISGA proposals) with any sort of federal system I am aware of". |
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