Thirunavukharasa Sritharan, Sri Lanka

A Tamil dissident fighting for democracy and human rights for the community is one of the most difficult and dangerous tasks in Sri Lanka today. More than 300 Tamils who oppose the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) aim of establishing a totalitarian state over the Tamils of Sri Lanka, have been killed. Ironically, many of these deaths occured during the three years and six months of the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire and peace process. Neither the repeated protestations of the UN or of leading human rights organisations have stopped the LTTE killing or abduction of thousands of men, women and children. So what went wrong with the peace process?

1. Being a totalitarian organisation with much blood on its hands, the LTTE was ruthlessly repressive both within its own community, as well as in the general community at large. The bottomline for the LTTE, and the key to its survival, required peace-brokers to carve a separate state out of Sri Lanka in which the LTTE would assume full power. But internationally it had to show a different face, one which claimed to accept a political settlement, despite the fact that they spoilt every opportunity for a settlement and imposed several outbreaks of war on the Tamil people. Among its victims who have been killed by suicide bombers is the respected lawyer, Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam, who was engaged in drawing up a federal constitution for Sri Lanka. Others who refused to submit to their ideals were also killed. 2. The Norwegian peace process, which commenced with a ceasefire in 2002, initially raised hopes, however, killings of political opponents and child abductions by the LTTE continued unchecked. The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which was tasked with observing the ceasefire, proved ineffective. The most hopeful point of the whole process was the Oslo Summit of December 2002, at which both the LTTE and the government agreed to a federal settlement. However, shortly afterwards the LTTE intensified its killings of opponents, and in June 2003 refused to engage in negotiations with the government. 3. As is inherent in repressive organisations, which allowed no room for dissent, the LTTE split into the larger Northern wing led by Prabhakaran and an Eastern wing led by Karuna. Instead of using the split as an opportunity to constrain the LTTE and advance democratisation, the Norwegians manoeuvred towards eliminating the Karuna (Eastern) wing so as to preserve the status quo on which their peacemaking was based. The killings in turn became more vicious. From then onwards the credibility of the Norwegians declined sharply within Sri Lanka.

4. Killings and child conscription by the LTTE became uglier and were strongly condemned by organisations including HRW and UNICEF, which raised the demand for more rigorous international monitoring to complement the SLMM.

We all want peace in Sri Lanka where all the people irrespective of religion or ethnicity can enjoy democracy and human rights. The first task in this direction is to revamp the peace process with a credible body which monitors human rights and which has the authority to check the LTTE and impose punitive measures on perpetrators. Surely there needs to be improved international awareness and a greater role for the international community in general. The credibility of the peace process in Sri Lanka has greatly diminished in the last year and a half and must not be allowed to deteriorate further.