President Mahinda Rajapaksa met Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, a day after the Holy Father’s second anniversary of his election as the 265th Head of the Catholic Church comprising 1.1 billion people.
President Rajapaksa, who was greeted by the Pope at the Saints Peter and Paul room, was granted a private audience of 20 minutes at the Papal Library in the Vatican Palace.
“In light of the current situation in Sri Lanka, the need to respect human rights and restart the path of dialogue and negotiations was stressed, as the only path to put an end to the violence that has bloodied the island,” a Vatican statement said after the audience.
The papal audience was afforded barely a fortnight after the Pope, in his Easter message to the universal church said, “Sri Lanka’s need of the moment was peace”.
“In Sri Lanka, only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that has caused so much bloodshed,” the Holy Father said singling out Sri Lanka, as the war which resumed in 2006 after a five-year respite has intensified over the past year.
As the visible Head of the Church, the Pope, in his message called on Christians all around the world to work for peace in a world afflicted by a thousand faces of violence. The Pope sees Jesus Christ, in all people dehumanized by war.
Violation of human rights including summary executions by all sides has been the direct fall out of war and the Pope has urged that human rights be respected in Sri Lanka.
While the government admits that nearly 140,000 people have been currently displaced by the war, others place the number of uprooted closer to 200,000.
The message of the invisible Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, both at His birth and after His resurrection was ‘peace to men of good will’ and ‘peace be with you’ respectively. Hence, the Pope’s plea for peace here in Sri Lanka in his Easter message and during the audience with the President on Friday.
“The Catholic Church, which offers a significant contribution to the life of the country, will intensify the delicate commitment to form consciences, with the sole aim of favouring the common good, reconciliation and peace,” the Vatican statement said Friday.
At a subsequent meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisco Bertone, the President made it clear that the problem was not an ethnic or religious conflict but a terrorist problem and the military action currently taken was meant to contain the threat posed by terrorism.
This Wednesday marks the first anniversary since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared war on the Government of Sri Lanka by attempting to assassinate Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka.
This and a series of acts of terrorism like targeting innocent civilians in a bus bomb at Kebethigollewa did not lead to a weak-kneed response by the Government, but instead a series of air raids on LTTE installations. These have led to counter attacks on the military and civilians.
The war proper commenced when the LTTE forcibly closed the sluice gates in Mawil Aru depriving the villagers of water, putting the people in peril. This led to ground attacks in a number of areas mainly in the East displacing a multitude of people.
Buoyed by the military successes in the East, not withstanding the displaced, the government is bent on continuing its offensives in the North. The humanitarian crisis must be resolved speedily lest multiple operations spawn multitudes of displaced.
The military has said the war would take another three years. So, the question that begs an answer is will the displaced continue to be in make shift shelters till then? What if the Government is unable to rout the LTTE and the organisation bounces back as it has done over a quarter century? If the LTTE is defeated will the nationalist forces prevent a reasonable solution to the minorities in the North and the East?
The saving grace is the President, in his meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State, ruled out a military solution adding that the Government was fully committed to a negotiated settlement regarding the rights of minorities. He said the SLFP- the chief constituent party of the government, which he heads- would present its political proposals to the All Party Representative Conference (APRC) shortly.
The ruling party should be magnanimous in its offer and the LTTE should be equally magnanimous in accepting a reasonable solution rather than drag on the conflict.
The question is whether the Government is willing to negotiate with the LTTE which also played games by going all the way to Geneva with an inflexible demand.
The LTTE, days after displaying its airpower at Katunayake, said it was ready for conditional talks. It wants the February 2002 Cease-fire Agreement fully implemented and made the basis for talks.
This pre-condition would amount to the military conceding swathes of territory it wrested control of from the Tigers in the East. This the military will not concede. What is the guarantee that the Tigers would not withdraw from talks as it has done before?
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, who also accompanied the President to the Vatican, promptly accepted the LTTE offer to talk but said the Tigers would be considered a terrorist organisation and dealt with accordingly.
In this backdrop, talks between the head of the government negotiating team Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and facilitator Oslo represented by Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar took place this week. The meeting was ahead of Bratskar’s visit to Kilinochchi next week to meet the head of the LTTE political affairs wing, S.P.Thamilselvan. This development is taking place even as attacks and counter attacks between the warring parties continue unabated.
The miracle of magnanimity by the two warring parties and other stakeholders is needed to end this senseless, endless war. Let us hope that both parties resolve to come back to the negotiation table.