Yesterday in this page, we published an article by Rev. Duleep de Chikera of the Diocese of Colombo that advocated Third Party Mediation (TPM) for the resolution of the conflict that has been going on between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE.

Rev. Chikera, as a Christian priest, is eminently qualified to advocate TPM because priests by their very vocation have been third party mediators down the ages. Be it affairs of the heart, conflicts between husband and wife or other conflicts and disputes within their flock, priests are duty bound to become third party mediators. This has been so even in the villages of Sri Lanka where the village monk and the temple have been the guiding and unifying force of the village community. The Buddha himself, it is recorded, has been a third party mediator. TPM advocated by Rev. Chickera is a part of the art (or science?) that is being developed by western academics called conflict resolution. Apart from the intense academic effort that is being carried out on this subject, conflict resolution is nothing new but old wine in new bottles. TPM has long been part and parcel of international diplomacy since time immemorial.

Rev. Chickera points out that protracted conflicts often reach a stage of hardening, that prevents parties to the conflict themselves from initiating conversation. The Sri Lankan conflict has reached that stage of 'hardening' and he advocates TPM to bring about softening of the issue. He says that in conflicts of this nature, there reaches a stage of 'hurting stalemate', whereby parties to the conflict begin to have second thoughts about continuing hostilities. The ability of the negotiator to recognize this stalemate helps the timing, the reverend says.

The basic issue here is whether this stalemate is hurting the LTTE and whether it is genuinely interested in a negotiated settlement. A grave error can be made in identifying the LTTE with other known militant or even terrorist group in contemporary times. The fanaticism of the LTTE with its cyanide cult is unprecedented in post World War II history. When thousands have taken cyanide after being indoctrinated to the objective of achieving a dream of a separate state, can the LTTE settle for anything less such as a regional or provincial council? World War II was positive proof that fanatics do not negotiate for peaceful settlements. The Nazis fought to the last bullet.

So did militarist Japan which gave up only after being attacked with two nuclear bombs. The LTTE did enter into negotiations. Once it did when the Indians forced them and made them agree to the Indo-Lanka Agreement. It took only a few weeks for them to renege. The second time was with President Premadasa when the IPKF was cornering the LTTE and the third occasion was with the PA government. The last two occasions clearly demonstrated that the LTTE had only been playing for time to rearm and regroup while preventing the government from going ahead with military preparations. Rev. Chickera notes that when the Premadasa-LTTE talks and the Chandrika government-LTTE talks were deadlocked, in the absence of a TPM, there was no one to help. What went on in those negotiations is still not very clear. President Premadasa, it appears, had even armed the LTTE. Negotiations with the PA government resulted in the authorities looking the other way as LTTE cadres reinfiltrated the Eastern Province which was cleared at the cost of a great many lives of servicemen and tremendous defence expenditure. Sri Lanka cannot afford to commit the same mistake over and over again.

Can Rev. Chikera assure the country that the LTTE is willing for a negotiated settlement short of a separate state? Probably they will, but only when they see absolute defeat staring in their face.

In the search for TPMs, the reverend scans the horizon and places his trust in South Africa under the black leadership. We are however skeptical about South African mediation because it appears that Rev. Desmond Tutu has been speaking out without studying the problem against Sri Lanka and even the respected Nelson Mandela has been induced by the LTTE lobby to send a message of good wishes to last years conference held in Canberra under the aegis of an LTTE front.

Rev. Chickera proposes a conference encompassing all parties involved and related to the conflict. In our opinion it will produce the usual sounds but very little sense. The better thing for advocates of conflict resolution to do is first to bring together the UNP and SLFP to accept a common position. Such a consensus is justified on the basis of the allegation that each peace effort has been scuttled by one or the other party when in opposition. The other thing to do is to get the LTTE and other Tamil parties to reach a consensus. Rather a difficult thing to do when Prabakaran kills anyone who claims to be a representative of Tamils other than the LTTE. Once such consensus is reached, then only can there be any hope for negotiated settlement with or without TPM.