A week of being assertive
 

Sunday Observations: The Political Column

There is no doubt about it. Peace overtures were made by the LTTE this week for a cessation of hostilities --- through the Norwegians. The Norwegian Foreign Minister Bratskaar told the President that Tamilchlvam is ready for peace talks.

It was an absurd moment

Here was a foreign delegate brigning a message from a second tier functionary of the LTTE, and conveying it to the President for his response.

There was no parity of status here ----- so the President made clear. He also said that there should be a definite undertaking on the part of the LTTE leader Prabhakaran, that he is prepared to enter into a cessation of hostilities.

But, we have it on authority that the LTTE overtures for peace continued.

The government also strongly denies kite-flying stories that the state has come up with a set of proposals for the resolution of the conflict - -and would be handing over these proposals shortly. A government spokesman said clearly and categorically ''no such set of proposals have been worked out - - and no such set of proposals would be handed over to the LTTE shortly.''

In a week in which the government seemed to take the fight to all and sundry who were trying unsuccessfully to paint it into a corner, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the opposition leader was on a trip to Norway.

We publish elsewhere that the deputy UNP leader Karu Jayasuriya has got a presidential invitation to bring his troops in, and work for the common good with the government. But, talking of kite flying, there was another kite flying exercise in which certain quarters tried to make the point that the Indian government has categorically told the Sri Lankan government that it has to reach consensus with the UNP - - and with all other parties -- and that only such a solution 'by consensus'' would be considered by India.

Dead wrong ageing

All that the Indian government had told the Sri Lankan government was that a southern consensus is a sine qua non for a political solution, but no ultimatums had been give bringing one or the other party into the issue.

The President had time to attend despite all this, to party matters closer home. For example, he had occasion to berate his troops - - he said that a good number of Ministers were abroad, and that the Minister who had found fault with an invitation not being sent to the ex President for the SLFP convention was also abroad.

How do these things happen, the President is supposed to have queried..

The President also exhorted his men to put their shoulders to the wheel, and think constructively, for the sake of the country.

He was also not assertive with just his troops but also with the Norwegian peace monitors. He said that he cannot stop a war that he did not start - - and that his reprisal actions were purely defensive, and had to be carried out with a view to the fact that the LTTE was the aggressor.