India, Lanka's Oppn agree on peace process
By PK Balachandran
India and the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka's main opposition group,
have a common perspective on the peace process in the island as well as Sri
Lanka-India relations.
The commonalities came out during the visit of the UNP leader Ranil
Wickremesinghe to New Delhi between August 16 and 18. He and his advisors met
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, National
Security Advisor MK Narayanan and the Chairperson of the ruling United Peoples'
Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi.
Both sides agreed that the peace process must be continued and the ceasefire
maintained. Both saw an urgent need to address the immediate humanitarian and
development needs of the war-ravaged North Eastern Province (NEP), so as to
pave the way for the resumption of peace talks suspended since April 2003.
India, which has an abiding interest in the maintenance of the unity, integrity and
sovereignty of Sri Lanka, and which lends support to democracy and pluralism,
was happy to hear the UNP delegation saying that friendship with India was the
"cornerstone" of the party's foreign policy. India also found the UNP's approach to
its involvement in the peace process as being reasonable and practical. As
Wickremesinghe's confidante, Milinda Moragoda, says: "India should do what it is
comfortable with."
Wickremesinghe found in Dr Singh a kindred soul, as both believe in the
importance of broad-based economic development in countering militancy and
separatism. Both believe in creating a social, political and economic environment in
which militancy and separatism cannot thrive. It was during Wickremesinghe's
stewardship of the Sri Lankan government as Prime Minister between December
2001 and April 2004, that for the first time in decades, a serious attempt was made
to develop the war-ravaged North East as a foundation for lasting peace.
Under the peace process, Wickremesinghe had jointly established with the LTTE,
a sub-committee on the Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN)
of the North East. This structure was to administer as many as 672 grass roots
level development projects worth about $75 million. But unfortunately, the
structure collapsed after a few months, when the LTTE complained that it lacked
teeth and adequate autonomy, and boycotted its meetings, rendering it defunct.
Wickremesinghe, however, was unfazed.
Interestingly, though its boycott led to the collapse of SIHRN, the LTTE has
consistently stressed the need to address the "urgent humanitarian needs" and
the "existential problems" of the Tamil people in the North East, to use the phrases
popularised by the outfit's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham.
The LTTE says that its proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) for
the North Eastern Province, made in October-November 2003, and its efforts to
get the Post-Tsunami Organisational Management Structure (P-TOMS) in 2005,
rest on the desire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the long-suffering
Tamil people.
Invitation to India to join "international pressure group".
According to sources, the Indian leaders expressed concern about the "over
internationalisation" of the Sri Lankan peace process. The Indians (the present
Congress-led Government as well as the previous Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)-led Government) have been of the view that any solution to the Sri Lankan
ethnic conflict will have to be a "home grown" one, developed through direct
negotiations between the two parties, namely, the Sri Lankan Government and the
LTTE, and taking into account the basic tenets of democracy, pluralism and
human, fundamental and individual rights.
New Delhi is said to be unhappy with the performance of the "co-chair" of the June
2003 Tokyo Aid Lanka conference. The co-chair (US, EU, Japan and Norway)
have arrogated to themselves a role not assigned to them. They style themselves
as the "international community" and strut about as the "co-chair of the Sri Lankan
peace process". India feels that they have been pampering the LTTE a bit too
much and have been ineffective.
But having brought the international community into the peace process, the UNP is
committed to its presence in the process. The "co-chair" are its creation also.
However, there is no doubt that the UNP will want the co-chair to be firm with the
LTTE in case it became intransigent and crossed the limits. The UNP has now
worked out a division of labour between Norway, the official facilitator of the peace
process, and the co-chair. It wants Norway to be the "facilitator" and the co-chair to
be a "pressure group".
It is learnt that the UNP wanted India to be part of this "pressure group". If India
could not be part of the co-chair, the co-chair might device a system or
mechanism to consult and co-opt India in its work, the UNP suggested. New Delhi
was apparently willing to examine this suggestion.
For its own reasons, the LTTE too is wary about the international community.
Earlier, it had sought the international community's participation in the peace
process and is even now using it to the hilt to safeguard its interest vis-à-vis the Sri
Lankan state. But there is an underlying fear that the international community may
turn out to be a millstone around its neck, an instrument to force it to accept
proposals antithetical to its political interests and goals. This is why the LTTE
boycotted the June 2003 Tokyo Aid Lanka conference, which laid down the basic
parameters of the Sri Lankan peace settlement.
When the Wickremesinghe Government put in place an "International Safety Net",
Anton Balasingham had said that the peace process was "over internationalised"
and that Wickremesinghe was using the "International Safety Net" to subjugate the
LTTE and make it accept unacceptable conditions.
Accommodating Kumaratunga
India is very keen that there is a bi-partisan Sri Lankan approach to the peace
process. For long, there has been no consensus between President Chandrika
Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the UNP. They let each other
down at crucial moments and stymied attempts to resolve the ethnic question.
What the UNP did to the SLFP's constitutional proposals in 2000, the SLFP did to
the peace process in 2002-2004.
The Indians urged Wickremesinghe to work with Kumaratunga as she could play a
key and useful role in the peace process. India is of the view that Kumaratunga is
genuinely interested in establishing peace, democracy and ethnic equity in Sri
Lanka and that her past actions testify to this.
UNP sources said that the party had proposals to co-opt Kumaratunga and reward
her for her cooperation. And cooperation is already underway in some critical
matters. The UNP extended to Kumaratunga full support for her proposal to
establish P-TOMS, a Joint Mechanism involving the government and the LTTE to
do post-tsunami reconstruction in the North East. More recently, after the
assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the UNP extended
support to Kumaratunga for her bid to continue with the peace process and
maintain the ceasefire.
Of course, Wickremesinghe and Kumaratunga are at loggerheads over the date
for the next Presidential election. The former wants it in November 2005, while the
latter wants it in November 2006. If elected President, Wickremesinghe plans to
dissolve Parliament, thereby removing the minority SLFP-led government. But at
the same time, the two have a vital common interest in keeping the belligerently
Sinhala nationalist and ultra leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) out of the
corridors of power.
Kumaratunga had contacted Wickremesinghe and made proposals for
collaboration to keep the JVP at bay, but to no avail. And yet, hopes of
collaboration are alive. Political sources say that a challenge from a new political
quarter like the JVP and the Buddhist monks'party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU),
may eventually force the two parties to collaborate. [Courtesy: Hindustan Times]