Working on Peace can Mean Getting Attacked by Hardliners on Both Sides

Bob Rae’s expulsion from Sri Lanka is a reminder of how a peace process that seemed so promising when it started seven years ago, went so wrong.

In 2002 the Sri Lankan government lifted the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as part of a comprehensive peace process. Violence, for the most part, ceased. Trade and commerce between the predominantly Tamil North and East and the rest of Sri Lanka could resume and security restrictions imposed on all Sri Lankans were relaxed.

Canada was deeply involved in the peace process largely through the work of the Canadian-based international network on federalism, the Forum of Federations.
The Forum provided information and counsel on how some sort of federal arrangement might be able to square the circle for Sri Lankans. A federal arrangement could afford a significant measure of autonomy to the Tamils, while maintaining the unity of the country.

Canada provided one model of a federal system that peacefully and democratically accommodates diversity. Other models included Switzerland, Spain (despite its ongoing difficulties with Basque extremists), and Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour, India.
Mr. Rae was deeply involved in that work, both as Chair and acting President of the Forum, and as one of the experts who worked on the ground in Sri Lanka and at the various venues, in Europe and Asia, where the negotiations took place.

As the Forum’s Director of Public Information at the time I had a ring-side seat to this effort. It is remarkable now to remember how courteous and relaxed the main negotiators for both sides were with each other. The Sri Lankan Minister leading the Government team, G.L. Peiris, would casually address his Tamil counterpart, Anton Balasingham, by his first name, and one almost had the impression that they were old friends. There seemed to be a genuine willingness on both sides to come to a political solution that would reinvent a country torn by more than two decades of civil war.

Now. the Sri Lankan government accuses people such as Bob Rae of being LTTE sympathizers. That’s ironic because during the peace process the Forum got much more criticism from LTTE supporters and sympathizers, especially here in Canada, than from those on the Sri Lankan government’s side. This happened because Forum experts, especially Mr. Rae, did not shy away from vigorously criticizing the LTTE and its leadership. In public and private statements, Bob Rae and others were blunt in pointing out to the Tamils that a meaningful federal solution would require major compromises on their side as well as on the government’s.

The Forum’s experts repeatedly argued to the Tamils that federalism and democracy go hand in hand. While a federal solution would require that the Sri Lankan government accept devolution of power to other orders of government, it would also mean the LTTE would have to change. It could not expect to rule any newly created Tamil territory as a one-party, authoritarian state. The LTTE would have to embrace multi-party democracy; a respect for diversity, plurality and minority rights; the constitutional rule of law; and democratic principles such as freedom of speech and assembly. In addition – and Bob Rae was particularly insistent on this point – it would have to stop recruiting child soldiers and intimidating members of minority ethnic groups and Tamils who did not share their political views.

These words-to-the-wise were not always well-received. Especially in Canada, LTTE supporters were quick to attack any criticism of their movement and its leadership, through web sites and more direct means.

I recall a letter the Forum received from an elderly lady purporting to speak on behalf of a Tamil seniors’ organization. The letter took a very hostile and accusatory tone toward the Forum and Mr. Rae personally and said, in essence: “How dare you criticize the LTTE. The only bad guys here are the Sri Lankan government.” When I called the person who signed the letter, she was flustered, did not seem aware of its contents, and admitted that it had been written by others in the Tamil community who asked her to sign it.

There were those on the majority Sinhalese side who were also suspicious of our efforts. I had the chance to lead a speakers’ tour through Sri Lanka of journalists from a number of federal countries (including Canada’s Graham Fraser, then with the Toronto Star), where we showed a documentary film on accommodating diversity through federalism and held public question and answer sessions. The questions from Sinhalese participants – especially older men – were often quite pointed and sometimes verged on the hostile. They tended to see a federal solution as the thin edge of the wedge, a step to Tamil secession. When we managed to get younger and female participants to speak, we found attitudes that were much more open and flexible.

Looking back, now, the peace process seems like a golden opportunity that was lost. The hardliners on both sides probably always wanted to use the process more to gain advantage for themselves than to forge a genuine compromise. In the end they, and not the moderates, prevailed.

But Bob Rae and the others who tried to facilitate the process were hardly partisans for one side or the other. They tried to tell it like it is, and got bitten by both sides for their efforts.

Karl Nerenberg k_nerenberg@yahoo.ca