Norwegians return empty-handed
By The Political Editor
Blessed are the peacemakers. So the maxim goes even if its not always true of those who indulge in this noble art.

Norway fostered a peace deal between Israeli Prime Minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin and Palestenian President Yasser Arafat. The duo won the Nobel Peace Prize. But, not long after, Rabin fell victim to an assassin's bullet. Arafat found himself confined to the close quarters of a Ramallah compound.

Long after TV networks, newspapers and even news agencies pronounced him dead, medical doctors confirmed the sad event had occurred only on Wednesday. Egypt gave him a funeral with full military honours.

From the jungles of Wanni, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, found time to promptly issue a statement before sitting down for talks with Norwegian facilitators. He said Arafat "was the source and force of inspiration, not only for the Palestenian people but for all the oppressed masses of the world."

Then Prabhakaran turned to his source and force in the peace process - Anton Stanislaus Balasingham. His confidante and Chief Negotiator had flown all the way from London for this near 90 minute powwow with Norway's peace makers - Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, his deputy Vidar Helgesen, Special Advisor Erik Solheim and Ambassador Hans Brattskar. With that over, it was a helicopter dash for Peterson and party to Colombo for a meeting with President Kumaratunga and her close advisers.

Thereafter, he had to rush to the Colombo Airport to catch a flight to get to Cairo for the funeral of the Palestine leader. Alas, the Emirates flight he was to board at 8.25 had already shut its doors and was preparing to taxi for take-off. The Norwegian Foreign Minister had to kick his heels and wait another five hours till the next Emirates flight to Dubai was scheduled to leave.

Missing the 8.25 flight meant that Petersen was to miss his Dubai-Cairo connecting flight as well. Thus, the phone lines between Colombo and Oslo were busy. The West Asia (Middle East to those in the West) peace-brokers afterall had to be represented at Arafat's funeral lest all kinds of wrong signals went out. Soon, Petersen was advised that a special aircraft of the Royal Norwegian government was taking off from Oslo to Dubai to collect the Foreign Minister to take him on time to Cairo for the funeral.

He might as well have had the planned dinner that night hosted by Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, instead of languishing at the Colombo airport. And everyone thinks the life of a Foreign Minister is all fun and travel. The Norwegian Minister's delay to the airport is understandable. The meeting with Prabhakaran, Balasingham, Thamilselvan and others was a major effort by the Norwegians to jump-start the stalled Sri Lankan peace process. They prefaced the visit with a warning to Sri Lankans not to expect anything dramatic. That is not to say the Norwegians did not make any efforts to pull out something dramatic. They did their bit, but it has turned out that the dramatic part was played by none other than Balasingham.

Publicly, Balasingham declared "we have conveyed a message to her (President Kumaratunga) on how to take the peace process forward." He said "the Norwegians have requested us not to speak about it to the press until they discuss it with the Sri Lankan President."

The Norwegian foursome did brief the President and her advisors on the latest LTTE message tossed by Balasingham. Whatever the message was, in doing so, the LTTE had fairly and squarely placed the ball in the Government's court. As a Norwegian facilitator later told a former UNF Cabinet Minister, "we are neither pleased nor disappointed."

The one significant factor in the Petersen visit was that he was able to meet the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. That alone is significant. Prabhakaran has refused to meet lesser mortals. Not even the Japanese broker Akashi was given the opportunity only last week. Solheim cannot reach him, nor can Helgessen.

Unavoidable
Prabhakaran, however, could not avoid the Petersen meeting. That is why Balasingham was summoned from London, despite the raging malaria in rain-infested Kilinochchi, for the meeting. All the LTTE statements come either from Balasingham or Thamilselvan or sometimes Daya Master, not the Great Leader.

So, Petersen asked Prabhakaran on the holy day of Deepavali what he has to say about the stalled peace process. And Prabhakaran replied saying "ask the Sri Lanka government to make a statement that they have the consensus of the 'south' - see that the JVP supports the government in discussing an interim self-rule authority for the north and east".

That was pretty much what Balasingham, Thamilselvan and sometimes Daya Master have been saying anyway. Then, Petersen tried to make his visit worth the while. He asked the LTTE leader to make statement himself - or themselves - on the basis that they are willing to abide by the Oslo Declaration and the Oslo Statement, and that the LTTE is willing to accept a Federal structure as a final solution.

This statement, the Norwegians felt, could come in the following weeks in the annual 'Maveerar' (Great Heroes) Day broadcast by Prabhakaran which coincides with his 50th birthday on November 26. One has to be a little careful here, because last year, there was some discrepancy between the Tamil text and the English text, and on an important issue such as whether the LTTE was willing to give up its demand for a separate state.

Clearly, Prabhakaran was not going to buy that line too easily. He was sticking to ISGA (Interim Self-Governing Authority) as the basis for discussions, knowing jolly well that the 'south' is not going to take that position kindly, and certainly, the JVP was not going to accept that come-what-may.

Remarks by Anton Balasingham at a news conference that followed the talks gives a further insight into what transpired.

According to the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat website:
“Mr. Balasingham said that contrary to expectations and speculations, the facilitators did not bring any special message from the President that may be classified as a 'breakthrough'. Continuing further, responding to questions from the media Mr. Balasingham had this to say:

"Though there was no special positive message, the facilitators did indicate that the President is of opinion that the discussions on ISGA, if that is to be the basis of the recommencement of talks, should necessarily be an integral part of the final resolution and therefore a process linked to the final political negotiations. We have made our position very clear in the same way as we have been consistently maintaining from the time of handing over the ISGA proposals about an year ago.

“It is wrong to link the ISGA with the final resolution because the former is directly and solely intended to address urgent humanitarian needs and the devastation caused by war and the latter is a political process that necessarily involves longer period of time and necessary ground work in the existing constitution for which the southern polity is not yet ready. This position of ours, we are told by the facilitators, would be conveyed to the President tonight and a feedback provided to us in course of time. It is only after receiving such a response, we would comment on the feasibility of early resumption of talks or otherwise.

“Discussing core issues, an exercise the Tamil people have been used to for the last 50 years or so, interspaced with solemn pacts and agreements, all of which were abrogated unilaterally by successive governments, is, according to Tamil thinking, a futile endeavour. It is only because of this and in view of the urgency of institutionalising a humanitarian delivery mechanism appropriately embodied by us in the ISGA, we reiterate the necessity to bring on board such an effective mechanism prior to entering into a complex political negotiation.

“Much is being talked about an Oslo declaration. There is no such declaration. In fact after every round of peace negotiation, a statement was issued by the facilitators with the concurrence of the parties. In one such statement it was mentioned that the parties would explore finding a solution based on a federal principle. It is therefore not a declaration per se as is being interpreted widely. Mr. Prabaharan has, in almost all of his statements in the Martyrs Day every year said that the LTTE would negotiate for viable alternatives fulfilling the aspirations of the Tamil people, preserve their freedom, dignity and self-respect. This is based on the principle of internal self-determination and if that is denied to exercise the right of external self-determination.”

“When it comes to the President's visit to India and her statements made therein to the effect that the LTTE is delaying the recommencement of talks, we strongly deny this position and would only say that it is the constraints that the President has in bringing together her constituent partners in government, especially the JVP that is opposed to the peace process and a negotiated settlement that causes the delay. Connected to this Indian visit is the collective Tamil thinking of the proposed defence pact that the Tamil people view that such an agreement is irrelevant during the time of a peace process, suspended though, but altogether not given up and therefore would tilt the military equilibrium, the underlying principle of the CFA. We have conveyed this collective Tamil thinking to India.”

Hitherto President Kumaratunga has steered very clear from references to ISGA in her offers to the LTTE. She has always spoken of an "interim authority." And last week, a Government Minister had to insist President Kumaratunga will not discuss the ISGA proposals with the LTTE. This came about when the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a constituent partner of the Government, was angered by a news report that Wednesday that ISGA was going to be discussed. A high powered JVP team met the Minister concerned to issue a warning over the move. The Minister allayed their fears and told them not to be guided by newspaper accounts on this issue.

At least the Minister, if he is right, has made the UPFA Government's position clear - that there would be no discussion of the ISGA. Naturally there would be no public announcements of any sort from President Kumaratunga even though the JVP has been a little more flexible than it was in Opposition by agreeing to discuss 'an interim arrangement' which however should be 'within the final solution'.

The JVP is also for the early resumption of talks and negotiations and for a political solution. But ISGA is non-negotiable in its books.

Midnight meal
These views were conveyed to the visiting Norwegian delegation when they met with President Kumaratunga at the President's House late on Wednesday night. The visitors were not all that discreet in displaying their frustrations with the Sri Lanka government not wanting to consider ISGA as a basis for negotiations.

At one point when Solheim intervened to say that what's the point if the government cannot find a 'southern consensus', Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar who was also present at the meeting is said to have shot back asking in what democracy do you find consensus on all major issues. Solheim gave no answer.

The discussions went late into the night, so much so that they sat down for dinner only close to midnight. Dinner went on till nearly 1 am at President's House, and the Norwegian delegation was off to the Wanni as the new day dawned.

After Petersen's departure 24 hours later, both Helgesen and Solheim were pessimistic. What they told the Colombo based diplomatic community on Friday was not encouraging. Even if they did not disclose the public announcement demand, they made clear one has to await the 'Maveerar' Day message of Prabhakaran to determine which direction the LTTE wants to proceed.

Helgesen left Colombo early yesterday morning. Thereafter, Solheim and officials went to the airport for a meeting with Anton Balasingham, who had arrived there by a helicopter for his flight to London. The request for the VIP Lounge was refused. Hence they had to settle for waiting room 516 for the discussion.

Solheim left for New Delhi to brief the Indian government on the non-happenings in the Sri Lankan peace process.

One could therefore say that, in a sense, the Norwegian high-powered effort was a non-event. Not much would change even if the Norwegian Royal Family came. The LTTE was sticking to its guns, and sticking by ISGA, no less. Their argument is that ISGA is certainly less than a separate state of Eelam, surely.

The 'southern' viewpoint is that ISGA is a separate state by another name, and in the least, a stepping-stone to Eelam. The Akashi cheque-book magic has not worked, now the Petersen international community magic has failed.

No shattering messages were either sent to the Wanni, or came from there. What now? We need to look into a crystal ball.

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