| In Sri Lanka too permanent solution to the ethnic | | | | presence and cost the Sri Lankan President's life |
| crisis would be more successful and long lasting if | | | | too in the later days.A third party mediation would |
| a solution is found with a federal system or loose | | | | have saved the life of a president who had a |
| confederation model.Once Abraham Lincoln said: | | | | modest life-style and hard work which raised him |
| "A good leader gains less glory and more defame | | | | from Keselwatte, a shanty suburb of Colombo to |
| than what he actually deserves". In Sri Lanka then | | | | the President House though he never lived there |
| Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe too might | | | | with whom I had an opportunity to have a brief |
| have felt the same in his effort to solve the | | | | chat on my peace mission and been admired by |
| decades-long ethnic crisis by the pressures from | | | | his simplicity.Then President Chandrika |
| many angles, what the Late US President | | | | Kumaratunga initiated the third party facilitation in |
| experienced in his tenure to solve the civil war | | | | the later stage. But in the beginning she propelled |
| and his struggle to liberate the slavery of African | | | | some professionals and civil servants who were |
| Negroes in the United States of America.His hard | | | | close associates to her and earned the wrath of |
| passage as a log-cabin boy to the President of | | | | the LTTE personally towards her on many |
| the United States of America made him to set an | | | | issues.Her major lieutenants on peace related |
| agenda to tackle the national issues slow and | | | | issues were totally ignorant of the local and |
| steadily but with courage and made him a | | | | international politics but they lived in their own |
| statesman forever in his Nation and beyond the | | | | world as Kissingers and Field Marshals to activate |
| shores.The Sri Lankan then Premier's Lincoln-style | | | | a bloody experiment the "War for Peace" in the |
| approach might have made suspicion among | | | | island.They have failed to identify and conveyed |
| some groups in the island by his Memorandum Of | | | | her the importance of third party facilitation in the |
| Understanding with the LTTE leader Velupillai | | | | very beginning.Then Foreign Minister's apparent |
| Prabaharan.But the previous governments of Sri | | | | attempt to marginalize the LTTE around the |
| Lanka have done all the neo-chauvinist activities at | | | | world only damaged their image and not their |
| the expense of the peace and harmony of the | | | | military power in the battlefield and made the |
| Indian Ocean’s Island Paradise, taking in | | | | government to face the worst military setback of |
| their arms the legislative and enforcement powers | | | | all time with the collapse of the strategic military |
| by marginalising the minority community | | | | camp in Elephant Pass which is located in the |
| systematically since the independence.And it | | | | banks of Jaffna Lagoon linking the Jaffna Peninsula |
| seems everything is too late to compensate the | | | | and the main land in the island's northern |
| blunders which the past governments have done | | | | high-way.This incident made the government to |
| within a Unitary model for a lasting solution to the | | | | rush for a tactical ceasefire and peace negotiation |
| community which once enjoyed its own Kingdom | | | | without any proper itinerary or destination.The |
| in the North and most part of the East parallel to | | | | peace negotiation in hostile circumstances with lost |
| those of Kotte and Kandy when Portuguese took | | | | credibility towards the government and personally |
| over this island.The immature approach of all | | | | towards the then Foreign Minister by his refusal to |
| parties in the political and war theatres in the past | | | | accept the casualties by the aerial bombings at |
| in the Indian sub-continent and the region caused | | | | the St. Peter's church and the Nagarkovil incidents |
| mess in many issues and cost the lives of many | | | | in the northern part of the Jaffna Peninsula, made |
| in the North-East of Sri Lanka and the region.The | | | | the LTTE to mark time for till an another political |
| civilians, who were massacred by the IPKF in the | | | | leadership took over the regime.President |
| Northeast, cannot be justified in any | | | | Kumaratunga navigated the peace ship without |
| circumstances, forgetting what they came for | | | | clear itinerary and far-sighted captainship by her |
| originally to this Island.The confrontation was | | | | immature advisors on many sensitive issues and |
| caused only by lack of diplomacy in handling the | | | | ultimately made her totally ignorant of all issues |
| captivated LTTE cadres in the Island's northern | | | | and to face the deadly icebergs in many |
| shallow seas of Bay of Bengal.That is the first | | | | forms.Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's |
| signal for an urgent need to bring into the scene a | | | | flexible approach to revise the peace negotiation |
| more professional third party mediator who is | | | | with Norway's facilitation, which was in a |
| nothing to do with region's politics and an urgent | | | | hampered stage by the petty personal issues |
| need for establishing a high-powered monitoring | | | | than on any diplomatic strategy, has given some |
| committee on war disputes.The mutual move by | | | | hope to the nation.But things have changed |
| the then Prime Minister and LTTE Leadership to | | | | completely over the time in the politics of Sri |
| eradicate the previous set-backs which caused in | | | | Lanka.And after the new presidency of Mahinda |
| the Pre and post IPKF era, by bringing Norway | | | | Rajapakse, the hostility between the LTTE and |
| back into the scene, showed a new chapter in the | | | | the government further increased and the war is |
| Island’s history and a testimony for | | | | almost revived by all parties in the North - East of |
| statesmanship.The signing of MoU directly the | | | | the Island.If Sri Lanka couldn't find a solution for |
| groups, which engaged in war, seemed something | | | | the ethnic crisis and an urgent restructuring plan |
| realistic than the once popular Indo-Lanka Peace | | | | towards the national economy, then the Indian |
| Accord, leaving the LTTE out of the scene.Then | | | | Ocean's tiny nation too might be left out by the |
| Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's more | | | | donors and the international financial institutions, as |
| aggressive approach with lack of experience in | | | | how the IMF did sometime back towards |
| the local and regional politics made him to rush into | | | | Argentina to tackle its own economy to earn its |
| an accord with the Sri Lankan President J. R. | | | | foreign reserve.Sri Lanka will be in a mess in this |
| Jayewardene by isolating the LTTE's importance in | | | | globalized economy to build up the national |
| the peace negotiation, by keeping them in | | | | economy, once it left out without any international |
| distance, only ignited a personal vendetta between | | | | assistance at the current stage.Then the nation |
| the Indian Prime Minister and the LTTE | | | | will have to make it as another Cuba or North |
| leadership.The confrontation, which started | | | | Korea towards a closed economic set-up and |
| between the IPKF and LTTE would have been | | | | drive back the nation towards the Stone Age.The |
| under control in the very beginning had the Indian | | | | reparation of the messed paradise could be |
| diplomats and the then Indian High Commissioner | | | | achieved by focusing not only on political issues, |
| dealt with it more sincerely beyond regional | | | | but economic as well. But all what we want is a |
| interests. And that would have saved the life of | | | | Lincoln-Style approach to face the forces which |
| the former Prime Minister of India from his | | | | confront the good changes on the national issues |
| untimely death.Though then President Ranasinghe | | | | while they don't have any alternative plans and |
| Premadasa was helpful to the LTTE by arming | | | | merely confronting for their own political mileage |
| them to pull out the IPKF out of the island, he | | | | and make this already messed paradise in to a |
| failed to identify the realities of the ethnic crisis. | | | | lost paradise forever!The United States of |
| He should have brought into the scene an | | | | America and the international community should |
| independent facilitator immediately to fill the | | | | promote a Lincoln Style approach in the war-torn |
| vacuum of the expelled Indian influence in the | | | | Island at all level with careful diplomacy, than |
| island and misinterpreted the LTTE's friendship, | | | | regretting later on as once then US Defense |
| which was solely based on the common goal of | | | | Secretary Robert McNamara said in his own |
| getting the IPKF out of the island as a long lasting | | | | words after the Vietnam war "we acted |
| one.The enmity and suspicion caused between the | | | | according to what we thought were the principles |
| both communities for decades by the previous | | | | and traditions of this Nation. We were wrong. We |
| regimes of Sri Lanka again started to dominate, | | | | were terribly wrong. |
| though it was absence for a while by the Indian | | | | |