By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : Sri Lanka said Friday that Norway will continue to be part of the peace process but its role will have to be “re-defined” following the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) Oslo helped draft in 2002.
“The end of the CFA does not mean an end to Norwegian facilitation,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters after the government unilaterally abrogated the agreement Wednesday.
“Under the CFA, Norway had a structured role. But in the post-CFA period, it will have to have a different role. The role has to be re-defined,” he said.
Bogollagama pointed out that Norway’s role as facilitator had predated the CFA. “Norway had come in as a facilitator in the year 2000,” he recalled.
The Sri Lankan minister said that the demise of the CFA signed in February 2002 by then prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran did not mean the end of the peace process. Many countries might get involved in that process from now, he said.
A CFA was not necessary for peace talks to take place, he argued. He recalled that several times in the past peace talks with the Tamil Tigers and other militants had been held without a ceasefire agreement in place.
“The abrogation of the 2002 CFA, which was fundamentally flawed, actually creates space for a more inclusive peace process which will guarantee sustainable peace in the country,” Bogollagama said.
Political groups other than the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would be able to participate and many countries wishing to help Sri Lanka might join in, he said.
The minister said that the CFA, which he claimed was drafted in secrecy by the Wickremesinghe government, was tilted in favour of the LTTE and had seriously injured the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
That was the reason for jettisoning it, not a partisan political motive as propagated by certain opposition parties, he asserted.
Bogollagama said that the Sri Lankan government was still in favour of talks with the LTTE with foreign facilitation, but the guiding principle from now on would be the maintenance of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“At all times, the writ of the government of Sri Lanka should run in all parts of the island,” he emphasized.