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Positive signs and problems over proposals The two hour journey ended at the newly built Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. He pulled out a four page document from his brief case. When he handed it over to S.P. Tamilselvan, leader of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the latter seemed aware. There was no discussion on its contents. In the brief exchange of words that followed, he asked Mr.Westborg to return to the same venue four days later. That was how three weeks of consultations between the United National Front and the veteran diplomat ended. He had also remained in touch with the LTTE. Mr Westborg is one of a handful of diplomats closely associated with Norway's peace facilitation, first begun over a decade ago. In the latest effort to re start the stalled peace talks, he had delivered a "Discussion Document." It contained proposals including the establishment of a Provisional Administrative Council. They sought to meet the new LTTE demands. Forming the basis of the three week long exercise by Mr Westborg was a working paper given to him by the UNF. After he had knocked it into final shape, the special envoy met them again to reach finality. That was on Monday July 14, just three days before he handed over the proposals to Mr Tamilselvan. Joining him in the meeting were Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, UNF negotiators Prof. G.L. Peiris, Milinda Moragoda and Bradman Weerakoon, the Prime Minister's Secretary, the most favoured to succeed Bernard Gunatilleke as head of SCOPP (Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process). The latter has already relinquished office. He has returned to China to complete his term as Sri Lanka's Ambassador there next month. He will return to Colombo thereafter to assume office as Foreign Secretary. If Mr. Gunatilleke was not favoured by the LTTE as the head of SCOPP, Mr. Weerakoon's impending appointment is being welcomed by them. An important issue Mr. Westborg raised at this meeting, The Sunday Times learnt, was whether the line - except the area of police and security, land and revenue - should remain in the Discussion Document in a clause relating to powers and functions of the proposed Provincial Administrative Council. The inclusion of such a provision, at least in legal terms, meant the Tiger guerrillas were not empowered to deal with four distinct subjects - have a police force, security arms (ground and maritime forces), deal with matters relating to land and generate revenue from various sources. Hence, the Norwegian Special Envoy wanted to make sure. Premier Wickremasinghe, like his two Ministers in the negotiating team, was insistent that the provision excluding these four subjects should remain. To expect the LTTE to give up its police, ground and sea going forces, make no claims to land they are dominating and to stop generating revenue through their various means of "taxation" tantamount to nothing more than a ludicrous call to them to surrender. That is notwithstanding the military might they had further re-inforced in the 17 month long ceasefire. Why then was such a provision, almost sure to provoke a rejection of the proposals, included? It appears to be a two pronged ploy - (1) to placate the increasingly restless south (2) at the same time get the LTTE to overlook the issue, at least momentarily. That appears to be precisely what the LTTE is doing. Their team of legal experts are now making a study of the Discussion Document. If that is a forward movement, LTTE sources say the conclusion of this study may lead to guerrillas seeking clarification or elaboration on some aspects. This will be a prelude to the resumption of talks. More positive signs in this regard emerged when Mr Westborg visited Kilinochchi last Tuesday (July 22) in response to Mr. Tamilselvan's request. The subject was logistics. The guerrilla political wing leader who is unable to obtain a visa to travel to UK (since the LTTE remains a banned group there) wants to proceed to a Scandinavian country. There he wants to meet advisors put together from other countries to further discuss the contents of the Discussion Paper. In a significant development, LTTE's Chief Negotiator, Anton Balasingham, reliable sources in Wanni say, has declined LTTE requests to comment to them on the recent proposals or be available for such a meeting. This has fuelled speculation that Mr.Tamilselvan will lead the LTTE in any future talks with the Government. Sweden is most likely to be the venue. The successful conclusion of this process, said to last at least six weeks, may see the resumption of peace talks, possibly in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. In another development, Mr. Tamilselvam is to fly this weekend to Batticaloa for a meeting with Muralitharan Vinayagamoorthy alias Karuna, the Batticaloa Military Wing leader, who is also a member of the LTTE negotiating team. The Government is to make available a SLAF helicopter for the journey from Wanni. In this backdrop, the exclusive revelation by The Sunday Times last week of the Discussion Document has triggered off yet another crisis between the UNF and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The report came up for discussion at a scheduled meeting of the Central Committee at the Janadipathi Mandiraya last Monday evening. Before that event, by Monday afternoon, Presidential aides had discovered a glaring discrepancy. A letter that had arrived at the Janadipathi Mandiraya on Saturday (July 19) had been opened only on Monday by the staff contained a letter from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe (dated July 18). It was accompanied by a four page document titled PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE FOR THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN PROVINCES - PROPOSALS FOR DISCUSSION. (See box story on this page for full text). In his letter Premier Wickremasinghe had said: Your Excellency We have indicated to H.E. Jon Westborg that the document will be treated as confidential by us, and we have been informed by the Special Envoy that this has been conveyed to the LTTE who have stated that they too will not release the contents of it to the media until some agreement has been reached between the parties." The four page document received by President Kumaratunga was different from what was exclusively revealed by The Sunday Times last week. The most significant difference was the exclusion of the line "except the area of police and security; land; and revenue" In other words, the proposed Provincial Administrative Council was excluded from exercising controls on these four aspects. But in the Discussion Document sent to the LTTE, such a provision existed and the LTTE was denied from exercising any legislative or executive control on these four areas. Paradoxically the text sent to the LTTE had therefore had safeguards beneficial to the Government. But not in the draft sent to President Kumaratunga. Which is the correct version? The debate figured prominently at Monday's night's Central Committee meeting. Many questions were raised. Among them - Were the proposals contained in The Sunday Times report an earlier version updated later with the one sent to the President? Was that sent secretly after the LTTE rejected the former? The Committee decided to issue an official statement raising several issues. With some reports of the Central Committee meeting trickling down to the media by Tuesday, a national guessing game began. There were conspiracy theories of many sorts. When President Kumaratunga called off plans to address the nation last Wednesday (July 23) night, reports claimed this was because of the confusion over the proposals sent to the LTTE. There was no such thing. The address was to focus on an apology to the Tamil community for the loss of life and indignities they suffered during the July 1983 ethnic violence. That Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the event. The speech could not be put to final shape on time and the event was called off. All wild speculation was put to rest on Thursday when UNF's Chief Negotiator, Prof. G. L. Peiris told his weekly news conference the document published in The Sunday Times was the one the Norwegian facilitator handed over to the LTTE in Kilinochchi. "That is the complete text. There is nothing else. It has not been added to or modified in any way," he asserted. He disclosed that the Government had handed over to Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Westborg a set of proposals as a basis of discussion with the LTTE about a provisional administrative structure. "There were several discussions between the Government and Norwegian facilitator in respect of this document. He asked several questions, sought clarification. We gave answers to those questions and the Government then asked the facilitator to prepare his own document - the Norwegian document incorporating the thinking and the proposals of the Government of Sri Lanka," Prof. Peiris said. He added; "The Norwegian facilitator then made his draft available to us, and the Government endorsed that draft. We said that was an accurate description of the proposals we had made to the Norwegian facilitator. That is the document His Excellency Jon Westborg took to Kilinochchi last Thursday and handed over to Mr. Tamilselvan. That is the document that appeared in a Sunday newspaper (The Sunday Times). Prof. Peiris also asserted "the document that the Government prepared and handed over to the Norwegian facilitator, was previous to that, and not subsequent to that. I want to make that very clear. The document we prepared …… was before the preparation of the Norwegian document which was handed over to the LTTE. Nothing was prepared and nothing was changed after that….. That is the only document in the hands of the LTTE….. that is the document that is being considered by the LTTE…" Until The Sunday Times revealed it exclusively last week, the Discussion Document has remained a top secret. So much so even Minister Milinda Moragoda, a member of the Government's negotiating team confessed to a confidante he had read all the details of the proposals only in The Sunday Times. Needless to say the revelations caught the UNF on the wrong foot. Its leaders were badly embarrassed. "If The Sunday Times had not published the proposals, even the Cabinet, let alone the public, would not have known the substance on such a critical issue," former Foreign Minister and International Affairs Advisor to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga told a news conference on Friday. He asked why the President was sent an outdated document when the Government was seeking her co-operation for the peace effort. He said he had to read The Sunday Times to learn that the PA had a place in the proposed Provisional Administrative Councial. The Sunday Times has learnt that the document sent to President Kumaratunga is the working paper handed over to special envoy Jon Westborg to form the basis of his three week long consultations. It is only thereafter that he formulated the Discussion Document, obtained the approval of UNF leaders and handed it over to Mr. Tamilselvan. Why this initial document almost a month old was sent to President Kumaratunga remains a mystery. The Sunday Times has also learnt that special envoy Jon Westborg was unaware such a document has been sent to the President. He is learnt to have said so to a high ranking western diplomat and added that he only learnt that the Government had written to President Kumaratunga. That was last Thursday (July 18) night. Speculation as to why the UNF Government sent President Kumaratunga a belated document will continue until the former makes a clear explanation. If such an explanation is not convincing enough, leave alone the People's Alliance but the public at large will also continue to speculate further. That will be the dilemma for a Government struggling to keep the peace process intact at any cost.
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