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Sri Lanka Muslim leader seeks meeting with Balasingham

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Aug. 31. The Sri Lanka Minister for Muslim Religious Affairs, Rauff Hakeem, has sought an appointment to meet the chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Anton Balasingham, in London this weekend, to "clarify issues'' ahead of next month's talks between Colombo and the Tigers.

Speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association of Sri Lanka on Friday, he said the "status of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, (which he leads) in the talks, should be clarified."

With Tamil-Muslim relationship, a crucial determinant of Sri Lanka's conflict-resolution process, going through a sensitive phase, the outcome of this meeting between Mr. Balasingham and Mr. Hakeem, who is expected to be a part of the Government's delegation, will be crucial for the Thailand talks.

The island's Muslims, Mr. Hakeem said, had welcomed the ceasefire agreement when it was signed in April as `the most unfair peace is better than the most righteous war'.

However, "new issues have arisen'' during the ceasefire agreement, which need to be clarified. "We have assured the Muslims that as and when the talks get off, the SLMC will ensure that justice will be done," Mr. Hakeem said. Given the sensitive position the Muslims have in the country's ethnic balance, unless the issues were sorted out, they have the "potential to derail the whole process," the SLMC leader said.

The fresh predicament facing the Muslims is that the SLMC is still unsure of the position it would occupy in the talks. It is likely that the Tigers will press for the SLMC's participation only when Muslim issues are taken up, which would further strain the peace process.

Relations between the two Tamil-speaking minorities hit an all-time low when the Tigers ordered all Muslims to leave the north in 1990. However, the relations were set for an upturn this April, following an agreement between the LTTE leader, V. Prabakaran and Mr. Hakeem.

However, this June's communal clashes in the east had brought the peace process under strain, but that has been managed, for the moment, by an assurance by the then LTTE's eastern special political leader, Karikalan, that the safety of the Muslims will be ensured by the rebels. This was followed by a change in the eastern rebel political leadership, seen by some as sending a pro-Muslim signal.

Mr. Hakeem's proposed meeting with Mr. Balasingham also comes amid signals of a change within Muslim politics. The SLMC, founded by the late M.H.M. Ashraff, split after a leadership struggle between Mr. Hakeem and Ms. Ferial Ismail Ashraff. While Mr. Hakeem allied with the ruling United National Party, Ms. Ashraff has remained with the Opposition People's Alliance. The latest indications are that a coming together of these two leaders is also not ruled out as the Muslim community would like to ensure that its parliamentary strength is not truncated.

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