Amid disaster, hopes for peace

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Humbled by the tsunami disaster, political leaders on both sides of the conflict in this devastated nation say they feel a renewed obligation to find a peaceful settlement to the long-running civil war between the government and the Tamil separatist group that controls most of the country's northeast.

''Nature has mocked Sri Lanka's war," said Harim Peiris, spokesman for President Chandrika Kumaratunga and director general of the Ministry of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation. ''The war we fought for 20 years caused 60,000 deaths. But 20 minutes of the tsunami resulted in 31,000 deaths. It has done far more damage to us than we were capable of doing to each other."

Immediately after the disaster, both sides became entangled in politics. The rebels, known officially as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, tried to use the situation to win international recognition for the virtual state it has carved out in the northeast by trying to establish independent ties with nations and aid agencies, and the government worked hard to prevent that.

Although some of that tension lingers, both Kumaratunga and S. P. Tamilselvan, the rebels' political chief, say they are struggling to overcome the obstacles and work together on the ground. Both parties agree that now isn't the time to reopen peace talks that have been stalled since April 2003, but they are seeking ways to enhance the joint delivery of aid and to build mutual trust.

''We're in the midst of a humanitarian disaster of immense magnitude," Tamilselvan said. ''We have extended our hand. . . . If the government takes hold of this opportunity and acts in good faith, we think there is a chance for us to work together."

Money is another force in the quest for a permanent settlement between the country's Sinhalese-speaking Buddhist majority and Tamil-speaking Hindu minority, who want to create a separate Tamil homeland. The $4.5 billion in development assistance pledged to Sri Lanka by such countries as the United States and Japan is conditional on progress toward peace. Any resumption of fighting would also jeopardize the $1.5 billion in tsunami aid that has been promised.

Still, both sides will need to overcome years of accumulated distrust, as evidenced by several incidents in the past few weeks.

S. Puleedevan, a senior peace negotiator for the Tigers in Colombo, complained that the government last weekend prevented UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from visiting Mullaitivu, a town in the Tiger-controlled north where more than 9,000 people are estimated to have died.

''We're committed to trying to work with them and come to a positive solution. But how can we make sense of their actions?" Puleedevan asked.

Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's foreign minister, said allowing Annan to visit Tiger territory would have allowed the rebel group, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization, to look like a sovereign government.

''We would have run the risk of opening up a whole series of problems that should not arise at this time," Kadirgamar said.

But he indicated that the government is willing to negotiate with the Tigers and said that if circumstances were right it would reconsider one of the rebels' key demands -- that international aid for the Tamils, which currently is channeled through the government, be allowed to go directly to Tamil regions.

That could bring the two sides the closest they have been in a long time to ending the conflict, said P. Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo think tank.

''On Dec. 26, 2004, we were closer to war than we'd ever been since Feb. 22, 2002," when a cease-fire between the government and the Tigers was announced, Saravanamuttu said. ''What the tsunami and its aftermath did was it brought to the fore interdependence between both sides and led to a grudging acceptance of each other's positions."

The government says it recognizes that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have made the leap from guerrilla movement to mature governing body and potential partner for peace. In the regions they control, the Tigers have instituted a taxation system, using it and donations from Tamils abroad to establish a police force and legal system in cooperation with international aid agencies such as the UN Human Rights Commission.

The result is a functioning, if slightly ragtag, state. In Kilinochchi, the Tamil Tigers' administrative capital in the north, watching the courts at work last week was a bit like a scene from a high school play. Three judges in ill-fitting judicial robes sat behind a desk with a red cloth stapled around it to make it look official. Beside them, a mother and daughter who were engaged in a property dispute gave testimony that was handwritten into a log by a clerk.

But it all works, said E. Parajasingam, the Tigers' minister of the judiciary, who boasted that even people who live outside rebel-controlled areas bring their cases here to avoid the long waits at government-run courts.

While the rebel group is eager to show off its civic accomplishments, it cannot escape the fact that it has been unable to muster the resources needed to modernize the infrastructure in the northeast. Electricity and modern telecommunications are in short and erratic supply in and around Kilinochchi, and most houses and shops are unpainted and derelict. Unemployment is about 20 percent, more than double the national figure.

Saravanamuttu said that despite the Tigers' attempts to present their government as ''a putative state," it remains dependent on Sri Lankan authorities for such things as education and health services. The rebels control only about 65 percent of traditional Tamil lands. The two principal Tamil cities, Jaffna in the north and Trincomalee in the east, remain under government control.

For their part, government leaders say they now recognize that Sri Lanka needs a ''political framework that allows devolution of power to the [northeast] and sharing of power at the center," said Peiris, the president's spokesman. More significantly, key Sri Lankan leaders also recognize that many of the core issues that motivated the rebel movement -- anger over government-sponsored violence against civilians and discrimination over schools and jobs -- were valid.

''In July last year, the president issued a national apology to Tamils for the ethnic violence they've suffered, and compensation has been paid" to people with complaints, Peiris said. ''Clearly, we have learned the lessons of history. Now we have to see if that's enough for us to move forward."