Third parties

AFTER many months, President Chandrika Kumaratunge offered a ray of hope for resuming peace talks in an interview with the Madras-based Frontline magazine. President Chandrika agreed third party involvement, although the government would examine the ability of the potential mediator in the negotiating process. She insists that the LTTE must lay down arms before negotiations could begin. The government must also be convinced that the LTTE would continue discussions until agreement is reached and not use the talks as a breathing space to build its arsenal. The President assured that government conditions need not detain the third party mediator contacting the parties and even beginning discussions, provided certain other conditions are met. She did not, however, specify the "other conditions". Some observers are sceptical after the President declared in another interview in September, this time to the CNN, that there is no basis for third party mediation. Others believe that the days of negotiations are over.

Former Finance minister Ronnie de Mel told Rupavahini television on 13 September that President Chandrika spurned a glorious opportunity to solve the ethnic conflict soon after her overwhelming victory at elections in August 1994. Others say there will be no progress because the government is weak due to the President’s mishandling of administration. An editorial in the LTTE flagship newspaper Viduthalai Puligal, while condemning US military presence in Sri Lanka, has called on the super power to take a neutral stance and become a mediator. But given the track record of the Tigers in breaking peace processes, governments are reluctant to be involved. Observers inevitably conclude that the latest Chandrika/LTTE calls for third parties are part of the continuing propaganda battle rather than a window of peace.
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