By N. Sathiya Moorthy
If the LTTE is serious about it, the best, and possibly the only acceptable way would be for the militant outfit to let the entrapped civilians under its gun to move on to relatively secure areas under Government control. Feeding them and healing them could be done better elsewhere than in the ‘No-Fire Zone’, which the LTTE has been saying is anything but that.
The Government has since allowed overseas teams to visit Vavuniya. It had not seen them as among its friends in the global community. They have had no great complaints as yet about the Sri Lankan Government’s handling of the IDPs in the transit camps and the ‘welfare villages’. That should set at rest apprehensions of the kind that are being aired, at least for now.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also invited UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Vavuniya. Ban seemed to have linked it to the ‘plight of civilians caught in the conflict zone’. Possibly, the UN seems to feel that any final assault on the residual LTTE positions in the war zone could cause human catastrophe of a very high order – and wants that avoided.
Whether for tactical reasons or diplomatic causes, the Government has kept its word on the non-deployment of the artillery and air-power through the ‘last mile’. The LTTE needs to respond at least at this late hour, if it is really serious about a ceasefire. It also flows from the Tamil position for a ceasefire to precede everything else, if only to ensure the safety of the civilians.
Linking peace-building to a ceasefire without ensuring freedom for the trapped civilians would be a non-starter, both in conceptual and practical terms. Any negation of the suggestion would amount to an attestation of the largest hostage-taking in history. The Taliban are already resorting to it in Pakistan, and the world cannot argue differently when it comes to the LTTE.
Yet, the Government’s efforts at peace-building should not stop with ushering in democracy and development in the North, which are however ‘sine qua non’ for power devolution. Relief and rehabilitation measures too are a product of the ‘ethnic war’, yes, but the causes were political. The solution too has to be political, thus. It is too simplistic to conclude otherwise. It would not work.
Addressing foreign diplomats based in Colombo, President Rajapaksa referred to the APRC process and a political solution within a unitary Sri Lanka – linking the latter to his mandate, as always. Both President Rajapaksa and Minister Tissa Vitharana earlier, had linked the APRC process to a more conducive atmosphere, free from LTTE terrorism. Such a position has already eroded the credibility of the APRC.
The Tamil community in general and sections of their polity in particular may still be under the grip of LTTE fear, thus making them incapable of acting independently. If nothing else, any reassessment of the LTTE’s hidden capabilities for returning to guerrilla warfare should not cloud the Government’s vision. The National Security Council’s recent declaration of ‘conclusion of combat’ should thus serve as the starting-point for the Government to revive the political process.
President Rajapaksa has reiterated his wish for Tamils to “live in freedom, without fear or mistrust”. If the Government is serious about it, it has to walk that extra mile now on the road to confidence-building. A political package from the APRC that could still be open to a national discourse would be the best way out. President Rajapaksa has since spoken about a ‘Thirteen-plus’ solution while Minister Vitharana has outlined various ingredients, from time to time.
The war is against the LTTE. The APRC proposals are for the Tamil community. The two cannot be linked. Political proposals reaching out to the larger community is what could make the Tamils emotionally secure as rehabilitation and reconstruction would make them physically safe.
That was how and when Chandrika Kumaratunga won over the Tamils even before she became Prime Minister first, and President, later. That is the way President Rajapaksa could do now – and do better, with no apprehension of the LTTE regrouping militarily or remaining relevant, politically.
It is not without reason. ‘War victory’ against the LTTE that sold in the Sinhala areas would not sell in the Tamil North. Now that President Rajapaksa has mentioned to early notification for local government polls in Jaffna and Vavuniya areas – obviously to be followed by elections to the Northern Provincial Council – a peace package could still hold.
It is sad that the TNA should continue to hunt with the hound and run with the hare. Like the LTTE and the Government, the TNA too seems wanting to continue linking peace to war. Their current position implies that they remain unconcerned about the plight of those civilians that are not under LTTE control. Rehabilitation and reconstruction of these civilian lives thus seem to be the concern only of the Governments in Colombo and elsewhere.
The TNA would have to decide if it wants to take the bull by the horn – or stand aside and lament it all, the same way they did in the East earlier. At the time, they linked their electoral participation, or absence of it, to ‘de-merger’. It could still be their main poll-plank in the North, if not as much in the East that they boycotted – if only they decided to re-enter the electorall process, and not on the terms of the LTTE, as was the case with the parliamentary polls of 2004 and the presidential elections a year later.
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