COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s peace process got a welcome respite last week when, for the first time in seven years, a Cabinet minister and a top Tamil rebel leader discussed the prospects for lasting peace.

At the same time, international truce monitors praised the warring factions for a ceasefire that has held now for seven months.

But the bad news is that the seven-month co-habitation arrangement between Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, both of which derive their political support from opposing political parties, is slowly turning sour.

This is threatening a peace initiative that has for the first time in 19 years yielded this much success and hope in this war-ravaged nation.

“The prospect of a settlement is lost (if leaders from the main political parties are fighting),” says D Sivaram, editor of TamilNet, a popular pro-rebel website. Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe head Sri Lanka’s main political parties, which have traditionally been made up of Sinhalese, the country’s dominant ethnic group.

The president has the power to dissolve parliament after Dec 6, a year into the existence of the current session of the legislature, and if she does this “the peace process goes for a six,” Sivaram said.

On Monday, Kumaratunga wrote to Wickremesinghe saying that she had unfettered powers as executive president to appoint or remove Cabinet ministers, and added that she also disagreed with the premier’s contention that ministers were appointed or removed on his recommendation.

The exchange came after the president demanded that Commerce Minister Ravi Karunanayake be removed from the Cabinet for levelling all kinds of allegations against her.

The current political quagmire is not unexpected given the deep divisions between the government and the president. But another possible parliamentary election in December would turn the clock back on what is shaping to be the best chance yet for lasting peace, analysts say.

“You can say goodbye to peace if parliament is dissolved or the president doesn’t give her support to the current peace process,” said a senior parliamentarian on the opposition benches from Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA).

“Everything will go up in smoke if the two leaders continue fighting in this manner,” said the MP, who declined to be named, but who is supportive of the government’s peace initiative.

The latest tussle for power comes after the much-delayed peace talks between the government and the Tamil rebels received a boost on Saturday, when it was reported that Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda, who is supervising the peace process, met with chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham at the London home of the Norwegian ambassador.

The meeting was hailed by Norwegian facilitators as a step forward after earlier talks to take place in Thailand in June became bogged down.

Another bit of positive news followed on Monday when the Tamil daily ‘Sudar Oli’, considered close to the leadership of the Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are officially known, said that rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was ready to meet Prime Minister Wickremasinghe.

During a visit to Washington last week, where he met US President George W Bush, Wickremasinghe said he was prepared to meet Prabhakaran, whose rebels have been fighting a bitter secessionist struggle in the country’s north and east for 19 years.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 64,000 people since 1983.

In an interview with IPS, Kumaratunga said she too is prepared to meet Prabhakaran for talks on behalf of the country: “After all I corresponded with him during our previous peace bid in 1995,” she said in written responses to questions.

The president also denied allegations in the media that she was opposed to the peace process: “I strongly believe in co-habitation because it has been mandated by the people through elections and in that respect I remain committed to working with the (ruling) UNP (United National Party on the peace process).”

Kumaratunga, who won a second term as president in 2000, saw her party lose at the polls the following year.

However the ‘Sunday Leader’ newspaper, considered close to the Wickremesinghe administration, said last week that Kumaratunga was contemplating proroguing parliament in August through a series of moves, one of which is to declare the prime minister incompetent to rule and to dismiss the government.

For its part, the government is flexing its political muscle and pushing ahead with constitutional amendments aimed at curbing the powers of the president, particularly the right to dissolve parliament after a year of the current session of the legislature.

Sabre-rattling between the adversaries reached a new high last week when Kumaratunga, addressing the party faithful at a rally, blasted government ministers and ruling-party politicians in her customary manner.

The president’s response was not surprising given the bitterness between Kumararatunga and her ministers, particularly those who quit her ruling alliance last year and crossed over to the then opposition, and now ruling, UNP.

Harry Gunatillake, a retired air force chief turned political commentator, says Kumaratunga obviously does not want Wickremasinghe to get any political mileage from the peace process.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.