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Significant peace moves

There were several significant developments last week towards resuming the peace process, which had been on hold since April 2003, due to bumbling and bungling by the UNF Government.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga appointed former Ambassador and UN Under Secretary General Jayantha Dhanapala as the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process and as senior advisor to the President.

Dhanapala, a senior member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service was also Ambassador in Geneva and Washington DC and is well respected by the international community for his diplomatic skills and high integrity.

His experience and high standing is an asset and his appointment augurs well for the President's very determined efforts to bring about permanent peace to this troubled island.

Last week also saw the arrival of Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and his Deputy Vidar Helgessen following President Kumaratunga's invitation to Norway to facilitate the resumption of the peace process.

Petersen and Helgessen in two days of hectic activity had fruitful talks with President Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Rajapakse, LTTE leader Prabhakaran and his Chief Advisor Balasingham, who flew in from London specially for talks with the Norwegian peace facilitators.

After talks the Norwegian Foreign Minister handed over to the President, the LTTE's proposals for the resumption of peace talks with the Government. He said there was clear commitment from both parties to resume direct negotiations. The Norwegians are expected to shortly announce a date for the recommencement of the peace process.

Meanwhile, the UNP instead of welcoming the latest developments and the efforts being made to restore a permanent peace, as usual has attempted to deride and belittle the courageous, constructive and fruitful efforts of President Kumaratunga to untangle the confused mess that has been the legacy left behind by the UNF. Fortunately, the inane mouthings of that publicity crazy mass of confusion and contradictions of the former Government's chief peace negotiator, the lean and the power hungry G.L. Peiris are not taken seriously by the people.

The signals towards the resumption of peace process are positive, but the road ahead is a rocky one. It is the duty of the nation to give its unstinted support to the President in her crusade to bring lasting peace to her people.

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Speed rail shuttle

The introduction of a super luxury train service from Colombo to Katunayake is a most welcome development and if it comes to fruition would be a novel and groundbreaking feature in the country's transport sector.

The Colombo-Katunayake road is a very busiest and congested stretch of highway and a commuters nightmare with traffic bottlenecks encountered even outside the rush hour periods.

According to the news report the super luxury service which will be set up with Chinese assistance will take only 20 minutes to shuttle between Colombo and Katunayake. The service is to be extended to Ratmalana under the second stage. The Airport and Aviation Services Company, Sri Lanka Railways and Sri Lankan Airlines will help in the process of implementing the project.

The service will be replete with all the modern trappings including the latest signal system, luxurious and modernised passenger compartments. A customs service will operated in Colombo for the convenience of the emigrants.The train will stop only at Ja-ela and Seeduwa.

The report states that the Chinese experts had taken into special consideration the various difficulties and the long time the commuters undergo travelling to Katunayake from Colombo. It has also been recommended to set up large vehicle parks close to Colombo,Seeduwa and Ja-ela railway stations to have a joint service.

With Ports and Aviation Minister Mangala Samaraweera at the helm of overseeing the project, the public no doubt can expect positive results going by the past successes of the Minister especially with regard the phenomenal development of the country's telecommunications system.

With road transport taking a heavy toll on the travelling public the Government should also seek to develop alternate transport systems. Sri Lanka is a country with an abundance of waterways and a network of canals which could be fruitfully exploited for boat or ferry transport which would not only ease the congestion on our roads, but would also turn out to be a joyful mode of conveyance.

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