Interim Authority within context of permanent settlement -
Government
THE Government said yesterday during efforts to evolve an agenda for
peace talks it has agreed to the concept of setting up an Interim
Authority within the context of negotiating a permanent settlement to
the ethnic conflict.
This is on the basis that an interim authority will be
useful in a transitional period from a situation of conflict to one of
democracy.
A Government media release states:
"There has been some confusion with regard to the
reasons for the failure to resume talks with the LTTE last year.
The Government wishes to clarify this issue with regard
to efforts to draw up an agenda for the resumption of peace talks prior
to the devastation wrought by the tsunami in December.
The Government has always expressed its willingness to
begin talks immediately. It has emphasised the importance of direct
negotiations as a means of building confidence, maintaining the
ceasefire and improving the climate for a durable solution to the ethnic
conflict.
Unfortunately, the LTTE did not share this view and
insisted on opening negotiations on the basis of a single agenda item
and based solely on the specific LTTE proposals of the Interim Self
Governing Authority. The Government has never agreed to this.
During efforts to evolve an agenda for peace talks, the
Government has agreed to the concept of setting up an Interim Authority
within the context of negotiating a permanent settlement to the ethnic
conflict, on the basis that an interim authority will be useful in a
transitional period from a situation of conflict to one of democracy.
Agreeing to negotiate an interim authority in such a
context is very different from opening negotiations solely on the basis
of the LTTE demand of the Interim Self Governing Authority, which
prevents the re-opening of direct negotiations.
This view has been articulated in previous statements
excerpted below.
Her Excellency the President's speech at the inaugural
meeting of the National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR)
on 4th October 2004, where she said: 'The Government's position has been
that we accept the concept of setting up an Interim Administration in
the interim period whilst a permanent solution is negotiated and
implemented.
But we require commitment from the LTTE that the Interim
Administration as well as the final solution would be based on the Oslo
Declaration.'
The Government's press release of December 1, 2004 in
response to the LTTE leader's statement of November 2004: 'A call...
from the LTTE now for the resumption of negotiations without conditions,
while setting conditions itself by insisting unilaterally on a single
agenda item is scarcely conducive to good faith negotiations.
The Government of Sri Lanka has conveyed publicly, and
through the kind facilitation of the Royal Norwegian Government, its
readiness to discuss the establishment of an interim authority to meet
the urgent humanitarian and development needs of the people of the North
and East as a priority, while exploring a permanent settlement along the
lines of the document signed and accepted by the Government and the LTTE
in Oslo in December 5, 2002.' |