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| Sunday, 15 August 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Government stands firm Peace Trail by Ranga Jayasuriya Recent developments on the peace front are suggestive of a degree of firmness on the Government's side, a strategy one would suggest poses a counter balance to the LTTE's stubbornness. Equally, the previous experience of the PA in negotiations with the Tigers and the opinions of the UPFA's junior partner, the JVP, must have necessitated such a firmness on the Government side. But what is equally clear from the recent developments is that the Government seems to facilitate peace building efforts undertaken by the Tigers. One recent example is the granting of duty free concessions for four vehicles for the LTTE Peace Secretariat. Concessions to the LTTE, however are not a new phenomenon on the ongoing peace process. The Wickremesinghe Administration did the same, but in a secretive manner which, indeed, helped its opponents to lambast the peace process. Perhaps, the most controversial was the provision of communication equipment to the Voice of Tigers through the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo. When the Tigers requested duty concessions for imported communication equipment, the UNP, which feared negative publicity, opted to secret channels. It requested the then Norwegian Ambassador, Jon Westberg to mediate in the transaction, which enabled the equipment to be sent via the diplomatic channel which did not require payment of custom duties. But when the incident was later revealed, the secretive nature of the transaction caused many a controversy. While sustaining any LTTE peace building measures, the Government has also made it clear that it would not turn a blind eye to any LTTE action violating the spirit of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). When Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Mangala Samaraweera addressed the weekly Cabinet briefing last week, he condemned the killing of two EPDP activists, Seenithambi Yogarajah and Arithmalingam Ramanee allegedly by the Tigers and warned that such violations will definitely cause a "strain" on the peace process. Another incident is the Defence Ministry's refusal to escort 90 LTTE cadres from Omanthai to Sampur, citing the "sensitive nature" of the destination. A month ago, the Navy also refused permission to the LTTE to ferry a group of cadres, giving the same justification. Complex issue LTTE's sea and land movements are however a complex issue. The Wickremesinghe Administration and the LTTE had agreed on a set of proposals in this regard long ago and refusal to abide by the agreement could lead to further complexities. Meanwhile, the Government's Peace Secretariat Chief, Jayantha Dhanapala visiting Jaffna on his first tour to the peninsula in his new capacity, expressed hopes that peace talks would resume shortly on the LTTE's Interim Administrative proposals and the Government's counter-proposals which are now being drafted. He stressed that the two signatories to the Ceasefire Agreement should abide by the CFA till then, pointing out that the second highest number of ceasefire violations have been reported from the Jaffna peninsula. As for the CFA, the LTTE has also been complaining about the non-implementation of the provisions of the agreement for quite some time, indeed, since the disagreements arose over the dismantling of High Security Zones about two years ago. The Editorial of the LTTE Peace Secretariat's monthly news bulletin for July lamented that normalcy has not dawned on the people in the North and East. |
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