Political Column

It turned out to be a strange case. The Government had to monitor the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and ensure that a seven-page report from it did not become public before the now abandoned Oslo talks last Thursday and Friday.

A copy of the report titled "Implementation of the Agreements Reached between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at the Geneva talks on 22-23 February 2006" had been handed over to Government leaders in Colombo. It has been signed by SLMM Head retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henriccson.

Infuriated by its contents, highly damning on the Government, Norwegian facilitators were told that the Sri Lanka Government would not send a delegation to Oslo if the SLMM report was made public earlier. If it was tabled at the Oslo talks, they were told, the Sri Lanka delegation would stage a walkout. They assured both would not happen.

The Government's concern is understandable. They would have been seen in bad light even before the talks began. A Sri Lanka delegation arrived in Oslo but talks with the LTTE on the role of the SLMM, in the aftermath of the European Union ban, were a non-event. This time, it became abundantly clear that LTTE Political Wing leader, the all smiling, smooth talking Suppiah Palani Thamilselvan, had taken Norway for a good ride, a jolly good one as some would say. From the time he stepped into a Sri Lanka Air Force Mi-17 helicopter to Colombo until he reached Oslo, he made Norwegian officials feel that he and his fellow travellers had donned their newly acquired lounge suits to sit across the table to face the Sri Lanka delegation.

But in Oslo, Thamilselvan and his buddies felt the Sri Lanka delegation was at a low level and was no equal match for the LTTE delegation. So they did not want to sit at the table and talk with them. When pushed, he said it could be done with the rest of his team led by S. Prabagaran alias Pulithevan, the head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat. Thamilselvan, a one time guerrilla who was wounded in the Pooneryn battles of 1993, had pushed himself in his own imaginary precedence table to the level of a cabinet minister. He complained that there were no Cabinet ministers in the Sri Lanka delegation. He did not seem to know that any delegation representing the Government of Sri Lanka was worth its salt. They were representing a sovereign nation. Even the usually calm and cool Erik Solheim, Norway's Minister for International Development, could not hide his feelings. He let fly at the LTTE during a news conference. Even the Norwegians were now learning the politics of LTTE duplicity.

Yet, the Government in Colombo was taking no chances with the SLMM report. So, even before the SLMM report became public, it responded with a hard-hitting reply. Funny enough, it received play in some of the media yesterday but most readers did not know what caused the response. They were unaware of what the SLMM had said. The SLMM report and the Government's response appear in full on Pages 14 and 15.

The first to arrive in Oslo were members of the LTTE delegation. They were busy holding talks with Norwegian officials, representatives of INGOs (International Non- Government Grganizations), human rights groups, representatives of Tamil organizations in Europe and advisors including Shiva Pasupati, a one time Sri Lankan Attorney General now living in Australia.

There were no major issues and the Sri Lanka delegation had not met together before departure from Colombo. The Head of the Sri Lanka Government Peace Secretariat, Dr. Palitha Kohona arrived in Oslo only around 6 pm on Wednesday. He had travelled first from Colombo to Pakistan to deliver a lecture at a seminar. It is only then the Sri Lanka team sat together to discuss strategy for the next morning's meeting. Even the opening statement began to take shape there.

Conspicuous by their absence was the Sri Lankan media. The venue was a hotel one and half hours from the Oslo city centre. The Tamil media including representatives from Colombo were on hand. They had been allowed into the hotel to witness the start of the Government-LTTE dialogue.

The Sri Lanka delegation had entered a room at the hotel by 8.30 am on Thursday and was ready for the face-to-face encounter. Just then, a shaken Norwegain Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Baur rushed in to give the bad news -- the LTTE was not willing to sit down for talks with the Sri Lankan side. Bauer did not hide his feeling. He blamed it on the LTTE.

Sri Lanka delegation leader Dr. Kohona reached out to his Dialog Blackberry phone with international roaming and telephoned President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He told him that the LTTE was not willing to talk with the Government of Sri Lanka. "If they do not want to talk to you all, make your position clear and return immediately to Colombo," declared Rajapaksa. The delegation hurriedly drafted a media statement and sent it to Colombo for approval and release. They told Norwegian officials that they were leaving for Colombo. They checked out of the hotel where bookings had been made by Norway and temporarily sheltered themselves in a nearby hotel. One senior Sri Lanka delegation member told a Norwegian official to send the LTTE delegation back to Colombo as soon as possible. "Tell them, there would be no Air Force helicopters to take them to Kilinochchi. They will have to travel in buses," he declared. He was of course joking. Also as a joke, the Oslo official retorted "no, I will tell them to go walking from Colombo."

Another Norwegian official urged the Sri Lanka delegation members to stay over at the hotel. He said Solheim would arrive at 5 p.m. that evening to speak to the two sides. The rumour mill took over at this point. Reports reaching Colombo spoke of Solheim striking a compromise deal that he hoped to announced to the two sides. There was no such thing. The Sri Lankan team left only to return around 5 p.m. to know whether Solheim had anything to tell them.

Solheim said nothing. He simply handed over a letter addressed to President Rajapaksa. A similar letter addressed to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, had been given to the Kilinochchi delegation. In the two letters, Solheim sought answers to five questions he had raised. It began by asking the two sides whether they stand committed to the Ceasefire Agreement. Others included answers to queries on security guarantees for ceasefire monitors and amendments to some provisions of the CFA. See opposite page for details. The Sri Lanka delegation left Oslo. Some went to London to return from there whilst others came back via Dubai. The LTTE delegation chose to spend a few days in Geneva and return to Colombo on Tuesday.

If Sweden's retired Major General Ulf Henriccson, Head of the SLMM, angered the Government with his seven-page report, he was not alone. Joining him in a different exercise was Sweden's Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Inga Eriksson Fogh.

The occasion was a reception at the Continental Hotel in Colombo to mark Swedish national day.

Ambassador Fogh made reference to the peace process. He warned that if things did not change for the better, his Government would have to reconsider overseas development assistance to Sri Lanka. He said his Government was answerable to the Swedish people. The tenor of the speech, and that too on the occasion of a national day, left many diplomats present aghast. If a Swedish soldier was wielding the big stick as Head of SLMM, here was Sweden's envoy in Colombo taking the upper hand at the national day of his country to tell poor little Sri Lanka how to behave.

It was Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who was representing the Government at this event. He not only prevented a disaster but handled the situation so deftly that he won accolades from those present. In his speech before proposing the toast, Samarasighe first praised Sweden for the economic advances it had made and the quality of life enjoyed by its people. He then said politely that the Swedish Ambassador had "thrown us a challenge" during his speech. Samarasinghe said "I can assure those present here that we can boldly take up that challenge. The Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is quite capable." He said "it takes two to tango." Whilst the Government delegation was in Oslo to further the peace process, the LTTE was not willing to talk to them.

He said the Government of Sri Lanka was fully appreciative of what the European Union had done. But they would need their continued support. "Whilst you are telling us what to do, please tell other actors to play their role too. Political stability is a sine qua non," he said.

When Samarasinghe finished his speech, US Ambassador Jeffry Lunstead walked up to him to shake his hands. He commended him for the speech. So did the Acting High Commissioner for India and many others.

The episode did not end there. Ambassador Fogh was summoned to the Foreign Office thereafter. The Government's displeasure over his remarks during the Swedish national day reception was conveyed to him by Foreign Secretary H.M.G.S. Palihakkara.

In another development, President Rajapaksa once again renewed his invitation for the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to join the Government. It came when a three-member delegation headed by JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe and including Wimal Weerawansa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake held a lengthy meeting on Thursday. The meeting that began in the evening continued until midnight and covered several issues including rising corruption.

Government sources said President Rajapaksa explained several issues and identified some of the serious constraints he faced now. These sources said former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was also posing a formidable challenge to him in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

This week, Ms. Kumaratunga who is keeping a close tab on both political events and day-to-day developments including media reports, was speaking to Government leaders whom she believed were her confidants. She raised questions from them to obtain their views. She later made her views known on some of the current issues and declared that she proposed to return to Colombo shortly. She had also written personal letters to several important ministers.

With a crumbling peace process, the threat of a war looming large and economic burdens on the public mounting, President Rajapaksa faces an uphill task. Six months in office, questions of credibility, no doubt, are telling and telling seriously. This is notwithstanding the answers provided by his confidants that giving leadership to a minority Government was preventing him from acting tough on some issues. But, sadly it is not them, but Rajapaksa who faces the brunt. He should know that.