By Ranga Jayasuriya

Peace negotiations, if it does take place any time soon, are not going to be as unconditional as Donor Co-chairs announced. The government has already demanded an undertaking by the Tiger supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran to cease hostilities, failing which, the government has also made it clear that it would go ahead with military action.

The chief government negotiator Nimal Siripala de Silva and Foreign Secretary G. Palihakkara who met the Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar on Thursday asked the Norwegians facilitator to extract an undertaking from the Tiger chief to cease violence. It should be an undertaking given to the government, as well as to the Norwegian facilitators and to the donor Co-chairs.

Gone are the days of soft peddling with the Tigers. Strengthened by the recent military successes and fed up with the intransigence of the LTTE, the government has opted decidedly to a assertive position on the peace front.

The government has announced that it would reserve right to use force whenever the Tigers breach the ceasefire agreement even during the proposed talks.
“If the Tigers fired a single shot after Prabhakaran’s undertaking, the government would withdraw from the CFA,” warned the Defence Affairs spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella.

The government has conveyed to the Tigers that there would be a zero tolerance policy now onwards to any provocation.

It is common the man’s opinion that the Tigers agreed to talks, because of severe beating in the battle front and to halt security force’s push towards Elephant Pass.

However, the lull in the Northern front in the past few days is suggestive that the government has ordered a restrain on the troops. According to top government sources the government is awaiting the Tiger supremo’s response, before the government decides on the troops advancement.

If the government was hurt by certain references in the donor Co-chairs’ statement which referred to air force bombing of a “school” in Mullaitivu and killing of aid workers as mentioned, remarks by Erik Solheim, the Norwegian International Development Minister was adding insult to injury.

Solheim was heard on electronic media fixing dates for the resumption of talks between the government and the LTTE in the first week of October.
He told the local and international press that both parties to the agreement had agreed to unconditional talks.

But, barely an hour after he spoke from Brussels, announcements were made in Colombo, contrary to Solheim’s statement.

“The President was shocked and angry ( with regard to Solheim’s remarks). The government was not consulted before fixing the dates and the venue for talks,” said an angry government Defence Affairs spokesman, Minister Rambukwella.

Later government fired a strongly worded press statement, rebutting the remarks by the Norwegian International Development Minister.

“The Government of Sri Lanka is highly disturbed with regard to the statement made by the Norwegian facilitator, as the government neither agreed to unconditional talks nor was it consulted. Thus the co-chairs, the international community and the general public have been misled.

Mr. Solheim has also made reference to the North & East merger. However, de-merger is a matter, constitutionally vested with the general public of the country through a referendum. Furthermore, the 1987 Indo-Lanka peace accord deals with this issue in detail.

The matter is also currently being challenged before the Supreme Court. Under these circumstances the facilitator making any statement with regard to an internal matter of Sri Lanka is unacceptable,” the government’s peace secretariat stated in a media statement.

LTTE’s position with regard to the talks also is not “unconditional” as the Donor Co-chairs announced. Tiger political commissar S. P. Thamilselvan earlier demanded the security force’s withdrawal from Sampur before the resumption of peace talks.

Thamilselvan was later quoted that the “opportunities for resuming talks will be much stronger when the Sri Lankan government cease’s its military action and all the CFA articles are fully respected and implemented.” When Minister Siripala de Silva met the Norwegian Ambassador, he complained that Minister Solheim had overstepped his mandate when he announced dates for talks with out consulting the Sri Lankan Government.

But the Norwegian ambassador was on his heels defending Mr Solheim. Ambassador Brattskar ruled out procedural errors in the conduct of Norwegian International Development Minister. Indeed, Ambassador Brattskar said, what Mr Solheim had done was only airing the concerns of the Co-Chairs.

Before Mr. Solheim, Japanese special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi was also quoted in electronic media as fixing dates for talks in the first week of next month.
Interesting enough, logistics has been always a thorny issue in the Sri Lankan peace process. Disagreements over the venue once delayed ceasefire talks -later held in Geneva- for the months. Then, the second round of Geneva became a non event due to the disagreement between the government and the LTTE over the composition of the government’s peace delegation. This is also not the first time, Oslo, perhaps out of over-enthusiasm, overstepped its mandate. Earlier, Same Mr. Solheim along with Tiger theoretician Anton Balasingham announced Oslo as the venue for the talks on the ceasefire agreement. The announcement was flatly rejected by the government which demanded an Asian venue.

Mr. Solheim’s fixing dates and venues for talks drew some harsh words from the Jathika Hela Urumaya as well as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the latter insisting on the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement and removal of the Norwegians.

But, greater worries of the government had been on the certain references in the Donor Co-chairs’ statement. It sounded like the Co-Chairs have brought heavily from the Tiger propaganda.

Coated in sugar-like appreciation of President’s decision to appoint a committee of international right observers, Co-chairs had a bitter pill for the government.
“The Co-Chairs are deeply alarmed by the recent deliberate violations of the Ceasefire Agreement by the Parties. These have escalated violence and resulted in massive and widespread human suffering, including the abuse of human rights, the displacement of innocent citizens, a humanitarian crisis and an exodus of refugees to India.”

“Both parties must stop further violations of fundamental principles of Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. The Co-Chairs condemn the numerous violations, such as the disappearance and feared killings of large number of Muslims in Mutur, the murder of 17 aid workers from the French NGO Action Contre la Faim, the claymore attack on a civilian bus in June and the bombing of the school in Mullaitivu in August. The Co-Chairs are particularly concerned that even major cases of human rights’ abuses are not successfully investigated or prosecuted. As in any modern state, the culture of impunity must stop. The Co-Chairs welcome the call of the President for international assistance on the human rights issue, and offer to send a mission of high-level experts to review the current situation and suggest further actions before the end of October.”

“The Co-Chairs expect guarantees for the safety of NGO workers and for ensuring access for NGOs and international organizations to help citizens and communities in need of essential humanitarian assistance and valuable reconstruction and development work.

Failure to ensure safe working conditions of NGOs could result in the withdrawal of some international NGOs and their funding from Sri Lanka, which would be extremely detrimental to the situation of all Sri Lankan citizens in the concerned areas.”

“The parties must guarantee safety of media representatives, civil society activists and religious leaders and ensure true freedom of speech and expression can be exercised without fear. Intimidation, attacks and killings of such persons from any quarter are reprehensible.”

“The political challenges of the north and east cannot be resolved through war. The Co-Chairs urge the parties to resume negotiations and show real political commitment to achieve a political solution based on the previous six rounds of negotiation.

There should be no change to the specific arrangements for the north and east which could endanger the achievement of peace. The legitimate interests and aspirations of all communities, including the Tamil, Muslims and Sinhala communities must be accommodated as part of a political settlement”.

Now the ball is in Prabhakaran’s court. The government is awaiting Tiger supremo’s undertaking of his commitment to truce agreement. If he fails, new found optimism would fade in the sounds of gun fire.