Colombo: The agreement in Oslo between Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to establish a federal structure in the country marks the first time that the two parties have explicitly chosen federalism as the framework for a solution to the long-standing ethnic problem.

The word 'federal' has been taboo for many years in Sri Lanka, a self- proclaimed 'unitary state', and every past power-sharing package had been broadly described only as 'devolution', even when it envisaged creation of regional units of administration under a central government.

For the Tamil Tiger rebels, who now seem to have come round to the view that Tamil aspirations can be met within a united Sri Lanka, it could be a double climb-down, as they have not only given the impression of shedding separatism as a goal, but also a confederal model as an alternative.

Among the two main parties in the south, the ruling United National Party has described its proposed framework in the past as "asymmetrical devolution", that is, conferring on the North East more powers than other regions in the country. The People’s Alliance (PA) called its plan "extensive devolution".

With the country's mood strongly favouring continuation of the present atmosphere of peace, the development is seen widely as the best chance yet to evolve a negotiated settlement, but the parties, as well as Norwegian facilitators, have warned that there could be pitfalls ahead.

Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V Anandasangaree said the credit should go to the LTTE for pressuring the government into agreeing to a federal model, shedding decades of opposition to diluting the unitary state.

"It is now left to the opposition to support it. We cannot go to war again. This is the last chance for peace," Anandasangaree said, adding that federalism was also the goal of the late S Chelvanayagam, the founder of the Federal Party, the forerunner of the TULF.

The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the main anti-LTTE Tamil group, had a dig at the Tigers for accepting now what the EPDP had been saying for over a decade – power-sharing at the centre, and autonomy at the state level.

"This war, with all the devastation that it brought about, could have been avoided had they agreed to our viewpoint 10 years ago," EPDP general secretary K N Douglas Devananda said.

He was also sceptical about whether the LTTE had really agreed to a federal model, charging that its chief negotiator Anton Balasingham had the habit of saying one thing for the consumption of the international community and exactly the opposite to the Tamil community.

PTI