Convention

A Peace Delegates Convention in Colombo on 4 January, organised by the National Peace Council rejected government’s “peace through war” strategy, calling for commitment on the part of the LTTE and the government to establish appropriate structures and mechanisms to achieve lasting peace through negotiations. The 1,700 delegates, from all communities, urged the parties to honour international humanitarian law and stressed the importance of parity and dignity in negotiations. In her goodwill message, President Chandrika Kumaratunge pledged that the government would do everything possible to achieve a political solution, while the LTTE welcomed the Convention resolution recognising the right of all nationalities to determine their own destiny as the basis for honourable peace. The delegates, mindful of the economic and social costs of the war, emphasised the need for urgency in finding a solution.

A study titled Cost of the war by Colombo-based Marga Institute launched at the Convention says the war expenditure for both the government and the LTTE between 1983 and 1996 amounted to Rs 228 billion ($3.8 billion). Internally displaced persons rose from 524,000 in 1994 to over 1 million in 1996 with an annual cost of welfare at Rs 3 billion ($50 million). In August 1997 the number of refugees were 785,000 of which 75,000 were under the age of five. Repair of damage to different sectors such as agriculture and housing will cost around Rs 60 billion ($1 billion). The study says the heightening of security, the emergency and the continuing exigencies of war impose restrictions on people’s human rights and violate the privacy of their homes - conditions to which the Tamil people are by far the most vulnerable.

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