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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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A transparent peace process Peace Trail by Ranga Jayasuriya President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga met Government party leaders on Tuesday to brief them on her peace strategy. The next day, newspaper headlines said the President planned to form an all party consultative committee on the peace process. A President's source told the Sunday Observer that what was described in the media as an all party consultative committee was the same National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation, which was outlined by the President in her televised national address last month. The proposed advisory council will be a national forum of various political, religious and social leaders whose ideas will be communicated to the negotiators. The other institution, the National Council for Peace chaired by the President herself, would act as an apex body that will coordinate institutions dealing with peace. The source said the Peace Secretariat was now busy, 'informally' consulting civil society leaders on this issue and three meetings have been held with civil society and business representatives. SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena was also quoted as saying that the President would meet Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss the formation of the national advisory forum. Transparency and inclusiveness appear to be the Government's Rule Number One in the peace process. This was where the Wickremesinghe Administration went wrong and brought what would otherwise have been a vibrant peace process to the suspicion of the public. Whatever the reasons may have been for the Wickremesinghe Administration's reluctance to offer a stake in the peace process to the other parties, its consequences were calamitous. It distanced political parties which would have supported the peace process, the best example being the SLFP, and the sense of alienation brought many opposition law makers to the anti-peace platform, which thrived at the expense of the UNP's blunder. The UPFA Government must be aware of the loopholes of its predecessor's peace strategy and how these raised suspicions about the peace process among the public. Furthermore, the Government has to keep with its election promises of a transparent peace process. This is equally important, as it is already known that there are contradictions within the UPFA over the peace talks and the Interim Administration. Thus, a national forum on the peace process open to diverse political opinion would perhaps be the best place to reach a wider national consensus on the National Question. The Government's peace initiatives came at a time, described by the LTTE political chief as "the lowest ebb" in the entire peace process. Speaking to Asia Today on BBC World, Thamilchelvan charged that the Government and Security Forces were "trying to shatter the confidence and the hope that had been built over the last two and a half years". He said the Security Forces and the Government are harbouring renegade LTTE Eastern Commander Karuna and his forces which he said are instrumental in creating confusion and killing civilians. He said the LTTE is loosing its cadres and civilians during peace times, adding "it makes us feel that we are drifting back to war". On the same day, LTTE Trincomalee political leader Elinan accused the Government of "creating war-phobia". He said "the Tigers are ready to face a war if it is thrust on us". Speaking to the BBC, Thamilchelvan sounded innocent, but next day one of his cadres went on the rampage at the Batticaloa prison killing two Karuna loyalists; one was Kanakapathipillai Mahendran alias Satchi Master, who was tipped to be the General Secretary of Karuna's new political party. The death of Satchi Master, who spoke to the media under the pseudonym Maran, had been a fatal blow to the Karuna faction which was expected to register its political party - Democratic-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - this week. An EPDP spokesman said the registration work had been postponed after the death of Satchi Master. Diplomatic initiatives Diplomatic initiatives were afoot last week in the backdrop of rising tension in the East and allegations of army complicity with Karuna. The Ceasefire Agreement and tension in the East had been the key issues in the discussions between the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Chief, Gen. Trond Furuhovde and Thamilchelvan. The same issues resurfaced at the talks between Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar and Thamilchelvan on Tuesday. "The Government and LTTE should continue to work hard to maintain the Ceasefire Agreement," Ambassador Brattskar was quoted as saying at the meeting. He told Thamilchelvan that Norway as the facilitator is concerned about the spate of ceasefire violations. Clause 1.8 of the Ceasefire Agreement, under which the non-LTTE paramilitary groups were disarmed, has gained currency again among the LTTE ranks who while complaining about alleged army complicity with Karuna, demand these groups be disarmed under clause 1.8. Clause 1.8 of the MoU requires paramilitary groups to be disarmed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) by D-day + 30 at the latest. The Government shall offer to integrate individuals in these units under the command and disciplinary structure of the GOSL Armed Forces for service away from the North and East. During his meeting with Ambassador Brattskar, Thamilchelvan referred to Clause 1.8, adding that the "proliferation of armed groups posed a serious threat to the ceasefire agreement". However, Clause 1.8 had its own deficiencies. It enabled the Tigers to go on a killing spree of non-LTTE political activists, who were ever more vulnerable to LTTE pistol gang members after they handed over their weapons to the Government. EPDP, PLOTE, TELO and EPRLF (Varathan Wing) activists paid with their lives.An estimated 90 non-LTTE political activists were gunned down during the past two and a half years. If there is anything to learn from this, it is that disarming Karuna loyalists without security guarantee would only serve to repeat the recent history of political assassinations. And Ambassador Brattskar must have sensed this. |
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