Asia Times: Many takers for Indian peace bid


	May 11, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Many takers for Indian peace bid
By Feizal Samath

COLOMBO - India's offer to help find a political solution to the nearly two decade-old ethnic insurgency in Sri Lanka is being seen here as a new chance for peace for the Indian Ocean island nation.

Although President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government is still to formally respond to New Delhi's proposal to mediate if both Colombo and the Tamil Tiger rebels want this, the main opposition party and some Tamil groups have welcomed the offer. Sri Lanka's envoy to New Delhi, Mangala Moonesinghe, told a television channel that the government and opposition parties in his country welcomed the Indian offer.

A section of political observers agreed that New Delhi's offer, made Monday, had opened a ''window'' of opportunity for ending the bloody conflict in northern Sri Lanka that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1983. ''There is a window of hope. The situation is not bad after all,'' noted one of them, adding that the offer was likely to get broad support. ''This is a very good offer and we support it,'' said member of parliament Joseph Pararajasingham of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front.

The Indian offer came barely a week after New Delhi ruled out military intervention in the northern Jaffna peninsula where some 40,000 Sri Lankan government troops are locked in close combat with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Sri Lankan government Tuesday said that its troops had pushed back a fresh Tiger assault in Jaffna. The rebels seized two army camps in the past 10 days and on Monday offered a ceasefire to the government to enable troops to withdraw. Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera called it a tactical ploy and said the government would never withdraw from Jaffna, the LTTE's former bastion. After capturing the peninsula's only land link with Sri Lanka, the LTTE was trying to recapture Jaffna city from where it was ejected five years ago. Now the army's northern headquarters, the city of half a million was once the cultural capital of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Tamils caught in the battle zone had begun fleeing to the neighboring Indian southern coastal state of Tamil Nadu.

The Indian offer came after the LTTE onslaught on Jaffna was seen as having pushed back a Norwegian bid to broker peace talks. Main opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe told reporters that India may involve Norway in this effort. ''Norway has been briefing India on the recent peace initiatives and I believe India would use that country's services in the current context,'' he said.

Norway, with a sizeable expatriate Tamil population, has been trying since February to bring the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government to the negotiating table. Both sides had indeed agreed to meet for the peace talks in Oslo either this month or next, before the Jaffna battle began. Analysts expected the LTTE to be suspicious of the Indian offer, but said the Tigers may be willing if Norway was associated with the mediation.

New Delhi's offer follows growing demands within Sri Lanka for Indian support in the current standoff between Colombo and the Tigers. However, India has been wary of military involvement ever since a failed bid to disarm the Tigers in the late 1980s. More than 1,000 Indian troops were killed between 1987 and 1990 in a peacekeeping operation carried out at Colombo's invitation.

Claiming that they were close to capturing Jaffna, the Tigers have offered a ceasefire to enable the troops to be evacuated. However, Colombo has rejected the offer. In a televised address to the nation Monday night, President Kumaratunga repeated her government's determination to defend Jaffna at any cost. ''We will not allow the LTTE to fasten its grip again on the 500,000 Tamil residents in Jaffna. We will not leave any room for this,'' she asserted.

Last week, the government conferred sweeping powers on the armed forces and the police and put curbs on public meetings, processions and protests. The foreign media was also operating under censorship rules. However, Kumaratunga assured the nation that the restrictions would not result in rights abuse. ''The police and relevant authorities have been instructed on the application of these regulations with regard to the media and other sectors.'' She added that these measures were temporary and would be lifted as ''soon as possible''.

But foreign journalists and newspaper editors complained that censorship was being enforced in an arbitrary manner. ''What is allowed today is removed tomorrow,'' one editor said, adding there was confusion in the censorship process.

Kumaratunga said the government appreciated the backing of hardline groups, but warned: ''The government does not support their communalism.'' The hardline and influential Buddhist clergy has endorsed government steps to defeat the Tiger and called for Indian military support to beat the LTTE. Maduloluwe Sobitha, head of the national Buddhist council, who was a harsh critic of the 1987 Indian intervention, was among those now appealing for Indian support.

The current battle in Jaffna is also expected to put pressure on government finances. However, government economists said there was no reason to worry despite a likely hike in defence spending. Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera told IPS that the economic situation was unlikely to worsen as the macro-economic situation was stable. Sri Lanka's economy is targeted to grow by 5.5 percent this year, up from 4.3 percent in 1999. ''Although military spending will rise, we hope to maintain the macro picture and stick to this year's targeted budget deficit of 7.6 percent of gross domestic product,'' he said.

Jayasundera, the government's main economic advisor, said military spending could be stepped up to 12 billion rupees ($166 million). But he pointed out that contingency funds were available under the budget for this. About six to seven billion rupees would come from funds freed by the government's recent decision to temporarily suspend ''non-essential development work,'', he explained.

Sri Lanka has set aside 52.4 billion rupees ($720 million) for defense spending in the year 2000, against 48 billion rupees last year.

(Inter Press Service)

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