If Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer manages to shepherd the sulking Tamil Tiger rebels of Sri Lanka to the negotiating table, Sri Lanka may be saved what looks like an encore of its 20-year civil war. Mr Hanssen-Bauer’s discussions with the Sri Lankan government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders yesterday followed the rebels’ threat to reject the next round of peace talks in Geneva ‘indefinitely’. There’s been increasing violence in the island nation since the government and the LTTE met for the first time in three years in Geneva last February and agreed to strengthen the fragile four-year-old ceasefire. The two sides apparently decided to prevent ‘intimidation, acts of violence, abductions or killings’.
But hardly had the ink dried when sporadic violence broke out again, killing scores of people in several land- mine explosions. The government and the LTTE must stop the blame game to prevent rising tensions between the Sinhalese community and ethnic Tamils spiralling out of control. The LTTE abandoned peace parleys saying that its cadres in the north of the island had to first meet their commanders in the east, which involves crossing government-controlled turf. But now that the government seems willing to let them be ferried across in helicopters, the rebels no longer have any plausible reason to avoid the Geneva talks. Unless, of course, they fear that the negotiations could lead to a settlement they don’t want. For before the ceasefire, they had been fighting for a separate state for Tamils. As peace talks progressed, they dropped their demand for independence and opted for regional autonomy.
So now if the Geneva talks were to grant them autonomy, it will only be in the areas they control now, which would seal the borders and delete the idea of a larger Tamil homeland.
{{/usCountry}}So now if the Geneva talks were to grant them autonomy, it will only be in the areas they control now, which would seal the borders and delete the idea of a larger Tamil homeland.
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