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Minorities voice concerns
By
Feizal Samath
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's two main
ethnic communities - Sinhalese and Tamils - have high
hopes for next week's peace talks with Tamil Tiger
rebels, but the country's Muslims, though supportive,
are worried that they could end up a "minority within a
minority" after the negotiations.
"We want peace
and the talks are good. But we don't know what would
happen. We could end up under the Tiger rebels," says
Mohamed Ali, principal of Zahira Muslim College in the
eastern town of Trincomalee. For instance, he says, he
is concerned by continuing extortion of Muslim fishermen
and traders by the rebels.
Muslims are the third
largest Lankan community after the majority Sinhalese,
who make up 74 percent of Sri Lanka's population, and
the Tamils who make up 18 percent.
Ali says the
Muslims are worried about being marginalized in
discussions of possible solutions to the ethnic
conflict, which had also led to the displacement of
Muslim communities in the 1990s. Thus, if Tamils are
provided extensive devolution of power in these two
regions - where most of their community lives - the
Muslims say they want a separate council in the east to
enable them to administer the areas where they
predominate.
The Muslims' worries show the
complexity of concerns involved in the September 16-18
peace talks in Thailand, peace discussions that follow
earlier attempts at peace in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1995.
Close to 65,000 people have died in the conflict since
1983, when Tamil rebels, whose strength is estimated to
include 3,000 to 10,000 armed cadres, stepped up their
campaign for a separate homeland for Tamils.
The
peace process has other problems as well. Extremist
Sinhala groups - with different political ideologues -
are banding together to campaign against the talks.
The Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) says
the Tigers, officially called the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are murderers and says the path to
peace is only through exterminating it.
It has
kept this position although the JVP itself has come to
the political mainstream after two failed bloody revolts
against the government, which resulted in the deaths of
thousands of young people in 1971 and 1987-1991.
Nevertheless, the biggest threat to the peace
process comes from the main opposition People's Alliance
led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, which is
considering jumping on the JVP bandwagon and scuttling
the peace process even though the alliance officially
supports talks.
Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe, worried that his political foe
Kumaratunga may dissolve parliament after his government
completes a year in office on December 5, is planning to
push through a constitutional amendment in parliament
this month curbing such presidential powers. Despite the
uncertainties however, Sri Lankans are generally
positive about the negotiations.
"I think the
government is sincere, with the LTTE also showing some
commitment this time. The whole country wants the war to
end. That is the wish of the silent majority, who are
people like me," says Chitranganie Ranthilaka, a
Sinhalese woman from a suburban town.
S
Rajanathan, a Tamil teacher from Trincomalee, agrees,
"Peace would be wonderful but we would also be happy if
the government speeds up the resettlement of people who
have been displaced and restoring education for children
who are in refugee camps."
Kethesh Loganathan,
an analyst at the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA),
says Colombo and the Tigers are expected to skirt the
tricky core issues during the first phase of talks and
concentrate on procedural matters, including matters
arising out the current ceasefire agreement between the
two sides. Both are still discussing issues like moving
army camps out of heavily populated areas, schools and
temples, while the government is concerned that the
rebels are still recruiting teenage children for
military purposes. He says the two sides are most likely
to finalize an agenda leading to a possible installation
of a rebel-led interim administration to run the north
and the east in the next six to eight months.
While the government's position on the kind of
political settlement to be reached with the rebels is
unclear, Wickremesinghe has said he is prepared to
discuss anything short of dividing the country.
Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran says that
the Tigers would like to discuss "self-determination"
within a united Sri Lanka.
With the peace talks
coming up, "there is a strong expression of peace in the
community and this is clear to whoever we talk to," says
Jehan Perera, media director of the privately-funded
National Peace Council (NPC).
But the unanimous
thirst for peace is also tinged with some reservation
about the sincerity of the Tigers, as reflected in at
least half a dozen public surveys by the NPC and other
peace groups. The latest show of support for the talks
came from the newly-formed Burgher Association, which at
its meeting Saturday in Colombo said it hoped the
Burghers in Sri Lanka would "contribute greatly to the
peace process".
The Burghers are a small
Christian group of about 35,000 whose origins are traced
to English, Dutch and Portuguese ancestry when the
country was ruled by colonial forces.
Some of
the expectations for this round talks are actually
higher because the talks have already begun, informally,
and look set to continue. Minister Milinda Moragoda, who
is part of the government delegation for the peace
talks, has had two meetings in London with chief rebel
negotiator Anton Balasingham. There have been other
government-to-rebel contacts in the past eight months.
On the ground, the peace process is being
spurred by the growing number of Sinhalese travelling to
Tamil-dominated areas in the north and east like Jaffna
- from where sprang the rebel movement - since the
ceasefire came into force in December and led to the
opening of Tamil areas to passenger and vehicle
movement.
(Inter Press Service)
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