Search this site
Subscribe to our feeds
Get notifications of our new publications
By email
Through your reader
Subscribe to Security Watch
By email
Through your reader
Dual approach strategy has proved to be successful: Sri Lankan Minister
Special Correspondent
Tissa Vitharana explains his government perspective on the issue
CHENNAI: The Sri Lankan government’s dual approach of launching a military offensive against the LTTE while keeping the door open for talks is proving to be a successful strategy, Tissa Vitharana, Sri Lankan Minister of Science and Technology, said here on Thursday.
Explaining his government’s perspective on the issue in a talk hosted by the Centre for Security Analysis, Mr. Vitharana said the strategy focused on weakening the LTTE movement to the extent where the separatist organisation would give up arms for dialogue while at the same time evolving a set of viable, reasonable political solutions on the principle of equal rights for minorities in Sri Lanka.
“The government strategy is well-founded on the belief that a political solution must be a concomitant of a military advance,” said Mr. Vitharana, who is also chairperson of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC).
He cited as an example of the military’s success, the clearing of large LTTE-controlled areas in the eastern province and early restoration of democratic rule through local government and provincial elections.
In fact, in the eastern provincial council, the TMVP, that broke away from the LTTE, ran the government led by Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanth. In the northern province, too, the armed forces were making rapid advances with the help of intelligence inputs from Tamils, which was reflective of a positive change in the minds and hearts of the segment, he said.
The Sri Lankan Minister also contrasted the rampage in retaliation for the killing of Lankan soldiers in 1983 to the absence of counter-strikes on the minorities even after nearly 10 episodes of bomb attacks in Colombo claimed 70 lives.
Mr. Vitharana said the APRC, representing 14 political parties across the ideology spectrum, had been instrumental in evolving a consensus on about 90 per cent of the manifesto for the Constitution to chart Sri Lanka’s governance charter.
Devolution of power
A consensus has been evolved on devolution of power at the level of the Centre, the nine provinces and the local governments (grama sabhas), Mr. Vitharana said. The government has also set up a second Chamber – a sort of Upper House – comprising eight representatives each from the provinces. Essentially a safeguard against abuse, the arrangement ensures that any legislation seeking to take away devolved power to the lower administrative echelons has to be passed at a joint parliamentary sitting, he said.
Pointing to the anxiety over the definition of the nature of the State, Mr. Vitharana said the fears over devolution of power having an inherent potential for abuse were hardly imagined in the context of the LTTE’s advocacy of a separatist agenda right through peace initiatives. However, these fears were balanced against concerns that adherence to a unitary Constitution would encourage centralisation of power.
“Hopefully, the APRC will be able to build adequate consensus in the next few months and finalise a set of proposals that would satisfy the needs of the minorities (Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims) while securing the endorsement of the majority.” The government also counted on support from India, as a powerful neighbour, and the international community for setting the stage for lasting peace in the island-nation, he said.
The Hindu, dated 19th September 2008