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Apart from the human cost, the economic cost of the attack will mean further and longer impoverishment of the country and its people. Perhaps, to distract the attention of the people from the costs of war, and hold out the promise that the government has multiple options, the government media has given banner headlines to a peace initiative by religious leaders.
These leaders are expected to travel to the LTTE controlled Wanni, in the near future to explore the possibility of putting the derailed peace process back on track. This latest resolve for peace follows a meeting between Catholic religious leaders who met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the prospects of declaring the sacred Madhu shrine in Mannar, a peace zone.
The Madhu shrine obtained a name for itself in the 17th century when the Catholics who were being persecuted by the Dutch colonial administration fled to Madhu, with a statue of the Virgin Mary, which they believed saved them.
Madhu lies in the thick Wanni jungles, which has been the stronghold of the LTTE since a long time. The LTTE has situated its long distance artillery guns in close proximity to the shrine, as the presence of the shrine serves to deter counter strikes by the Sri Lankan military.
Another important feature of the Madhu shrine is that it serves as a refuge to those who flee the war zones of the north. From 1990 onwards, the precinct of the Madhu Shrine has become a refuge to those fleeing from military confrontations between the government security forces and the LTTE. The apprehension on the part of the Catholic Church is that any full-scale governmental attack on the LTTE's positions near the Madhu shrine will lead to the destruction of the shrine.
The problem with any peace initiative now is the absence of groundwork, or evident readiness on the part of the government to engage in the fundamental political reforms that would make such peace talks meaningful. Under Rajapaksa, the government has had little or no record of accomplishing a viable political solution.
Ironically, the worst example has been the functioning of the All Party Conference that the President summoned to work out a political solution to the ethnic conflict. When Chairman Tissa Vitharana proposed a political package based on the findings of an expert committee established by the president, the president not only overruled them all, but also offered a diluted alternative acceptable to only nationalist Sinhalese parties.
Today, nothing more is heard about progress in the deliberations of the All Party Representatives Committee, which was mandated to find a political solution to the ethnic conflict. Instead, it was recently reported that this body was going into hibernation in view of the forthcoming debate on the budget, and the political maneuvers that would be associated with the make or break vote on the passage of the budget. Without a political solution in the making, little or no progress is expected in peace talks.
One of the lessons of the failed peace process from year 2002 until 2005 is that peace talks and a ceasefire by themselves cannot sustain peace on the ground. Peace talks and ceasefires can only be means to an end, and not ends in themselves, if lasting peace is the desired outcome. Peace talks and ceasefires need the support of political reforms and power sharing arrangements if they are to be sustainable. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka appears to be far from such a scenario under the present government leadership.
The proposed peace mission of the religious leaders is a positive initiative and needs to be welcomed and supported. However, if the government is sincere about peace, then, it needs to do more than offer mere verbal and logistical encouragement to such peace visits. The government needs to work in a concrete manner with the religious leaders to improve the humanitarian and human rights situation in the country, which has presently brought the country unfavorably into the international spotlight as one of the world's worst offenders.
As a foundation to ending the war, the government also needs to provide bold leadership to the All Party Representatives Committee, to develop a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
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(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
