When your enemy extends a hand, grab it," advised Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 during an Oxford lecture on 'Politics and Diplomacy in South Asia'. That message made a deep impression on Tyronne Fernando, then a student and now Sri Lanka's foreign minister. Quoting Nehru further, he explains: "If the extended hand is a gesture of friendship, then the two enemies can build a bridge of understanding and can together climb out of the mess they are in. But if it's malafide and it's a hand of enmity that is being stretched, it is still wise to grab it because you have one hand of your enemy's in your grip."
Fernando was quoting Nehru in an exclusive interview to describe the situation his government finds itself in with the LTTE. Whatever the outcome, it's better to be "engaged" with your enemy. It's still a long way to go, but both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers have come some way along the slippery path to reconciliation—both no longer see the other as the "enemy". But they were in the past and they still could be in the future. The only way to ensure that the future does not repeat the past is to hold at least one hand. After all, a lot more damage can be inflicted if both hands are free to fight.
However negative this may sound, it's still positive in the Sri Lankan context. In the past when talks floundered, war resumed almost immediately and automatically. Like, when the Indo-Lanka peace accord collapsed in October 1987, war followed, as it did in 1990 and again in 1995. Last time around, the Tigers suspended peace talks, but the ceasefire still holds. Given Lanka's tragic history, this in itself is cause for cheer.
Nobody discounts the daunting challenges that need to be surmounted if there is to be peace and stability in the island. But that's no reason to be diffident, defeatist or dismissive. One must keep struggling for peace, simply because there is no other choice. War is not an option. It's an option that has been tried, tested...but it has failed not once, but several times in the past. This is an unwinnable war that can be conquered only through peace. But both sides must compromise, make sacrifices, move from entrenched positions.
Fernando feels the clock is ticking. "This is our last chance for peace," he says. Over the last 20 years, every Sri Lankan foreign minister has said that. But Fernando curbs the cynicism. As he says, "My generation has to solve this problem. I may not agree with Balasingham (LTTE's chief negotiator), but I can at least talk to him. The next generation of Tamil and Sinhalese will not even be able to talk to each other. They are estranged. They don't speak a common language. They have only known the language of war."
This is true and and much more frightening for that. So blessed are the peacemakers. Their challenge now is to reactivate the stalled peace talks. "The only way to do that is by restoring the ebbing communication and confidence between the government and the LTTE," admits Fernando.
In its latest salvo, the LTTE says it'd rather talk to the international community than to the Lankan government (which it doesn't trust). This is the same LTTE which had earlier accused the international community of "interfering" in their affairs—a reaction to the US threat that Tigers would be "hunted down" if they didn't play ball. Be that as it may, the fact is that at the end of the day the LTTE has to strike a deal only with the Sri Lankan government.
Besides, the international community is not a monolithic entity. It ranges from countries like Norway, Canada, Austria and Japan actively committed to peace-building in Sri Lanka, to hardliners on LTTE and terrorism like America and Britain, to India that presides over—albeit unobtrusively—with a kaleidoscope of ideas, views and interests.Even with a peace settlement there is, for instance, the question of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran's legal status. He is a wanted man in India for the assassination of late prime minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi.
These are precisely the range of prickly issues that make the Lankan government want to keep India in the loop. Sri Lanka PM Ranil Wickremasinghe has kept in close contact with not only Vajpayee and Advani, but Sonia Gandhi too. And she has supported the peace process. Besides, the Sri Lankan government has also consulted the family of slain president Premadasa and minister Gamini Dissanayake, both assassinated by LTTE suicide bombers. They all agree this conflict has already claimed too many lives. The effort now must be to prevent more deaths.
Strangely, pressure for peace can come from the unlikeliest sources. Fernando believes that Prabhakaran may be pressured into peace by no less a person than his own son, Charles Antony. He refers to a conversation Sri Lanka's Muslim minister Rauf Hakim had with Prabhakaran recently when the LTTE supremo said he "cannot escape" his 18-year-old son who is sick of growing up in the jungles. Prabhakaran's own son is part of Sri Lanka's youth that has known only war—a point that cut like a knife as Sri Lanka marked the 20th anniversary of its ethnic conflict last week. It would be the emerald isle's greatest triumph if the next generation coerced the older one into peace. There is a whole world out there that belongs to Sri Lanka's youth. For too long, the current generation has denied their children the peace and freedom to enjoy, which is their birthright. For the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, the time has come to seize both hands in a genuine effort to bring in peace. And as for Nehru's advice on grasping the extended hand, one can only hope India and Pakistan will also take heed.