[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1357-E1358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RESOLVING THE CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 22, 1999

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit the following 
article from The Boston Globe on December 4, 1998 for the Record. The 
conflict in Sri Lanka has existed for over 16 years without any 
solution. We must encourage the parties involved to stop the terror and 
to accept a third party mediation to end the war.

               [From the Boston Globe, December 4, 1998]

                    A Chance for Peace in Sri Lanka

       For the first time in four years, there is a glimmer of 
     hope for peace talks to end one of the world's bloodiest 
     conflicts, the war between the government of Sri Lanka and 
     that country's Tamil minority. Terrible suffering on both 
     sides has induced a war-weariness that may become the prelude 
     to peacemaking.
       A call for negotiations last Friday from the leader of the 
     Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam drew a wary but welcoming 
     response from Sri Lanka's main opposition party. ``This is a 
     major move by the Tigers, and it is a very positive one to 
     which the government must respond,'' said the leader of the 
     United National Party. This response is promising because for 
     too long the opposition and the governing People's Alliance 
     of President Chandrika Kumaratunga have competed to appear 
     the more inflexible foe of dialogue with the Tamils.
       Because Washington maintains warm relations with the Sri 
     Lankan government, even providing training and arms sales to 
     its

[[Page E1358]]

     armed forces, and since the Tiger leader Velupillai 
     Prabhakaran called for third-party mediation in his offer of 
     negotiations, the United States could play a crucial role in 
     ending Sri Lanka's long nightmare.
       The State Department has been reluctant to become involved 
     in the conflict because neither side had been willing to 
     accept the premise of a negotiated solution, as the 
     antagonistic parties did for the Oslo accords in the Middle 
     East and the peace talks that George Mitchell guided in 
     Northern Ireland. Even now the State Department does not want 
     to rush ahead of events.
       Nevertheless, Tamil intermediaries are sending exploratory 
     messages to the Tiger leadership asking about the chances for 
     a cease-fire. If the Tigers want to shed their well deserved 
     reputation as incorrigible terrorists, they will accept the 
     idea of a cease-fire. In return, the Chandrika government 
     should agree to withdraw its troops from the northeast 
     province. If these gestures of good will are made by the 
     belligerents, the United States would do well to take on the 
     role of third-party mediator in peace talks.

     

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