Financial Times

Chamber seeks dialogue with the government
Urgent moves to push peace talks
By Feizal Samath

In case of war, there are fears that the LTTE will go for economic targets

As fears of a return to hostilities rose in the New Year with the LTTE stepping up attacks, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) – worried about the impact on business, the economy and loss of lives – is discussing ways of using its “influence,” to push for an early start to peace talks.

Business leaders led by CCC Chairman Deva Rodrigo were scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday and – maybe through him – also seek a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapakse to urge the resumption of at least the first round of peace talks in Oslo and then move to Tokyo for the second round.

Rodrigo declined to comment on the developments, saying “I would prefer to wait till we meet the Foreign Minister and seek his guidance on the matter.”
The CCC move, however frowned upon by some of its members who prefer the "hard (fighting)" option, came as state and commercial activity ground to a halt in Jaffna. Commercial banks have not been operating for the past week and no regular transactions done.

In some cases urgent individual needs of clients were being handled through a side door at a bank. Residents say the army is on the roads in strength and young people harassed. “We have gone back to the days when the youth feared to walk the streets,” noted a senior Jaffna journalist. The military had denied allegations of harassment, saying searches are on to hunt attackers of army and navy convoys.

The Colombo bourse also slumped as the country prepared for its second possible New Year disaster in two years -- after the deadly tsunami in December 2004. CCC officials, it is learnt, also met with experts from the Bergoff Foundation and the Centre for Policy Alternatives to assess the emerging situation, likely action in the days ahead and what could be done in the short term to prevent the country sliding back to war. The assessment from this joint analysis was that unless the government and the LTTE show some positive signs in returning to peace talks in the next two weeks, full scale war was inevitable this month.

The strategy of the LTTE, it was noted is not to fight any new escalated war in the north but focus on key economic targets in the south – aiming to shift the battle to Colombo and cause maximum harm to the economy. Political analysts said ‘hawks’ in the government believe western powers will come to Sri Lanka’s aid by providing sophisticated weapons and technical support to fight the Tigers, and are (hawks) urging this option. The CCC analysis felt that arguing about the location of talks was futile given the urgency to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table. There were suggestions that the CCC should also reach out to the Tigers in the “persuasion” exercise.

In the meantime, civil society groups have got activated and are pursuing calls for peace. A civil rights group organised an all-night candle-light vigil at midnight yesterday at Independence Square in a peaceful demonstration to urge both sides to return to the negotiating table.

Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka’s biggest humanitarian group, is planning a Peace Forum in early January and a peace gathering with civil society by end February, peace activists said. Among the sectors that would be get affected if hostilities break out are – tourism; export revenues; rising interest rates and inflation leading to escalation of consumer goods; loss of employment and or reduction in income; rising defence spending; higher defence expenditure leading to rising fiscal deficit; decline in business confidence; discouraging investments both local and foreign; lower economic growth; depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee and falling state revenue levels.

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