Reflections at the dawn of peace talks
Many say "the government will not give the Tamils anything". The bishop of Mannar: "There has been fearful violence here, the law of the jungle prevails".
Colombo (AsiaNews) - "The government will never give the Tamils anything." The pessimistic predictions of a Sri Lankan Tamil priest about next week's peace talks between Sri Lanka's government and rebel Tamil Tigers are shared by a good part of the island's Tamil minority.
The talks due to be held in Geneva will determine whether war or peace will prevail in Sri Lanka; this was confirmed on 15 February by S.P. Thamilselvan, the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the movement fighting for a Tamil homeland in the north and east. Since the presidential election last November, Sri Lanka has come dangerously close to being sucked back into civil war, and the LTTE say they have agreed to talks to implement a tattered cease-fire signed in 2002.
Signals being transmitted in the lead-up to talks appear to justify skepticism about a happy outcome, as both sides entrench themselves in tenaciously held, incompatible positions. Their intransigence threatens to make next week's meeting yet another in a string of missed opportunities to resolve Sri Lanka's long-standing ethnic problem.
Ultra nationalist allies of the President, Mahinda Rajapakse, typically oppose any concessions to the LTTE. The destructive role played by extreme nationalists in the party politics of the Sinhalese majority dates back to the fifties: over the years, they sabotaged countless Sinhala-Tamil pacts to redress injustices suffered by the minority, thus fuelling the rise of the Tamil militancy.
"For the hardliners, only war is possible. They know what is at stake, that there will be war, but they don't want to change the situation. This is why it's not easy for any government to submit to the demands of the Tigers," said the Tamil priest, who preferred not to be named.
The clout wielded by hardliners may explain why Rajapakse has ruled out a homeland for the Tamils in the north and east. He insists on a solution within a "unitary constitution", a proposal rejected contemptuously by the Tigers, who insist on "homeland, nationhood and self-rule" as the "three basic and cardinal principles".
Despite the stalemate, some peace activists are upbeat. The Colombo-based journalist, Jehan Perera, who sits on the National Peace Council, is one of them. "A Tamil human rights worker from Jaffna recently told me I am too optimistic and that the Tamils think the talks will not be successful," said Jehan. "But I think the new president, although he is a nationalist, is not a man who wants war; he would like to move towards peace. And rational hardline politicians know there is no military solution; they know the peace process is the only way.
The question is: how far will they allow the president to go?" Jehan's speculation was that the president would be permitted to give "50% of what the Tamils want, and civil society will try to push him to offer 60, 65%. Will the LTTE go for it?"
How far both sides are prepared to go is anybody's guess. However, there is one tangible sign that there are people who genuinely want to talk in Geneva: since the announcement of peace talks when Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim visited in late January, the recent spate of violence in the north and east came to an abrupt halt.
The fact that someone, somewhere, had the will and the power to rein in the violence has given Tamil civilians in these contested areas a glimmer of hope. But nonetheless they are fearful of what lies in store should war break out. The swift, deadly downwards spiral into violence after the presidential election last November was a chilling foretaste of what may come, described by Bishop Rayappu Joseph of the northern Mannar diocese as "frightful, the law of the jungle". Targeted killings by paramilitary groups became the order of the day and attacks on the security forces put down to the LTTE although it denies involvement were followed by savage reprisals against civilians.
"In the context of a shadow war, unarmed people were attacked by the security forces and this was very disturbing and fearful," said Bishop Joseph. "I have so many examples of civilians mercilessly assaulted and eliminated and stories cooked up to safeguard the killers' interests, with no inquiry ever held."
Many people who have been displaced several times over say they simply could not face more hardship. "There is huge frustration and anxiety that we will be pushed again to suffering, to life as refugees," said the community leader in one welfare centre for displaced people in northern Vavuniya town. "Ultimately, the people are left alone by all. We feel abandoned, that no one worries about or considers us."
Bishop Joseph appealed to the international community to "come on the scene" to see the reality. "I would ask the world not to believe only one side of the propaganda served them. The truth has two sides and they should not believe only one side and make statements which make the situation worse."
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