As to the Tamils, we have been losing since the days of old DS.

Gal Oya scheme put paid to Tamils living for generations in South Batticaloa. The Mahaweli there made it worst. Trincomalee’s ethnic balance continues to slide against Tamil interests. The Colombo eviction, I venture to suggest, is a “Dry run” for things to come in the future for the “Final Solution” of Lankan Tamils.

India and the Int’l Community can and must bring in the necessary sense and justice to our rapid slid into anarchy. Today, as I write this note, even many Sinhalese, include hard-core Rajapakse supporters, are embarrassed at what their Govt is doing to the Tamils – and, they know justice will soon prevail. Mahinda Rajapakse’s threat last week to “dissolve” Parliament is the painful cry of a man on a hopeless trek – beseiged from all sides. Unfortunately, the country’s economy and the well being of 20 million people are being taken along this perilous path. I know I sound like a Prophet of Doom – but what do we have before us now?

I have absolutely no intention of defending the LTTE (they have not been very nice to their own people), but the assertion that the LTTE started Mavil Aru is flawed. the LTTE did trigger of a long series of confrontations by attacking Sarath Fonseka, but the Mavil Aru/Sampoor offensive seems to have been pre-planned.

when analysing what happened in the Muthur area, one needs to take the period that preceded the Mavil Aru offensive into consideration.

two weeks before the attack on Sarath Fonseka, the army already upgraded the Kallar army camp to Brigade-level. this seems to me like something was already planned beforehand, because in the situation before the attack on Fonseka there was absolutely no urgent reason to suddenly create a new brigade and put it at Kallar.

then, after the attack on Fonseka, there were massive retaliation bombings, partly on villages that were interior and had absolutely no LTTE bases around. this was pure revenge. part of it consisted of attacking the LTTE (which is legitimate), but part of it was indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas (which is a war crime). It seems to me that the preparations were not ready yet, so the ground offensive could not start yet. instead, paramilitaries were brought in who did cause significant damage to the LTTE. parallel to this, the army blocked all entry and exit roads to the area, and prohibited the civilians living in the area from taking in or out any goods. this led to serious food shortages in the sampoor area, and it seems to me that the blockage of the sluice gates at Mavil Aru was in response to this.

interestingly, the Daily Mirror reported that two local Buddhist monks (who both have a reputation for being hardliners, but who also both have lived in the area for a very long time and know when to be pragmatic) had managed to negotiate a solution with the LTTE, and the LTTE agreed to open the channels. the very same day, the army attacked.

two small comments on the article:

1) the figure mentioned in the article for the number of people who are affected by the atrocious decision to declare a HSZ is incorrect; there were some 15,000 and not 51,000 people living in the area. whatever the numbers of people affected, it is and remains an atrocity.

2) the historically dominant lineages in the area north of Verukal are not Mukkuvar but Thimilar, as proved by available VOC documents. the Mukkuvar who are present in the area moved in some 80 years ago from Batticaloa and have never had a dominant position in the area.

Rasika, a good look at the statistics of jobs in the industries that developed around the Trinco harbour will show you that so far, there has been a very dominant trend of employing Sinhalese and not Tamils in these companies. i therefore think that your assertion that the development of industries in China Bay will benefit Tamils is incorrect.

A very informative article. This is an eye opener. The IDPs need to file action at the Supreme Court immediately to prevent the loss of their lands and to stay the Government ruling.

This is a very good feature article.

I am surprised at the silence of the Tamil parliamentarians in light of this dramatic development. What do they propose to do with this blatant policy of eviction and ethnic displacement. The Tamil percentage in Trincomalee, once 60%, would now decline further. Does the TNA have any policy response? Do they plan to file action in the Supreme Court? Are they capable of doing anything constructive except to mouth pro-LTTE platitudes.

The LTTE is strangely quiet as well. It was they who initiated the current round of hostilities by provoking the hardline Mahinda Rajapakse with Mavil Aru ostensibly to secure water for the Tamils of Mutur East. Well, there are no Tamils in Mutur East anymore thanks to their foolhardiness. They have repeated strategic blunder after blunder. The first was the attack on the Indian Peace Keeping Forces in 1987. Then came the forced evacuation of the Jaffna peninsula in December, 1995. And finally, the LTTE-enforced polls boycott in the North East that allowed Mahinda to become President. They need to be held accountable. Tamil meida is strangely silent at all this.

The international community is also quiet after the initial uproar on the evictions of Tamils from Colombo. I guess they too can shout so much. The onus is left on us. We civilians should do our part as your last two paragraphs so eloquently suggest.

Unlike some of your reader’s comment, I am not convince that India would try to prevent this. Contrary to the many Tamil’s opinion, for the geo-political, and strategic reasons, India would go along with Rajepakses’, and build 300MW coal power station in Sampur.

The Government’s latest blunder has very little to do with economics and everything to do with the war. Trincomalee would never be an economic powerhouse given the deep ethnic fractures and its proximity to the Vanni.

Another reason Trincomalee is unlikely to take off is that it lacks rail or road connectivity to a booming industrial hinterland. Polonnaruwa does not qualify as an industrial hinterland. You can not build a power house in a void. Trincomalee is also far off from the mainline shipping routes. The contrast with Colombo or Galle is there for all to see. Or for that matter with Rotterdam, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Mumbai or Singapore. A port only derives importance if it is linked to an industrial zone.

Further, most of the Trincomalee harbor is not deep water unlike Colombo or Galle. Except for the naval base and the Prima Flour Mills area, the rest is quite silty especially Mutur. Do not forget that Mutur is the delta for the Mahaweli Ganga river.

The Government has declared a special economic zone. It has evicted the Tamils there. This is blatantly racist. I doubt anyone would invest in what is clearly a zone of contention. The China factor that Dharman Dharmaratnam highlights is unlikely to pass because India would surreptiously disrupt that.

All in all, this is not a pretty picture with the Tamils likely to galvanize on this one issue. I foresee more reactive terrorism and I moan for the Sinhala-Tamil-Muslim alliance.

Suleyman