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Peace Secretariat Chief Dr. Palitha Kohona stressed that political pluralism and human rights safeguards were key areas to a sustainable peace and the government would take up these issues at future meetings with the LTTE.

"Peace should not be on anybody's terms, but a reasonable just and equitable peace from everybody's perspective," he said in an interview with the Sunday Observer staffer Ranga Jayasuriya this week.

He described that amending the ceasefire agreement was a waste of time, adding that the ceasefire was only the beginning and the parties should take to the next step. Denying LTTE allegations that the Security Forces do harbour "para military groups", the Peace Secretariat Chief said," the government do not arm... do not fund... do not provide umbrella protection for any armed group".

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: What is the government's position in the face of escalating violence against the Security Forces?

A: The Government has stated categorically that it will not deviate from the peace process, simply because of some major provocations. Our position is that we will consolidate additional strength...because peace is so important.

But at the same time, it is our hope, indeed, it is international community's hope as well, that provocations of this nature should cease forthwith.

The international community has stressed that the peace process may be hampered by unprovoked violence of this nature. And you cannot hope to go in for negotiations by threatening the other side.

Q: The LTTE accuses the security forces of harbouring "para military" groups and is likely to raise the issue at the next round. What is the government's position?

A: The definition of a paramilitary is that they operate under the umbrella of a conventional military force. The government has categorically stated that there are no armed groups operating under the Sri Lankan military.

The Sri Lankan Government does not arm, does not fund, does not provide umbrella protection for any armed group.

But, there may be armed groups and the Government is still committed to disarm them. The government do not encourage them, do not endorse them and in fact keep on trying to bring them under the ambit of the law.

It is possible that elements that broke away from the LTTE are still functioning in areas not necessarily in the control of the government. If we look at the incidents that took place recently most of them happened in the uncleared areas.

It is easy for the LTTE to accuse the government for propaganda advantage, but we have to be pragmatic and to think in practical terms.

Q: What are the main issues, the government delegation would take up in Geneva... hopefully, next week?

A: There will be several issues... The attention so far is on the compliance of the Ceasefire Agreement. I think it is a waste of time if we are to go to Geneva simply to discuss who complied with the agreement and who did not.

Our attention should be on normalising the situation in this country where we move away from the no-war no-peace situation to an actual peaceful solution.

Peace should not be on anybody's terms, but from a reasonable, just and equitable peace from everybody's perspective. From this point of view many issues will have to be discussed.

We feel it is absolutely important that everyone in this country would be given an equal opportunity to enjoy peace without violation of their human rights.

Then we also thought to ensure that there is room for political dissent, political pluralism and democratic freedom. These rights enjoyed continuously by the people of the South are not available for the people in the North-East.

And we also need to talk about development of the North and East. The economy in the North and East was much lower than the rest of the country. We must ensure that the people in the North and East also benefit at the same rate as the rest of the country.

Responsible accountable institutions must be built upon and members to these institutions can be chosen by a democratic process.

Q: Are you suggesting an interim mechanism? The initial idea was to have an interim agreement and then to move for a political solution?

A: I think it is a waste of time to talk about an interim administration. People just cannot wait indefinitely to enjoy the benefits of the peace process.

Therefore we should have parallel institutions for them to benefit from the peace process. I mean I am not suggesting that we can change the North and East overnight. There are conditions that have to be alleviated through confidence building.

Q: Parallel institutions means something like SIHRAN?

A: I think it should go a little further. We have had elections for the Local bodies in the South. The President is of the view that we should have elections in the North and the East. It should be a free and fair election so that all the political parties will have the opportunity to contest the election.

Q: Amending the ceasefire agreement has been demanded by some concerned parties. Will that be an issue for discussion in the next round of Talks?

A: Well, the question of amendments is not critical. Obviously the ceasefire has resulted in a reduction of violence. This is a process. Just because you have a ceasefire, you can not expect violence to be eliminated overnight. We have to be practical. We have to be realistic.

"My own view is that we should not waste our time, discussing amendments but instead, we should spend more time on the current situation and achieving peace. We need to work towards the peace and spending time on amending the ceasefire or counting the breaches, will be a waste of time.

Q: With your experience, how do you view the current situation or how can we move forward? What responsibilities do you think the government has and what responsibilities does the LTTE have in this regard?

A: There are two or three elements which need to be focused on: one is providing highest level of confidence to the other party. We are acting in good faith and the President is committed to achieve just and equitable peace and this is not the peace that is with the LTTE.

This is the peace that is also going to thrive Tamil population and other communities like Muslims and the Sinhalese living in the North and the East. So we need to create a confidence in the people of those areas that is the peace that will benefit them.

Then of course we must march towards this peace, providing economic incentives, development, better roads and other infrastructure. The government can do that, it can mobilise internal and international assistance much more than before. Because of the conflict and the insistence of the LTTE in actually controlling the distribution of resources, it had become a problem.

Many international donors are not comfortable with dealing with this organisation. Whereas the government has full access to international resources and it can disburse them at short notice and quite conveniently.

And of course from the government's perspective and from my perspective, the first thing is to have a pluralistic democracy, the ability of all parties to be selected, and huge emphasis on the protection, safeguarding and advancement of human rights - Most of the conflicts in the rest of the world have been resolved, during the past forty years, in Cambodia, East Timor and former Yugoslavia and also in Northern Ireland.

If you look at Cambodia, peace was achieved, not, because, there was a ceasefire, peace was achieved only after democratic rights were restored.

East Timor, where I was closely involved, there were elections and properly accountable institutions have been established. Today they have a young democracy, functioning and international community has begun funding for their development.

The ceasefire is only a beginning. We need to get to the next step: The protection of political dissension, ability of people to express and advance their political views without being threatened, intimidated and the ability to form political parties.

You have seen governments changing hands in almost all the countries in former Yugoslavia and those countries seemed to have prospered. And equally important that in every one of these countries - East Timor, former Yugoslavia and Cambodia- the international community is now pursuing those who have committed human rights violations.

"These things are the lessons that you learn being part of the international arena.

It is no longer possible to commit violations of human rights and commit crimes against humanity and roam freely indefinitely.

Q: Can that - hauling rights violaters before courts affect the reconciliation process?

A: I think it is on the contrary. Holding human rights violaters accountable for their crimes, might actually strengthen the reconciliation process. It will establish a certain confidence that in the process we subscribe to human rights declarations.

Q: Are you planing to expand the membership of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission? There was a suggestion to bring some Asian nations to the SLMM.

A: Our willingness to control, is not at our disposal. I mean other countries should agree and already there is an agreement between Sri Lanka and Norway providing facilities, rights and privileges to the Monitoring Mission.

If we are going to change the constitution of the monitoring mission, there need to be wide negotiations and again the problem is how do we divert our attention to things like that. Our main concern is peace. We need to divert our resources to achieving peace.

Q: Is that true that LTTE demanded for a sea plane to go to Geneva?

A: No. As far as I know, no such request was made.

Q: With increasing violence, are you still optimistic about the future of the peace process?

A: I am an optimistic man. It is the valuable prize that we need to work towards. At sometimes it may be hard no doubt. It is not easy. But it is worth it in the long run, for the sake of our motherland.

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