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He
said that the destiny of Sri Lanka is too precious to be left to be
determined by the UNF and the LTTE under the supervision of the Government
of Norway. He was speaking to the media at a Press Conference convened by
the People’s Alliance. A
PA press release said that the Norwegian Government seems more concerned
with arranging an outcome of the talks that can be pronounced a
“success” for the UNF and the LTTE rather than with the long-term
interests of Sri Lanka and its people. “The
Government has not yet, after eleven months of the current peace process,
thought it fit to inform the country, the President and Parliament and
perhaps even most of the Cabinet, of the policy framework which would from
the basis for negotiation,” the former Foreign Minister said. “The
PA wishes to remind the UNF that when the PA Government conducted talks
with the LTTE in 1994/1995 and 2000/2001 the people of Sri Lanka were kept
fully informed of the overall policy on which the talks would be based,”
the PA press release said. Kadirgamar
said that the PA always stands for a peaceful and political settlement to
the conflict. “But time has come when it must speak out with regard to
the concerns of the mass of the people of the country at the direction in
which the talks with the LTTE are moving.” PRESS
RELEASE
President
Kumaratunga and the Peoples Alliance have always believed that the armed
conflict in Sri Lanka could only be resolved by a negotiated settlement of
the political problems that gave rise to the conflict. It bears
reiteration that in 1994 the Peoples Alliance campaigned at the General
Elections and the Presidential Election on the basis that a negotiated
settlement of these problems should be sought. It is noteworthy that
President Kumaratunga received the highest number of votes ever polled at
an election by any leader of our country. It was the PA Government of
President Kumaratunga that first brought peace to the forefront of the
national agenda and began formal talks with the LTTE in 1994. With
the partial advent to Government of the United National Front the PA again
reiterated its position that it would support a process of negotiations
that should lead ultimately to the just and durable resolution of the
relevant problems in the interest of all the people of our country. The PA
gave to the UNF and the people, in Parliament and elsewhere, the assurance
that it would do nothing to disrupt the process of commencing a dialogue
with the LTTE and all other concerned parties. It is widely acknowledged
that the PA has honoured this assurance. The PA did, however, give timely
notice to the UNF that when the stage was reached for dealing with the
substantial issues which underlie the conflict, it would reserve its
opinion on those issues until they were identified and clarified, as the
Peoples’ Alliance did not know then, and still does not know, the
thinking of the UNF on those matters. As
the negotiation process unfolds the PA has become aware of a growing
unease among the people that the negotiations are taking an undesirable
turn as far as the wider interests of the country are concerned. While the
PA is firm in its commitment to substantial devolution of power as a means
of resolving the conflict, it is equally firm in its desire to ensure that
the country remains undivided. The UNF and some Governments, notably the
Norwegian, say that the talks with the LTTE are proceeding in the right
direction. In the opinion of the Peoples’ Alliance the direction of
the talks is right only for the LTTE. Recent actions of the LTTE demonstrate a clear trend towards the consolidation of its authority in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which creates a grave risk of a separate State being established as a reality on the ground. The LTTE has spoken publicly of already having in place a permanent administration, a standing Army, a standing Navy, Law Courts, Police Stations, Banks and other institutions. The PA views with great concern the continued abduction of children for compulsory military service, which is well documented by national and international agencies, the continued extortion of money in the form of compulsory taxation, the smuggling of arms and the rapid expansion of the armed forces of the LTTE which today stand at unprecedented levels. Those actions appear to reflect the LTTE’s intention to create and dominate some kind of parallel governmental entity in the North and the East, not responsible to the central government, which would lead, inevitably, to the establishment of a separate State. Thus, a deep sense of anxiety has arisen in the minds of the people of Sri Lanka. Certain
decisions were taken at the second round of talks in Thailand, which
indicate that the UNF is seeking, from donor countries, funds for
development and rehabilitation work in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The
PA wishes to recall, at this point, that the PA Government formulated a
detailed Plan of Action and obtained all the funds required for the
“Triple R” development programme for the North and East in December
2000. We received the first tranche of this credit line and commenced
development work in 2001. Both rounds of the talks in Thailand have only
discussed details of the same programme. In
any event, it is probable that the deployment of these funds will be
controlled, or heavily influenced by the LTTE or agencies under its
control, without there being in place a valid administrative structure,
authorised by the Constitution and responsible to Parliament to supervise,
and be accountable for, the disbursement of such funds. The
PA is disturbed by the impending accommodation of the LTTE, on a level of
parity with the Government of Sri Lanka, at the forthcoming talks to be
held in Oslo. It is said that at these talks the Governments of the United
States of America and the United Kingdom, both of which have proscribed
the LTTE or declared it a terrorist organisation, will be represented at a
high political level in the presence of the LTTE as an equal partner in
the talks. The signal that will go out from Oslo, especially in the
context of the acts of terrorism that continue to occur often in the North
and East of Sri Lanka, is that, notwithstanding resounding universal
declarations that terrorism must be resisted in all its manifestations,
terrorism will in fact be rewarded when the interests of certain donor
countries merge with the interests of a terrorist group. The
PA also views with the concern the role currently being played by the
Norwegian Government in the negotiation process. The PA Government
initially invited the Norwegian Government to facilitate the talks
that were proposed to be undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka with
the LTTE. Today, it appears to the people of Sri Lanka that the role of
the Norwegian Government has been unjustifiably enlarged and that it is no
longer visibly impartial, as between the LTTE and other legitimate
interest groups in Sri Lanka. The Norwegian Government seems more
concerned with arranging an outcome of the talks that can be pronounced a
“success” for the UNF and the LTTE rather than with the long-term
interests of Sri Lanka and its people. The destiny of Sri Lanka is too
precious to be left to be determined by the UNF and the LTTE under the
supervision of the Government of Norway. The
Prime Minister and his negotiating team have not yet, after eleven months
of the current peace process, thought it fit to inform the country, the
President and Parliament and perhaps even most of the Cabinet, of the
policy framework which would form the basis for negotiation. The
PA wishes to remind the UNF that when the PA Government conducted talks
with the LTTE in 1994/1995 and 2000/2001 the people of Sri Lanka were kept
fully informed of the overall policy on which the talks would be based. In
fact, the PA Government presented its views to the country in the form of
a draft Constitution based on discussions which took almost two and half
years in a Select Committee of Parliament in addition to the President
holding intensive talks between the Government and all parties represented
in Parliament for nearly six and a half months which led to the
presentation of the final draft of the Constitution to Parliament on that
infamous day in August 2000. The
PA also wishes to mention here a recent example of negotiations towards
ending a protracted armed conflict - the conflict between the Irish
militants and the British Government - where the parties recalled, in the
Good Friday Agreement, that “the resolution of the decommissioning issue
is an indispensable part of the process of negotiation”. In our case, in
the Memorandum of Understanding between the Prime Minister and the leader
of the LTTE, and in the talks themselves, there is not even a passing
reference to the issue of decommissioning. The British Government kept the
House of Commons regularly informed of the progress of the talks. The UNF
has been silent in Parliament and even in the Cabinet on the progress of
the talks in Thailand. While
the PA welcomes the expression of interest by several friendly countries
in the resolution of our conflict by peaceful means, and offers to help in
that process, the PA believes that, in the final analysis, our problems
can only be resolved by the people of Sri Lanka as a whole, not by two
parties, the LTTE and the UNF, and a fraction of a third, assisted by
countries that cannot possibly underwrite the durability of a settlement
in which the people of Sri Lanka have not fully participated. We
must also bear in mind the concerns of our neighbours, the countries with
which we are linked, and will continue forever to be linked, by timeless
bonds of history and common interest. Their concerns for the future of Sri
Lanka in relation to their own interests deserve our respect and highest
consideration. The
Peoples’ Alliance calls upon the UNF, firstly, to insist that the LTTE
should make a public declaration renouncing all forms of threat, duress
and violence as a condition for continuing with the talks, and,
secondly, that the decommissioning issue should unequivocally be stated
to be “an indispensable part of the process of negotiation”. Thirdly,
the Peoples’ Alliance calls for the fuller and wider participation,
henceforth, in the ongoing talks of those who have legitimate claims to
voice the aspirations of the various communities, ethnic, linguistic
and religious, which have co-existed in Sri Lanka from time immemorial,
including, especially, the elected representatives of the people of the
Northern and Eastern Provinces. Fourthly,
the Peoples’ Alliance will launch a much wider, and more
inclusive, process of national consultations on the resolution of the
conflict than the exclusive process of consultation that is presently
being conducted between the LTTE and the UNF under the auspices of the
Norwegian Government. Fifthly,
the Peoples’ Alliance having observed with dismay, over a period of ten
months, the manner in which the structurally flawed Memorandum of
Understanding between the UNF and the LTTE is being implemented, to the
grave prejudice of the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka and the security of the
State, calls for a thorough revision of the Memorandum of
Understanding. The
PA currently represents well over 3 million voters in Sri Lanka. It cannot
countenance any longer, developments in the talks or on the ground, that
put in jeopardy the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri
Lanka. This is a paramount consideration to which the Peoples’ Alliance
is deeply and irrevocably committed. In
conclusion, the PA reiterates its stand that it supports a peaceful and
political resolution of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. It does not
believe that the problems involved can be solved by war. However, the
Peoples’ Alliance feels that the time has come when it must speak out
with regard to the concerns of the mass of the people of the country at
the direction in which the talks with the LTTE moving. Dr.
Sarath Amunugama Media
Spokesman - Peoples’ Alliance
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Today's Stories
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“The
PA views with concern the role currently being played by the Norwegian
Government in the negotiation process and we feel that they are no longer
visibly impartial,” former Foreign Minister and Presidential Advisor
Lakshman Kadirgamar said today. 
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