Norway persists as stalemate deepens

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2004, 01:04 GMT]
The stalemate in Sri Lanka’s peace process continued this week, and even as Norwegian diplomats vowed to continue their shuttle diplomacy, President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government hardened its stance on the agenda for talks.

Norway’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Hans Brattskar met Wednesday with the head of the Liberation Tigers’ political wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan and the head of the LTTE police service, Mr. Nadesan, to appraise them of the Sri Lankan government’s position.

“We will continue to go back and forth between (the government and the Tigers) ... until they reach an agreement on future steps,'' Mr. Brattskar told reporters after Wednesday's meeting.

Norwegian Special Envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim and Norwegian Foreign Ministry official Lisa Golden are to meet with the LTTE’s political strategist, Mr. Anton Balasingham in London on Thursday, officials said.

But diplomats close to the peace process told AFP Sunday they did not expect much progress on bridging the differences until after Sri Lanka holds local elections on July 10.

Having agreed in mid May to resume negotiations with the LTTE on the basis of the latter’s proposals for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), the newly elected United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government then reversed its stance, insisting talks must proceed in parallel on a long term settlement to the island’s conflict.

Sudden optimism that talks might resume as early as August, according to some reports, was further undermined when the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the junior member of the UPFA, last week launched a campaign against the ISGA proposals.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP), which had signed the prevailing cease-fire with the Tigers and held six rounds of talks with the LTTE Tuesday charged that the UPFA and President Kumaratunga had endangered the peace process by allowing internal contradictions within the ruling party to muddy policy.

The UNP-led government was defeated in elections on April 2 by a tie between the JVP and President Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The JVP and SLFP differ sharply in their views on negotiations with the LTTE.

President Kumaratunga called early elections in February after accusing the UNF government of making too many concessions to the Tigers. The UPFA narrowly won the April 2 election but lacks a majority in parliament to pursue its legislative agenda.

UNP spokesman and the former government's chief peace negotiator G. L. Peiris said the government’s ‘confusion’ was clearly demonstrated in the differing stands taken by the President on the interim administration when she met Tamil parliamentarians and in her address to the nation.

President Kumaratunga had reportedly told members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) she met last week that she was prepared to discuss the ISGA without linking it to discussions on a permanent solution.

“"But during her address to the nation two days after the meeting with the TNA, the President said the interim administration would be a part of the final solution,” Mr. Peiris said.

“There is no consistency with regard to the basic aspects of the peace process which is in serious difficulty due to these internal contradictions between the [SLFP] and the JVP,” he said.

Taking the government to task, Prof. Peiris said the preoccupation of the government now was to find the numbers in parliament to form a majority. "This is the tragedy of the country at the moment. The peace process and the economy are affected because of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, reports of renewed friction between Sri Lankan security forces and LTTE cadres in several parts of the Northeast further raised anxieties.

Tensions mounted between the LTTE and the Sri Lanka Navy after the latter proposed fresh conditions on the Tiger cadres travelling by sea between their controlled areas, reports said.

The Navy had wanted Tigers to leave behind their boats and travel in its own vessels when going from LTTE-held regions to areas dominated by the military or to use land transport, reports said.

International truce monitors are reportedly trying to get both sides to agree on new procedures for sea passage.

Meanwhile, normal life of Mannar town was completely paralyzed Tuesday when civil groups launched one day general shut down (hartal) protesting against the assault on civilians by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on Monday.

The assault took place when enraged civilians held a picketing campaign along main road of the town soon after SLA soldiers subjected two female political activists of the LTTE to severe and humiliating interrogation.

The Tigers Wednesday also expressed serious concern about ‘malicious and false propaganda’ in Sri Lanka’s state controlled media, accusing it of stoking tensions in the volatile Batticaloa district.

This week a Tiger delegation indefinitely postponed a trip scheduled in June to Geneva, Switzerland, where they were to discuss the impasse with legal experts.