International Community should learn from experience, Vaiko tells
Norway
[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 23:03 GMT]
Expressing that the lack of implementation by the Government of Sri
Lanka on the agreed principles of the February 2002 Cease Fire
Agreement (CFA), especially disarming of army backed paramilitary
groups, led to the ultimate breakdown of the peace process, Vaiko, the
General Secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK),
told Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim and Jon
Hanssen-Bauer, the Norwegian Special Envoy, that the International
Community should prevail upon the GoSL to reinstate the ceasefire in
order to engage in a meaningful process for a negotiated settlement.
Vaiko meets Erik Solheim
MFA officials Thomas Stangeland and Sondre Bj=F8tvedt were present at
the meeting, that took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Oslo.
Vaiko with Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer
Expressing gratitude on behalf of the Tamils in India to the Royal
Norwegian Government for its engagement as facilitator to the CFA and
its continued interest in facilitating to resolve the ethnic conflict
in Sri Lanka, Vaiko told TamilNet that his visit to Norway to attend a
conference, titled "Peace and Reconciliation in South Asia," organized
by the International Association for Human Values, gave him a unique
op****tunity in bringing the concerns of more than 60 million Tamils in
Tamil Nadu, to Norway.
The International Community should be made aware that the Norwegian
facilitated CFA had collapsed as the Sri Lankan Government seriously
violated the CFA, clause by clause, and systematically scuttled it
fully, before unilaterally withdrawing from the ceasefire, he said.
A key violation of the agreed principles was the clause 1.8 which
demanded the Government of Sri Lanka to disarm the paramilitary
groups, Vaiko told TamilNet.
LTTE's late chief negotiators Anton Balasingham and S.P.
Thamilchelvan, had repeatedly pointed out this gross violation by the
GoSL on several occasions, he said.
However, the Interational Community did not engage with this problem
before 2006, by which time Colombo launched direct military
operations, he said.
The International Community, which had failed to apply timely pressure
on the GoSL to honour the CFA, while the agreement was still in force,
should now re-evaluate its approach to Sri Lanka based on the past
experiences and adopt a strategy, which will result in restoring the
diplomatic balance between the protagonists to the conflict so as to
create and sustain a conducive environment for negotiations.
Participants at the conference in Oslo
The two-day conference held in Oslo was attended by H.H. Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar, one of the founders of the IAHV, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha,
Secreatary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace
Process (SCOOP), Ms. Erika Mann, Member of European Parliament,
Arumugam Thondaman of Ceylon Workers Congress and a minister in the
UPFA government, Jayalath Jayawardene, opposition UNP MP, Venerable
Brahmanawatte Seevali Nayaka Thero from Amarapura Mahanikaya,
Venerable Maduluvave Sobitha Nayaka Thero from the Nagavihara Kotte,
Prof. Indra de Soysa from PRIO in Oslo, Nij Deva, Member of European
Parliament. Several others also took part in the workshops on Sri
Lanka, Burma and on Naxalism in India and Nepal.
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