The UNP considers the Oslo Declaration as the basis for resumption of the proposed Norway-facilitated negotiations with the LTTE.
UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake yesterday said LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham’s statement in his new book that the LTTE had not reached a specific agreement in Oslo, would not result a change in the UNP’s stand. The agreement was the base for many claims of the Tigers’ abandonment of the right to secession.
Attanayake who is also a member of the party’s political affairs committee said, "We firmly believe the talks should resume on the basis of the Oslo Declaration and the LTTE’s ISGA proposals. President Chandrika Kumaratunga agrees with our stand. There is a consensus between the UNP and the president."
Responding to questions, he emphasised that the UNP would go by a statement issued by the Norwegian government at the end of the third session of the negotiations in Oslo on December 5, 2002.
The statement said, "the parties agreed to a proposal by the LTTE leadership to explore a solution based on the principle of internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of Tamil speaking people, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka."
"This is the position of the international community," Attanayake said, while expressing the belief that the Oslo Declaration would remain in force unless the Norwegian government says otherwise. He expressed confidence that the Oslo Declaration would be the basis for any future face-to-face ‘contact’ between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.
Although Attanayake sounded confident about the Oslo Declaration, his colleagues wanted the top party leadership to raise the issue with the Norwegians and the LTTE. "We should not ignore Balasingham’s statement. He would not have dismissed the Oslo agreement without Prabhakaran’s approval," an MP said, acknowledging the fact that Balasingham’s statement undermined the UNP. "It paved the way for the JVP and nationalist groups to target us," he said.
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva on Thursday rapped UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe for misleading the country. He endorsed Balasingham’s claim while asserting that there was only a secret agreement between the UNP and the LTTE under which the latter would help Wickremesinghe to win the forthcoming presidential election.
He rapped the top UNP leadership for trying to lead the UPFA government into the LTTE’s trap by demanding the revival of talks on the basis of a non-existent Oslo Declaration.
Attanayake said he was not surprised that the JVP was trying to take advantage of the situation. The JVP, he said, wanted hostilities to resume and the bloodshed to begin.
In a critical analysis of the peace process in his new book ‘War and Peace,’ Balasingham calls into question the concept of the ‘Oslo Declaration.’
He points out that there was no specific proclamation titled the ‘Oslo Declaration’ on which many claims of the Tigers’ unconditional abandonment of the right to secession—i.e. external self-determination—are based.
Pointing out that their decision to explore a federal solution "has been projected as a major political break through, a ‘paradigm shift’, and has become known as the ‘Oslo Declaration’, with interpretors claiming that the LTTE has abandoned the right to external self-determination and secession." Balasingham states: "I feel it necessary to clarify our position on this controversial issue."
"Firstly, it must be stated that there was not any specific proclamation titled the ‘Oslo Declaration’. The decision to explore federalism was included in the record of decisions at the Oslo talks and signed by the chief negotiators of both delegations and the head of the Norwegian facilitating team."
"Secondly, the decision was made in accordance with the proposal outlined by the LTTE leader in his Heroes’ Day speech. Pirapaharan operates his concepts and categories within the over-all framework of the right to self-determination, with its internal and external aspects," Balasingham writes.
