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Rasheeda Bhagat

Recently in Colombo

THOUGH the peace process in Sri Lanka is being widely hailed, "substantive and difficult issues" are yet to be taken on board, says Ms Dushni Weerakoon, Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo. In an interview to Business Line, she said the difficult part would be to link "economic resurgence" to the peace process. Excerpts.

How do you see the peace process going?

We are one year into it, but in terms of substantive issues, I think we are concentrating more on development efforts for the North and the East rather than anything else. We haven't really come to any concrete proposals, which the Government can bring to the people and the Parliament. That will be the most difficult phase of the peace negotiations. I think difficulties still lie ahead of us.

What kind of difficulties?

There has been some kind of broad agreement on a federal structure. The LTTE has agreed to it in principle, but it is yet to look at what kind of decentralisation is actually being talked about. The LTTE is running its own parallel system — its own set of laws and judiciary, its own taxes, and the like.

Yes, it is almost a parallel administration. So at some point, these issues will have to be negotiated. Do they hand over all these to the Union Government or not. And, within a federal structure can the LTTE have an army of its own. That doesn't happen anywhere! That has been pointed out time and again by observers, but the Tigers are not willing to commit to any kind of handing over of weapons.

But meanwhile I sense a great relaxation, the parties are back, people move about freely and late into the night. Is that a welcome feature at least?

Of course, the roadblocks have been removed, there is ease of movement and the Government in hoping that once people get used to that, they will appreciate peace as opposed to bombs going off.

Do you think the Sinhala hardliners who say the Government is bending over backwards to please the LTTE will now change their stand?

At the end of the day, the Government hopes that whatever sense of peace the country will build up support for the peace process. But on the other hand, it can only sell the peace process if there is a certain amount of economic resurgence.

Is that happening?

We're seeing some kind of recovery after what the country experienced in 2001 and 2002, but it is not as dynamic as we had wished for. So even in the South, unless people see some positive economic growth in terms of employment creation, cost of living coming down and standard of living improving, they will not be able to sell the peace process. Ultimately, the dividends of peace have to be more than mere free movement. It has to reflect in economic terms. Last year's GDP growth was just 3 per cent but then ours is an economy recovering from negative growth in 2001. Still, the recovery is not enough to show there is a significant turnaround. If the economy doesn't improve, then the room or space in the South for agitation will be that much more. So we are in a state of flux and uncertainty.

And on top of that there is the Iraq war...

Oh yes, that has impacted the tourism, tea and shipping industries and remittances from Sri Lankans in West Asia. All this is bound to be hurt the economy.

How great is the concern for human rights in the North and the East?

Interestingly, that is one aspect that is being ignored. There is very little talk of it except from the Jaffna University Teachers for Human Rights. There is very little open discussion of what level of democracy the North and East will enjoy under a federal system, in which the LTTE is obviously going to be the main player. What will happen to the other Tamil parties? These issues will have to be addressed by the donors. The North and the East have to be reconstructed and I think increasingly, human right issues will be linked to aid. But for the moment, it is almost as though we will face that when we come to it.

What are the guarantees that the aid will be used properly?

The World Bank has undertaken to handle all the aid channelled to the North and the East. But there will be some difficulty, because some of the taxes that the LTTE imposes will be imposed on those projects too. So the nitty-gritty has not been touched at all.

Right now, everybody wants to overlook the difficulties and say the peace process is going on and it should not be allowed to break down. It will be a long-drawn process and there is no certainty that it will end in some peace settlement. So, Sri Lanka very much continues to be in a situation of crisis.

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