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Bringing normalcy to Trincomalee

The sudden eruption of violence in parts of Trincomalee underscores, once again, the district's volatility. The violence is also an unsettling reminder of the continued presence of spoiler elements in the Eastern Province, feverishly active in an effort to scuttle the peace process. These spoiler elements could very well be allied to hegemonic interests.

The continued Muslim deaths point to the activation of the now familiar game plan - pitting the predominant communities against each other in the hope that a communal conflagration would envelope the region and make short work of the peace effort. While investigations should be in place to unmask the perpetrators of the renewed violence in Trincomalee, quick and sustained measures should be implemented to bring the situation under control. In other words, law and order must be rigorously established in the district and every effort made to prevent the violence from spreading.

Apparently, the President has lost no time in ensuring that relevant measures are taken to boost Trincomalee's security. While we welcome these steps, we also wish to emphasize that no stone should be left unturned to bolster communal harmony in the region. Although in the short and medium terms beating back communalistic and hegemonic forces would prove important, the mechanisms should also be in place to foster ethnic harmony in the district, on a long-term basis. Continued violence in the district has underlined the latter need, but we wonder whether anything substantial has been done over the months to meet it.

The East could be expected to prove a bone of contention in the ethnic conflict context. It will continue to be so until we evolve an equitable solution to the conflict. This is proving an uphill task but there is no getting away from the urgent need to keep the peace and ensure that the communities co-exist in harmony.

To expedite the latter process, not only must law and order hold and the Rule of Law made to flourish, but all significant sections of opinion in the region coopted into the building of communal harmony. For instance, communal and religious leaders, along with politicians of every conceivable hue, should make it their prime duty to launch a joint effort to foster ethnic harmony.

Peace Committees representative of every section of Eastern opinion should be formed so as to proactively promote peace and harmony among ethnic groups. It is vitally important that these bodies operate with utmost vigilance. Conflicts should be defused before they erupt in violence.

Early warning systems should be in place to facilitate this task. The fact that violence is recurring proves that these mechanisms, if at all they are in existence, are not operating at the desired level of effectiveness.

The general point shouldn't be lost, however, that the peace process needs to be speeded-up.

The more this process is decelerated, the greater the opportunities for sabotage and mischief-making. It would be the height of stupidity, on the other hand, to maintain that the peace process itself is responsible for some of these developments. On the contrary, it is the lack of an equitable solution - which would address the needs of all communities - which contributes towards the volatility of the East.

In other words, the consensus-building process at the centre has a huge bearing on the Eastern situation, as on other areas of public life. The more so why there needs to be a meeting of minds at the centre.

A little light in the darkness

The world has just seen a silver lining in the dark clouds over the Middle East. Even as four Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in renewed violence on Monday, Israeli opposition politicians and prominent Palestinians launched an alternative Middle East peace plan titled the Geneva Initiative.

Named after the Swiss city where it was launched by former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and his Palestinian counterpart Yasser Abed Rabbo, the peace plan has been hailed as "a simple solution to a complicated conflict".

The proposals in the initiative include an Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in return for the Palestinians waiving the right of return for 3.8 million Palestinian refugees ousted from their homes since the creation of Israel in 1948.

The 50-page document details the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing 97.5 per cent of the West Bank with shared sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem.

"It's unlikely that we shall ever see a more promising foundation for peace. The only alternative to this initiative is sustained and permanent violence," says former US President Jimmy Carter. No less than 58 former world leaders have echoed his views.

Indeed, the world must come together to help the Israelis and Palestinians find a formula for peaceful co-existence since the killing spree in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem can only lead to further instability in the region. At least 2,241 Palestinians and 836 Israelis have been killed since the start of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000. More suicide bombings and bullets cannot, however, be the answer.

With the internationally-backed "roadmap" for Middle East peace stalled amid continuing violence, the Geneva Initiative radiates a glimmer of hope for peace. Far from being an obstacle on the path of the roadmap as some Israeli leaders have feared, the Geneva Initiative is likely to complement any efforts that are already underway for peace.

As Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey dubs it, the Initiative is "a little light in the darkness", but popular wisdom dictates that lighting a candle is much better than cursing the darkness.

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