Bishop from north: respect ceasefire "at all costs"
According to Mgr Joseph, bishop of Mannar, the latest talks in Geneva between the government and Tamil Tigers have distanced the spectre of civil war from the country. But "durable" peace is still far off.
Mannar (AsiaNews) - The outcome of recent talks between Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tigers is just and crucial for the island's beleaguered peace process, said Bishop Rayappu Joseph.
The bishop, who leads the war-torn Mannar diocese in northern Sri Lanka, told AsiaNews the decision reached by the two parties to uphold the 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA) must be maintained at all costs.
"This peace process is owned by the people of the country, so it was only fair that talks started from where they were left off by the previous government; continuity of the process is indispensable," said Bishop Joseph.
"All the issues mentioned in the CFA have to be meticulously implemented by all the parties, assisted by facilitators along with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. The validity and legality of the CFA must be maintained."
According to the statement issued by the Norwegian facilitators at the close of two-day talks in Switzerland last month, the parties committed themselves to stop all hostilities. Concretely, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pledged to halt violence against the security forces, while the government said it will ensure no "armed groups" carry weapons or conduct armed operations.
If implemented, these provisions could successfully stem recent hostilities, because they tackle the alleged causes behind the alarming spate of attacks in Sri Lanka's contested north and east, in the weeks preceding the announcement of the Geneva talks.
So despite the heavy odds stacked against them, the talks to be followed by another round next month seem to have pulled Sri Lanka back from the brink of resumed civil war. Certainly, their end result has been heartily welcomed by the co-chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference (Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union).
But whether the negotiations will be instrumental in laying the foundations for lasting peace remains to be seen. The sigh of relief at their outcome was far from universal: the hardline, nationalist allies of President Mahinda Rajapakse, chiefly the Marxist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) and the JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya) an all-Buddhist monk party are angered by the turn of events.
Opposed to any concessions to the LTTE, these parties say the CFA is illegal and that its abrogation was part of their electoral pacts with Rajapakse. Their predictable reaction may explain why the government appears to have developed cold feet: on returning home, its negotiators said there were "legal infirmities" in the CFA and that the obligations they accepted in Geneva amounted to "amendments", a view sharply criticised by the LTTE.
This bickering threatens to cast a shadow on prospects of tackling the considerable challenges ahead. Ultimately, accepting the CFA is only the first step in the arduous journey towards peace, which in LTTE terms, means bridging the "incompatible gaps and the irreconcilable contradictions that exist between Mr Rajapakse's political vision and the Tamils' struggle for self-determination".
Voicing a commonly held view of experts on the Sri Lanka conflict, Bishop Joseph said a fair political solution lies in "maximum power devolution within a united country". For the bishop, the most crucial aspects of power-sharing are "democracy and human rights". To achieve this goal, "the State should be secular in nature with equal rights and freedom ensured for all religions".
Such developments are still a long way off. Now, much depends on what happens in the weeks leading up to the next round of talks slated for 19 to 21 April, on the willingness and ability of both parties to genuinely adhere to the CFA, and to build the mutual trust necessary to resolve the country's long standing problems.
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