The Hindu : No return to war: Kadirgamar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

International

International

No return to war: Kadirgamar

By V. S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, JAN. 21. The newly-formed United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) today said it was "prepared to discuss everything" with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam without preconditions for a political dialogue to the find a solution to the decades-long separatist crisis.

At the first press conference of the newly formed alliance comprising senior leaders of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, senior UPFA leaders said they were for a "new approach" and aimed to "broaden the scope of the peace process."

"We are going away from the exclusive negotiating process," and the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two general secretaries was for "considerable widening of the process," the senior SLFP leader and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, said.

Asked if the Alliance would consider the LTTE's counter-proposals as a basis for discussion, he said: "We are prepared to discuss anything." On whether there were any threshold requirements to be met, he said: "At this point of time, there are no preconditions." The JVP's entry "to the centre stage," he said, was "very encouraging for Sri Lanka's democracy."

By bringing in the JVP (which twice attempted insurrections against the state) "they too will share the burden and responsibility of governance," Mr. Kadirgamar said. Asked if the MoU saw the excessive internationalisation of the peace process as leading to separation, Mr. Kadirgamar said, the manner in which the currently stalled peace process was handled by the ruling United National Front (UNF) Government could lead to such a situation. Mr. Kadirgamar also "absolutely and categorically" reiterated the President's position that the existing ceasefire agreement, signed separately by the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the LTTE leader, V. Prabakaran, on February 22, 2001, "stands and will stand." On the possibility of a return to war, Mr. Kadirgamar said the alliance "was not on a path back to war."

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