The Hindu : 'Political stability must for peace process'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 16, 2002

International

International

'Political stability must for peace process'

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Aug. 15. Barely hours after the dates were announced for the commencement of direct talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Colombo today asserted that ensuring "political stability" was a basic minimum for the success of the peace process and said that it would honour its promise to lift the ban on the Tigers.

The exact date and location for the Thai talks would be made known shortly, the Government spokesman, G.L. Peiris, said here today, adding that the parleys would be held twice a month with each session lasting three days. While the names of the four-member Government team would be announced later, the current expectation was that the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Rauff Hakeem, would be in the delegation.

The Norwegian Government had announced on Wednesday that talks between the Government and LTTE would start in Thailand between September 12 and 17.

The talks are set to commence against the backdrop of a broad unanimity in the south that a move away from the unitary state would be required to solve the decade-long ethnic conflict. With equal vigour there is also a firm denial of a separate state, which has been for decades the core demand of the Tigers. Both the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who head sharply opposed political parties, have made it clear that they were open to any solution but a division of the country. India and other countries have also said that a just solution would have to be arrived at within the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Striking a direct link between the ongoing peace efforts and the political situation, Prof. Peiris, who is also the Constitutional Affairs Minister, said that the Government was keen on bringing in amendments to prevent an "arbitrary dissolution of Parliament".

Of late, the Government has taken the position that the President's powers to dissolve Parliament, after it completes one year, was a "Damocle's sword''. Ms. Kumaratunga has said that she had no intention of dissolving Parliament, but that has not helped in clearing the air of uncertainty among the ruling coalition. Recently, there have been reports of an effort to bring about an understanding between Ms. Kumaratunga and Mr. Wickremesinghe that the Parliament would not be dissolved in an arbitrary manner.

However, in a sharpening of position, Prof. Peiris said that "constitutional amendment" was "the only way" in which political certainty could be ensured.

The Government, Prof. Peiris said, would honour its promise and lift the ban on the Tigers "10 days before direct talks commence".

The LTTE, banned in India after the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, were outlawed in the island after the attack on the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy, 116 km from Colombo, considered the most sacred of shrines in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka. Lifting of the domestic ban, in place since 1998, has been a condition laid down by the Tigers for the commencement of talks.

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