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By Nikhil Mustaffa

An Indian External Affairs Ministry official was heard to remark that even though he was a ‘macabre optimist’, opportunities seen at 9 am dissipate by 5pm in Sri Lanka! It was said in the context of a rising concern regionally and amongst traditional friends of peace.

An analyst was of the view that the LTTE may have lost ten percent of cadre attempting to take Jaffna whilst the SLA was claiming to have made non functional three of five heavy artillery of the LTTE capable of shelling from twenty seven kilometeres afar.

It would seem that without a physical foothold, dislodging the SLA from Jaffna would be difficult though chocking Jaffna was possible. For the Government clearing the threat in Trincomalee seemed to be important. Overall, it was possible that both parties would re stock, re-strategize and start again in earnest after a momentary pause.

Peace clearly was endangered. Within a short space of time, new displacement has totalled 204,000 persons! This being only one facet of the crimes being committed on Sri Lankans.

This column features three contrasting narratives *from human rights report from Jaffna presenting life for civilians, *a narrative sequencing the environment preceding the execution of the 17 employees of ACF and *finally a refreshing excerpt of a document with a framework proposing peace in SL, passed on by email to this column.

1. Jaffna Situation report Displacement

According to the sources of the government agencies operating in Jaffna Peninsula 42 ,000 people have been displaced to temporary welfare centres namely churches, temples and schools due to the escalation of violence spread in the outskirts of Jaffna Peninsula The reasons why the people could not move to more secure places are many.

One was the curfew enforced in the area and the other restrictions imposed by the forces. The others were there was no facility for transport and also lack of fuel.

Aid Agencies and Relief Work

The non governmental organizations may it be local, national and international are not permitted to operate and deliver relief and dry ration to the people who have been displaced. The Government Agent has called the aid agencies to provide the relief and dry ration through the secretariat.

This call impedes and slows down the relief items to reach the people who are in dire need. The security forces have not allowed any agencies except Catholic Church and ICRC to enter into the Islands greatly affected by the present war.

When we visited Mandaithivu on 18.08.2006, the people at Mandaithivu who are displaced to Pillaiyar Hindu Temple complained that even after 6 days the Government Agent has not distributed relief and dry rations to them.

Instead the Government Agent has sent a load of essential goods to the cooperative shop in Mandaithevu and requested the people to buy them. The people aired their grievances saying that majority of them are fishing folk. For the last 10 days the ban on fishing has prevented them from going fishing. The government mechanism is very slow to identify displaced people and distribute relief and dry rations.

Killing and Injuries

To name the places which took the brunt of the heavy attack of security forces and the LTTE as mentioned above are Muhamalai, Kilali, Allaippiddy and Mandaithivu. Causalities were relatively high at Allaippiddy. More than 90 people were injured and 24 killed.

Only 5 bodies were recovered and brought to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The security forces have not allowed the Magistrate to remove these bodies. Failure to identify these bodies will increase the number of arrest and disappearances

After the battle started between the LTTE and the Government forces, the family unity is dismantled and disconnected. Some of the family members do not know where the rest of the family members are. We were able to trace some people who were detained at the detention centres at KKS and Jaffna Police Station. We were able bring about some family reunions.

But we were unable to trace several people who were alleged to have been arrested by the security forces. The security forces were denying the reported arrests. The Sri Lankan Army refused to cooperate during the period when we placed our official request to uncover truth regarding the disappearances, saying that this was not the time.

The injured and the deceased between Muhamalai and Kodikamam and Allaipitty were not removed. They are counted as disappeared or missing persons and accordingly listed in our list.

It is mandatory for us to visit the detention centres but we were not allowed visit them. To mention a serious one was the one of 6 detainees at KKS. The magistrate and the Acting Vice Chancellor were allowed to visit them whereas we are not.
Curfew and its Implications

Relaxation of curfew was gradually improving after two full days of Curfew. The pressing issue is that the people’s movement is curtailed by lack of transport available. Scarcity of fuel is another issue which contributed to the termination of public transport.

Electricity is another hard pressing issue. Gradually electricity service too is improving ; supply now available for 5 hours per a day from day before yesterday.

The curfew imposed is to ensure the security of the people. The people could not move from the battle front to some secure places due to curfew. They were like house arrested. It was totally a life threat to the people. The injured and the killed were not even removed immediately due to curfew. The people who were injured at Allaipitty were not removed to the hospital due to curfew. They were taken to the hospital only after 25 hours. The toll of the dead increased because the injured were not taken to the hospital in time

The curfew imposed does not seem to be a reasonable one. The question arise in us is that is it necessary. The war took place at Allaiptty, Mandaithivu and Kodikamam to Mulankavil. On August 13, 2006. Army media said that they retaliated and took full control of Allaipitty. In the area between Mahamalai to Kodikamam the battle was going on. From time to time the LTTE was propelling artillery shells to Palaly. In Vadamarachi the area around Nagarkovil was under the attack of LTTE. Apart from these areas the rest of the Peninsula was considerably calm.

The framework for a Negotiated Settlement

1. The framework is best written in incontestable language. The use of heavily contested terms like separate State, federalism, unitary state, impede rather than facilitate the resolution of conflict. Instead, let us use uncontested concepts like autonomy rights, power sharing, community rights, subsidiarity, local/regional and self government.

2. We propose the following principles for getting the future state formation of the Sri Lanka State right.

i. Sri Lanka will have one National State, which, by definition, will be multi ethnic, multi-cultural and pluralistic in character. While it will maintain the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. It will also celebrate cultural diversity and cultural pluralism.

Thus, a significant distinction is drawn between the western concept of a “nation state” which is homogenous, and a national, incorporating different nationalities who consider themselves to be “nations” but are willing to be a part of a single state and a single polity, renouncing the demand for a separate state.

ii. The National State is an overarching repository of core values like democracy, participatory development, subsidiarity, human rights, ethnic rights, territorial and non-territorial devolution and language and cultural rights.

iii. The history and distinct identity of the different ethnic communities will be given unambiguous recognition. The Right to Internal Self-Determination of the territorially and historically distinct communities and others that are not living in a contiguous territory, will be provided with appropriate self-determination arrangements.

iv. Given the experience of the Provincial Council system it will be necessary to redefine the territorial power-sharing arrangements in the North-East. The aspirations of the Sri Lankan Tamil people for nationhood and statehood should be accommodated in a suitable state structure.

v. Non-territorial or community-based power-sharing arrangements will have their own specific features.

vi. The principle of Subsidiarity will offer a strong sense of both identity and ownership to different ethnic groups in their own areas of habitation in all development activities, starting at the base of society and progressively moving upwards. This will help combine local / regional decision-making.

vii. The consociational principle has several useful benefits. In the South African case during one particular transition of its constitution making history, this proved to be highly productive. Among the beneficial elements are: *The principle of proportionality by which key constitutional posts will be shared by different ethnic parties. *Power sharing among stakeholder groups, with regional autonomy. The power sharing will be two-way, from centre to periphery as well as periphery to centre. *Mutual veto which will help building the propensity for compromise by competing parties.

3. The evolution of the future Sri Lankan State should be seen as a long-term process, evolving through a number of phased transitions. An Interim Constitution should be considered as a useful transitional step. It follows that each operative transition has to be within the parameters of the above framework.

Hence it is clear that the idea of a single’Final Solution’ is unrealistic and illusory. An important corollary of this approach is the principle of periodically reviewing and redefining the problem at each transition, thus building in the social change dynamic into the overall conflict resolution/transformation process.

4. A negotiated settlement will have a greater chance of success if there are international guarantees, both security and political, to the Government, the LTTE, the Muslims and other internal stakeholders.

This will entail the re-conceptualising of the role of the international community in Sri Lanka’s peace process, while widening the space for political engagement.

The country as a whole is witnessing another dark chapter in which tyranny and fascism is contesting the struggle of a few and the quest of many for ‘freedom’. [dailymirror.lk]