Foreign Affairs committee  I think Canada does need to be part of a continuing drumbeat of concern and an insistence on the standards that any country should be held to. That should be expressed and communicated by Canada, along with the rest of the world, to Sri Lanka. I don't think it's going to have much impact in the short term.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there's a lesson for Canada in the Norway experience, but it's not a nugget in the peace process itself. The thing that struck and very much impressed me was Norway's commitment of resources of very senior political and administrative talent, and their “stick-to-itiveness”.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think so, yes. There's a policy question, because I take the implication of what you're asking as whether there is something that could be done to prop up or sustain or keep the LTTE as a going concern.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, the basis on which you would want to do that, frankly, is a policy issue, given the character of the organization and its conduct. Certainly, when I was involved in the peace discussions, as I said in my talk, there was no palpable or serious sign of a willingness on their part to engage in pluralistic democratic politics, to respect the opinions of others, or to talk the issues through.

Foreign Affairs committee  If I could just make one further comment, I think the Tamils, not just in Sri Lanka but around the world, are on the cusp of a major challenge, because the LTTE, on all the evidence, will not be there for them or against them. In the future, it won't be the significant factor that it has been, so there's a big, big question.

Foreign Affairs committee  My impression is that there are a couple of factors. One, I think, is that there were tensions within the LTTE movement that people from the outside could not readily observe, tensions between the Tamils of Jaffna and the Tamils of the east. He was the commander of the forces of the east.

Foreign Affairs committee  I might ask Dr. Matthews to respond to that, because I think he may have studied that a little more closely than I have.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think, realistically, there's no chance of serious decentralization. I guess the test case will be what happens with respect to the 13th amendment, which is a constitutional amendment creating provincial councils that has never been fully implemented. It's been on the books for a very long time.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the LTTE has been very powerful in organizing, providing leadership, and indeed putting political pressure on the Tamil diaspora around the world, and certainly in Canada, especially in Toronto. I think the difficulty is that there has been no other political force around which Tamils could rally to try to achieve reforms or justice for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the invitation to appear before you to discuss Sri Lanka. I'm sure many of your witnesses have spoken to you about the large number of Sri Lankan citizens who are suffering and are in terrible danger as we speak, caught between the LTTE and government forces in the conflict zone in Mullaitivu.