The Hindu : Vigorous input from Chandrika needed, says Peiris

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 30, 2003

International

International

Vigorous input from Chandrika needed, says Peiris

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Nov. 29 . Sri Lanka's Chief Government Negotiator, G.L. Peiris, is of the view that the time has come for a "more direct and vigorous input" by the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, in the next stage of the peace process. He was also aware of the need to resolve the southern political crisis "effectively and productively" as it was "not only unsatisfactory but also potentially dangerous to have the peace process in this stagnant condition."

In an interview to The Hindu, on November 27, a few hours before the LTTE chief, V. Prabakaran's annual Heroes' Day speech and a day before the President's proposals for a Joint Peace Council were released, Prof. Peiris said that it was "evident that when one is negotiating a substantive solution, there must be cross-party consensus."

There were "different modalities" for working out a greater role for the President, Prof. Peiris said and added that an "overall committee, jointly chaired by the President and the Prime Minister," Ranil Wickremesinghe, was "one possibility."

During the initial stages of the peace process, the Wickremesinghe administration was of the view that the ruling United National Front had won the mandate for finding peace and had turned down a request for a Presidential nominee at the talks.

However, according to Prof. Peiris, "the objective of the next phase of talks is qualitatively different because we are now addressing the substantive elements of a durable and just solution."

After Sri Lanka's bitter cohabitation Government was jolted into a mid-course reality check by Ms. Kumaratunga's November 4 constitutional exercise of taking over three key Ministries, there is also an open admission that there is a need for a coming together.

"It is evident that when one is negotiating a substantive solution there must be cross-party consensus otherwise there will be no implementability. The Opposition cannot be isolated," Prof. Peiris said.

He said clarity was needed with respect to responsibility over the peace process. "It is not principally a dispute about three portfolios" but the "bearing of this on the coherence and the consistency of the peace process." Moreover, it was "certainly impossible to handle the peace process without control over the military apparatus."

Prof. Peiris also said that "the whole rhetoric has been much softer since the President took over the Defence Ministry." Referring to the European Union Commissioner, Chris Patten's recent visit to Kilinochchi, the Chief Negotiator said the rhetoric would have been "fundamentally different" if the visit had taken place before November 4.

"The reality of incumbency," he said, was "a significant factor" for the President and was "certainly influencing attitudes and perceptions at this moment."

Prof. Peiris, who was Constitutional Affairs Minister in the earlier Peoples' Alliance Government, said the differences between the two parties were "marginal" on substantive policy issues relating to both the economy and the peace process. "On the peace process the two major parties stand for devolution of power," he said.

The international community was "playing a catalytic role", particularly "powerful governments such as India and the U.S. are certainly playing a positive and helpful role".

On the hardline protests, Prof. Peiris, who was former Vice-Chancellor of the Colombo University, was of the view that these were "at the fringes" and what mattered was "there is a consensus in mainstream public opinion."

Prof. Peiris declined to comment on the LTTE's proposals maintaining that it would be "inappropriate and unhelpful for me as chief negotiator to comment on the LTTE's proposals. That should happen only at the negotiating table, once we get there."

The Government, he said, "has views of our own and some of those are strong." What was required was a "meeting of minds" which "cannot be done by unilateral declarations" but "a face-to-face meeting".

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