Political Column - President pushes for dialogue with LTTE

* Secret initiatives by Sachin Vaas Gunawardena and Martin McGuiness
* India urges Lanka to work out solution on federal model
* Further crossovers close door on UPFA-UNP cooperation

By Our Political Editor
Despite the sporadic but hard military attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), President Mahinda Rajapaksa has become steadfast in his desire for a dialogue with them.

Even if some of the hardliners within the Government egged him into retaliatory action after a Tiger guerrilla female suicide bomber infiltrated Army Headquarters and exploded herself on April 25 injuring Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the mood seems to have changed. Like the hot temperature April generates every year, there were many firebrands who were hot under the collar after the attack. There was one who told a high-level conference "no matter even if 50,000 are killed, we must bomb them." That saw the bombing. There were repeats after the ghastly massacre at Kebetigollewa.

But, soon after the suicide attack on the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, Lt. Gen. Parami Kulatunga, there was none. Instead, once more, a search for dialogue had begun. This saw President Rajapaksa sending a message through a Tamil publisher and his brother-in-law, a Tamil Editor. LTTE Political Wing leader Paramu Thamilselvan, the self appointed guerrilla "Foreign Minister" equivalent, responded with a set of conditions. One would have thought the move went into limbo. It did not. There were two more main initiatives among the many.

One was by Sachin Vaas Gunawardena, a presidential aide. He flew to London. Transport was provided by the Sri Lanka High Commission but they knew little about his mission. Government insiders say he spoke with British Government officials about re-starting a dialogue with the LTTE. Some say he even invited Britain, our old colonial masters, to play the role of facilitator. That would have meant the ousting of Norway, whose role was loftily praised by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera during his visit to Oslo last month. Is this a case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing?

Well, that was not the only case. There was another. Northern Ireland's Chief Negotiator of the Sinn Fein, the Political Wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Martin McGuiness arrived in Colombo last week. Like the last occasion, early this year, he was the guest of a non governmental organization, Inform. He walked through the immigration counters at the Bandaranaike International Airport as a tourist. The Foreign Ministry was not aware he was coming.

Immediately thereafter he was off on a Sri Lanka Air Force Bell 212 VIP helicopter to Wanni. Not even the Norwegian peace facilitators now have that privilege. The very last time, Norway's Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar had to fly to Vavuniya in a fixed wing aircraft and travel by road to Kilinochchi. McGuiness was accompanied by Aidan McAteer and Tyrol Ferdinands, Managing Trustee of Initiative for Political Conflict and Transformation (IMPACT) in Colombo.

The pro-LTTE website Tamilnet quoted McGuiness as saying, "I come from Ireland where we have a very successful peace process, one of the most successful peace processes in the world today, and I am very keen to share my experiences as one of the leaders of Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, not just with the leaders of the LTTE, but also with Sri Lanka…."
In Kilinochchi McGuinness declared that the decision by the European Union to ban the LTTE was to demonise them and was a "huge mistake." He returned to Colombo for a meeting with President Rajapaksa. McGuiness told Rajapaksa what Thamilselvan said. It was no different to the response he had received from the Tamil media men. The one time IRA activist, officially a tourist, left Colombo. It became clear that Sachin Vaas Gunawardena has successfully persuaded McGuiness to come to Sri Lanka for a second time. On the first occasion he did that together with Nivard Cabral, now holding the elevated office of Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Hard on the heels of McGuiness' visit to Colombo was India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. Although he is due to retire from his post, diplomatic sources say, he is tipped to play an advisory role to the Congress Government. Such a role is expected to be related to the Sri Lankan crisis.

Saran's visit marked a significant shift in New Delhi's stance of standing aloof. His message to the Government leaders was to draw a distinction between the LTTE and the Tamil community. If actions against the LTTE were military, there was a strong need for the Government to deal with the ethnic issue by offering a political solution to the conflict. It was India's view. He said the Congress Government would offer all help and even facilitate the adoption of the Indian model of federalism. The Sunday Times learnt Saran also had a message about Rajapaksa's security.

For Rajapaksa, the Saran meeting was the first time he was seeing his Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera after being elected President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Rajapaksa was to tell Saran that India cannot find a better friend in Sri Lanka than him.

On the second day, Saran met Opposition and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at lunch. Here again he explained the Indian Government's initiatives to forge a devolution package and urged Wickremesinghe to extend his support and co-operation. On Thursday, during a one-on-one with Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe talked about these issues at length. But even before he returned home, things had gone sour. Wickremesinghe had learnt that Susantha Punchi Nilame had crossed over from the UNP and had been sworn in as Deputy Minister of Rural Economic Development.

This was to be followed by Anuradhapura district parliamentarian P.B. Ekanayake who publicly announced he would cross over to the Government. Yet others including Navin Dissanayake were billed to cross over.

President Rajapaksa's decision to accept UNP parliamentarians to his fold, an aide explained was three fold. Though the UNP agreed to participate in the All Party Conference and there was a gentleman's agreement not to take in their MPs to the government. However, thereafter the UNP chose on their own not to take part.

The aide said the two remaining reasons were more recent. One was the assurance the UNP had given during the party leaders meeting that they would support the passage of the 18th amendment to the Constitution. They backed out. Thereafter they also departed from the previous stance and refrained from voting when the motion to extend the State of Emergency came up in Parliament this week. He said these developments were despite appeals by India for the Government and the UNP to work together on the ethnic issue.

President Rajapaksa personally telephoned Ranil Wickremesinghe to seek his backing for the emergency vote. However, the UNP leader pointed out that the parliamentary group had taken a decision and it was hence too late. Rajapaksa aides also spoke on the same matter to Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao. This was to ask her to use her good offices.
Wickremesinghe was highly irked. Rajapaksa had sworn in Punchi Nilame before his one-on-one with him. Yet, he had not mentioned a word about it. It appeared that Wickremesinghe was aware of crossover moves and that was one of the reasons why his party veered away from the Government on some key issues.

On Tuesday at the UNP parliamentary group meeting one of the subjects of discussion was the party's approach to the motion on the renewal of the State of Emergency. It was Colombo district parliamentarian P. Maheswaran who said the UNP should oppose it. Wickremesinghe told him he was free to speak on the subject and air all his views. The party would have no objections to that. However, he said Maheswaran should obey the party decision on voting. When it came to a vote in Parliament, another subject was the 18th amendment to the Constitution where the UNP had agreed to extend its support.

The UNP felt that the Government should first heed the provisions of the 17th amendment to the Constitution and set up a Constitutional Council. Until this is done, the party felt no cooperation should be extended to the government.

Behind-the-scene moves by leading civil rights lawyers such as Desmond Fernando also pressing for a quid pro quo from the Government on implementing the 17th Amendment to get support for the 18th Amendment were also set in motion.

Their argument was that the President was freely ignoring the proper appointment of persons to the Independent Commissions and the superior courts by by-passing the Constitutional Council (17th Amendment), and at the same time asking for bi-partisan support for the 18th Amendment which seeks to set up regional Appeal Courts.

By coincidence, while the UNP parliamentary group was meeting in one committee room in parliament, the JVP's Parliamentary Group was meeting in another. There, in the latter committee room, the subject of discussion was the bill to effect reforms in the Ceylon Electricity Board. Speakers strongly criticized Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera for his efforts to make the bill become law. Bimal Ratnayake said Jayasundera had made a similar effort when Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was president. That was to drive a wedge between the then Government and the JVP. This time he was doing it to drive a wedge between President Rajapaksa and the JVP.

The CEB reforms bill was to be introduced in Parliament on July 7 as urgent legislation. However, party leaders who met on July 3 chose not to include it in the Order Paper. The Attorney General's Department had pointed out some discrepancies. Moreover, if the JVP withdrew support for it, there was no indication that the UNP would support it.

Another event of significance was the JVP's special all island delegates conference. JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe said if President Rajapaksa and his Government worked correctly to defeat terrorism, the JVP would join the Government without any hesitation. A resolution adopted also called for a broad front of political parties to fight terrorism.
The UNP crossovers have closed the door on any rapprochement with the government. Against this backdrop, even the latest Indian efforts for a devolution package, it would seem, will receive lukewarm support from the UNP-JVP opposition.