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| Sunday, 6 November 2005 |
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CFA signed in a hurry - Ambassador Sri Lankan Ambassador in the United States Bernard Goonetilleke addressing a forum on "The Sri Lankan Peace Process: Dead end or is there hope?" held in Washington on November 4 under the auspices of the CSIS in collaboration with the East-West Centre alluded to four factors that brought the peace process to a dead end. He opined that the undue haste with which it was signed led to expectations that could not be implemented. Since the Norwegians insisted on signing the agreement early there was no opportunity for the Government and the armed forces to study the text fully and come up with their observations, he said. "In that process swift signing of the CFA was given the priority over the substance of the agreement," he said. "Both sides could have taken a little more time to scrutinize the draft and come up with a more realistic text acceptable," he opined. Another factor was the shifting of the goal posts by the LTTE. He explained how the LTTE attempted to extend the territory under their command by putting up demands like the evacuation of High Security Zones by the armed forces on the pretext of solving "existential problems: of the civilian population." The next factor was the limitations of the SLMM, which did not have a mandate to enforce implementation of its decisions by either party. The fourth factor that led to the dead-end, in the opinion of the Ambassador was the policy of appeasement of the LTTE adopted by the international community. The Ambassador concluded that if the parties to the conflict were to move in the direction of peace and avoid ending in a dead-end once again, there would have to be new thinking on the part of both parties, particularly the LTTE. |
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