The Hindu : LTTE and peace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 09, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

LTTE and peace

Sir,— In your Editorial, "Another false dawn?" (Dec. 7), you have aptly brought out the lingering apprehensions about the sincerity of the LTTE in its commitment to the agreement. Its records put it in poor light with a penchant for a "drive for dominance" that displays "dangerous designs". You could have appreciated the efforts of the facilitator who has proved and practised the old Norwegian proverb — grass does not grow in the path between the homes of friends.

S. Srimoolanathan,

Chennai

Sir,— There is a lesson for New Delhi in the success achieved by Norway in bringing Colombo and the LTTE to the negotiating table and in helping them work out a political solution to the almost two decades old ethnic problem in the island. The lesson is that mediation by a third party is essential if any dispute between two parties where each takes an extreme position is to be settled. If there are more than two parties to a dispute, as in Kashmir, mediation will be even more necessary.

New Delhi insists that no outside help is required to solve the Kashmir problem. If at all it needs international help, it is only to make Pakistan stop encouraging cross-border terrorism. Further, it does not want all the parties to the dispute to sit together and discuss the problem.

While it wants to discuss the problem separately with the various Kashmiri separatist groups, it does not want any of these groups to join its discussions with Pakistan. Such an approach cannot, in the very nature of things, solve any problem or settle a multilateral dispute.

K. Vijayakumar,

Bangalore

New Delhi

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