Sri Lanka peace talks clouded by distrust

Sri Lanka is one country where you take no time to pick up the thread from where you left it be it three months or three decades ago. It is the same old ethnic divide in different forms at different times. The Sinhalese are on one side and the Tamils, particularly in the north, on the other. Sometimes, the divide takes an ugly turn. Then the two sides fight each other.

Currently, they are sitting across the table to sort out a way to live together in an undivided country. This is not the first time they are doing so. They have gone through the exercise many a time. India was in the picture more than once and even got embroiled and mauled. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) had to be withdrawn at Colombo's orders.

Having burnt its fingers, New Delhi is reluctant to come out in the open. It appears Norway is batting for it and consults India at every step.

Evoking hope

Oslo has even strengthened its negotiating team, as if the ice has been broken. If nothing else, it has at least evoked some hope. But it is laced with if's and but's. The Sinhalese I met in Colombo believed the talks would yield little since the LTTE, according to them, was not willing to be pinned down to anything "concrete".

Sri Lanka's chief negotiator, whom I met briefly, says "it is too soon to say anything". In a way, he is right, because the last meeting saw more accusations and counter-accusations being hurled across the table. However, the dialogue is a positive development and has come to be a continuing process. The next round has been scheduled for the latter half of April.

"The talks are very preliminary," Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse reportedly told former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral when they met in Colombo last week. Gujral found Rajapakse amiable, frank and realistic. But Rajapakse's problem is that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, although in London, has not yet reconciled to the fact that her political career is over.

From all accounts, it is clear she continues to create problems for Rajapakse. I was a bit surprised by her unpopularity because I had, admittedly, put too much faith in her when I met her at New Delhi on way to Colombo. I thought she would be a breath of fresh air in the cloistered politics of Sri Lanka. She began well, but during her eight-year rule she lost her way in political quagmires which were of her own making.

Sadly, the talks have not progressed beyond the preliminary stage. They seldom have in the past because both the Sinhalese and the Tamils have never put all their cards on the table. They always have a few up their sleeves. Both sides know it. This has only built a wall of suspicion, which, over the years, has gone higher and become unsurmountable. If you talk to the Sinhalese I met many editors, politicians and human rights activists they ask you: how can you trust the Tamils who, even while sitting at the negotiating table, are extorting money, buying weapons abroad and recruiting Tamil children for their fight.

Long tale

The Tamils I met are mostly opposed to the LTTE. But they have a long tale of discrimination against them. Not many Tamils can be found in either government service or Sinhalese-run industries and businesses. When I asked about the percentage of Tamils in gainful employment they constitute 12 per cent of the population pat came the reply: How many Indian Muslims are there in the government or private sector?

Everyone, however, conceded the schools for the Sinhalese and the Tamils were separate and that there was very little social interaction between the two communities. Officially, Sri Lanka recognises two languages: Sinhalese and Tamil. But this is only on paper. Government offices, and even police stations, do not accept any communication in Tamil.

Despite such irritations, two things struck me: the Sinhalese anxiety to maintain peace with the LTTE, and the belief that India would step in if things took a turn for the worse. A few years ago, the word "Federation" was taboo. Now the Sinhalese, except the hardliners, talk about it and try to find out how things are working out in India. The model of the Indian State may be acceptable to the Sinhalese provided they are sure it would constitute a full and final settlement. The Sinhalese, who constitute nearly 70 per cent of the population, fear the LTTE would use the status of a state as a stepping stone to get to the Eelam.

The general impression is that the LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran is interested only in an independent country at the expense of Sri Lanka's integrity. This is where India comes in. An average Sinhalese has convinced himself that New Delhi will thwart the LTTE's ambitions to have an independent Tamil state because it can pose a danger to India itself. Whether New Delhi will come into the picture directly, and how soon, depends on the way the "process" of talks between Colombo and LTTE evolves. As Rajapakse realised after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, India would not like to get involved.

However, eyebrows are being raised over Rajapakse's visit to Pakistan. His argument is that he wants to visit all South Asian countries before he goes to China. What appears to be a balancing act has not appealed to India, which considers Sri Lanka to be the closest in the region.

- Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.