LSSP view on CFA abrogation

The ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed on February 2, 2002 is to be terminated today when the Government decision to abrogate it comes into effect. There is no doubt that it was seriously flawed and gave the LTTE an undue advantage.

Under its cover the LTTE strengthened itself militarily and killed many tamil opponents, such as Minister Lakshman Kadiragamar, enabling itself to claim to be the solve representative of the Tamil people. The President had clearly declared at the time of taking office that it needed to be revised.

The LTTE continued to violate the CFA with impunity and the Monitoring Mission lost credibility by its inaction and failure to publicly criticise the LTTE so that the world could know what was going on.

The purpose of the CFA was to facilitate the peace process. But when the President was making genuine efforts to restart it, the LTTE through direct attacks on the Armed Services, including at the highest levels, and by its non participation at the second round of peace talks in 2006, undermined the very purpose of the CFA.

Therefore there would appear to be ample justification for the Government's action, the LSSP said in a news release. Excerpts from the release: But the CFA had its benefits too. It not only brought down death, destruction to minimal levels, but also provided a peaceful environment in which people could live without fear and economic and social development and interaction between the South the North could flourish.

The split within the LTTE which saw the break away of its Eastern cadres led by Karuna, which paved the way for the Government to recapture the community responded in a positive manner both economically and politically in recognition of the Government's commitment to the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The banning of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation and the freezing of its assets, as well as that of various cover organisations has helped to weaken the LTTE. The Sri Lankan economy and military derived direct benefits from the international community.

The Government enjoyed the high moral ground and the LTTE was being treated as a terrorist organisation on par with Al Quaida. In short the conditions were created for a psychological rapproachment between the Sinhala and Tamil people and for a peaceful settlement of the national question, with the support of both the Tamil people and the international community.

The pronouncements of the spokesmen of the big powers associated with the Tokyo Summit (the Donor Co-chairs), have clearly indicated their displeasure at the CFA abrogation. There are already indications that there will be adverse political and economic consequences to Sri Lanka. It must be remembered that besides so-called "aid", they provide markets for our products, and these maybe threatened.

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has said that he is "deeply worried that the withdrawal from the agreement comes amidst intensifying fighting". With the withdrawal of the Scandinavian Monitoring Mission, there have already been calls for sending a "UN Monitoring Mission" by recognised international human rights organisations.

We must not forget that there were moves to request the UN Security Council to send a UN Peace Keeping Force when the war in the East commenced, and it was only the fact that the APRC process was seen to be a genuine effort to usher in peace that led to it being dropped.

This prevented the LTTE from achieving its separatist objective through UN intervention at no cost to the LTTE in terms of men or armaments. We should not act in a way to open such doors for foreign intervention against our national interest.

Unfortunately there are so-called patriots who through exaggerated nationalism act like frogs in a well. They ignore the fact that we are living in a global village with close interaction with foreign countries, economies and people, whose perceptions cannot be ignored.

The course of action mapped out by these forces envisages banning the LTTE as the next step. This will appear to close the door to opening negotiations with the LTTE for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, and thereby strengthen the hand of those intent on discrediting the Government by claiming it is only intent on a war that will not only adversely affect the LTTE but also the Tamil people, and the country in general.

The final nail in the coffin will be the implementation of the JVP demand to scrap the APRC.

This would mean that there is no set of proposals on offer by the Government that can be the basis for peace talks. It will be accepted that the LTTE is being given no option but to pursue its military and terrorist campaign for a separate state. The sympathy of world public opinion will shift to the LTTE despite increasing its terrorist activities.

The whole objective of the APRC is to offer a set of proposals that would be acceptable to the Tamil people, that gives them the means to address their needs and aspirations within one country, Sri Lanka. As this is being done by the representatives of the various political parties in Parliament it carries weight as an indigenous document drafted democratically.

As the UNP has agreed to participate in the APRC discussions once consensus has been reached by the parties in the Government, the final document is one that any future government, whether SLFP or UNP led, would implement.

This would convince the Tamil speaking people that they can expect a just solution which ever Government is in power in an undivided Sri Lanka. The absence of such a solution will drive the Tamil people to support the LTTE and its separatist agenda.

The world experience has been that a political problem that has generated a separatist conflict can only be resolved through a political solution. Without a political solution, so long as the people affected by the problem support the separatist struggle, the guerrilla force cannot be defeated.

The LTTE is one of the most powerful and ruthless militant groups in the world, and it can only be defeated by winning the Tamil people and isolating the LTTE through a political solution. Not surprisingly Prabhakaran in his November speech strongly critised and condemned the APRC which paves the way for a political solution.

The LSSP is therefore of the view that the unilateral abrogation of the CFA may benefit the opponents of the Government and the country more than the Government. It is time to take stock of the situation and not be pushed into courses of action that can have irretrievable adverse effect for both the country and the Government.