All peace efforts appear a failure and it is a great miss fortune for the country. Any peace talks that does not take into account the human suffering that people under go will not be meaningful and constructive.

A number of reasons are given for the failure of the recent Geneva Peace Talks between the government and the LTTE. This failure has saddened the people, Norway and the international community.

Prior to their departure to Geneva for Talks, the government maintained that it would discuss political solution while the LTTE insisted on discussing the humanitarian crisis in the north-East. Since both parties could not reach a compromise, the talks failed.

When the LTTE agreed to discuss the political resolution, the government could not table their proposals and they gave an excuse that they have no solution at hand and that they were waiting the decisions at the all party conference. In this back-ground, the LTTE stated that they would agree to fixing a date for the next talks only if the A9 highway is re-opened.

There is no doubt that if the government delegation had displayed a sense of flexibility and compromise at the negotiating table as done by LTTE delegation, then, the Geneva Talks would not have been a failure.

The government must realize that no body will accept the continuation of human suffering in the North-East. The government must consider how inappropriate it would be to discuss political issues without solving the human suffering.

It is by resolving the pressing humanitarian problem in the North-East the government can create an atmosphere to discuss political solutions at the next round of Talks. Thereby they can ensure the journey to peace to be a meaningful one.

An English translation of the Editorial in Virakesari, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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