Basis laid for negotiated settlement

Minister of Science and Technology Professor Tissa Vitharana comments on the significance of the ceasefire talks to Manjari Peiris.

AN INTERVIEW: The Ceasefire Agreement that was reached four years ago was clearly defective and there are a number of shortcomings in it. Because of these shortcomings over the last four years, there have been repeated violations of the terms of the agreement.

As a result feelings are roused against the LTTE, who have been the main violators of the Ceasefire Agreement.

In fact the violations of the ceasefire Agreement by the Armed Forces and the Government side have been less than 3 per cent of the total violations and these have been of a minor nature whereas on the part of the LTTE there have been serious violations which have included killings of innocent people, including politicians, Government officials and also the terrorizing of people in various ways, child conscriptions, and so on.

So in this context there has been a feeling among the people in the South, in particular, as well as among a certain section of the people in the North and the East that the ceasefire was discriminatory and was being abused by the LTTE without any action being taken by the monitoring missions to rectify the situation.

As a result of which the confidence in the whole Ceasefire Agreement has declined. With the escalation of ceasefire violations in the recent past one can say that the danger of war certainly began to loom in the country.

This situation, if it had been allowed to develop in the way that it was developing, would certainly have precipitated the situation in which there would have been a return to war.

Therefore in this context I am very happy that the talks between the Government and the LTTE have been resumed and that the Ceasefire Agreement has been put on the agenda, for discussion.

I hope that in the short term we will be able to ensure that a Ceasefire Agreement is in place that will not be easily violated, which will be respected and which will ensure the safety of the people, especially in the North and the East.

How will the talks help in pushing forward the peace process?

I hope that through this process there will be a progression to address the core issues that need to be addressed, if we are to satisfy the aspirations of the people in the North and the East in particular, the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala people as well as the minorities in general throughout the country.

If that process is to go ahead, it is very important that a suitable atmosphere is created, not only among the delegations who are participating in the peace talks, but there should also be a suitable environment in the country in which incidents are minimized where harassment of innocent people is completely eliminated, so that a feeling of goodwill and confidence is built-up which will in its turn be as it were a suitable milieu or environment where the pressures, the desires of the people for peace will become the main consideration for the delegations who are participating in the talks.

Now this process I think will take a little time, but if both sides address this problem in a flexible way, in a friendly manner, I am sure that the necessary climate can be created for pursuing the peace process.

The other very important development which has taken place with Mahinda Rajapakse becoming the President is the fact that he has been able to get the parties that are in the democratic stream to come together at an All Party Conference where he is building up a friendly atmosphere in which all the parties in the democratic process are being drawn into this peace process itself.

I must say that the LSSP delegations which had been participating at two of these meetings that had been held so far have been struck by the fact that at these talks everyone was free to express their opinions and that everyone else listened to them with due respect. In other words there was no effort to try to convince another person that one person was right and the other was wrong.

There was here all atmosphere of tolerance in which the positions of the different political parties were aired, and as I stated during the last meeting, we at all the parties there wanted a common objective i.e. to ensure that we have one country, its Sri Lanka, that it should not be divided and that within this one country the people should live together in harmony and that every citizen should get this or her rights and privileges in an equal manner.

So this is the type of country that everyone present there wants and therefore we should not try to argue on the meaning of a particular word or the interpretation of a particular word whether unitary or federal or other various concepts. Because everyone accepts that some degree of devolution should take place.

The President himself has said very clearly that he is very committed to give the maximum amount of devolution that is needed to bring about a settlement.

So on that basis let us accept that we have to ensure that the aspirations and the needs of all the people of Sri Lanka are addressed and I am sure that the way the whole process is going, that consensus will also be reached.

Once this whole process of consensus building continues this will be a tremendous pressure on the LTTE, because the LTTE is under pressure from the Tamil people themselves in the North and the East and elsewhere, who no longer want to face a war situation.

So they are under pressure for a peaceful settlement of the problem. At the same time the people in the South, the people of other communities are also very strongly committed to the need for peace.

Therefore there is pressure on the representatives on both sides to work out a peaceful settlement. In addition the international community also is very antagonistic to any terrorist activity and attempts by any one to resort to terrorist activities, which can ultimately lead to war, will be opposed by the international community. Anyone doing that type of activity will face strong strictures and sanctions from the international community.

Under the ceasefire talks can Sri Lanka look forward to a better future?

I think Sri Lanka can certainly look to a better future under the ceasefire talks to the extent that the ceasefire talks are successful.

What is important is not just the talking, but it is important that agreement is reached on, how to settle the problem and the course of action set in place which will progressively lead to the implementation of the Agreement.

Many agreements have broken down because when it came to implementation, the mechanism for implementation has not been put in place.

For instance, the Ceasefire Agreement that was reached by the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was done very hastily without proper consultation.

It was not done in an open manner, so that the opinions of the people were reflected in that agreement and even leading members of the UNP were quite unaware of the contents of that agreement.

As a result, the type of agreement that was reached was not something that could be implemented. We have to ensure that a proper agreement is reached that is implementable and which is done in an open manner which satisfies the aspirations of all the people concerned.