 |
| One of dozens of beautiful
waterfalls in the mountains in the Sri Lankan
highlands. |
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| The temple ruins at Polonnaruwa,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site, date from about
1000 A.D. |
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| The interior of the Temple
of the Tooth in Kandy. The gold box in front
of the Buddha statue is reputed to hold one
of Buddha’s teeth. |
| Photos by Alex Kersis |
Senior government ministers expect negotiations
to end the bitter 20-year civil war between the
Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, to show significant progress
on core political and fiscal issues by the time
of the June international aid donors’ conference
in Tokyo, Japan.
“By the time of the Japan donor conference,”
says Foreign Minister Tyronne (pronounced ‘Tee-Ron’)
Fernando, “we hope to have made some substantial
progress in coming towards a final, durable settlement.”
By design, the talks have proceeded slowly during
a year of confidence building under the cover of a
year-old ceasefire agreement brokered by the Norwegian
government.
“The Prime Minister said when he started that
he would take a step-by-step approach,” explains
Minister of Economic Reform Melinda Moragoda. “With
20 years of war and another 30 years before that of
division between the two major ethnic communities,
he knew the peace process would not be completed overnight.”
According to Fernando, the first five rounds addressed
humanitarian issues such as refugee resettlement,
the opening of roads, and the freeing the transport
of goods and services to Tamil-held areas.
Professor G.L. Peiris, Minister of Constitutional
Affairs and the government’s chief negotiator
in the peace talks, says, “We are prepared to
take on the core political and economic issues”
beginning with the March 18 session of the talks in
Japan. “Now, the challenge is to identify how
each contentious issue can be dealt with.”
Ultimately, the goal of the negotiations is to provide
the Tamils with a substantial amount of regional autonomy
within a new federal structure for the entire country.
Overlooking the peace process are a number of interested
countries. Last November in Oslo, they pledged some
$700 million of short-term aid to get the peace talks
moving. These countries stand ready to gather again
in Tokyo in June. If significant progress has been
made in the negotiations, the donor countries plan
to pledge millions of dollars in medium-term development
aid. International financial institutions such as
the IMF and the Asian Development Bank will add significant
new development funds to the mix.
This new tranche of assistance will be used primarily
for reconstruction and development of the “North
and East” part of country where the majority
of the population is Tamil.
It is difficult to understate what a year without
war has meant to the beleaguered people of Sri Lanka.
Moragoda says, “If you look back on the first
year, the major achievement is that we have stopped
killing each other. The whole atmosphere that surrounded
the war has sort of died down.”
Peiris adds, “A year ago there was fear. A child
would go to school and the parents were afraid that
bombs would go off. We see with our own eyes that
people are coming out now for religious festivals,
when last year few people would visit the sacred shrines
at the temples. The whole psyche has been transformed.”
Sri Lanka’s economy, which for the first time
ever contracted in 2001, is responding with higher
growth rates. GDP grew at about 3 percent in 2002,
and the government hopes it will hit 5 percent in
2003. Tourism and foreign investment both doubled
last year compared to the year previous.
With significant government spending anticipated from
the expected donor funds to rebuild basic infrastructure
and add energy generation capacity, ‘early bird’
investors from all over the world are flocking to
Sri Lanka to assess prospects.
The government is aware that the almost palpable lifting
of fear and the improving economy can be sources of
misplaced euphoria. Moragoda says, “The challenge
is to manage the expectations, both of the population
and the whole political system.
Behind the scenes, both sides have been laying the
groundwork for the upcoming discussions of the meaty
issues. The LTTE has been studying both the political
and fiscal aspects of the federal systems of Switzerland
and Germany.
For its part, the government has established a constitutional
commission of some 18 to 20 leaders of society. The
commission members, says Peiris, are charged with
“ascertaining for themselves what the public
thinks about such subjects as electoral reform, the
strengthening of the legislature, human rights and
so on.” He explains, “This is to encourage
people at the grass roots to participate actively
in the preparation of a new constitution, because
that is what is contemplated. The government and the
LTTE have already agreed on this.”
While work proceeds on important settlement issues,
there is a dark cloud of mistrust that hangs over
the peace process. A majority of Sinhalese and Tamils
understand that war will not produce a victory for
either side, but a peaceful settlement is still not
a guaranteed outcome. There are hard-line opponents
on both sides, which give rise to two major questions:
1.) Can the LTTE be
trusted?
2.) Can the historically
confrontational, power-at-any-cost politics of the
Sinhalese parties be set aside to gain agreement
on the peace process?
The consistent, provocative, ‘in-your-face’
LTTE violations of the ceasefire agreement are legion
and continue despite stern international opposition.
At the core of doubts, therefore, is the nature of
the LTTE itself. Described by one Western diplomat
as “world-class bad-asses,” the Tamil Tigers
are credited with inventing suicide bombing. A diplomat
asks, “Are we to believe it when an organization
that fought for a separate state for twenty years
using some of the most hideous tactics imaginable
suddenly says, ‘Oh, we didn’t mean it, regional
autonomy is all we want?’”
The government, however, is circumspect about the
LTTE’s record. Peiris says, “Of course there
are violations of the ceasefire. What we are emphasizing
is that this is a process. What we are seeing is a
metamorphosis, a transition of the LTTE from a military
organization to something akin to a political party.
This is a painful process, to change from one culture
to another culture. It is not smooth, it cannot be
done in a way that is free of problems.”
Fernando adds, “These are the people who originated
the suicide bomb, and they are now sitting around
a table, discussing things. They’ve come out
of their jungles. We still maintain our military readiness,
but nevertheless we are talking. Guns have ceased
firing, we can hear each other talking, and we are
hearing each other talk about something we might be
able to come to agreement on.”
Behind the work done by both sides in the talks stands
the intense pressure exerted by the international
community.
Peiris says, “You have the leading political
figures in the world, in the U.S., Britain, the European
Union, and Japan, all exhorting the LTTE to come into
line, to abide by the norms and value system that
are acceptable to the international community. It
is obviously having an impact on them. Not immediately,
not completely, but it is happening.
“For example, the LTTE has now accepted that
there has to be a monitoring role for UNICEF with
regard to the problems having to do with the child
soldiers. We have also agreed to a dynamic role for
Amnesty International.”
Foreign Minister Fernando is explicit in his praise
for U.S. activism. He says, “We are grateful
to you as the United States and the Republican Party,
and particularly Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage, for your enormous support and encouragement.”
A more subtle issue is whether the two main parties
can set aside their political differences to reach
the two-thirds majority required to pass the necessary
constitutional reforms. Failure to maintain Sinhalese
consensus would give the LTTE a reason to return to
war.
The prime minister’s strategy to deal with this
problem is multifaceted. First, Peiris says, the government
works to sustain favorable public opinion. Led by
the prime minister, cabinet ministers carefully and
repeatedly lay out the government’s thinking
on important issues. As the process shows signs of
success, public support builds, and the opposition
is forced to lessen its criticism.
Second, says Peiris, the prime minister and the government
do everything they can to reach out to different groups
in the country. The establishment of the constitutional
commission is one example, Peiris says, where the
government held a meeting of some 300 leaders in society
to introduce the idea. The government plans a popular
referendum on the new constitution.
Third, the prime minister and the government regularly
meet with various small groups in parliament, trying
to strengthen the less fractious committee system.
They also set up parliamentary oversight committees
for such areas as human rights, economic development
and social issues.
Finally, Peiris concludes, the Prime Minister meets
with groups of people from the opposition to exchange
ideas about the peace process, review its status,
debate its strengths and weaknesses, and what needs
to be done in the future. There has been “beneficial
interaction,” Peiris states. |
