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Any meaningful steps toward a viable peace process, let alone a stable peace, must start with the demilitarization of Tamil areas.
In the past two weeks, many families in Sri Lankan government-controlled areas have begun fleeing to Tamil Tiger-controlled regions - with good reason: casualties are mounting rapidly amid retaliatory violence by the increasingly hard-pressed Sinhala-dominated military against local civilians.
Jaffna
has grown increasingly anxious and volatile as ‘disappearances’ again
become routine, women are sexually assaulted, and civilians are
mercilessly beaten or shot.
Law
and order in Jaffna has almost completely degenerated in recent weeks.
The government machinery – save the military occupation – has
essentially shut down in Jaffna. Even foreign non-governmental
organizations are now not free from attack (six de-mining workers from
HALO Trust and the Danish De-mining Group have been abducted in
Army-controlled areas this week).
Little wonder families are fleeing
from military persecution to the Tiger’s de facto administrative
capital of Kilinochchi, several miles south along the A9. Almost two
thousand families have decamped, according to aid workers there.
The
University of Jaffna has remarkably reopened, even after its protests
against military excesses were violently put down by the Army, whose
troops even forcibly entered the campus and assaulted students and
professors alike. However, those people remaining in Jaffna are facing
more violence from the military amid a further degradation of
ceasefire. With attacks on soldiers and retaliatory attacks on
civilians rising, the idea of a ceasefire has grown laughable to Jaffna
residents.
Little wonder that violent protests are easily provoked and
many civilians areas are turning to thinly disguised LTTE fronts for
protection.
The
international community meanwhile continues to call for the Sri Lankan
government and the LTTE to go back to the negotiating table. The
upcoming visit of Eric Solheim, Norway’s former Special Envoy to Sri
Lanka and now Oslo’s International Aid minister, is undoubtedly to
foster this end.
However,
simply returning to peace talks is nothing more than a band-aid
solution to a much more systematic problem. The dynamic in the
Northeast has changed greatly since the 2002/3 talks and the landmark
Ceasefire Agreement before that.
The trust that emerged between the
government of the time and the LTTE has eroded slowly but surely amid a
series of pernicious actions by Sri Lanka’s leaders.
Today both sides
are much farther from achieving a consensus on most peace related
matters than ever before – except times of open conflict.
But
the unqualified international insistence on new talks reveals a
fundamental divergence between the interests of the international
community and those of the Tamil community. This is not an ideological
problem, but a practical one.
The former does not have to live near
High Security Zones (or in displaced camps as a consequence of the
HSZs), suffer harassment on the way home from school, fear arbitrary
arrest or summary execution on a daily basis. Thus, whilst
international representatives chant the mantra of talks being the only
way forward, the Tamil community is more concerned with clear and ever
present safety fears.
Since
President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected on the hardline anti-peace
platform, it is unlikely either he or his Sinhala nationalist political
allies would uphold, let alone consolidate, earlier progress in the
peace process. Any talks would thus begin further behind than where
they stalled and stall again even sooner than before.
Under such
conditions, what does it mean to rush for peace talks?
Instead
of blindly demanding the resumption of talks, the international
community should first demand the full implementation of the ceasefire,
in particular the restoration of normalcy. This would greatly diminish
the ongoing violence in Jaffna by actively demilitarizing the
peninsula.
Sri Lankan troops would finally leave the homes of local
residents. Women would not fear sexual assault; youth need not fear
arrest or disappearance. The media, NGOs and local civil society can
function freely.
The
‘shadow war’ has been ongoing for at least two years now, bringing the
risk of sudden death or worse to every Tamil street and home in the
Army-controlled parts of the Northeast. The government must be
compelled to disarm paramilitary groups to regain the trust of the
Tamil people, let alone the LTTE, in the peace process.
Sri Lankan
troops are understandably on edge now due to escalating violence by
Tigers or Tiger-backed groups. But for a considerable time, the Tamil
Resurgence rallies have seen swelling attendance, reflecting
long-simmering anger at military occupation and daily harassment.
Now
that anger is being channeled into undisguised support for the Tigers.
This
weak start – demilitarization - is all that can be asked for. In any
other country, it might be reasonable to demand the government
investigate and punish military/paramilitary attacks on civilians. But
in Sri Lanka, justice has been replaced by a plethora of forgotten
committees and commissions.
The culture of impunity that is allowing
and exacerbating attacks on Tamils must be convincingly eliminated for
people to believe that anything other than the threat of LTTE
realiation can deter military excess. Only this week the Asian Human
Rights Commission (AHRC) decried the six-year delay in prosecuting the
soldiers responsible for the murders of those buried in the mass graves
in Chemmani.
AHRC condemned the attorney general’s office itself,
stating: “delays in court trials as well as due process amount to a
clear betrayal of justice.â€
Sri
Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said recently his
government is “still willing to walk that extra mile for peace.†But
any meaningful steps towards peace must start by demilitarization. That
means ending the shadow war and the harassment of civilians.
These
steps are not bargaining chips for the negotiation table; they are
fundamental steps of building confidence.
They are the basic steps of
peace itself.
Source: TG
Tasha Manoranjan
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