After more than two decades of bloody conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and a few failed attempts at peace, the two parties have finally the signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) brokered by the Norwegian government to bring about an indefinite cessation of hostilities.

The acceptance of the MoU by these two parties means laying the ground for a permanent peace in Sri Lanka, although much remains to be done in the days ahead. While the truce agreement may or may not bring the elusive peace in the country, the positive manner in which the MoU was accepted by both the parties provides some healthy indications that peace might not be that difficult to attain at all.

The MoU signed by the both parties, principally LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran, and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickermesinghe, contains a number of items, meant essentially to lay the preconditions for a more permanent peace in the near future.

The MoU to be supervised by the Norwegian authorities with the assistance of other Nordic countries calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities, recognition of the respective sphere of activities of both the parties by providing a 600-metre separation, and the freedom of combatants to visit relatives, families and friends provided that they obtain permission from their respective commanders.

Crucial victory

The other prong of the MoU concerns itself with laying the ground work for the restoration of normalcy in the country by both parties abstaining from hostile attacks, vacating buildings such as schools, allowance for the passage of non-military goods, facilitating the function of the transport system such as railways and others.

The MoU also provides the Norwegian authorities to set up a monitoring authority to supervise the MoU to ensure that the terms are not violated and to deal with day-to-day problems.

It can be certainly said that the acceptance of the indefinite truce by the warring parties is a remarkable breakthrough facilitated by the Norwegian team. It is the victory of the Sri Lankan United National Party (UNP) in the recent parliamentary elections and the rise of the Wickermesinghe as the prime minister that enabled the government to dilute its hostile stand towards the LTTE, a move that was at odds with the President Chandrika Kumaratuga.

The LTTE on its part, motivated to lessen the suffering of the Tamil people in the north and east, was ever willing to go for peace. In fact, it was the LTTE that set the ball rolling by declaring a one-month cease-fire following the election of the new government and taking the steps to release a number of prisoners as an symbolic act of goodwill.

The present government reciprocated by also declaring a cease-fire and took one more important step by allowing for the movement of goods, food and medicine to Tamil areas in the north and east s finance. There is no other way to revive the economy without going for a permanent peace.

The road to final settlement, it seems, will be extremely rough. As it is, sections of the Sinhalese community, the Buddhist clergy, supporters of the former government, some Tamil groups allied with the former government and others are clearly not interested in peace.

Some of the extreme segments of the Sinhala community are under the impression that peace with Tamils means selling out on the rights and privileges of the community. During the time of the former government, the Buddhist clergy clearly advocated a military solution to crush the Tamil national liberation movement.

Beyond this, trouble is already brewing between Kumartunga and Wickermesinghe. She has accused the latter of not consulting her on the MoU that was signed and has threatened to use her presidential powers to derail the peace process.

Recently there have been protests by some sections of the Sinhala community over the truce. While Wickermesinghe does not accept it will be a smooth road, he is confident that the masses will sooner or later come to accept the necessity for peace.

Meanwhile, his support for the truce has been welcomed by some of the major western countries, a move that seems to have isolated the role of Kumaratunga in determining the contours of national politics in Sri Lanka.

P RAMASAMY is a professor of political economy at the Political Science Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and has academic interests in Malaysian politics and labour. He has written quite extensively and is currently focusing on conflict management in Sri Lanka.