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Chances for peace better than before -Prof. Peiris

The chances for a lasting peace are better today than they have been before because there has been a "conglomeration of circumstances," the government's Chief Negotiator at the peace talks, Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said yesterday.

Making a presentation to business leaders at the Chamber of Commerce Prof. Peiris said that both the government and the LTTE have eschewed violence as a means of solving the problem and that the outer parameters for a final solution have been drawn up. Both sides, he said are convinced that the problem cannot be settled militarily.

"Federation is the boundary, the furthest we will go," he said. Prof.Peiris said that confederation had also been discussed, but because that would permit a region to secede by plebiscite, "it was not acceptable to the government of Sri Lanka."

"Federalism is a word that invokes an emotive reaction in this country and conjures up a fear that it would lead to a division, but that is not so," he said.

Instead "Federalism is a technique with which to deal with cultural and other diversities within one country," he explained. Prof. Peiris pointed out that the LTTE had made a paradigm shift from agitating for a separate state to settle for a solution within a unitary Sri Lanka.

"After the talks in Oslo the LTTE members went to Switzerland to study the model there," he said. However we will not "slavishly follow" any model but look at examples in the West as well as in Asia and Africa and adapt them to suit Sri Lanka's needs.

The government he said wants to overhaul the entire system and not make piecemeal adjustments.

He commended the vision of former Minister Dr. Colvin R de Silva whom he quoted as saying that "there would be one language and two countries or two languages and one country." He called on the business leaders to support the effort at national integration and welcomed the setting up of a Chamber of Commerce in Jaffna with which the national level chambers are interacting.

"Track two contacts are vital," he said. "Government cannot do this alone, bridges must be built between peoples," he added.

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