Transformation of both parties necessary
to meet people’s needs
Although the present government has done much better
than expected to stabilize the political situation, the
government has a serious credibility problem to overcome.
What the government is currently doing to advance the
peace process has won both local and international acclaim.
But the fact is that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his
government allies said one thing at election time and are
doing much the reverse at the present time. On the other
hand, the LTTE has its own credibility problem with regard
to keeping its promises. The issue of child recruitment is just
one of them. The LTTE's demand that the government
should disarm the armed groups, or paramilitary groups,
that work against them becomes problematic in the light of
the LTTE's past conduct.
by Jehan Perera
In the media conference at the conclusion of the first round
of Geneva talks in February, the LTTE's chief negotiator
Anton Balasingham made a very positive statement. He
gave his solemn pledge that the LTTE would no longer
engage in the practice of child recruitment. The ruins of the
north east economy, which are evident to anyone who cares
to travel to those parts, does not provide many of its people
to enjoy a dignified existence. The LTTE's chief negotiator
explained that the children found in the LTTE had joined
due to their lack of alternative opportunities. The earnest
manner in which he spoke made it seem that this time
around the LTTE would be making a very special effort to
end the pernicious practice of child soldiers.
However, the public display by the security forces of two
child recruits of the LTTE who claimed to have been
conscripted recently and who had escaped last week has
once again drawn attention to the gap between the
commitments made at Geneva and the reality. The public
display of these children has also been criticized as putting
those children in jeopardy as they could face retaliation.
The legal system in Sri Lanka gives priority to the interests
of child victims over other considerations. But by giving
priority to the LTTE's conduct with regard to children, the
security forces have exposed the LTTE's unwillingness to
adhere to the promises made by its negotiating team in
Geneva.
According to what the escaped children had said, the LTTE
were training many other young children in warfare, even
suicide bombing. The revelation by UNICEF that over 1300
child recruits continued to be with the LTTE even after
February has further undermined the credibility of the LTTE
negotiating team's ability to influence LTTE actions on the
ground. Those who insist that others should keep to their
word, and criticise those who do not keep to their word,
need to be prepared to set the example. It appears,
therefore, that the Geneva talks have not led to a change of
heart. Both sides have made pledges but neither side is
prepared to pay the price of honouring the pledges made by
those who negotiated on their behalf.
The opening challenge to the Geneva agreement came
within ten days of its signing, when two LTTE cadre were
gunned down in the east. The Geneva agreement specified
that all killings would be stopped and further that the
government would not permit armed groups to conduct
armed operations. On the other hand, the killing took place
within LTTE territory. There is no doubt that the government
has legal expertise on its side that can argue that the
government cannot be held responsible for what happens
within LTTE controlled territory. The capacity of the
government to make such arguments was revealed when its
spokespersons claimed that the Ceasefire Agreement was
amended by the Geneva agreement.
LTTE attitude
The LTTE is unlikely to take the legalistic arguments of the
government seriously if they disclaim responsibility for either
ceasefire violations or violations of the Geneva agreement.
The LTTE has stated that the Ceasefire Agreement is
primarily a political document, not a legal document. The
LTTE is also an organization that evolved out of the
disillusionment of the Tamil political parties and Tamil
people with the broken promises of successive
governments. They are wary of being tricked and trapped
by legalistic formulations. They are also likely to be less
tolerant than the general population when it comes to
accepting the turnarounds of Sinhalese-dominated political
parties, who make one set of promises and implement
something considerably different.
Although the present government has done much better
than expected to stabilize the political situation, the
government has a serious credibility problem to overcome.
What the government is currently doing to advance the
peace process has won both local and international acclaim.
But the fact is that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his
government allies said one thing at election time and are
doing much the reverse at the present time. On the other
hand, the LTTE has its own credibility problem with regard
to keeping its promises. The issue of child recruitment is just
one of them. The LTTE's demand that the government
should disarm the armed groups, or paramilitary groups,
that work against them becomes problematic in the light of
the LTTE's past conduct.
The Ceasefire Agreement specified that 30 days after it was
signed in February 2002, that all Tamil paramilitary groups
should be disarmed. The government at that time
implemented this agreement to a great extent. It disarmed
the paramilitary groups and sent their members out of the
north east. But not too long after when the government and
LTTE began to have disagreements on other issues, the
LTTE began to relentlessly hunt and kill the disarmed
members of those groups. The LTTE's blatant dishonour of
the Ceasefire Agreement put the government of Prime
Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a very poor light as having
prepared the ground for the killings that followed.
Therefore when the LTTE calls on the government to
uphold and respect the Ceasefire Agreement as it promised
to do in Geneva, the LTTE needs to realize that this call
also applies to them in equal measure. The Geneva
agreement has been signed by two parties who have to
earn credibility before they can be trusted by either party or
by the people. Such a trust cannot be won by mere words or
even by solemn pledges that are dishonoured in practice.
Trust will also not come from having backdoor channels, as
apparently happened at the Geneva agreement when
President Rajapaksa's brother reportedly intervened to
break the deadlock that had threatened to jeopardize the
talks there. Trust will only come from visible change at the
ground level that is backed by a mechanism that is based
on principle and not mere opportunism.
Best interest
The reason that that those of goodwill, both locally and
internationally, are active in supporting the Sri Lankan
peace process is that they wish the suffering of the people
to end. It is important that the peace process should be one
that seeks the transformation of the government and LTTE,
and not be one that seeks their entrenchment in the country
as they are. The root cause of the ethnic conflict was the
lack of democratic opportunities that would have enabled
the Tamil community to vindicate their rights and obtain
redress to their grievances through the democratic process.
Today in the LTTE controlled territories there is no
democracy. But democracy is in the best interests of the
people, and it must infuse the entire Sri Lankan polity.
There are precedents from other peace processes with
regard to human rights agreements that ensure that the
interests of the people are taken into consideration, not only
the interests of the conflicting parties. The Ceasefire
Agreement that was signed in February 2002 made the Sri
Lankan government and LTTE its two primary parties. But
there are others, including the Muslim community and the
non-LTTE Tamil parties that have been left out. A human
rights agreement that is monitored by independent monitors
can be a mechanism that transforms the Sri Lankan peace
process into one that takes the best interests of the people
into adequate consideration. Civil society and peace
groups, both locally and internationally, need to assert
themselves to make human rights an agenda item for the
second round of Geneva talks in April [DailyMirror]
