Negotiation and the Dispute Resolution in the Sri Lankan Context: Lessons from the 1994-1995 Peace Talks

This Article consists of four parts. Part I sketches the historical background of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict and the process of easing ethnic tensions. This overview seeks to introduce the reader to the principal parties, issues, and developments in the dispute resolution process, as well as to elicit historical trends that inform current efforts to achieve peace. Part II systematically presents, through published reports, letters, and joint statements of the parties, and through interviews with negotiators and officials from both the government and the LTTE, the events and the process of the 1994-95 peace talks. Part II aims to characterize and to identify the difficulties encountered in these talks. Part III explicates and dissects the lessons from the 1994-95 experience. Part III explores in depth how the lack of an operating framework, agent and principal tensions, modes of communication, procedures within the talks, and efforts to structure implementation impeded a negotiated settlement. Part IV draws from the lessons learned from the 1994-95 talks and provides six recommendations for the government and the LTTE to overcome the main process-oriented obstacles that emerged. Finally, the conclusion provides a brief assessment of the prospects for reviving the peace talks and an appraisal of the most urgent steps needed to repair the relationship between the government and the LTTE