Peace process turns on A9’s fate

A waste of time. That is the widely expressed characterisation of the two days of Norwegian facilitated talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers in Geneva over the weekend.

Even as the talks approached, the omens were not good. No agenda was agreed or even discussed ahead of the talks – though both sides were bluntly telling the media what they were going to talk about.

For the LTTE, it was the humanitarian crisis in which Tamils in many parts of the Northeast find themselves in the wake of government military offensives and reimposed or extended embargoes on food and medicine.

The government said it wanted to speak about 'core issues' - i.e. a political solution to the island's ethnic conflict.

The two approaches were irreconcilable. But the Norwegian facilitators were not daunted. They had a more limited objective: to get both sides to at least sit face-to-face across the table and agree on the dates of the next round or, even better, rounds.

Last weekend’s talks resulted, despite Norway’s diplomatic assertion the Geneva talks came after requests by both sides, from intense international pressure.

As both sides made manifestly clear, they themselves saw no purpose in the talks.

Violence has been rising steadily over the year, the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) looking increasingly irrelevant. The international observers of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) are unable to cope with scale of the truce violations.

After a series of successful offensives against the LTTE, the government is confident to can end the conflict with a military victory over the Tigers.

The LTTE feels the international community neither can, nor wants to restrain the GoSL’s pursuit of a military solution.

In September, the self-styled Co-Chairs – the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway – met and demanded both sides resume negotiations.

In an effort to pre-empt the points of dispute which aborted earlier efforts, the Co-Chairs even set out the venue – Oslo, dates – early October and an agenda – stabilisation of the CFA, strengthening of the SLMM, and finding a way forward to peace talks.

Colombo bristled at being dictated terms to talk to ‘terrorists’ whilst the LTTE braced for an impending Sri Lankan offensive.

However, earlier this month, after defeat for the offensive and killing over 130 soldiers, the LTTE carried out two major attacks outside the Northeast – a suicide bombing that killed 115 sailors and an attack on Galle naval base by suicide boats.

The spiralling violence increased international alarm and led to increased pressure for talks.

So did the soaring numbers of human rights violations. Abductions followed by murders, disappearances in military custody as well indiscriminate bombardments have led to over a thousand civilian deaths this year.

"Developments in Sri Lanka in the past months have seriously endangered the peace process," said Switzerland Foreign Affairs Deputy Head Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini who gave the opening address.

"Switzerland, as the depositary State of the Geneva Conventions, feels it cannot forgo its responsibility to remind the parties to the conflict of their obligations to respect International Humanitarian Law, in particular to protect civilians from the effects of armed conflict," she pointedly said.

Switzerland’s best wishes and Norway’s encouragements did little to promote goodwill between the protagonists.

Indeed, the only positive factor for the facilitators was that the parties met. As the Norwegians noted, “the parties deserve recognition for accepting this call by the co-chairs, coming for these consultations at a time when conflict is more apparent than peace in Sri Lanka.”

“The parties agreed that the peace process will need to address the three following areas: (1) Human suffering (2) Military de-escalation and reduction of violence and (3) Political components leading up to a political settlement,” a Norwegian statement said.

But no amount of Norwegian optimism could disguise the fact that, with divergent agendas the Geneva discussions were a fiasco.

“Discussions were also held on the urgent humanitarian situation and the need to address the plight of a very large number of civilians,” Norway said.

“Several issues were discussed. The LTTE requested the A9 to be opened. The Government refused to do so at this point. No agreement was reached between the parties on how to address the humanitarian crisis.”

The A9 is the sole road to Jaffna on which supplies to the 600,000 residents must travel. The road has been closed since August.

Perhaps most importantly, “no date for a new meeting was agreed upon.”

Norway’s diplomats “will be in ongoing dialogue with the parties to discuss all possible ideas on how to move the peace process forward.”

But the impasse now centres squarely on the A9 road.

Infuriated by the government’s refusal to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis gripping much of the Northeast, the LTTE has made the opening of the A9 a condition for further talks.

“During the talks [we] pointed out the suffering of the people including access through highways and roads in all parts of the [Tamil] homeland,” the LTTE said in a statement.

“The closure of the A-9 highway has resulted in open prison for more than six hundred thousand people in the Jaffna peninsula under the occupation of sixty thousand Sri Lankan military personnel.”

The government countered that the sea route was available to supply food to Jaffna, even though ships could not keep pace with the demands formerly satisfied by up to 200 lorries a day along the road.

The Tigers pointed out that the 600,000 people were being held prisoner on the peninsula.

The closure of A-9 constitutes a new ‘Berlin Wall’ the LTTE said. “It is a violation of the CFA and the right to free movement resulting in separation of family members and causing untold human misery.”

When the GoSL delegation argued that the closure of the A9 was not new and that it was closed between 1994 and 2002, the LTTE pointed out that that was a time of war and asked if by closing the road now, the government was intending to push the Tamil people to war, defeat them, and then negotiate with a subjugated people.

Most importantly, for the Tigers, “no satisfactory explanation was given by the GoSL for the refusal to reopen the A-9.”

The LTTE asserted the “the GoSL must be having a hidden military agenda.”

Its suspicions were fuelled by hectic military activity underway in the peninsula, just as it was ahead of the major offensive launched by the SLA in early October.

The LTTE asserted that it was at the table in Geneva because the international community led by the Co-Chairs had demanded talks.

Moreover, the LTTE delegation said, it was prepared to discuss the CFA, the SLMM and restoration of normalcy precisely because these were issues highlighted by the Co-Chairs.

The government delegation countered that it wanted to talk about ‘core issues’ rather than waste time on these issues.

The LTTE countered that it too was ready to talk about core issues, even a political solution and demanded if the GoSL delegation had brought any proposals for this.

The GoSL delegation admitted it had not, pleading the case that the ruling SLFP party had only just signed a pact with the main opposition UNP and that the All-Party Conference (APC) had, despite 10 months of deliberation, not come up with any proposals.

The LTTE welcomed the pact signed by the two major Sinhala political parties, saying that once the Sinhala polity reaches a consensus with respect to the resolution to the conflict, the LTTE will enter into political negotiations with GoSL.

However, the LTTE warned, it expects that by this time normalcy returns and a conducive environment created.

Launching its own agenda at the talks, the government attacked the LTTE as undemocratic and accusing it of ruling by the gun.

The LTTE replied that it is more committed to the democratic principles than the GoSL, pointing out that the Tamil armed struggle had erupted precisely because of the closure of democratic routes for the Tamil to make their demands first for equality and then for self-rule.

The LTTE challenged the GoSL to repeal the sixth amendment as a token of its commitment to democracy and pluralism. (The sixth amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution prohibits peaceful advocacy for a separate state through democratic means.)

The LTTE also challenged the GoSL to withdraw its armed forces from the Tamil homeland and allow the holding of a referendum under international supervision to ascertain the aspirations of the Tamil people.

The government did not have a response to any of the challenges.

Interestingly, during deliberation with Norwegian facilitators at the end of the first day, the LTTE agreed to a proposal to fix a date for next round of talks on the condition the A9 highway is opened before that date.

However, the GoSL did not respond positively to the suggestion, and the LTTE now insists that the A9 must be opened before a date is agreed and has asked the Norwegian facilitators and the SLMM to facilitate this.