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George Iype in Colombo
As the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam go ahead with a series of initiatives to end the island country's 18-year-old ethnic war, the continuation of the peace process now depends on a crucial decision that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must take: whether or not to lift the ban on the Tamil guerrilla force.
During his press conference last week, the LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, had insisted that lifting of the ban would be essential for the organisation to take part in the peace talks with the Sri Lankan government. The talks are scheduled to be held in Thailand in May under Norwegian mediation.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, whose United National Party came to power in December, has welcomed the LTTE chief's historic statement that he is ready for a political settlement to the nearly two-decade old ethnic conflict that has claimed over 65,000 lives and displaced more than 1.5 million people.
But so far, Wickremesinghe has not said whether his government is willing to lift the ban on the LTTE before the May talks.
Many believe the new prime minister -- who rode to power pledging to end the ethnic strife -- has many hurdles in his way. The first and the biggest stumbling block is President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is against Wickremesinghe's peace agreement with the LTTE.
Though Kumaratunga's party lost the elections last year, her term as president continues till 2005.
Janath Tillekaratne, executive editor of The Daily Resume, a feature service, said that Sri Lanka has always been polarised along party lines. "Politics has been one of the major hurdles to peace and a lasting solution to the Tamil ethnic problem," he said.
"Kumaratunga has generally welcomed the peace initiatives by Wickremesinghe. But she has been critical about certain clauses in the cease-fire agreement with the LTTE," he said.
In fact, when Wickremesinghe signed a cease-fire agreement with the LTTE in February, Kumaratunga had lashed out at the prime minister for not seeking her approval and described the truce as an "an undemocratic act."
She later informed the prime minister in writing about her powers as the executive president, head of the government and the cabinet in matters relating to war, state security and sovereignty.
"There is a real tug of war for power between the president and the prime minister. This could spoil the peace process," Tillekaratne added.
Officials point out that to ensure that Kumaratunga does not interfere with the peace initiative, the Wickremesinghe government may come out with a new legislation curtailing her powers.
"But the fear is that Kumaratunga may use her executive powers to dismiss Wickremesinghe if he curtails her presidential privileges," a senior official in the government's public information department said.
He also said that Wickremesinghe has been frequently conferring with the chiefs of the armed forces, an action that has not gone down well with Kumaratunga.
In the event of the ban on LTTE not being lifted, it is certain that Prabhakaran will not agree to the peace talks in Thailand.
Arthur Kullaratna, a senior government official, said Prabhakaran wants to turn the LTTE into a legitimate organisation and the lifting of ban would be the first step in this direction.
LTTE, an outlawed outfit in Sri Lanka, India, the United States of America, Canada and Britain, has been fighting for a separate homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka since 1983.
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