US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO2179

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 002179 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR D, SA, SA/INS, EUR/NB, EAP/J, INR/NESA 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC 
 
E.O. 12958:  DECL:  12-24-13 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINS, CE, NO, JA, EU, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  In meeting with the Ambassador and other local 
envoys, PM urges that Tokyo co-chairs meet at high-level 
 
Refs:  (A) Colombo - SA/INS 12/24/03 class e-mail 
 
-      (B) Colombo 2160 
-      (C) Colombo 2119, and previous 
 
(U) Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead. 
Reasons 1.5 (b, d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  The Ambassador joined other local 
co-chairs of the Tokyo process in a meeting called by 
the Prime Minister late December 23.  The PM 
expressed his concerns about an official gazette 
notification recently approved by the President that 
re-arranged responsibilities among the three 
ministries she took over in early November (Defense, 
Interior, Mass Communications -- the President also 
renamed the latter two ministries).  The PM wondered 
whether the President's action signaled her view that 
there was no use for further cohabitation talks and 
he urged the co-chairs to hold a high-level meeting 
outside of Sri Lanka soon to put pressure on her. 
When asked about the notification, presidential 
advisers insisted that no political message was meant 
and that the President still supports cohabitation 
talks.  We are not sure whether a high-level meeting 
would be wise or practical at this time.  In the 
near-term, as reviewed in Refs B-C, we think that the 
proposed separate letters to the two principals from 
the Secretary, followed by a statement issued by 
Colombo Chiefs of Mission co-chairs in early January, 
could play a useful role.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Gazette Notice on Ministries 
---------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) Ambassador Lunstead joined other co-chairs of 
the Tokyo process (Japan, Norway, Italy/EU) in a 
meeting called by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe 
late December 23.  Minister Milinda Moragoda, a close 
confidant of the PM, was also present.  At the start 
of the meeting, the PM handed out an official gazette 
notification issued in the name of President 
Kumaratunga dated December 19.  He said he had just 
received a copy of the document earlier in the day 
and had not been briefed on it by the President. 
(Until the PM handed it out, none of the co-chairs 
had yet seen it either.  The notice, the text of 
which is contained in Ref A, received front-page 
coverage in the local press on December 24.)  The PM 
remarked that he was very surprised by the notice's 
contents, which were confusing to him.  The notice, 
for example, announced the formation of a new 
ministerial position called "Minister of Internal 
Security" (formerly "Interior") which would be 
responsible for police functions alone.  (The name 
"Internal Security Minister" has not been used in Sri 
Lanka before.)  In addition, the Defense Minister 
spot had folded into it new responsibilities such as 
prisons, the census, and immigration/emigration.  The 
folding of such departments into Defense did not make 
much sense to him, the PM remarked.  (Mission also 
noticed that the former "Minister of Mass 
Communications" position had been renamed "Minister 
of Information and Telecommunications."  FYI:  All 
three ministerial positions -- Defense, Internal 
Security, and Information/Telecommunications -- 
remain in the President's hands.) 
 
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PM Urges a High-Level Meeting of Co-Chairs 
------------------------------------------ 
 
3.  (C) The PM said he was not sure exactly what the 
President was trying to accomplish by issuing the 
gazette notification.  He wondered whether it was a 
shot across his bow, i.e., a message that the 
cohabitation talks were not working and that she 
planned to take more steps without consulting the PM 
from now on.  He noted that the talks in any case 
were not going well and he doubted they would 
succeed.  (The "committee" talks are technically on 
hold, as Mano Tittawella and Malik Samarawickrama, 
the President's and PM's chief delegates to the 
talks, respectively, are on holiday.)  The PM noted 
that the two sides remain at loggerheads over how to 
deal with the Defense Ministry.  The President wants 
to keep the ministerial title, but has offered to 
give some functions related to the peace process to 
the PM.  He regards this as unworkable.  The PM said 
it remained his firm view that control of military 
functions had to be returned to his government, or 
the GSL could not successfully move forward with the 
peace process.  However, the President could "keep 
the nameplate," he said.  Queried as to whether 
elections were more likely now, the PM said that as 
far as he understood the President did not want 
elections.  (Under the Sri Lankan Constitution, only 
the President can dissolve Parliament and call 
elections.) 
 
4.  (C) Given the ongoing impasse, and concerns over 
the new gazette notification, the PM requested that 
the co-chairs convene a high-level meeting to take 
place soon outside of Sri Lanka.  The express purpose 
of the meeting would be to pressure the President to 
negotiate and to resolve the crisis, the PM said.  In 
response, Japanese Ambassador Akio Suda was negative 
about the idea.  He said he would review the matter 
with Tokyo, but the GSL should consider whether it 
really wanted to send a message to the rest of the 
international community that "it could not solve its 
own problems."   Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar 
was more supportive of the idea.  (Per Ref B, Norway 
has previously expressed interest in having a high- 
level meeting at some point in the January/February 
timeframe to discuss how to handle development and 
humanitarian assistance in light of the ongoing 
impasse.)  The PM noted that he planned to be out of 
Colombo from December 26-30, and suggested that there 
be another chat with the co-chairs on December 31. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
President's Aides:  "We Support Cohabitation Talks" 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
5.  (C) On December 24, Mission spoke with aides to 
President Kumaratunga and discussed the gazette 
notification.  Harim Peiris, one of the President's 
press spokesmen, told us that she was not aiming to send 
any political signal by issuing the notice -- "It was 
merely an administrative act and nothing else."  When 
queried about the timing, he replied that the gazette 
notification had been planned for some time and when the 
formalities were completed, it was issued.  Peiris said 
the President still supported the cohabitation talks and 
wanted to see them succeed.  She hoped that the 
Tittawella/Samarawickrama committee could meet soon 
after the end of the holiday season.  In a separate 
conversation, Eric Fernando, another close assistant to 
the President, mirrored Peiris' comments, stressing that 
the President still supported efforts to end the 
cohabitation crisis amicably. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
6.  (C) We are not sure whether the high-level meeting 
idea proposed by the PM would be wise or practical at 
this time.  (This is probably what Moragoda will raise 
with the Deputy Secretary in Washington on Monday.)  The 
PM seems to think that a high-level meeting of the co- 
chairs would necessarily redound to his benefit.  That 
might well not be the case, however, as any statement by 
the co-chairs would have to be roughly equivalent in 
nature, or it probably would exacerbate the cohabitation 
dispute and not help resolve it.  (FYI:  We do not see 
the President's gazette notification as the casus belli 
the PM believes it is.  That said, its timing was 
unfortunate, as it shows a certain lack of good faith on 
the President's part and some parts of it, like putting 
prisons and immigration under Defense, are odd.)  In the 
near-term, as reviewed in Refs B-C, we continue to think 
that the proposed separate letters to the two principals 
from the Secretary, followed by a statement issued by 
the Colombo Chiefs of Mission co-chairs in early 
January, could play a useful role.  END COMMENT. 
 
7.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
LUNSTEAD