The much talked face-to-face meeting involving the Government of Norway, the LTTE and the Norwegian facilitators was the third non-event over the last couple of months. The second round of talks in Geneva, agreed by all parties for 19th April, had to be called off at the last minute because the LTTE decided that they had to have consultations with their Eastern commanders on the very day they had agreed for talks in Geneva. Transporting their eastern commanders then became an issue when they, again at the twelfth hour when the transport vessels were ready to leave, raised objections to the arrangements they had agreed to with the SLMM. The following month, they agreed to the proposal of the Norwegian facilitators to discuss at Oslo the limited agenda of the scope and mandate of the monitoring mission. After arriving in Oslo, via courtesy of the Sri Lankan and Norwegian governments, they refuse to sit at the negotiating table with the Sri Lanka government delegation because they objected to the composition of the delegation – a composition known both to the Norwegians and the LTTE before the LTTE delegation left for Oslo.

What do we make of all this? We know the kind of outfit the LTTE is and that it is incapable of adhering to any norms of acceptable conduct. It is now clear that they have no interest in any kind of negotiations that will lead to peace and dignity for the Tamil people whom they claim to represent. They will give the impression that they are going along with international efforts at mediation but will find all kinds of excuses when they find themselves in a corner.

Obviously, the LTTE have shot themselves in the foot. The international community now knows that the LTTE all along had a different agenda when they arrived in Oslo. By raising the issue of the composition of the government delegation after arriving in Oslo and after getting down a legal team from USA and Australia, they hoped, while avoiding face-to-face talks on the role of the SLMM, to indirectly through the mediators raise other issues of sovereignty that were strictly not on the agenda. The Government of Sri Lanka did not fall into this trap. The hidden agenda of the LTTE was exposed and the Norwegian hosts were left exasperated and red-faced.

Need for a diplomatic push

Now is the time for the Government of Sri Lanka to embark on a diplomatic push to apprise the international community of the deviousness of the LTTE that thwarts any attempt to find peaceful solutions. But such a push must also be accompanied by tangible efforts being made, despite the LTTE, to meet the grievances of the Tamil and Muslim communities and to ensure justice and dignity for all our people. We have always urged, as the EU has recently said, that there are alternate voices among the Tamils whose goodwill must be won if the LTTE is to be neutralized.

This goodwill cannot be won by the current military strategy. The LTTE’s terror must not be copied in dealing with Tamil civilians. As Bishop Duleep de Chickera recently pointed out, the Tamil civilians feel trapped. They are treated suspiciously and thus harshly by both the LTTE and the security forces. Some are coerced into doing things which are quickly seized on by one or the other party. Some are misunderstood when they refuse to be partisan in the kind of violence that is being unleashed. The doctrine of both the LTTE and the security forces seem to be: if you are not with me, you are my enemy. It is the appeal to a false patriotism to which even some world leaders seem to subscribe. All that most people want is to be able to lead peaceful lives in a peaceful and just society.

Extra-judicial killings

This is why we must raise our voices against the extra-judicial killings that are taking place. Sivaram, Pararajasingham and Vigneswaran were Tamils who may have had LTTE sympathies. But they were decent human beings who engaged themselves in democratic politics, either as activists or writers. There have been scores of other civilians killed in recent times – the most recent being the death of innocent civilians caught in a mine explosion in Vadamunai in the East, the shooting of harmless construction workers in Welikanda and the hacking of a family in Vankalai in the Mannar district. We know that some of them were not the work of the LTTE. But every such killing is a blow to decency and accountability in governance and a severe blot on our international image. That the LTTE has killed and continues to kill scores of people, even after they signed the cease-fire agreement, is no excuse for this counter-insurgency strategy. It is a strategy that has failed the world over and we need to learn the lessons of history before it is too late.

The Role of Monitors

The international monitors have a delicate and thankless role to play. The very set up at the initial stage was itself inappropriate. The Norwegian Government as the facilitators in the peace process should not have undertaken this role as well. But it is now too late to change it unless the whole ceasefire agreement is reviewed. There is a strong case though for such a review but the LTTE is unlikely to agree to it and it just cannot be done unilaterally.

The immediate issue is the five point statement issued by the Norwegian Government. We believe the five questions asked are legitimate given the Oslo non-event. The Government of Sri Lanka will be wrong-footing the LTTE if they quickly answer in the affirmative to all five questions. There is a provision to discuss and agree on any amendments to the CFA in respect of the operations of the monitors but that should not be a barrier to Government’s commitment. It will be left to the LTTE to discuss any proposed amendments with the very officials whom they refused to meet. It is the LTTE that is seeking amendments and they stand to lose even further credibility if they are found wavering when the Government has answered in the affirmative. The LTTE would have noted the warning inherent in the statement by the Norwegian Government that ‘the response of the two parties (to the five questions) will determine the steps to be next taken by the Royal Norwegian Government and the SLMM in close partnership with the other actors in the international community’.

Need for international

support

We trust the parties urging the Government of Sri Lanka to take unilateral steps in the peace process will pause to reflect on the enormous damage that will ensue if that is done. The international image of Sri Lanka sunk to new lows in the eighties. This was because of the poor human rights record of the then Government during that period and the manner in which they dealt with the then rearing Tamil insurgency. Leading citizens of the country, clerics, judges, journalists, etc. and international organizations like Amnesty International were berated and foreign media personnel expelled. Let us not revert to those dark days.

We need the support of the international community. We need the support of the civil society in Sri Lanka. We need to build a consensus among all persons of goodwill from all communities. That is the only way we can take our country forward.

Constitutional Council

We make no apology for returning to this subject again. Now that the minor parties, as defined by the Attorney General, have made their nomination, President Rajapakse should make his nomination (in case he has not already done so in place of his earlier nominee who has since died) and appoint the full quota of ten members to the Constitutional Council without any further delay. This is an unnecessary controversy that the President can do without at this stage.

We trust the new Constitutional Council will be allowed to make fresh recommendations to all the independent Commissions to which they are constitutional bound to nominate. And the Pubic Services, Police and Human Rights Commissions will be duly reconstituted. The judicial appointments have already been made and no body can have any serious objections to the members so appointed. For the sake of good order, it is hoped that the Constitutional Council will regularize those appointments as well.

Good governance

For the sake of good governance, it is importance that all appointments must be done in a constitutionally correct manner and upholding the best traditions of the public service. There is a place for political appointments but we need to have extremely able technocrats managing the commanding heights of our economy, administration and public industries and services.

May good sense prevail!