The Hindu : Chandrika in battle mode as truce begins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002

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Chandrika in battle mode as truce begins
By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, FEB. 23. As the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began a mutual truce today, the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, was preparing for a battle with the Government over the ceasefire agreement.

Within minutes of the truce announcement on Friday, an angry Ms. Kumaratunga lambasted the Government for not consulting her or the Cabinet and Parliament before sealing the pact, and said she was concerned about specific clauses in the agreement.

Ms. Kumaratunga is the head of Government which is run by the UNF, a coalition of parties opposed to her People's Alliance (PA). She holds powers under the Constitution to block the peace process.

However, the Government today denied the President's charge that the Cabinet had not been consulted and said it was ready to debate the agreement in Parliament.

The statement, signed by the Cabinet spokesman, G.L. Peiris, said the Cabinet had discussed the proposed ceasefire agreement on February 20 and February 21 and had endorsed its provisions in ``unequivocal terms''.

Significantly, it made no denial of the President's other complaint that she had not been consulted, noting only that she was ``unfortunately'' not present at the first Cabinet meeting.

Though the Government has repeatedly claimed on earlier occasions that the President was being consulted on the ceasefire, it is learnt that Ms. Kumaratunga is of the view she was presented a fait accompli by the Government and Norway, the official facilitator of the peace process.

Sources close to the President said Ms. Kumaratunga believed that Norway rushed the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, into signing the agreement by getting the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran, to sign it before the final document was shown to her.

Soon after the pact was announced on Friday, Ms. Kumaratunga called a meeting of all leaders of Opposition parties in Parliament, including her own PA, to plot her next move.

Accordingly, the parties, which include the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), are expected to release separate statements on the ceasefire agreement early next week.

The sources said Ms. Kumaratunga had deputed the former Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, to consult legal experts on the fault-lines of the agreement, and the PA statement is likely to point them out.

The President herself believes she can punch holes through the agreement on several counts, including the absence of any specific clause permitting the Navy to intercept suspicious vessels at sea to prevent the LTTE from smuggling in weapons during the ceasefire.

Ms. Kumaratunga raised this and other concerns at a meeting with Mr. Wickremesinghe on Thursday, a day before the ceasefire announcement.

Sources said she pointed out that Killinochchi and Mullaithivu, two districts under the LTTE control in the northern mainland, would not be covered by the ceasefire monitoring mission.

Under the agreement, the missions are to be stationed at Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amaparai.

Ms. Kumaratunga also raised questions about the propriety of Norway demarcating a military ``line of control'' between the two sides in the ceasefire document.

She expressed concern about the clause pertaining to the disarming of ``Tamil paramilitary groups'' by the Government within 30 days of the ceasefire coming into effect.

TULF welcomes truce

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, FEB. 23. The Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, described the mutual truce between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, which took effect today, as a ``first step'' that would render negotiations for a settlement ``more likely to succeed''.

The main Tamil political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), welcomed the truce. It is a ``relief'' to the war-weary people of the northeast, according to the TULF leader, M. Sivasathamparam.

He hoped that the truce would pave way for a political resolution of the aspirations of the Tamil minority of Sri Lanka.

However, the People's Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are gearing to oppose the truce agreement.

The Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jon Westborg, met the former Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, today seeking to placate the frayed PA tempers.

The anti-LTTE Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which is directly affected by a clause in the agreement that the Government would disarm the Tamil paramilitary groups within 30 days of the truce coming into effect, said it was studying the document and would make a statement soon.

The People's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), which will be directly affected by the clause, rejected the definition of ``paramilitary''.

``We are a registered political party, not a paramilitary group. Some of our cadres carry arms to protect us, because in the past we have had problems with the LTTE,'' said Dharmalingam Sithadthan, Member of Parliament and leader of the PLOTE.

The PLOTE would readily hand in its weapons, but thereafter, the Government had to guarantee the security of its members, he added.

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