COLOMBO, 29 August 2005 — Last week’s court ruling ending President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s controversial 11-year reign and clearing the way for a vote before Nov. 21 will give the island’s battered peace process a critical boost, analysts and officials say.
Political infighting and a series of assassinations have all but crippled efforts to end decades of conflict between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels that worsened under Chandrika’s presidency.
Chandrika came to power promising peace, opened talks with Tamil Tiger rebels and then unleashed the government’s biggest-ever military campaign against the guerrillas.
But a stunning Supreme Court ruling effectively ousting Chandrika in December has raised the hopes of less hawkish politicians for a leader who can engage, rather than confront the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
“We must have a negotiated settlement to the problem,” said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, a moderate who has been tipped as a possible successor to Chandrika.
Former Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose government was sacked by Chandrika in 2004 for being too soft on the rebels, is widely seen as another potential challenger.
“What we said all along is that we need a change of leadership to save the peace process, to take it forward,” opposition legislator Rajitha Senaratne told AFP. “We now have that opportunity and this is a good thing.”
Wickremesinghe’s peace efforts resulted in a 2002 truce with the rebels, and he maintains that engaging the LTTE and granting greater autonomy to minority Tamils is the best solution to ending three decades of ethnic conflict that have left over 60,000 dead.
Concerns for the cease-fire followed the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by suspected Tamil rebels on Aug. 12 which led Chandrika to declare a state of emergency.
The LTTE have denied any role in the murder of Kadirgamar, an outspoken critic of the LTTE, and said Sunday that a state of emergency imposed after his death should be lifted.
“If the state of emergency is to continue for long ... one foresees a tragic situation in which even direct talks may not be of any use,” said the LTTE’s official publication, the Viduthalaippuligal, or Liberation Tiger.
“It is therefore the yearning of all peace-loving people that emergency should be lifted, and lifted immediately.”
Sri Lanka’s peace broker Norway is currently talking to the government and the rebels to arrange a face-to-face meeting to review a cease-fire truce in place since Feb. 23, 2002.
“The next few months will be crucial to maintain the cease-fire,” said Sunanda Deshapriya, director of the Center for Policy Alternatives think-tank.
“A president elected for a six-year term with a new mandate should be able to end the stalemate in the peace process.”
The Tigers suspended participation in peace talks in April 2003 after six rounds of negotiations. Diplomatic efforts to revive the negotiations remain inconclusive.
Diplomatic sources close to the Norwegian-led peace initiative said while they had not expected face-to-face peace talks between the two sides to resume anytime soon, ending political instability was seen as a positive development.
Political parties in Colombo had been embroiled in a bitter debate over when Chandrika’s term would end.
Presidents can only serve two consecutive six-year terms under the Sri Lankan Constitution, but Chandrika had argued that because she served just five years during her first term, she was entitled to extend her second term by a year.
However, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that her second term ends in December.
