The government’s team will comprise ministers GL Peiris and Milinda Moragoda and the Peace Secretariat chief Bernard Gunatilleke. Minister and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem will also be included. The Tigers have nominated advisor Anton Balasingham, his wife Adele, Jay Maheswaran, said to be an expert on post-war reconstruction issues, and V Rudrakumaran, a lawyer from the US. Anton Balasingham and Rauf Hakeem met in London on 3 September for preliminary discussions on the question of the status of Muslims in the north -east.
On 4 September, the government met the LTTE's main demand - the lifting of the ban on the militant group. The ban was imposed in January 1997 under Emergency regulations and continued after July 2000 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The chief opponent to the government decision was President Chandrika Kumaratunge, who demanded that the Tigers should renounce their objective of establishing a separate Tamil state within Sri Lanka before proscription is removed.
But under the PTA, it is the Defence minister Tilak Marapane who makes and unmakes regulations, and the President was powerless to intervene. The government introduced the regulations two days before the scheduled date for the removal, thus denying opportunity for the opposition parties, including President Chandrika's People's Alliance (PA) and the People's Liberation Front (JVP), to launch an effective campaign. The President says that the LTTE has established an illegal police force, its own banks and courts. She vehemently opposes any plan that would hand over the interim administration of the north-east region to the Tigers.
Government members are worried that the President would use her powers to dissolve Parliament after 5 December. Under Article 70 of the Constitution, she can to dissolve Parliament at the end of one year following a general election. In early August, Constitutional minister GL Peiris reiterated government's intention to introduce the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which will allow the President to dissolve only with the approval of the legislature itself.
The minister is confident that a number of PA MPs would vote with the government to achieve the two-thirds majority needed for the Amendment. At least three senior members of the PA, including former Transport minister AHM Fowsie, have expressed support. The government was strengthened when a no-confidence motion on 21 August, tabled in Parliament by the PA and the JVP, against Home Affairs minister John Amaratunge, was defeated by 35 votes.
On 7 August, PA stalwart Lakshman Kadirgamar met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in an effort to reduce tension and improve chances of cohabitation. US, Canadian and Australian diplomats met government and opposition members in August to urge them to put aside political differences and take the peace process forward. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, on a visit to Sri Lanka in late August, expressed support for a peaceful solution that maintains Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In a statement on TV on 9 August, President Chandrika promised that she would not dissolve Parliament unless the government loses its majority or in case of imminent danger to the unity of the nation. She repeated her position in a letter to the Speaker of Parliament in mid-August. Government members are not impressed by the President's promises. They say that she cannot be trusted as long as she retains the power to dissolve Parliament. Tamil MPs told a visiting seven-member British parliamentary delegation in late August that it would be difficult to solve the Sri Lankan conflict as long as the power struggle between government and opposition continued.
In contrast to confrontation in the south, a friendly atmosphere prevailed in encounters between the government and the LTTE. The head of the government’s Peace Secretariat in Colombo, Bernard Gunatilleke, met LTTE’s political leader SP Thamilchelvan on 23 August to discuss development projects in the Vanni. Three days later, a four-member government team arrived in the north for consultation with the Tigers on development issues. The A9 Vavuniya-Jaffna road will be repaired with assistance from the Asian Development Bank, but according to reports, the LTTE wants the responsibility of carrying out the work.
However, the exchange of prisoners between the two sides scheduled for 31 August was postponed. The LTTE have requested the release of 19 of their members, now held in Colombo's Magazine prison. There are legal difficulties in releasing some of them. The Attorney General's Department says that some have already been convicted and indictment has been served against others. Court orders are needed for their release.