McGuinness urges peace in Sri Lanka
Martin McGuinness today urged the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels to prevent the island nation from slipping back to full-scale civil war, his party said.
McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Féin, is a former leader of the IRA, which fought for decades to end British rule in Northern Ireland before giving up its weapons in July 2005 as part of a peace deal.
His meeting with Tiger political leader S.P Thamilselvan in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi comes as Sri Lanka’s four-year-old peace process stands on the verge of collapse amid escalating violence that has killed more than 700 people since December.
“My core message was that both sides need to act decisively to prevent the downward spiral into all out conflict,” Sinn Féin quoted McGuinness as saying in a statement issued in Ireland.
“The reality is that, just as in Ireland, there can be no military victory and that the only alternative to endless conflict is dialogue, negotiations and accommodation,” he said.
McGuinness said the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, or LTTE, could benefit from the lessons learned in Northern Ireland’s peace process.
“I am very keen to share my experiences as one of the leaders of the Sinn Féin movement in Ireland, not just with the leaders of the LTTE, but also with Sri Lanka,” the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site quoted McGuinness as saying.
McGuinness, meanwhile, criticised the European Union for recently banning the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organisation.
He called the decision a “huge mistake ... to demonise the LTTE and the political leaders of the Tamil people,” TamilNet reported.
The Tamil Tiger rebels began fighting the government in 1983 to create a separate homeland for the country’s ethnic minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination.
More than 65,000 people were killed before a Norway-brokered cease-fire was signed in 2002. Both sides accuse the other of being behind the recent spike in violence that threatens the truce, but each denies it.
McGuinness’ visit, which was unannounced, was approved by the Sri Lankan government, which provided him a military helicopter to visit rebel territory.
