The Sri Lankan government media has given banner headlines to a peace initiative by religious leaders who are expected to travel to the LTTE-controlled Wanni in the near future 'to explore the possibility of putting back the derailed peace process back on track.' The emphasis would be on resuming the peace talks and preventing clashes between the security forces and the LTTE. This latest resolve for peace follows a meeting between Catholic religious leaders who met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the prospect of the sacred Madhu shrine in Mannar being declared a zone of peace.

The Catholic initiative is being led by the Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, who has considerable experience in the field of shuttle diplomacy, having been an unofficial facilitator between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the LTTE leadership together with Malcolm Ranjith, the former Bishop of Ratnapura who is presently holding high office in the Vatican, in the period 1998 to 2001, up to the time of the Norwegian entry into the Sri Lankan peace process.

The Madhu shrine obtained a name for itself in the 17th century when the Catholics who were being persecuted by the Dutch colonial administration fled to Madhu along with a statue of the Virgin Mary which they believed saved them. Madhu today lies in the fastness of thick Wanni jungles which have for long been the stronghold of the LTTE. The LTTE has situated its long distance artillery guns in proximity to the shrine, as the presence of the shrine serves to deter counter strikes by the Sri Lankan military.

Another important feature of the Madhu shrine is that it serves as a refuge to those who flee the war zones of the north. From 1990 onwards the precincts of the Madhu Shrine have become a refuge to those fleeing from military confrontations between the government security forces and the LTTE. It functioned as an Open Relief Centre under the international mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) housing over 30,000 persons in the height of displacement of civilians in the early 1990s. It has remained an unofficial 'Zone of Peace' except for a brief period between April and November 1999 when the Sri Lankan army entered the area.

Endangered shrine

Today, once again, the inviolability of the Madhu shrine is in doubt. The LTTE have not spared the people in all parts that they control from being forced to contribute men and women, boys and girls, to swell the ranks of their cadre. In addition, there is the government's oft proclaimed intention of re-taking the entirety of the north from the LTTE. The government recently re-took the Silavaturai area of Mannar south of Madhu, following its successful re-taking of the entirety of the Eastern Province from the LTTE. The expectation that there could be a full-scale battle for control of the north poses a threat to the safety of the Madhu shrine.

The apprehension on the part of the Catholic Church is that any full-scale governmental attack on the LTTE's positions in the vicinity of the Madhu shrine will lead to the destruction of the shrine. There is an incident from the past that gives credence to such a fear. On November 20, 1999, thirty-eight civilians taking refuge in the Madhu Shrine to escape the fighting were killed by a surprise mortar attack. The dead included 13 children and 57 persons were wounded. There was fighting around the church and it is unclear who was responsible for the shell attack. The LTTE and the army blamed each other. The military said that the church was targeted because there were 300 Sri Lankan soldiers at the time in the church premises. The LTTE in turn accused the army of using civilians in Madhu as human shield. The Sri Lankan soldiers in the church premises left the area the next day on orders from President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Ever ready

From the latest headlines in the government media it appears that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is ready to grasp at the latest opportunity that would create a public impression of himself and his government as potential peace makers. The president is always prepared to say that he wishes to have peace talks with the LTTE and that a political solution is necessary to end the ethnic conflict. On the other hand, during the presidential election campaign of November 2005, President Rajapaksa and his campaign speakers spoke in vehement opposition to the peace process, to a federal solution and to the prevailing Ceasefire Agreement. But at the same time the president went public with the dramatic announcement that he would solve the problem by having face-to-face talks with LTTE leader Pirapaharan.

The problem with any peace initiative at the present time is the absence of ground work, or evident readiness on the part of the government to engage in the fundamental political reforms that would make such peace talks meaningful. Under President Rajapaksa the government has little or no track record of proposing a viable political solution. Ironically, the worst example has been the functioning of the All-Party Conference that the president summoned to work out a political solution to the ethnic conflict. When the Chairman Prof Tissa Vitharana proposed a political package based on the findings of an Expert Committee established by the president, the president not only overruled them all, but offered a diluted alternative that is only acceptable to nationalist Sinhalese parties.

The problem that the government seems reluctant to grasp is that peace talks and peace itself cannot be sustained in a political vacuum. One of the lessons of the failed peace process of 2002-05 is that peace talks and a ceasefire by themselves cannot sustain peace on the ground. Peace talks and a ceasefire can only be a means to an end, and not be ends in themselves, if lasting peace is to be the outcome. Peace talks and a ceasefire need to be supported by a series of political reforms and power sharing arrangements if they are to be sustainable. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka appears to be far from such a scenario under the present government leadership.

Today, nothing more is heard about progress in the deliberations of the All-Party Representatives Committee which was mandated to find a political solution to the ethnic conflict. Instead it was recently reported that this body was going into hibernation in view of the forthcoming debate on the budget, and the political manoeuvres that would be associated with the make or break vote on the passage of the budget. But without a political solution in the making, little or no progress can be expected by having peace talks. The option that is left is to continue with the present military campaign, the high costs of which are evident in the recent LTTE attack on the Anuradhapura air force base.

High cost

The LTTE's ground and air attack on the Anuradhapura Air Force base and destruction and damage caused, of anywhere between 8 aircraft as admitted by the government and a much bigger number as alleged by independent analysts, a large part of the infrastructure and air defence systems costing billions of rupees, and the loss of over 35 lives is a harsh reminder of the terrible costs of war. Apart from the human cost, the economic cost of the attack will mean further and longer impoverishment of the country and its people.

If this state of affairs continues, the human and economic costs are likely rise to unbearable proportions and civilised values will further collapse. The manner in which the LTTE sent in 21 suicide cadre to perform the ground attack, and the manner in which their naked bodies were exposed by government authorities after the attack, were manifestations of the disregard for human life and breakdown of civilised norms that is accompanying the conflict.

The attack on the Anuradhapura Air Force base is also an indication that the theatre of military action cannot be confined to the contested north and east of the country. This has been seen in previous instances as well, such as the LTTE attack on Katunayake International Airport in 2001 and numerous bomb attacks in Colombo. The government's victories in the east have been accompanied by the spread of fighting in the north and outside of it in the south. It is tragic that history is repeating itself with catastrophic consequences to the lives of people and to the economy, but the military and political leaders of the country fail to learn from the past.

The proposed peace mission of the religious leaders is a positive initiative and needs to be welcomed and supported. But if the government is sincere about peace it needs to do more than giving mere verbal and logistical encouragement to such peace visits. The government needs to work in a concrete manner with the religious leaders to improve the humanitarian and human rights situation in the country, which has presently brought the country unfavourably into the international spotlight as one of the world's worst offenders. The government also needs to learn from international experience and Sri Lanka's own past and provide bold leadership to the All-Party Representatives Committee to develop a political solution to the ethnic conflict as the basic foundation to ending the war.

Jehan Perera is media director of the National Peace Council in Colombo, Sri Lanka.