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By V.S. Sambandan (Reproduced from The Hindu of Sunday, November 21, 2004)
The "Record of Decisions" signed in December 2002 after the third round of peace negotiations makes it clear that both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE had agreed on the federal option. The first point of agreement in a four-page internal document — which includes a one-page annex — states: "Responding to a proposal by the leadership of the LTTE, the parties agreed to explore a solution founded on the principle of internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil-speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka. The parties acknowledged that the solution has to be acceptable to all communities." The document, signed by the chief negotiators for Sri Lanka and the LTTE — G. L. Peiris and Anton S. Balasingham — and the head of the Norwegian facilitation team, Vidar Helgesen, also sets out a "working outline for discussion of political matters listing six substantive political issues." While admitting that a proposal to explore a federal solution was included in the record of decisions, Mr. Balasingham objected to it being called a "declaration" through which the Tigers abandoned separatism. Contrary to the recently-elaborated position by the LTTE that it retains the separatist option, the "Record of Decisions" makes no such reference. The phrases "separatism" or "external self-determination" are absent in the document, which contains neither a renunciation nor a reiteration of the secessionist option. Significantly, the LTTE remained silent for nearly two years on reports that the Oslo agreement was a "paradigm shift" and that the Tigers had given up separatism until Mr. Balasingham's recent book, "War and peace: armed struggle and peace efforts of the Liberation Tigers," questioned such observations. The LTTE move to express opinion on an agreement reached in Oslo two years ago and to reiterate that the separatist option had not been abandoned come ahead of the annual Heroes' Day speech by its leader, V. Prabakaran, on November 27. It will be keenly awaited whether Mr. Prabakaran will comply with a request by the Government that he reiterates his commitment to a solution within the federal framework agreed in Oslo. A perusal of the decisions reached in Oslo also makes it clear that another key agreement — that the Government "will return one of the hotels in Jaffna [occupied by the Sri Lankan military] to its original use — is yet to be implemented. The continued killings of members opposed to the Tigers by "unidentified gunmen" — suspected by police to be members of the LTTE's pistol gang — despite a commitment by the LTTE that it "accepts the right of political groups to carry out political work," indicate that crucial clauses of the agreement are yet to be implemented. Most significantly, "substantive political issues" identified in Oslo two years ago — power sharing, geographical region, human rights protection, political and administrative mechanisms, public finance and law and order — remain un-addressed. The peace negotiations ran into rough weather immediately after the December 5, 2002, agreement in Oslo. Initial differences over the effectiveness of a committee on de-escalation — which surfaced in late December 2002 — cascaded into the LTTE's unilateral pull-out from negotiations in April 2003, citing "tardy implementation" of the agreements reached in six rounds of talks between September 2002 and March 2003. Subsequently, after rejecting two proposals made by the earlier Ranil Wickremesinghe administration as "inadequate," the LTTE proposed an interim self-governing authority for the northeast and wanted it to be the basis for resuming talks.
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COLOMBO, NOV. 20. With the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam remaining noncommittal on federalism, there is
apprehension in political circles that the group could renege on a
specific commitment made two years ago to explore a "federal
solution." 
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