wfn.org | Fears about the return of conflict threaten peace process in Sri Lanka

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Note #7356 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-July-2002
02269

Fears about the return of conflict threaten peace process in Sri Lanka  

by Anto Akkara  
Ecumenical News International

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A prominent Sri Lankan church leader has cautioned that unless people's fears about the country's fragile peace can be put to rest, the fledgling peace process in this island nation may be doomed to collapse.  

"We have peace now, but we are not sure whether we will have peace in the future," said the Rev. Ebenezer Joseph, general secretary of the National Christian Council (NCC) of Sri Lanka.  

A truce was initiated at the end of 2001 by Tamil rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, to stop a ferocious civil war that had been raging since 1983.  

The rebels had been fighting against what they called the domination of the island's Tamil minority by the Sinhala-speaking Buddhist majority.  

The truce led to the signing on February 23, under Norwegian mediation, of the country's first-ever formal cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebels.  

Sri Lankans were relieved that the killings had stopped, that they were able to move about freely and that bomb attacks by the Tamil Tigers in the south of the country had ended, said Joseph, a Methodist pastor.  

Still, not many believed that the peace would hold, especially without a more finely delineated plan for the future, Joseph noted. He described a "lurking fear in the minds of the people: what will happen next?"  

All peace attempts up to the present had ended in failure, he said, and "each time, the clashes after the breakdown [in the peace process] have been more severe and harsh on the civilian population. The people are really anxious about it."  

The ethnic conflict has left more than 65,000 dead and led to the displacement of more than half a million people, mainly Tamils, in the north and east of the country where they are in a majority. 

"Unless these fears [for the future] are sufficiently addressed, peace will not succeed," Joseph warned.   

Joseph made his comments in an address on July 24 to an ecumenical meeting in Colombo organized by the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia.  

Leaders must also look for ways to promote integration between the Tamil and the Sinhala populations, who have different perceptions of the cease-fire agreement signed between the government and the rebels, he said.  

Joseph told ENI that the Tamil Tigers had been using various pretexts to postpone more permanent peace talks and that reports were circulating that they were looking for fresh recruits to swell their ranks.  

Such reports had "given ammunition" to Sinhala groups who opposed the peace process because they considered it "selling out" to the Tamil Tigers.  

Joseph said the current cease-fire was the best that had been worked out in the two-decade-old conflict because it was based on a formal agreement and - for the first time - benefited from international monitors.  

A 30-member cease-fire monitoring team drawn from Scandinavian countries led by Norway has been in the troubled north and east since February to watch over the truce.  

While attempting to lead the Tamil Tigers to the peace negotiating table, the government also needed to "deal with groups [in the Sinhala south who are] opposed to the peace process," Joseph said.  

Jayalat Jayawardana, a Catholic heading the key Sri Lankan government Ministry for Refugees, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, told ENI that problems had arisen with the plans to resettle people displaced by the conflict.  

The majority of displaced people he had met had told him that they would rather wait for a "permanent settlement" than agree to the government's resettlement plans, he told ENI on July 23.  

"It is true that they have fears of the peace process breaking down," said the minister. However, he asserted that "the present peace will hold good, and a lasting solution to the conflict will be worked out."
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