- This article was written by the author in 2001 under the title ‘Sri Lanka - The Way Forward’ and circulated in Colombo and Trincomalee. The article draws on authors own experience of implementing the 13th Amendment as Head of the Research Division of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat of the North East Provincial Council and how it cold be made a basis for resolving the so called ethnic problem. Though the article by itself may be behind time, it gains significance as a benchmark if anyone is honest about accepting the 13th amendment as a starting point and first step.
- It is important to realise that the 13th amendments starts with a merged North East Province and India’s role in the interim period. The pronouncement will little help the peace process if what is meant by implementing the 13th Amendment is the pursuance of the chauvinist agenda to resolve the ethnic problem and an attempt is made to hoodwink the Tamil people and the international community of what is being done as the implementation of the 13th amendment.
At best, APRC’s contention that things are normal in the Eastern Province can only be described as a joke when LTTE has only made a tactical withdrawal from the East. It is unfortunate some external forces desperate to occupy Trincomalee are also behind this devious attempt to misrepresent the ground situation. The article would help those who want to impose their will on the people of the North East to judge how far they are off the real 13th Amendment.- However, Tamil people can cheer the Sinhala Race for reaching 1987 at least after 20 years and hope the things will start moving in a positive direction from here though there is little sign of ending the culture of usurpation, dishonesty, prevarication, indifference, arrogance, abuse of state power for realising chauvinist ends or any willingness to give up the illegal territorial claim for the island and the dream of military victory over the Tamils, recognise the historical rights of Tamil people and seek peace with the Tamils in a honest and dignified manner.
- If the APRC holds that it is possible to establish an interim administration for the North, it should also be possible to establish an interim administration for the merged North East as the rest of North East is considered normal. That should be the starting point of the 13th amendment rather than engage in a sinister exercise to regularise the illegal demerger of the North East Province in the name of implementing the 13th amendment, which has been a chauvinist dream ever since the 13th amendment came into existence. The demerger is illegal since the constitution and the 13th Amendment clearly provides for under what conditions North East will become demerged and the demerger is a case a chauvinist abuse of Judicial Powers.
(January 29, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whereas the present deadlock between LTTE and the government continues along with the international communities search for a settlement, the method and approach to a solution has remained more or less the same for the last eleven years. The present stance of the LTTE came into existence after the departure of the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the resumption of the war in June 1990 and the situation has continued without change for the last seven years since the resumption of talks between the government and the LTTE in l994.
As one who mediated peace between the government and the LTTE from 1990, when the LTIE first conveyed its readiness to enter negotiations with the government to resolve the conflict and would consider alternatives to a separate state, the stance of the LTTE has remained more or less unchanged. The LTTE also wanted third party mediation involving foreign countries. Subsequently I also proposed the idea of joint mediation where a group of countries could have got together and mediated the conflict which was specifically suggested to overcome the difficult situation created by India's involvement and experiences. However this idea could not be advanced by the international community due to its differing perceptions and the fundamental problems caused by the conflict between the India and the USA as powers to be that could not come together to jointly mediate the conflict.
However this subsequently became the Norwegian mediation where Norway emerged as a mediator between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE as well as mediator between countries that have a stake in the happening in Sri Lanka. While the Norwegian mediation has continued for the last two years ably supported by the Catholic bishops and foreign countries, the ground situation has remained unchanged. This has given little room for the Norwegian mediation to manoeuvre and its main thrust has been in bringing the two parties together to talk, though both continue to hold highly differing perception of the nature of settlement.
As the process would be deadlocked at every juncture, it would be prudent to analyse the nature and present disposition of the conflict and initiate effective measures that would have a catalytic and regenerating influence bringing into existence a federally restructured Sri Lanka. These programmes have to be legal and emerge from within but should be well understood by the international community and ably supported by it.
The peace movement in Sri Lanka is ineffective as its platform is a refuge for pacifists and war mongers alike who have such differing perception of a political settlement, as a result of which, the peace movement will remain an ineffective and politically paralysed phenomena. Further, the peace movement is flooded with local and international NGOs which are charitable organisations with no political voice. The Norwegian mediation is beset by the shortcoming by its inability to put forward and advance a political solution to the conflict. Though Norway maintains its impartiality, the government knows well that the western governments that have surrendered their moral high ground to win concession to advance their self interests, are indebted to the government and have little leverage in pressurising the government.
While there is broad consensus as to where the real solution lies, tragically in the Sri Lankan conflict resolution scenario, the main two contenders as well as others are not in position to articulate this solution and advance the realisation process due to the entrenchment of opposing extremes. The solution is the federally restructured Sri Lanka. Both the government and the L TIE are entrenched with a mind set that precise1y excludes this. This reality that lies at the root of the deadlock shall be a permanent factor that will remain an obstacle to peace process in Sri Lanka. Norway cannot be expected to articulate the idea of the federal state. And without a movement that can take forward the idea of federal state among the people of Sri Lanka in a united manner, the realisation of this idea will remain beyond the capabilities of the people of Sri Lanka.
Tragically, the idea of a federal state has been discredited and made a monster to such an extent by the Sinhala zealots as akin to separation, one cannot see any possible movement from within the Sinhalese that will stand up for a federally restructured Sri Lanka. The LTTE is left in a state where it will not articulate the federal idea though it has said is not opposed to it. The Colombo press that should play a responsible role remains cynical and committed to the Sinhala Chauvinist ideology of total domination.
Taking these shortcomings into account, it can be reasonably concluded, in spite of the valiant efforts of the Norway government, peace and a peaceful Sri Lanka that could sustain itself is far away. Though the recent efforts at bringing peace has been based on an overwhelming commitment to bring the two parties to ‘talk’’, the ground was drifting with no political process committed towards the settlement while both parties were advancing on their conflicting positions. Both major parties to the conflict, the government and the LTTE, endorse the strategy of attrition whereby both, assume, holding out over a period of time, would enable the realisation of the respective objectives and are quiet at home with the prolongation of the peace process though, the people suffer and the country bleeds. The international community has invariably supported the government and in many instances it has been the instigator of the militaristic solution of the government and has been unable to effectively support a path of political resolution of the conflict.
Though the international community is singularly committed to finding a solution to the conflict within the frame work of a united Sri Lanka, the ground and mindset realties little favours a negotiated settlement of the conflict. This scenario only leaves an option of an arrangement which will be based on heavy international involvement such as Kosovo which shall remain negated as unrealistic by the past Indian involvement and experiences. The continued pursuance of the present agenda gives little scope of a permanent resolution of the conflict and return of peace to Sri Lanka.
To Be Continued
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