GENEVA TALKS
Let no one misunderstand me as one trying to sabotage the Peace process. I am one who is genuinely interested in an early solution to the ethnic problem. Being a constituent of Kilinochchi and having represented Kilinochchi in Parliament for over 13 years, I am concerned about the people whom I represented. My repeated appeals, for the liberation of the people living under subjugation of the L.T.T.E., are not taken seriously by anybody including the International Community. Every one is trying to please the L.T.T.E. without branding them as the aggressors responsible for thousands of violations of the Cease-fire Agreement, as reported by the SLMM and several other unreported incidents of abductions, extortions, torture, detention, harassment, killings etc. One can easily understand the amount of terror they can cause to the innocent people. They are guilty of abducting 600 adults and 1,700 children including Tsunami orphans for recruitment as child soldiers. No one knows as to what happened to the 600 adults abducted. Where are they? Are they being tortured? Are they being properly fed? Are they going to be released? Are they alive? These are some of the questions asked by the people or rather the people want me to ask. Every one is full of praise for the L.T.T.E. for their agreeing to release the children who are under eighteen. A child 14 or 15 years in 2002 at the time of signing the C.F.A. would be 18 or 19 today. On the whole, out of the 1,700 children only a handful may be released as an eye- wash to the International Community which is very much concerned about the recruitment of children. Surely the L.T.T.E. that has records of people living in foreign countries like Canada and Germany must be having all details of their arrests, detentions etc. The Government should have demanded the release of all such people with details of all persons abducted and the facilitator had a moral obligation to have supported that demand.
With over three thousand C.F.A. violations against 176 of the Sri Lankan Forces, the Government Team at the Geneva talks, had enough ammunition to fire at the L.T.T.E. In fact the Leader of the Team took off well to be silenced by the threat of walkout by Mr. Anton Balasingam, the only English speaking Member in that team as claimed by him. These are the usual tactics of the L.T.T.E. The L.T.T.E. team before leaving for Geneva said that they will only discuss the proper implementation of the C.F.A. and nothing else. With the thousands of CFA violations complained of by the S.L.M.M against the L.T.T.E., it is the Government that should have made this demand and not the L.T.T.E. This is where the Government made the mistake.
Another important factor is the absence of provision in the CFA to empower the SLMM to take counter measures for any violations of the CFA. Such a provision is absolutely necessary for proper implementation of the CFA, a serious lapse in the original draft, not noticed by any one. The L.T.T.E. should have been told that their cadre was admitted into the Government controlled area in batches of 50 and 100 during the first and second month and any number after that, only to do political work. Organizing anti-government demonstrations. hartals, Ponguthamil programs with communal bias, hoisting of tiger flag, throwing bombs at check points, hacking of Police Officers to death and putting the blame on the innocent civilians, planting of claymore mines, training youths in war-fare, compelling elders to undergo training in war-fare, disrupting the education of children and University students, deliberately lowering the standard of education and such other similar activities, do not fall under the category of political work. Even before the L.T.T.E. team returned to base, the so called political workers have gone back to their respective places, to resume duties in the areas supposed to be under the control of the Government.
The people in the North and East whether they are in the Government or L.T.T.E. controlled area feel that their bondage to the L.T.T.E. had been renewed by the Geneva talks. While both parties claim that they had won, the real losers are the people. I am of the view that the International Community and the Co-chairs should pressurize both parties to agree for suitable amendments to rectify the flaws in the Agreement, which neither party can right- fully object to.
There was a big controversy over the venue of the meeting. Due to serious opposition for selecting Oslo, Geneva was preferred. The visit of the L.T.T.E. team to Oslo after talks in Geneva, creates a lot of suspicion in the minds of the people. This act amounts to be a challenge for both the Government of Sri Lanka and to the 25 Member countries of the European Union, which imposed a travel ban and decided not to receive any L.T.T.E. delegation officially. The Government also will take it as a betrayal of the trust it placed on the Norwegian facilitators. The gift of some powerful transmitter by Norway to the L.T.T.E. earlier and a regular monthly payment of a fantastic amount to the L.T.T.E.’s Peace Secretariat, have already prejudiced the minds of the people against Norway’s facilitators. The L.T.T.E. is notorious for misusing privileges. To what extent the customs regulations will be violated and at what risk to the security of the country will never be known. What is puzzling me is can the umpire in a cricket match entertain one team during the tea interval? Norway should not mar its neutral role as a facilitator. It should explain as to why the L.T.T.E. team was entertained in Oslo after the adjournment of the Peace Talks.
V.Anandasangaree,
President – T.U.L.F.
