Chandrika visit to India - a mission to test the waters?

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, FEB. 21. The Sri Lankan President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, will begin a three-day visit to New Delhi on Friday, amid considerable confusion back home over India's position on the Norwegian-backed initiative aimed at resolving the conflict in the island.

During her last visit to India in December 1998, Ms. Kumaratunga signed the Free Trade Agreement with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee. Since then, she has been re- elected as President, and her coalition voted back to power.

Sri Lanka's military fortunes have waxed and waned since then, till, at the moment, the security forces are maintaining the stalemate they managed to restore in Jaffna peninsula after offensive by the LTTE in April last.

Now Sri Lanka is at the threshold of talks with the LTTE, and an Indian input at this stage is seen crucial.

``The President's visit to India can be seen as a prelude to peace talks,'' a Foreign Ministry official said.

Ms. Kumaratunga, who is scheduled to meet Mr. Vajpayee and the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, on February 23, would ``compare notes'' on the Norwegian-facilitated peace process among other matters of ``mutual interest'', officials said.

While New Delhi has expressed support for the Oslo initiative to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, it is not yet clear how far India is willing to be a fellow passenger in this exercise.

Indian position

The Indian position is for a negotiated solution that meets the aspirations of the Tamil minority community within the framework of Sri Lanka's territorial integrity. However, Sri Lanka would want to know how comfortable India is with LTTE as the main negotiator for the Tamil people.

``It is hard to believe that India would want the LTTE, that killed a former Prime Minister and more than 1,000 of its soldiers, to wield any sort of state power, even if it is in partnership with the Sri Lankan Government, which is a possibility if the talks are held and are successful,'' said Mr. Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council.

A recent statement by the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, in the Rajya Sabha, that the Government of India had revived the demand for the extradition of the LTTE leader, Mr. Velupillai Prabhakaran, has served to reinforce the persistent and widespread belief in Sri Lanka that India would somehow scuttle the Norwegian initiative.

Besides India's open hostility to the LTTE, its purported reluctance to countenance ``outsiders'' dabbling in the affairs of its neighbour beyond a point is also cited as a reason for this.

That is one reason why a report in a Sri Lankan weekly newspaper that India had opposed the inclusion of Japan and the U.K. in a international committee proposed by Oslo to monitor goodwill gestures by both sides prior to talks, since denied by the External Affairs Ministry, has found ready believers.

Peace activists attribute Sri Lanka's tough posturing on the peace talks and its refusal to reciprocate a unilateral cease- fire by the LTTE to the Government's confidence that India would support this.

Against this background, Ms. Kumaratunga's visit is being viewed as a mission to ``test the waters'' and perhaps even to discuss the parameters for talks with the LTTE.

Besides the peace initiative, Ms. Kumaratunga is also likely to raise the issue of reviving the SAARC process, paralysed since India vetoed the 1999 Kathmandu summit after Gen. Pervez Musharraf assumed power in Pakistan.

Understandably, Sri Lanka is reluctant to preside over a lame- duck regional grouping and is keen to hand over the chair, which it has held since 1998, as quickly as possible to Nepal.

The issue figured during the visit of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, to Islamabad last week, where he held meetings with the Pakistani Chief Executive, and the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Sattar.

The developments on the free trade agreement will also figure in talks between the Sri Lankan President and Indian leaders.

Ms. Kumaratunga will arrive in New Delhi late on Thursday. She will stay till Sunday.

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Section  : International
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