Sri Lanka: The stalemate in peace process

Norge spilte en sen­tral rolle i forhan­dlin­gene fram til under­teg­nin­gen av våpen­hvileav­tal­en og videre i tilret­te­leg­ging av forhan­dlinger mel­lom konfliktpartene.

Freds­forhan­dling har stag­n­ert siden 2005 og øy-stat­en i det indiske hav er på vei inn i en ny krigstil­stand. Kan erfaringer høstet i løpet av disse fem årene bidra til å bringe våpen­hvileav­tal­en på sporet igjen? Hvilken betyd­ning har det inter­nasjonale engas­je­mentet for fred­spros­essen på Sri Lanka?

PROGRAMME

Tid:        11 — 17
Sted:      Rafto­huset
               Men­neskerettighetenes plass 1
Kon­takt: 55 21 09 30

11.00 – 12.00 Reg­is­tra­tion, Coffee
12.00 – 12.05 Welcome,
                     Dhay­alan Velauthapillai,
                     Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of Bergen.

12.05 – 12.30 Keynote Address:
                       Thomas Stangeland,
                       Advi­sor, Nor­we­gian For­eign Ministry.

12.30 – 13.30 Ses­sion 1
                       ‘Five years with Cease-Fire Agree­ment’            
                       Chair: Alf Morten Jerve,
                       Assis­tant Direc­tor, Chr. Michelsen Insti­tute, Bergen.

                       ‘Tamil per­spec­tive of the peace process’
                       Hon. Gajan Ponnambalam,
                       TNA, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, Sri Lanka.

                       ‘South­ern response to the peace initiatives’
                       Dr. Vick­re­me­bahu Karunarathne, 
                       Gen. Sec­re­tary, Nava Sama Sama­ja Par­ty, Sri Lanka.
                                              
13.30 – 13:45 Cof­fee break 

13.45 — 14.15 Keynote Address:                                                       
                     Karen Park­er J.D., USA 
                     Founder, Asso­ci­a­tion of Human­i­tar­i­an Lawyers, 
                     Mem­ber, Inter­na­tion­al  Edu­ca­tion­al Development 
                     Unit­ed Nations Eco­nom­ic and Social Coun­cil (ECOSOC).

14.15 — 15:00 Ses­sion 2
                       ‘Human rights and the moral dilemmas’
                       Chair: Alf Morten Jerve 

                       ‘Cur­rent stale­mate and the human tragedy’
                       Rev. Father Alphon­sus Bernard, 
                       Chair of the Roman Catholic Jus­tice and Peace 
                       Com­mis­sion in Jaffna. 

                        ‘Moral dilem­mas in the Sri Lankan peace process’
                       Lodve A. Svare, 
                       Cen­tre for Peace Stud­ies, Uni­ver­si­ty of Tromsø. 

15.00 – 16.00 Discussion :
                       ‘What should the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty do
                        to ease the cur­rent stale­mate?’ 

16.00               Din­ner