November 8, 2002	Friday	Ramazan 2,1423

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Tamil rebels moved much closer to achieving their immediate goal of extensive autonomy in the north and east of Sri Lanka, and near equality in status with the Colombo government after a second round of Norwegian-brokered peace talks ended in Thailand at the weekend.

The four-day negotiations between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government ended on an upbeat note despite, on the first day, a Colombo court sentencing the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to 200 years jail in absentia for involvement in a suicide bombing at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1996, which killed 76 people.

The Tamil Tiger’s chief negotiator, Dr Anton Balasingham, condemned the judgment as timed to break the spirit of the peace talks and the leader of the LTTE’s political wing, S. P. Thamilchelvam, said the LTTE could also seek to try Sri Lankan government’s leaders for crimes against humanity committed during the 20-year-old separatist war waged by the LTTE in which more than 70,000 people have died.

The chief government negotiator, constitutional affairs minister Professor G. L. Peiris assured them the judgment would not affect the peace process. But the heavy sentence imposed on the LTTE leader will present new problems to tax the Norwegians’ diplomatic skills. Prabhakaran, who is based in a fortified bunker in the LTTE-held region of Vanni in the north of Sri Lanka, is also facing a death sentence in India and extradition demands for his role in the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Since the launch of the separatist war in 1983, the LTTE has been fighting for a separate state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for the area’s Hindu-majority Tamils, who, it says, are discriminated against by the island’s Bhuddist Sinhala majority. The vicious and often brutal dispute has left more than a million people homeless and stalled economic growth on the island.

The successful Thailand talks saw the setting of up three panels — one to work out a political solution to the ethnic crisis; another to consider de-escalation of forces and normalisation and the third to examine the needs for reconstruction and aid to boost this process. In all three areas the LTTE made major gains. The political panel will be co-chaired by its chief negotiator Dr Anton Balasingham and Professor Peiris, giving sought-after parity to the LTTE, which has still to renounce separatism, terrorism and violence. Dr Balasingham announced at the end of the talks that the LTTE would be looking towards a solution in terms of a federation and confederation, with the unstated possibility of later secession.

The second panel — made up of both Sri Lankan government and LTTE representatives — will work on ‘de-escalation and normalisation’ which is LTTE code for the removal of the high security zones set up by the state security services in the north and east. The LTTE demands this as a matter of priority ostensibly to re-settle nearly 700,000 displaced people. Some cynical observers say this will also weaken the Sri Lankan government’s military control in areas that are not already under LTTE control opening the way for the LTTE to expand its efforts to set up an alternative administrative structure.

The LTTE’s other success was in the setting up of the third panel to deal with reconstruction and rehabilitation of the north and east. An international donor conference aimed at mobilizing international support for action is set for Oslo on Nov 25. The panel will decide on how resources are allocated in the areas, where some of Sri Lanka’s poorest people live, and the agencies which will be involved - key questions as many of the needy live in areas controlled by the LTTE.

Significantly, representatives of both the Colombo government and LTTE will attend the Oslo talks. Among the donor countries present will be the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia, all of which have proscribed the LTTE as an international terrorist organisation. The presence of both protagonists in the Sri Lankan conflict will confer the much sought-after recognition and degree of legitimacy the LTTE needs to open the way for the lifting of the international ban.

Observers have been quick to note however that the issue of safeguarding the rights of Muslims in the east of Sri Lanka was not addressed in the Thailand talks. The LTTE said the time was not right to discuss the issue of a separate administrative unit demanded by Muslims, who do not wish to be under LTTE domination.

With Muslim members boycotting the parliament over their rights and Muslim youths in the east demanding arms for their protection, the region could well provide fertile soil for Muslim fundamentalism.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.