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LTTE delegation wraps up in Berlin

Mr. Tamilselvan with German State Secretary

The LTTE delegation led by Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan met with Mr. Erich Stather, State Secretary, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Ms. Kerstin Muller, Minister of State, Federal Foreign Office in separate meetings yesterday 21st and today 22nd October 2004.

The State Secretary and the Minister of State were equally concerned about the deteriorating situation in the context of the killings and the no-move status of the peace process in general. They were also anxious to familiarize themselves with the ground realities relative to resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation. The hosts encouraged the delegation to maintain the status-quo of the Cease Fire Agreement(CFA) at any cost, for, they said that it is through this key instrument that Sri Lanka is able to save loss of lives and enjoy relative peace.

In responding to the hosts Mr. Tamilselvan explained in detail the complexity of the current status as follows:

"The CFA being the key element from which stemmed the peace process, is being viewed by the Tamil people, after two and a half years of existence, as ineffective in the matter of bringing about normalcy and humanitarian delivery. True that the CFA has brought a no-war situation but it is still a no-peace state.
Mr. Tamilselvan with German State Secretary

In the area of resettlement, hundreds of thousands of families still continue to be 'displaced' and languishing in refugee camps, welfare centers and with friends and relatives. Though the CFA envisages normalcy, alleviation of hardships caused by war and pull-back of the occupying military from lands and dwellings belonging to the civilians within stipulated time frames, maximum being 160 days, people are still denied access to their lands under the guise of High Security Zone (HSZ). This and the high density of landmines in areas occupied by the military during times of war is a serious impediment to resettlement.

Violence and killings are taking place mostly in areas fully under SL military and police control and therefore the LTTE does not posses the capacity to apprehend the culprits. We have in many instances pointed out the violation of clause 1.8 of the CFA which prohibits the presents of armed paramilitary groups in the NorthEast. We observe a steady increase of killings after the assumption of power of the present government and this is attributed to the paramilitary groups which have apparently clandestine deals with some sections of the government military. Internecine disputes among these groups lead to killings and the SL military and police seems to be acting with complicity and therefore not apprehending the culprits.

In this context, we have offered our cooperation to the SLMM and the facilitators to interact with the government and institute impartial inquiries and thorough investigation without apportioning the blame on the LTTE. This appears to be a political agenda to discredit the LTTE and disrupt the peace process in general.

The peace process remains stalled only because of the government's constraint in reaching a consensus among its constituent coalition partners who are opposed to devolution of power and believe in a military solution rather than political negotiations. As a positive development, a bi-partisan phenomenon is evolving in the south, in that, the main opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance and other minority parties have offered their unconditional support to the government in reactivating the negotiations on the basis of the ISGA proposals submitted by us an year ago.

For the first time in the past half a century the opposition party has come forward to support the government in resolving the protracted national crisis. Hitherto, every time governments ventured to implement agreements with the Tamil polity, the opposition always opposed it and hence the agreements were abrogated. This time round, the government has a golden opportunity to make use of this offer and put the peace process in the right track.

It is now the moral responsibility of the peace loving people of Sri Lanka and the international community to insist upon the government to act with political wisdom and statesmanship rather than prevaricating for parochial political reasons. Urgent humanitarian needs of the people directly affected by two and a half decades of war and the general welfare of the country dictate immediate resumption of peace talks. The collective Tamil thinking is reflected in the last mandate in the general election of 2004 wherein the Tamil people overwhelmingly voted to institutionalize the ISGA and resume political negotiations towards final resolution. Respecting a people's mandate should not be selective and therefore the Tamil people deserve that respect from the government".

22 October 2004

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