The concept of partnership between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) assumes concrete form in the Joint Task Force charged with overlooking the rehabilitation, reconstruction and development of the north and east. The terminology of 'partnership' emerged for the first time during the first round of peace talks in Thailand in September. Those talks saw a major breakthrough when the LTTE virtually renounced its demand for an independent Tamil state. Given such a step forward on the LTTE's part, it seemed fitting that the government should consider the LTTE to be its partner in the raising of international funds for the north and east.
The government's acceptance of the LTTE as a partner marks a paradigm shift in its approach to Tamil militancy and is welcomed by those who have sought an end to the civil war. From the inception of the militant struggle to obtain Tamil rights and independence, the government and the LTTE have seen each other as mortal foes. Even during previous periods of ceasefire and peace talks, the competition between them did not cease, especially the efforts of the government to edge out the LTTE from the sentiments of the Tamil people. The transformation of mortal foes into partners is a remarkable feat in any society at any time.
The terms of reference for the Joint Task Force that appeared in the Daily Mirror at the end of October have not been publicly acknowledged by either party as an official document. It is likely that this is a draft version of the paper that will be finalised at the second round of peace talks in Thailand scheduled to begin on 31 October. Whoever leaked this document probably made a calculated decision – the leak's likely purpose would be to obtain constructive feedback from society. Otherwise, given the nature of the present high-level peace process, civil society, the political opposition and society at large would all be excluded from making constructive inputs into many critical aspects of the peace discussions.
A group of civil society analysts brought together by the Centre for Policy Alternatives to discuss the draft document pertaining to the Joint Task Force had two important observations to make. One was that while the terms reflected many modern ideas of development, including the mainstreaming of the values of human rights and sustainable development, focus on vulnerable groups and called for consultation with civic and NGO groups, it had missed many ground realities. It neglected to address the potential pitfalls in implementation: currently many ministries handle the task of the rehabilitation and reconstruction, and it is likely that they will be unwilling to hand over their mandates to the Joint Task Force for reasons of turf-protection. There will be bureaucratic confusion, which is harmful in itself, and the risk that the LTTE will lose its patience over what it might see as wilful tardiness is real.