Acknowledgements The Author: Ana Pararajasingham
Programme Director: Mr. Alphonse Tarcisius,
Page Setting: T. Nithiraj
First Published: Feb. 2007
ISBN: 3-9523172-1-7 978-3-9523172-1-1
All rights reserved. No part if this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD)
Center for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD) Bahnhofstrasse 13, 6020 Emmenbruecke, Switzerland [email protected]
Printed at: IMPRIMERIE RAS 6, Avenue des Tissonvilliers 95400 Villiers le Bel France CONTENTS
CONTENTS 1 Executive Summary 2 Preamble 3 Objectives 4 Methodology 6 Introduction 7 The 'Peace Process' Revisited 7.1 The Pre-Cease-Fire Scenario 7.2 Election of a New Government 7.3 The Cease Fire Agreement 7.4 Failure to Restore Normalcy 7.5 Internal Self Determination and the 'Oslo Declaration' 7.6 The incident at Sea 7.7 The Washington Meeting 7.8 Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) 7.9 President's Prerogative 7.10 Defection of Karuna and the Eruption of the ‘Shadow War' 7.11 Tsunami 7.12 The Escalation of the Shadow War 7.13 Mahinda Rajapakse - Sri Lanka’s New President 7.14 The Resumption of Hostilities and the Collapse of the CFA 7.15 The De-Merger of the North East 7.16 Summary 8 The International Community 8.1 The Strategy of Containment 8.2 The Indian Factor 8.3 Summary 9 The Way Forward 10 Appendix
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
Controlled by GoSL claimed by the Tamil People
Partially controlled by GoSL Pockets controlled by LTTE
LTTE control territory
The Vahari region
2 Source : Wikimedia EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
1. Executive Summary
he Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of TSri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has collapsed. The Cease-Fire Agreement had held, despite numerous breaches, non-implementation of vital clauses, extra judicial killings and political assassinations. However, by September 2006 the CFA had become untenable. The collapse of the CFA can be traced inter alia to the following: The fundamental flaw in the strategy of containment pursued by the Co-Chairs to manage the peace process in assuming that the GoSL would cooperate by helping restore 'normalcy' to the Tamil population affected by the war. Prime Minister Wickramasinghe’s attempt to exploit the peace process to undermine President Kumaratunge by por- traying her as a ‘spoiler'1 of the process on the one hand and blame the President’s opposition to the peace process to justi- fy his own disinclination to deliver on the promises made to the LTTE. Prime Minister Wickramasinghe’s failure to win over Sinhala public opinion to help implement the agreements reached with the LTTE to restore normalcy and instead garnering international support to contain the LTTE and revive the economy of the South.
1 According to Navaratna Bandara, Wickramasinghe also tried to diminish the President’s powers through “constitutional amendment, identifying her as one of the strongest spoilers of the peace process" per his paper presented at Envisioning New Trajectories for Peace in Sri Lanka, International Seminar, Zurich, April 2006 conducted by the Centre for Just Peace and 3 Democracy (CJPD) in collaboration with the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, Sri Lanka Office PREAMBLE