Selected Texts from the 1994-5 Negotiations Process These pages reproduce excerpts from letters, exchanged between representatives of the Sri Lankan government the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). LTTE Headquarters Col. Anuruddha Ratwatte Dear Col. Ratwatte I am pleased to receive your letter dated 7 December 1994. Your letter explains in some detail the position of your government with regard to the peace process and sets out certain specificities on the question of cessation of hostilities and negotiations. We do appreciate the manner in which your government faced and withstood the challenges posed by racist elements to undermine the process of peace negotiations. In spite of the malicious disinformation campaign launched against the LTTE, we are pleased to note that the wider sections of the Sinhala people opted for peace and have given your government an overwhelming mandate to carry forward the process of negotiations and to secure solution to the ethnic conflict by peaceful means. You will appreciate that from the outset, the LTTE has been insisting that the initial stages of the negotiations should give primacy to the immediate and urgent problems faced by our people. In the first round of talks, our delegation has specified these issues, which are mostly creations resulting from the military approach advanced by the previous regime. Though the government delegation pledged 'to alleviate the hardships of daily life presently experienced by the people', no action has been taken so far to redress the grievances of our people. The urgent problems of our people cannot be reduced to 'some reconstruction and repair works'. There are far more pressing problems, which have to be resolved to create genuine conditions of peace and normalization of civilian life in the war torn areas. Even though your government is fully aware of these urgent issues, and has absolute authority to resolve these problems, there seems to be a reluctance to make any positive moves in this direction. We can attribute this to the government's unwillingness to act contrary in any way to the overall strategic interest and designs of the military. This approach of giving primacy to military interests over and above the existential concerns of a civilian population, I wish to point out, will pose serious obstacles when tackling the immediate and urgent issues faced by the Tamil people. This is already evidenced by the reluctance shown in lifting the economic embargo fully, in opening the Sangupitty causeway, in lifting the ban on the fishing zone, etc. I do not wish to elaborate these issues, since these matters will be brought to the negotiating table by our delegation when the second round of talks resumes in the near future. I should emphasise that the day to day problems of our people are of paramount importance and need urgent solutions and should be a prelude to discussions on basic issues underlying the Tamil national conflict. In your letter, you have called for clarifications on certain issues, some of which, you will appreciate, have to be dealt with through direct dialogue. In our earlier communications, we referred to ceasefire to mean total cessation of armed hostilities. Yet, you have explained cessation of hostilities as a process leading to ceasefire or rather, the former should be a prelude to the latter. Without entering into a conceptual debate, we have decided to proceed on the basis of your distinction. The LTTE agrees in principle to a cessation of hostilities. If the government makes an official declaration of a cessation of hostilities for an initial period of two weeks, as you have proposed, the LTTE will reciprocate by observing the same. The modalities and effective implementation of the cessation of hostilities should be discussed and agreed upon at the negotiating table. We have always insisted that a condition of peace should be a prelude to peace negotiations. We are committed to peace and we fervently hope that the process of negotiations will lead to a permanent peace and to the resolution of the ethnic conflict. Thanking you, With kind regards, Yours sincerely, V. Pirabhakaran Leader, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Text as published in the Sunday Leader, Colombo, 5 May 1996
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