Value Of Indian And South African Support To Resolve Problems
By Jehan Perera -November 4, 2013
Jehan Perera
The invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Sri Lanka that was issued by Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran, has shown the positive side of the current reconciliation process in the country. The first weeks of the new born provincial council have been marked by expressions of goodwill at the highest levels, most notably between PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa and Chief Minister Wigneswaran. There was no better an example of goodwill at this time than the invitation extended by the Chief Minister to the Indian Prime Minister to visit Jaffna and therefore Sri Lanka. The invitation came at a time when the Indian state of Tamil Nadu had passed a unanimous resolution in its legislature calling for an Indian boycott of CHOGM. Chief Minister Wigneswaran’s invitation to visit Jaffna has given the Indian Prime Minister another legitimate reason come to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Chief Minister Wigneswaran has come in for criticism by those who have been campaigning for an international boycott of CHOGM. He has himself being complaining of blockages in his provincial administration due to restrictive practices of the central authorities continuing even after the elections. But his willingness to think of the larger interests at stake for the Tamil people who elected him is to be appreciated. It is also clear that the wellbeing of the Tamll people in the North will be best assured if there is cooperation between the Northern Provincial Council and the Sri Lankan government. However, there are other sections that are more focused on issues of human rights and war-time accountability. They have been campaigning hard to prevent the Commonwealth Summit being held in Sri Lanka and against Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa from taking on the Chairmanship of the Commonwealth after CHOGM.
The challenge in Sri Lanka is for the government to be able to show its detractors that it is serious about tackling the problems of human rights and accountability that accompanied the war. The most recentChannel 4 video which shows the fate of an LTTE newscaster in the last phase of the war is an indication of the seriousness of a problem that refuses to go away. This is where the government’s relationship with South Africa has become important. The South African example of reconciliation is today entrenched in the consciousness of the international community as a great success and a beacon of hope to other countries in conflict. It may not have been a coincidence that the first Sri Lanka-South Africa Joint Dialogue on Post-Conflict Reconciliation took place a fortnight ago in the final run-up to the Commonwealth Summit. The government’s partnership with South Africa in this event would go a considerable part of the way to win over many Commonwealth countries to support the Sri Lankan government’s position.
