EDITORIAL

Back to Basics

Sri Lanka takes a show-stopping hard line

Although Norwegian diplomats continued their shuttle diplomacy this week with their customary indefatigability, it is clear that serious issues have arisen that need resolution before their peace initiative in Sri Lanka can advance further. Firstly, the direct talks that were speculated to begin next month are clearly not going to take place, as even Mr. Vidar Helgesen. Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister, was forced to concede this week. Secondly, the reasons for this - namely, the Sri Lankan armed forces' failure to implement their obligations under the permanent ceasefire and Sri Lanka's continuing ban on the Liberation Tigers - remain the responsibility of the government to resolve.

The military's continuing occupation of Tamil schools and places of worship and the ongoing restrictions on fishing have made a mockery of the permanent ceasefire agreement which came into effect on February 23. From a Tamil perspective, it is not enough that there are no violent engagements. The military oppression continues: the Sinhala forces continue to occupy schools, places of worship and other public buildings. People are being harassed and openly threatened with death by troops - who are in the meantime extending their positions rather than demilitarising Tamil areas. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is either unable - or unwilling - to rein in the military. And the duplicitous response of his government to increasing Tamil discontent has further eroded confidence in the north and east.

Whilst the Defence Secretary declared that troops had withdrawn from places of worship, nothing of the sort has happened, as frustrated Hindu organisations pointed out this week. Meanwhile the government's back-pedalling on ending the ban on the LTTE has also shaken Tamil confidence that the peace initiative is going to lead anywhere fast. Whilst the government has repeatedly declared that the ban will not be allowed to impede Oslo's initiative, it has done precisely that. As ever, Colombo's insistence on maintaining the ban underlines the contempt with which Tamil grievances are held by the Sinhala establishment.

The United National Front's victory at the Parliamentary polls last December - on a mandate of seeking peace with the LTTE - resulted in the prompt revival of the Norwegian peace initiative. As we have pointed out before, the euphoria triggered by the lifting of the economic embargo on the Tamil areas and the signing of the permanent ceasefire was based on growing Tamil confidence that the UNF would break from Sinhala-supremacist tradition and genuinely pursue peace. If the Sri Lankan military's brazen refusal to honour the ceasefire weakened that confidence, the rhetoric in Colombo this week dealt it a body blow.

Hitherto, the UNF's positions on matters related to the peace initiative have been starkly distinct from those of the ultra-hawkish People's Alliance (PA) of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. But the apparent adoption by the UNF now of some of the very positions which the PA maintains and which earlier thwarted the Norwegian peace initiative has justifiably heightened concern. When the Norwegian peace initiative got into its stride this year, both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE agreed that conditions of normalcy must prevail before direct talks are considered and that phased de-escalation was necessary to build mutual confidence. It was also agreed - by both sides - that Sri Lanka's ethnic question, which has defied resolution for several decades could not be answered in the short term and that the conditions of war should be removed and normalcy restored for an interim period before these complex issues are discussed.

Yet suddenly, the dynamics of the Norwegian peace initiative seem to have turned about. President Kumaratunga has instructed Wickremesinghe to ditch the idea of an interim administration and pursue 'core issues' instead. She also insists that deproscription cannot take place unless concessions are first extracted from the LTTE. These were her positions during the bloody phases of the island's conflict. As seasoned observers of the ethnic question are aware, Kumaratunga's advancing of these stances at this juncture is certainly not intended to promote the Norwegian peace process but the exact opposite. With the Liberation Tigers insisting they cannot negotiate as outlaws, by making the lifting of the ban conditional on the LTTE making concessions on important matters that should be discussed at the negotiating table, Kumaratunga hopes to - and, if she gets her way, almost certainly will - stall the peace initiative.

With the UNF government apparently buckling to Kumaratunga's pressure, the Norwegian facilitators will no doubt struggle to find a way forward now. The temptation to pressure the LTTE to also accept Kumaratunga's dictat must inevitably be strong and Tamil suspicions are growing accordingly. The timing of Sri Lanka's announcement last week that the massive oil facility in Trincomalee would be handed over to India - in keeping with Delhi's "strategic interests," along with the unveiling of a significant defence agreement with the United States is being questioned in this light. The apprehensions reflected in the Tamil press and expressed by Tamil political parties will undoubtedly colour local perspectives on the internationally-backed peace effort.

Meanwhile, the LTTE is justifiably demanding that the permanent ceasefire- the first concrete agreement reached between the two sides - be fully implemented if there is to be any trust in the viability of the Norwegian peace process. Whilst some may feel that simply kick-starting direct talks and waiting for a 'peace momentum' to build is as good a conflict resolution strategy as any, the abject failures of earlier negotiations in Sri Lanka suggest this would be the worst approach possible.

Meanwhile the government's stoic insistence that direct negotiations will go ahead soon is no doubt intended to convince reluctant international donors to loosen their purse strings. But simply defining a date for beginning talks - like the D+30, D+60 and D+90 dates of the ceasefire agreement is of little relevance to advancing the Oslo's initiative.

Cosmetic Exercise

UN agencies continue to shirk their responsibilities

The assertion by the United Nations' leading refugee agency that "conditions in Sri Lanka are not yet conducive to promote or facilitate large-scale, organised [displaced people's] return or repatriation of refugees," reflects as much on its own failures as on the conditions faced by the hundreds of thousands of Tamils who have been forced to flee their homes. Whilst the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) might piously suggest that much needs to be done before internally displaced people [IDPs] can return safely to their homes, the agency has done little to either support the displaced amidst their wretched living conditions or to facilitate their return.

As the Tamil community is well aware, many people fleeing persecution were deported from Western countries on the strength of letters from the UNHCR assuring the governments in question that the asylum seekers were not at risk of persecution in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the agency - like many of international NGOs - collaborated in the deliberate starving of half a million Tamils by refusing to condemn or publicise the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government - which was lifted with much fanfare by the new administration in January this year.

The UN's IDP working group said last week that it "is monitoring closely the situation of spontaneous returns to ensure that they occur voluntarily, with safety and dignity." Watching impassively has, after all, been the UN agencies usual response to difficulties faced by people in the Tamil areas. Although we have pointed out the considerable danger posed by over 1.4 million landmines and explosive devices, none of the UN agencies have made any genuine effort to help clear these or to support the poorly equipped, but courageous Tamil volunteers attempting the mammoth task on their own. UNICEF has meanwhile declared itself the 'lead' UN agency on 'mine-risk education.'

We note also that the UN agencies seem in no hurry to take advantage of the permanent ceasefire to accelerate the return of displaced people and refugees to their homes by alleviating the conditions which hamper this. In fact, amidst the considerable difficulties that hundreds of thousands of Tamil people continue to undergo either in refugee camps and whilst living rough, the UNHCR's latest undertaking must have appeared the height of idiocy: six arts workshops for three hundred children. Their paintings are to be displayed at the National Art Gallery "in celebration" of World Refugee Day.