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Despite the absence of the LTTE, the Tokyo aid Conference held between 9 and 10 June,2003 at Tokyo has been termed as an unprecedented success with donors pledging 4.5 billion dollars over a period of four years. It was unprecedented in one sense that a large number of countries and institutions were represented. But the absence of LTTE in the conference and their quick denunciation of the declaration as not binding on them has certainly dampened the enthusiasm shown in the conference. The Conference on Reconstruction and Rehabilitation was attended by representatives of 51 countries and 21 international organisations including 12 donor institutions and Japan which is the largest donor to Sri Lanka pledged one billion dollars. It became clear after the conference that Japan would have an active role in establishing modalities for monitoring and reviewing the progress towards peace and in the distribution of the aid package. The Tokyo Declaration: At the end of the conference a document, "Tokyo declaration on reconstruction and development of Sri Lanka " was issued. Some of the highlights of the document are
In pledging a large amount, the hope is that for the sake of rehabilitation and reconstruction, the process of political settlement will be quickened. In this, the assessment of donor countries including USA which was represented by Richard Armitage may go wrong. On the government side, despite all the praise showered by the Prime minster in the opening remarks in the conference on President Chandrika who he said contributed significantly to the peace process, the feud between the two would continue. Strain of cohabitation between the two gives no confidence to the well wishers of peace and even to the LTTE. Balasingham made it clear in his last letter that a permanent political solution through a radical constitutional transformation is not feasible under the current unstable political environment created by the "dual, ferociously opposed power centres in Colombo." While preparations for the aid conference were going on, Chandrika’s party was finalising the MOU between her party and the JVP for an electoral alliance, meant to regain power after toppling the UNP government of Wickremasinghe. On the question of handing over interim administration, she made an avoidable statement that an interim administration should not be given to a "terrorist group" when her own government has de proscribed LTTE before the talks. The other hope is that with the reconstruction in place in the north and east, the LTTE will be more amenable to a softer approach towards settlement and that the people may themselves demand of LTTE to do so. The people of north and east admire LTTE but also fear them. They will be in no position to influence LTTE to give up any of their avowed political goals. The only occasion when the people stood up was when the Jaffna residents were all asked to move over to Vanni during the war when the Sri Lankan army occupied Jaffna Peninsula. It is too much to expect the people to influence the LTTE. The real problem that has arisen is the demand of LTTE to hand them over the interim administration of the north east. Though this issue was raised at the beginning of the talks, the LTTE for tactical reasons did not press for a decision.. The reasons given for raising this issue now according to them were 1. With dual power structure in Colombo, there is no immediate permanent settlement and 2. The institutions created in the six rounds of talks have failed to function effectively to bring relief to thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons in the northeast. We have pointed out in our updates before that LTTE’s objective is to take full control of Jaffna now, something they failed to achieve by military means. Prabakaran’s demand for an "innovative ( for whatever the term means) interim administrative structure vested with adequate authority and legal status with greater participation of the LTTE in both decision making and delivery of the tasks of rebuilding the war damaged economy and restoring normalcy in Tamil speaking homeland" is precisely for this objective. This would amount to a structure outside the Sri Lankan constitution which the government is now in no position to grant. Nowhere has the LTTE leadership explained in detail of what they want of Jaffna except in general terms of an innovative structure of administration One thing is clear- they will not allow any non LTTE member or activist to have any role in running the north east as this would be against their stated position that LTTE and LTTE alone is the sole representative of the Tamils.. The Sri Lankan government tried in vain in proposing a development structure consisting of a three layered structure with an Apex body at the top level, a management board at the middle level with a Secretariat and a third level consisting of existing government machinery. The objective was to "expedite efficient implementation of programmes and projects relating to relief, rehabilitation and development." The LTTE’s position was that the proposal would result in apex bureaucracy with inefficient organisations under them making the whole rehabilitation tasks inefficient. Balasingham has also in his letter complained about some international and regional players continuing to treat the LTTE shabbily as proscribed entity with a terrorist label to be excluded from international forums. The reference is obviously to USA and India. But has the LTTE renounced violence. Not so far and not likely in the near future. Some recent incidents give the impression that LTTE’s agenda is different.
With India taking a back seat, it appears that the Sri Lankan question is getting internationalised. Besides Norway, Japan, USA and the European Union are now involved. One ex. British General, Michael Rose had suggested the involvement of European Union in expanding the monitoring mechanism. There was a suggestion of involving an international police force to train the Tamil Policemen. It is unlikely that LTTE would change its stand unless some powers with checks and balances are given to them in running the Tamil areas of north and east. |
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