Giving Peace a Chance

The buzzword for quite sometime now has been, Peace. People are talking of peace, enjoying it and hoping it would last - even the skeptics who have doubts about its durability. The greatest achievement has been that since the ceasefire declared by the LTTE was accepted by the newly elected UNF government of Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe on Christmas Day, there has been no killing in what came to be known as the Killing Fields of South Asia.

The economy is stabilising itself, markets are beginning to pick up and tourists have begun trickling in. Businessmen are rubbing their palms. The citizens of the north and east are greatly relieved and in Colombo the barricades on the streets have disappeared. Of course, most of these developments had occurred before - twice during the peace talks initiated by Presidents Premadasa and Kumaratunga. Analysts say that unlike before, there is hope this time of a lasting peace - the Warlord of the Wanni not being able to exploit the peace interregnum and unleash terror at the opportune moment as before There is no sympathy for terrorism of his kind anymore in those lands he was once treated with indulgence and from where his guns, bombs and finance came.

Every sane person desires peace. Only megalomaniacs such as Adolf Hitler will say ‘Mankind grows strong by war and perishes with eternal peace.’ But in this country there are self- appointed peace lobbies blessed with largesse from abroad who claim a monopoly on peace and dub those opposed to their way of thinking as warmongers.

Since the ceasefire was declared and the Ceasefire Agreement signed, leading professionals who, too, are committed to peace have disagreed with the contents of the agreement and others have objected to the flagrant violation of the agreement by the LTTE. The allegations have been that of smuggling of arms, conscription of children to build up their cadres and extortion from civilians. Amnesty International as well as the American government had made the same allegations against the LTTE, which have been denied by LTTE leaders.

Pointing out these flagrant violations of the agreement and the call for the LTTE to observe the terms of the Ceasefire Agreement have not been welcomed in certain quarters. The reflex action is to call those critics of the agreement and commentators who point out to the violations of it as being against peace, promoters of war and anti- UNF! ‘Give peace a chance,’ they say.

Whether this is a way to ‘Give Peace a Chance’ or wreck the Ceasefire Agreement, we leave it to the readers to decide. For the Ceasefire Agreement to work and to strengthen the peace process, both sides must be made to abide by the agreement not only to the very letter, but also in the spirit of peace makers. Presidents Premadasa and Kumaratunga, too, looked on benignly at the belligerence of the LTTE while the peace negotiations were going on. What followed is history, now. To make the Ceasefire Agreement work, the LTTE must be held responsible to observe the provisions to the very letter of the agreement and in the spirit of peace makers.

The LTTE is now holding mass rallies called Pongu Tamil in the big towns of the north and east. This is interpreted as the politicisation of the LTTE and it joining the mainstream of politics. Certainly if the LTTE is indeed joining the mainstream of politics and has forsaken terrorism, it is a considerable achievement of the policies of Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe. However, there are accusations that fascist strategies are being deployed with business and government establishments forced to put up shutters and school children compelled to attend the rallies.

The ‘Give Peace a Chance’ lobby argues that this coercive aspect should be overlooked because the terrorist group is in a state of transition from terrorism to democracy and that it is a better alternative than cold-blooded murder. The protesting victims, however, are not as appreciative as the writer of a letter from Trincomalee, which we publish on the opposite page today.

The ceasefire as mentioned earlier has brought about welcome changes and this is being hailed by world leaders. But violations of its provisions can undermine it and ultimately scuttle it. Much would depend on the ceasefire monitors who have come in rather late. It is essential that the public should have free access to them, especially those of the north and east and the Wanni. So far, there has been no public notification of how these ceasefire monitors could be reached by the public.

The LTTE is still dreaded by all people living in those areas and reaching the monitors entail risking their lives. If there is no mechanism to reach these monitors on a confidential basis, then the monitors will indeed end up giving good reports on very bad boys in the class.

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