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US think tank moots confederal Sri Lanka
Deccan Herald (PTI) - 2 June 2000
Well-known US-based think tank, 'South Asia Monitor` has suggested a confederal Sri Lanka as a way out to bring peace to the island in the ongoing crisis.
''Resolving the problem will require a much more radical approach to power sharing. This will be very hard to sell to both the Sinhalese political mainstream and the LTTE but it will only get harder with time,`` 'South Asia Monitor`, issued by the South Asia programme at the Centre for strategic and international studies, said.
The LTTE`s arrival at the gates of Jaffna, says the Monitor, is an extraordinary accomplishment, an astonishing victory which calls for new thinking.
The 1995 proposals, it notes, called for greater devolution of power within a structure closely resembling the present Sri Lankan provincial arrangement. These proposals could have been a good starting point when they were first launched.
Under present circumstances, however, there is no chance of engaging the LTTE on that basis. The only chance would be in a much more radical approach to power sharing, such as a loose confederal structure, with some kind of explicit recognition of Tamils as a collective group within it and with stronger guarantees of their inclusion in power at the national level. |
