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By Lincoln Wijeyesinghe
[Dehiwela]

The law and its enforcement in this country has deviated somewhere and taken a direction leading to chaos. Successive governments floundering in a mire of conflicting interests have sacrificed the silent law abiding citizen and the country on the alter of party politics to court the law breakers’ votes and readily available manpower for political or sometimes illegal activities.

It is very often amusing but exasperating to watch ministers, MPs and other politicians (our so-called ‘law-makers’) scrambling over each other to pour their syrup of sympathy over those who make a mockery of the law.

The lucrative law breaking industry resulting from all this should be the envy of the world, ably developed with government assistance, incentives and honours to terrorise and defraud the law abiding citizen and the country.

Squatting on state land is a case in point. Squatters are rewarded with land and houses worth hundreds of thousands of rupees causing wave after wave of squatters to occupy public property often with political patronage with the next election in view. Side walks of roads, bridges, bus shelters, reservations of waterways, forests — nothing is spared.

The environment is degraded, health problems are propagated, but who cares? These are prospective votes for somebody who will provide them with tap water and electric lights at the expense of the law abiding taxpayer! Where are the government departments and officials who are supposed to safeguard property? Are they allowed to carry out their duties unhindered?

When these accumulated sins ultimately come to crisis point like the havoc caused by the recent floods in Colombo, millions of taxpayers’ money is spent to ‘relocate’ these people who have been encouraged to ‘locate’ themselves on state land reserved by law to safeguard the environment or for some important utility purpose.

Each step in this game is bribery for votes.

A related menace is encroachment of public and private roads, ignored by officials, supported by interested politicians, even deviating public services and drains to accommodate encroachers. The victims on private roads dare not complain for fear of repercussions.

Squatting on private land has become a very paying business, claiming prescription to grab the land or demanding several lakhs of rupees to vacate.

Murder, rape, robbery, smuggling and sale of narcotics have escalated due to commuting of the death sentence to ‘suspended sentences,’ which has wiped out the deterrent potential of the law and bred specialist contract killers, contract burglars and contract smugglers. Whenever a criminal is arrested, who rushes to his rescue? A ‘law maker’ MP!

It is time the government and the opposition united to take a hard look at the facts and deal with the situation inherent in party politics, as no party would dare on its own to tackle it for fear of losing political mileage.

This discrimination against the law abiding people must stop!

The so called ‘enlightened’ and civilised condonement of crime in the West has been an absolute failure and has only produced unenlightened and uncivilised generations and uncontrollable escalation of serious crime.

Must we blindly follow their example and reap the same results?

Time tested penalties imposed in the Middle East and Singapore should be seriously considered.

Public executions, amputation of limbs and whipping would drastically reduce crime, empty the prisons and court houses, clean up public life and release billions saved thereby for development and welfare.

Law abiding citizens would be able to breathe freely again.

Will our politicians have the guts to put aside partisan politics and unite for a common cause, for which they were elected; to make our country a better place to live in?

[A Letter to the Editor, in sundayleader.lk]

By Sarasi Wijeratne in Batticaloa

Batticaloa is a city of contrasts. Blessed with a landscape dominated by a breathtakingly beautiful lagoon and its phenomenal singing fish, the versatile palm and a resilient people cursed by separatist strife to which they appear seemingly oblivious, they pedal along on their bicycles doing whatever they have to do.

That Batticaloa is also in the throes of a war is inescapable. There is a significant military presence with check points and road blocks, mine clearance activity and more humanitarian than civilian vehicles on its roads. The night before The Sunday Leader visited the area fighting had broken out between the army and LTTE in Chenkaladi, not far from Batticaloa town.

Displacement crisis

Batticaloa is also suffering from the human cost of the fallout from months of military operations to its north in Muttur and Sampur in the Trincomalee District and more recently in Vaharai in the Batticaloa District. Recent reports claimed the displacement crisis in Sri Lanka was worse than that of Somalia although exposure is nowhere near.

“That is a total fabrication,” says Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. “The situation in Jaffna has improved and according to reports from the GA Batticaloa the IDPs there are being looked after and catered to.”

According to Samarasinghe, recommendations made by a Joint Assessment Team to improve the provision of essential supplies and services to Jaffna, including health services, as well as on issues related to livelihoods and the movement of people have been considered by the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance and decisions have been taken to implement these recommendations.

The current number displaced in the Batticaloa District alone stands at 76,224, of which the majority, 50,012 are from within the district itself and the rest from the neighbouring Trincomalee District. Among the displaced are those with multiple displacements, nomadic for nearly one year. Having fled the fighting in Muttur or Sampur to seek refuge in Vaharai, they have had to be on the move again to trek to Batticaloa following the offensive there.

[Outdoor classes - Cadjan classrooms at the Vantharamoolai Maha Vidyalaya]

Camp town

Batticaloa town is host to 22 camps or welfare centres as they are officially known, for the internally displaced – the highest in the district which in total has 49 sites spread across its 13 divisions and itself no stranger to volatility. While a little more than half the total number displaced live in welfare centres, a figure close to this have been taken in by friends and family.

The sites mostly based in schools, considered the ideal place to receive large numbers of people to be housed temporarily until they are moved into proper centres, have been set up by humanitarian agencies and handed over to the government for administration.

Although there is adequate sanitary and medical facilities and water for drinking and bathing, food is in short supply, unemployment a pressing concern and health issues remain.

“The sheer scale of the problem and the numbers involved means having to prioritise water, shelter and sanitation,” said an ICRC source in Batticaloa.

There have been reports of typhoid and although the figures are unreliable between 12 and a few hundred cases of hepatitis as a result of water contamination have been reported. Although those cases have been identified and treated and the Health Ministry is reportedly trying to control the situation, prevention is seen as being vital given that there is no isolation facility and patients having to go to hospitals in Trincomalee or Valachchennai for treatment.

Mobile clinics

The Health Ministry together with the Italian and Sri Lanka Red Cross is operating mobile clinics, which are seen as being more curative, in the centres and as we watched, teams of volunteers from Oxfam and the SLRC were walking around promoting hygiene awareness.

“If there is hepatitis which is a controllable disease it cannot be said that health issues are under control,” point out reliable humanitarian staff who did not wish to be quoted.

Samarasinghe however was unaware of such outbreaks, saying he had not received any reports from the GA to this effect, but it will be something he will be looking into when he visits the district next week accompanied by health authorities and the WHO resident representative.

En route to Batticaloa town a little off the A15 is Kiran 2, one of the larger and more organised centres with row upon row of off-white tents and tin and plastic shelters, their covers fluttering in the gentle breeze. The camp, sheltering 1844 IDPs consisting of 543 families, was built by the ICRC in December to house two large influxes of IDPs from Vaharai.

Inside a four-by-four tent, hot and swarming with flies, which she shares with her five school-going children aged between 16 and four, we meet Varnakulasingham Semartha (50), surrounded by nothing else but a few pots, pans and other insignificant paraphernalia.

The family, which cooks and sleeps in the confines of their shelter, left Ichchilampattai in the Trincomalee District with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

Semartha, whose husband is dead, earned a living cultivating paddy and from fishing but has no income now and is dependent on food, clothing and medical assistance she receives from the government and NGOs. They manage with the food they get but it is never enough.

The scarcity and poor quality of food was a common gripe among all the IDPs we spoke to. Ambiga (37) at the Zahira Welfare Centre in Batticaloa town with her 14-year-old daughter who attends the local Mahajana School said they had not been given any fruit from the day they moved into the camp and had not eaten any vegetables in the last month.

Difficult to manage

Ambiga and her daughter, made homeless following the Muttur attacks, have been on the move since August last year having lived temporarily in Sampur, Kiliveddi and Vaharai before ending up at the centre. They walked for five days from Vaharai and stayed at the Sinhala School, another welfare centre in Batticaloa town, before ending their journey at Zahira. Ambiga has to cook for herself and her daughter.

“We were given cookers to cook our food but they are not working anymore and I have to go from house to house looking for firewood which we have to buy. This is all right for those of us who have money. Some of us work as labourers and earn Rs. 400 to Rs. 500 a day but it is still quite difficult to manage.”

Meanwhile, at the Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya in Batticaloa town another centre housing around 500 IDPs made up of 150 families, there is unhappiness about the quality of food. As we approached we were circled by a group of its residents who looked to Kanagamani (50) to translate their grievances.

“Although we got good food at the beginning the food we get now is terrible,” they complained. “The dhal we get is black and does not boil and the rice smells. Some of us threw the dhal away as it cannot be eaten. We have not had any fruit and vegetables.”

Malnourishment

Rice, dhal, oil and sugar are distributed to the IDPs once every two weeks on a government programme supported by the World Food Programme. The WFP brings food into the country and once the food is in the country, its ownership passes to the government.

The food is transported to Batticaloa where it is released by the government agent to be picked up by the divisional secretaries who then take it to their divisions for distribution, sometimes helped by the SLRC. None of the IDPs we spoke to had received milk, not even those families with children.

What is distributed is a nutritional value basket meant for people to survive, said the ICRC source. “There are no vegetables, fruits and spices included and that’s what the IDPs ask for. Some NGOs have started assisting with additional food items.”

Clearly there are nutritional deficiencies and although there are no obvious signs of malnutrition it does not mean it is not there and may take a while to show up.

Samarasinghe meanwhile acknowledges there has been talk of malnourishment, especially among children and those who have come from uncontrolled areas as essential supplies targeted for the people have sometimes been used by others.

“There have been reports to this effect and we have to look at the people who came from Vaharai to see if there is malnourishment but as far as government controlled areas are concerned, there is no such issue,” he said.

Unemployment is an issue though. Fit and able bodied men, have been left idle. While some of the shelters and centre infrastructure like roads and toilets like those in Kiran have been built by the IDPs themselves, some have been lucky enough to find causal jobs as labourers but this is also becoming scarce as supply is greater than demand with multiple contenders chasing one job.

Those like A.K. Anton Raj (33) with an entrepreneurial streak have opened shops selling basic food items within the centres. Anton used to sell vegetables back home in Muttur which he left last August with his wife and three children aged nine, seven and one-and-a-half.

“Business is okay”

With help from CARITAS which provided him with the structure for the shop he invested the little money he had brought with him in goods for the shop which he runs from his temporary abode at the Sinhala School.

“Business is okay,” he smiles from behind a shelf stacked with boxes of Madeira cake. “I have been running the shop for one-and-a-half months now and it provides my family and I with our day’s income for any extras we require.”

But for others like Sivakumar (26) in the Zahira Centre, who walks around with the support of a steel frame after his left hip was damaged by shrapnel, work is likely to be elusive. Sivakumar worked as a labourer before leaving Vaharai with his wife Sivanandani who also does not work and their lives are now in limbo.

The government is working with UN agencies to put in place livelihood programmes such as cash for work or goods for work as well as look at micro or cottage industries, especially for the women in the camps, to increase their income. “If for example there are going to be fishing restrictions whilst giving them their rations, we must also look at other ways of increasing their income levels,” points out Samarasinghe.

Further along the A15 is Sittandi where the Vantharamoolai Maha Vidyalaya borders the main road. As we drive into the school, lessons are being conducted in a cadjan shelter on the right.

Overstretched resources

“These are some of the IDP children attending the school, explains the Principal, Panchalingam. The school which has 1,872 students of its own has had to accommodate a further 706 IDP children and the already stretched resources are being overstretched.

“Because we do not have enough staff and buildings, we conduct lessons for the IDP children from one to five in the afternoon,” explains Panchalingam, who is also the additional principal of the school which is being run for the IDP children.

The home science room, science room, group activity room and library have all been converted into classrooms to accommodate the increased numbers. The school, which needs seven science teachers for its own contingent of students, has only four teachers and has to rely on volunteer teachers to help out.

There is one maths teacher and one science teacher for the IDP children who are being taught by teachers from the Vaharai school and other nearby small schools. UNICEF has provided around 450 of the IDP children school uniforms and exercise books but there are those without and there is a dearth of text books, even for the school’s regular attendees.

IDP children in the district have been integrated into several local schools and have been able to continue their education without too much disruption and this is one facet of their lives all IDP parents with school going children were happy about.

Across the road from the Vantharamoolai School is another centre with 544 IDPs comprising 148 families. Here too we find IDPs from Muttur and Vaharai, their predicament perhaps mirroring that of the thousands of other IDPs.

At least Ramu (51) and his wife Saraswathi (48) who escaped fighting between the LTTE and Karuna cadres in Welikanda have something to be happy about. Their four children aged between seven and 16 all attend the Vantharamoolai School and are continuing their education. For this they are grateful to the authorities.

Need for security

All these IDPs want is to go back home. Conditionally. Security is top of their list of wants, followed by accommodation. Palani, 60, another resident of Kiran 2 who fled Vaharai in December is emphatic about the need for security.

“The government and LTTE have to stop fighting because it is us civilians who get caught in the middle. If for example we go back and we are forced by the LTTE to give them food, the military will be tipped off by an informant and we will then be at the receiving end,” he explains.

The IDPs had other concerns. Ambiga explained how mothers with teenaged sons were afraid to go back for fear they would be abducted. She did not specify by whom though.

The government plans to resettle those from Vaharai, where most of the homes are reportedly intact, soon. The IDPs from Trincomalee are also expected to return at some point. In reality though there is no end in sight for many.

“I have heard talk of resettlement on the radio,” says Kanagamani, at the Sinhala School where there is a sense of camaraderie among its residents. “But we have not been told anything officially.”

Destroyed homes

Kanagamani has no family and is on her own. She together with a group of others fled Muttur and took refuge in Sampur where she roughed it out for five months living in a tent in a school. When Sampur was being shelled, she left for Kadirawelipuram and eventually to Batticaloa. Kanagamani used to work as a housemaid in Oman and built a house with the money she earned, although now she does not know what has happened to it.

Like Kanagamanai, many do not know what has become of their homes although most suspect the worst and believe their houses to have been destroyed. A.K. Anton Raj is one of those who knows this for certain. He was the only IDP we met who returned to his home town to see what had happened to his home.

“I went to Muttur in December to see about my house. It has been destroyed and everything is gone, even the furniture,” he says, a far away look in his eyes.

Those whose houses have been destroyed expect assistance from the government to rebuild their homes. “Even if we were to return our houses have been destroyed, so where are we to live?” questions Ambiga. “My family and I would like to go back but we will need help from the government to rebuild our house,” says Anton Raj.

“The government has taken steps to restore key services in Vaharai and infrastructure issues are being addressed and I have asked the GA to communicate it to the IDPs although I am not sure how successful the communication strategy has been,” says Samarasinghe.

Compensation

“As far as compensation is concerned, whatever the other IDPs in other areas have got will be given to them as well. It will be a uniform and just compensation although the perennial debate on the adequacy of the compensation will prevail. I must emphasise that the people who are to be resettled will not be forced to go back. Resettlement will be purely voluntary,” says Samarasinghe.

Samarasinghe’s Ministry, together with international partners and other ministries is to initiate a Confidence Building Stabilisation Measures Strategy to be piloted in areas like Vaharai where village assessments will be carried out and needs identified and met so that a conducive environment is made available to help people make the decision about going back.

Also planned as a part of the strategy is an accelerated economic development programme. “We, as a government, have an obligation to make the habitat that people live in more conducive for these purposes and security is of paramount importance.”

On Wednesday a cycle bomb targeting police personnel exploded in Ottomowadi in the Batticaloa District killing civilian passersby. But for the civilians of Batticaloa, it was business as usual, for the IDPs it was no more than a blip in their transient lives. [thesundayleader.lk]

Official press release of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the 5th anniversary of the CFA.

On February 22, 2002, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), entered into the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with facilitation by the Royal Norwegian Government. Five years have passed since the signing of this historic agreement by the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Vellupillai Pirapaharan, and the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremasinghe. Even though today it exists only on paper, it remains a unique document in the search for an end to the national conflict in the island Sri Lanka. Unprecedented in peace efforts in the island, the CFA was formulated with the full support of the international community, transcended the parameters of Sri Lanka’s majoritarian constitution created by the Sinhala people for the Sinhala people which had effectively marginalized the other communities in the island. It recognized Tamil Eelam’s *de facto* existence, with its unique characteristics: a distinct population; a government comprising a defense force, a police force, a judiciary, a civil administration and other institutions for effective governance of a people, and capability of entering into agreements with other governments with a line of control reflecting the ground reality of the existence of the Tamil homeland demarcated with recognized borders. The CFA recognized the balance of power
between the GOSL and the LTTE and was premised on this balance of power.

Since the island gained independence from British colonial rule, the Tamil nation has been subjected to chauvinistic and oppressive rule by successive Sinhala governments. For the first three decades after independence, the Tamil nation’s non-violent resistance to this oppression was met by state violence. Thus, the Tamils’ peaceful struggle was transformed into armed struggle. In all that time, leaders and representatives of the Tamil nation held numerous talks and even signed agreements and pacts with successive Sri Lankan governments. Due to the lack of a balance of power between the two sides and the absence of international participation, all such negotiations failed and the successive Sri Lankan governments unilaterally abrogated all agreements reached. Repeatedly the Tamil people were victims of state deception and duplicity.

It was in the context of the bitter history that the CFA came into being in 2002 with Norwegian facilitation. It was the strong support shown by the international community for this peace effort that gave the confidence to the Tamils in this process. But the international community’s unhelpful engagement in the peace effort has had the effect of encouraging the Sri Lankan state to pursue a military solution to the national question. The international community’s unwillingness to take concrete measures and exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to abandon its aggression in its
pursuit of the military option has contributed to rendering the CFA defunct.

Despite serious and provocative breaches by the Sri Lankan armed forces, the LTTE has exercised considerable patience. During this period of ceasefire, we lost hundreds of our cadres to Sri Lankan military attacks. Throughout the Tamil homeland and in the other parts of the island, civilians, including elected Tamil Parliamentarians, Tamil journalists, Members of Tamil intelligentsia and community activists, are being murdered and have disappeared due to the activities of the State armed forces and state-backed paramilitary forces. In spite of this ground reality, the international community chose to unfairly take punitive measures against the LTTE, seriously undermining the LTTE’s status as an equal party in the negotiation process and thereby weakening the peace process itself. This international bias against the LTTE further strengthened the government’s intransigence and encouraged it to adopt even more hard line positions. The international community’s failure to take concrete action against the Sri Lankan state to stop serious breaches of the CFA or its widespread and systematic human rights violations has contributed to war like conditions in the Tamil homeland.

The failure of the peace process despite the international participation deeply frustrated the Tamil people. To their bitter disappointment, the CFA and the internationally facilitated peace process have, as in all previous peace efforts, failed again. Against this backdrop, over the past five years, the LTTE, heeding the requests of the international community to be patient and flexible, has remained restrained while repeatedly calling for the full implementation of the CFA. Six years ago, in December 2000, theLTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire. It was rejected by the state and the war continued. Five years ago, in December 2001, the LTTE again declared a unilateral ceasefire, which paved the way for the CFA after concerted
efforts by the Royal Norwegian government.

The CFA’s overarching purpose was to end the hostilities between the LTTE and the GOSL and to create a conducive atmosphere for peace negotiations by bringing about conditions of normalcy in the war-ravaged Tamil homeland. In every round of the peace talks we emphasized the urgent humanitarian needs of the Tamil people due to three decades of devastating war. We also repeatedly pointed out that the prevailing environment of military occupation and harassment was not conducive to holding talks on resolving the national conflict.

After the CFA came into being, the LTTE participated in several rounds of talks with sincerity and total dedication. In these talks, we urged the GOSL to implement the CFA fully and to jointly take steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Tamil homeland. It was pointed out, that improving the living conditions of the Tamil people and building confidence and trust should precede discussions on political issues. The CFA requires both parties to the conflict to take necessary steps towards normalizing the lives of people in the Tamil homeland. However, GOSL has failed to comply with these provisions and indeed taken actions to make the situation worse. It continues to occupy the civilians’ homes, schools, and places of worship,
denying hundreds of thousands of people the right to return to their homes. These are not only the violations of the CFA but also violations of international humanitarian and human right laws. At each round we raised the issue of a lack of normalcy in the Tamil homeland. The GOSL failed to live up to its pledge at the negotiating table by delaying the implementation and ignoring its obligations. Meanwhile there was no improvement in the humanitarian crisis of the Tamil people, but rather got worse.

Contribution to the deterioration of the situation was the continued support extended by GOSL to paramilitary groups. Article 1.8 of the CFA required GOSL to disarm all paramilitarygroups within a specified period of the ceasefire coming into effect. The existence of paramilitary groups and theyoperating with the support and sponsorship of the Sri Lankan
Government, have repeatedly been confirmed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and, recently, by several other sources, including reports issued last year by the US State Department. The UN Special Representative Alan Rock has also pointed out the collaboration between the state armed forces and paramilitary groups, even citing evidence of the former forcibly recruiting children as combatants for the latter.

From 2002 to 2006, we were engaged in eight sessions of direct talks with the Sri Lankan state under the facilitation of the Royal Norwegian government. In order to address the significant humanitarian crisis of the people in the Tamil homeland, several proposals were put forward and administrative structures were suggested during the early peace talks. All these proposals were later rejected or abrogated by the GOSL. The initial request was for the establishment of an interim administration for the Northeast and it was rejected by GOSL, which cited Sri Lanka’s majoritarian constitution. Subsequently, a purely humanitarian joint structure SIHRN (Subcommittee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation in the NorthEast) was created, but was bureaucratically rendered dysfunctional by the GOSL.

Following the failure of the SIHRN, the LTTE submitted a proposal for the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) to the Sri Lankan government in order to resolve the urgent humanitarian needs of our people and take the peace process forward. Unwilling to initiate peace talks based on the ISGA the then President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, dissolved the Parliament. In the subsequent parliamentary election, Tamil people overwhelmingly voted for 22 candidates from the Tamil homeland, who, accepting the LTTE as the authentic representatives of the Tamil nation, contested the election seeking a popular mandate for ISGA. Denying the democratic will of the Tamil people, the newly elected Sri Lankan government also refused to hold talks on ISGA.

Against this backdrop, the island suffered national calamity of unimaginable proportion when a Tsunami struck in December 2004. The majority of the victims were people in the Tamil homeland who had already endured the ravages of war. Thousands of Tamil people died and many more lost their homes and all their possession and they were internally displaced. With no assistance forthcoming from the Sri Lankan state, the LTTE’s military and civilian structures faced up to this humanitarian tragedy with the assistance of international and local NGOs, addressing the immediate evacuation and rehabilitation needs. Six months after the tsunami, with the facilitation of Norway and the insistence of international donor agencies, the LTTE signed an agreement with GOSL to share aid: the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS). Yet, to the utter dismay of the Tamil people, the GOSL later nullified this purely humanitarian structure, again citing the Sri Lankan constitution. The international community, rather than providing an alternative framework to address the needs of the
tsunami victims, simply walked away, leaving the Tamil tsunami victims in a dire situation.

It was in this context that the current Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, assumed power in 2005. Immediately after his term in office began, the shadow war being waged against the LTTE and the Tamil people by Sri Lankan military intelligence wing using the paramilitary groups intensified. A dark phase has begun to unravel in the Tamil homeland; people are being terrorized by cold-blooded killings and ‘disappearances.’ Tamilparliamentarians who spoke out against the gross human rights violations of Sri Lankan armed forces were assassinated. Community representatives, journalists, students, academics, human rightsactivists are being murdered and ‘disappeared’. In all parts of the Tamil homeland under Sri Lankan military occupation, all sense of normalcy has disappeared in a reign of military terror.

The situation in the Tamil homeland is deteriorating rapidly and the humanitarian and human rights crises are deepening. People in the Tamil homeland are living in traumatic conditions. The continuing bombardments of densely populated civilian areas, including homes, hospitals and schools, are a violation of the Geneva Conventions 4, Article 147 and are thus war crimes. The Sri Lankan military has conducted unprovoked offensives against our forces and occupied our areas in violation of Article 1.3 of the CFA. Even under such grave circumstances we refrained from launching offensive operations and kept ourselves in defensive positions.

Amid this deteriorating situation in the Tamil homeland, in early 2006, talks were held in Geneva concerning the full implementation of the CFA. At the talks, the GOSL promised toimplement the CFA and disarm its paramilitary groups. Instead the Sri Lankan military and the paramilitaries intensified the killing of civilians and stepped up their terror campaign. Although a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), theGOSL refuses to carry out independent, impartial and effective investigations into the killings and disappearances, despite pleas by former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louis Arbor who condemned these crimes.Amnesty International report of the Allaipiddy massacre in May 2006 cited credible evidence that the Sri Lankan navy was responsible. The continued failure of the international community, despite the volume of independently gathered evidence, to take effective steps to curb the state’s abuses, is turning the Tamil homeland into an Asian Darfur.

While crimes against humanity are taking place in the Tamil Nation, the LTTE, with immense patience, repeatedly reiterated the need for full implementation of the CFA. At this critical juncture, we accepted the international community’s request and participated in a second round of talks with the GOSL in October 2006 under the auspices of the Royal Norwegian Government and hosted by Government of Switzerland. In this second round of talks in Geneva, we demonstrated utmost flexibility and in agreeing to hold talks on the core issues even while the humanitarian crisis of the Tamil people have not been improved.

We pointed out the suffering of the people and humanitarian crisis in Jaffna caused by the closure of A-9 highway, the only land route linking the peninsula with the rest of the island. The LTTE pointed out the closure of A-9 had set up a new ‘Berlin Wall’ behind which approximately 600,000 Tamil people were under the occupation of 60,000 Sri Lankan troops. The Sri Lankan government’s adamant refusal to open the A9 highway under any circumstances led to the failure of the talks. The closure of the A9 is a standing breach of Clause 2.10 of the CFA. The deliberate withholding of food and medicine from the civilian population is also a grave breach of article 147 and also violates articles 55 and 59-63 of Geneva Convention IV.

At the talks the GOSL while refusing to discuss humanitarian plight of the Tamil people, it insisted on discussing the core issues relating to the national question. However when it was asked for its proposal, there was none, claiming that it had only recently signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two main parties in Colombo which it
described as a “significant step” to find consensus in southern Sri Lanka. Today this much touted MOU has achieved nothing having been undermined by the GOSL itself.

Today the CFA completes its fifth year in existence. Article 2 of the CFA contains specific provisions barring the harassment of civilians and requiring civilian areas such as residential homes, schools, places of worship and public buildings returned to the people with the objective of normalizing the situation in the Tamil homeland. Yet, at present the Sri Lankan military occupies a third of the residential areas, leaving more than 300,000 people to suffer in IDP camps. This action breaches Article 46 of paragraph 2 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which is considered thecustomary international law, prohibiting confiscation of private property. Guidance can also be drawn from article 17 of the second Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the forcible movement of civilians. Moreover, in the current international context, no peace agreements whether it be in Kosovo,
or Bosnia, or Brundi, or Georgia, or Macedonia deny the right to return of
the people in the pretext of military security.

The worsening of the humanitarian and the human rights conditions despite the 5 years of the CFA has pushed the Tamil people to the brink. In these five years more than 1500 civilians have been killed and over 500 ‘disappeared’ and approximately 300,000 people still live in the IDP camps and welfare centres. Another 210,000 people were displaced in Sri Lankan military operations last year.

In this backdrop, only a neutral and constructive role by the international community can contribute to a just and lasting peace. Any involvement that is partial and attempts to marginalize or weaken one side will only lead to an irreversible process of deterioration. The parity of status and balance of forces between conflict parties in a negotiation process is essential for the survival of a peace agreement. In the case of CFA between the LTTE and
GOSL, the need to maintain parity of status and balance of power was later ignored,
leading to the CFA being undermined and, thereby, resulting in the disruption of the peace talks. Canada and the European Union, at the behest of the Sri Lankan Government, declared the LTTE, which was participating in the peace process as the authentic representative of the Tamil nation, as a terrorist outfit. These actions served to undermined the peace process,
encouraging the Sri Lankan Government to take a hard line approach and to escalate its military offensives. Human rights violations on an unprecedented scale and military assaults and occupation have rendered the CFA meaningless.

The landslide victory of the Tamil National Alliance party, which contested the 2004 general election on the platform that LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamil nation, clearly demonstrated the democratic will of the Tamil people. The LTTE is a national liberation movement, which has a long history of struggle for the Tamil people’s right to self-determination. The will of the Tamil people is to determine their own political future. In
contrast to current international practice with respect to nationalconflicts in other parts of the world, the international community’s insistence on a solution that does not infringe on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka is deeply frustrating for the Tamil people. The
denial of the Tamil people’s will is itself a breach of the law of self-determination. The international community has not rejected, for example, the South Sudan Machkos Protocol facilitated by US, UK, Norway and Italy on the basis it is affecting the sovereignty of Sudan. Nor has the international community questioned the Serbia-Montenegro agreement and the
recent proposal on the future of Kosovo on the basis these contravene Serbian sovereignty. The Papua New Guinea- Bougainville Agreement that was not opposed by the international community on the basis of safeguarding territorial integrity and sovereignty. In all these cases the peoples concerned have exercised their right to self-determination and sovereignty.

The marginalisation of the 2002 CFA, which would have been a step towards just peace, has destroyed the confidence of the Tamil people and their expectations regarding future peace efforts. The Sri Lankan government’s ongoing war of aggression, aimed at the subjugation of the Tamil people under the guise of ‘war on Terrorism’, will add to the bloodstained pages of
the island’s history. It has also compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self – determination and to achieve statehood.

By A.R.S. Mahalingam
[Colombo 6]

The news items of the severe dearth of news paper print in the North reminds me of the good old Tamil saying which likens ‘a man, fallen from a tree being butted to death by a bull’.Since August 11 last year, the day hostilities erupted in the North, circulation of all Colombo based newspapers came to a stand-still with the closure of the A9 Road indefinitely. It’s now almost six months since the newspaper reading public, moreso the English paper reading public, had been deprived of their basic human rights of reading material and to know what events are taking place around the world in general and in Sri Lanka in particular. Added to this severe constraint the other news media like the Radio and TV have their own limitations. Reception of F.M. radio channels from Colombo are either not clear or hard to be heard and so are the TVs sans relay stations. The only FM channel that is clear and receptive is the “Voice of the Tigers” and their version of the day to day happenings have been taken for granted as the gospel truth in the absence of any other means of information.

If the state does not take note of so many other forms of human rights violations that are rampant in the North in addition to the severe shortage of all basic needs of humanity, how on earth could any one expect the same state to find ways and means of sending at least state owned newspapers across for the news starved public?

[Photo: TamilNet]

While being in Jaffna till December last, I have been quenching my insatiable thirst for reading by wetting my lips on past old dailies and week-end editions. It is only after my arrival in Colombo that I did realize the gravity of the ground situation that had taken place all around, with some sensational news like that of the fall of Sampur and Vakarai in the East to the hands of the armed forces, which fact I fear may still not have reached the man on the marshy by-lanes of the peninsular in full, as the true version of these news stories may have been either distorted or blacked out by the two available Tamil publications of the two-sheet print that are at the mercy of the “super powers”.

It is under these circumstances that I plead with all the Colombo based newspaper authorities to use their goodwill and influence on the powers that be to have at least a few hundred copies of each newspaper publication to be sent across by sea or air as saline treatment to a newspaper reading public almost starving to death.

[A letter to the Editor, in dailymirror.lk]

By Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

The electoral alliances Mahinda Rajapakse forged to win the presidency are unraveling faster than expected. The relationship with the JHU and the commitment to the unitary state apart, the key personalities associated with the Rajapakse presidential campaign — Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi — having been sacked from their ministerial positions are now reportedly to join the throng of complainants to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) on account of inadequate security.

Deja vu

There are those who have an overpowering sense of deja vu with regard to all of this — reminiscing about the Premadasa era and the creation of the DUNF.

History repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce. The President’s over-arching consideration of regime consolidation seems to be threatened not so much on the battlefields of the north and east or by the claymore mines and ‘traitors’ in society in general, but rather by erstwhile allies in his cabinet, in his own backyard.

Nothing can be taken for granted and it is likely that the more he tries to stamp his authority with decisive action like the sacking of ministers, the more he will fuel the threats to the consolidation of his regime. Whilst he cannot ignore challenges to his authority, impulsive action may be his undoing.

It gives the impression of one who though so preoccupied by the goal of regime consolidation is nevertheless undermined in the attainment of it because of political immaturity and the ghosts of the past. Mahinda Rajapakse is Mahinda Rajapakse as he has said on more than one occasion — he is not S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Sirima Bandaranaike or Chandrika Kumaratunga.

This is a point he feels he needs to make and make unequivocally — that the old order has passed even though it shows little willingness of yielding place to the new. This is the message he wants to communicate loud and clear. The way he does this however, may lead to him having to reassure, as much or more clearly and loudly, that he is no Ranasinghe Premadasa either.

Threat to the Rajapakse regime

Mangala Samaraweera of course is the threat to Rajapakse regime consolidation personified. He gets on with the JVP and how, ex-President Kumaratunga and how. He is a good political organiser and operator as the President knows only too well and has the reputation of being one of the very few PA ministers who could and did get a job done.

And in the socio-political milieu of Sri Lanka he can slip very easily into the Athulathmudali/Dissanayake role as the counterpoint to the aesthetic and other distaste for the current dispensation.

Samaraweera traverses the spectrum of political and social constituencies from Matara to Colombo. And given his Shastri lecture, he is making a stab at projecting himself as a ‘thinking’ politician, ready, willing and eager to galvanise the ‘liberal’ forces in the Sri Lankan polity along the route of the ‘third way’ a la Giddens. As to what his JVP sahodharayas think about him positioning himself as a local Blair or Clinton would be interesting.

Mahinda Rajapakse has to slip up badly for Mangala Samaraweera to inherit. And it looks like the former will do his best to ensure that the latter is history, before this could happen. President Rajapakse does not seem like the forgiving type; quite the contrary.

Leader

Forgiveness may be possible if it is preceded by humiliation and humility. Samaraweera may not oblige on either score; victimisation and martyrdom have done wonders for less promising political careers. Already, with the stroke of a pen, Rajapakse has plummeted Samaraweera to the position of the leader of dissent and potentially, of the future.

The personalities and the balance of power and probabilities between them aside, there is that little matter of what they stand for and what they could deliver. President Rajapakse has yet to prove Velupillai Pirapaharan and quite a few others wrong, as far as his understanding of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is concerned.

It is no surprise that the JHU is by his side — this is not a matter of mere political survival but also a demonstration of ideological affinity. Samaraweera on the other hand, his current ‘third way’ pretensions notwithstanding, has run with the hare and hunted with the hounds in the past.

As President Kumaratunga’s chief lieutenant he declared that the Sinhala Commission report be consigned to the dustbin of history and spearheaded the Sudu Nelum Movement; as she changed, he changed with her chameleon-like and delivered his salmon-eating busy bodies barb against the long suffering Norwegians.

As presidential candidate Rajapakse’s key campaign organiser he presented himself as the JVP style true ‘patriot’ and son of the soil — deshapremi to his finger tips.

‘Third way’ Samaraweera

‘Third way’ Samaraweera may not now have the luxury of thinking of the challenges he may have to face if and when he ascends to the presidency. However, he must surely be aware that whilst he may need his JVP pals to get him there, once in office they will make his job of governing, difficult if not impossible, with regard to constitutional reform, peace and the economy.

Mangala Innocence may believe that they would have themselves reformed by then, through constant association with him or through some other route of Pauline conversion. Highly unlikely.

Strategic interest

In this respect, there is as always a perverse congruence of strategic interest between President Rajapakse and Samaraweera — that of cutting the JVP to size. The former can do it whilst the other bemoans the manner and method by which it is done, silently thankful for a great service done. Is it too fanciful to project into the future a situation in which Samaraweera will be hot-footing it to Geneva with files on human rights violations in the south? He is a founder of the Mothers Front and has already augmented his claim to be a human rights defender at present with the letter he wrote to President Rajapakse about disappearances every five hours.

The tragedy though, in respect of what has happened is that the key challenge of a political settlement to the ethnic conflict is untouched by all of this. Neither the UNP cross-overs or the sacked ministers have anything positive to contribute on this score and in the case of Samaraweera, political expedience and survival combine at the moment, to prevent an open departure from the JVP position and that championed by him in his incarnation as Rajapakse’s chief campaigner within the SLFP fold.

Power struggle

The power struggle in the southern polity has come to the fore yet again to push the key issue of peace into the background.

The President is not anywhere near as secure as he would like to be and the LTTE, we are told, is on the way out. Will Ranil Wickremesinghe now act and act boldly to lay out the agenda for a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka or is it the case that he is waiting for things to deteriorate further?

How much further? [Themorningleader.lk]

By Dr Kim Howells MP

Britain has long been a friend of Sri Lanka. That friendship is built on a wide range of shared interests and contacts, not least the large number of people of Sri Lankan origin who have made Britain their home.

Today’s British government has no greater wish for Sri Lanka than that it should find a peaceful solution to its conflict. This should be a solution with which all the people and communities in Sri Lanka feel comfortable and which enables them to develop their full potential, becoming a more prosperous, healthier and more highly skilled society.

On the other hand, if things continue as they are the current escalation of the conflict and its impact will hold back Sri Lanka’s development, corrode the quality of its democracy and tarnish its image in the international arena.

Only Sri Lankans can ultimately resolve the conflict in their country. But Britain and others in the international community can help. Many countries, international agencies and non-governmental organisations are already working with Sri Lankans to help create the conditions needed for peace and long-term development. I believe their work is invaluable to the people of Sri Lanka.

As part of this, the British government’s political and development efforts in Sri Lanka have a single aim. To help create the conditions in which a lasting peace can be achieved.

We in Britain have some experience of resolving conflict, in Northern Ireland. That province is now at peace. It took about 30 years to get to that point. We learned the hard way that security measures will only get you so far and eventually you must – if you wish to move towards a lasting peace – be willing to address the underlying causes of the conflict. Last year the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, offered to share this experience with HE President Rajapakse and his government. Accordingly, the Rt. Hon Paul Murphy, a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, visited Sri Lanka in November.

One of the most important things we learned in Northern Ireland is that peace won’t happen until the parties to the conflict understand that nothing can be gained by continuing violence. It is worth stating the obvious: a military victory for one side is very unlikely to produce a lasting political solution. Our experience tells us that a ‘war for peace’ approach inevitably means more war, rather than peace. And violence comes with too high a price. It is the people who suffer, as human rights are eroded, the humanitarian situation deteriorates and mistrust between communities increases. This, in turn, damages Sri Lanka’s image in the eyes of the world.

Similarly, we learned that there had to be a working cease-fire in force in order for meaningful peace talks to be possible. Politicians cannot be expected to make the compromises necessary for peace against a backdrop of violence and the public outrage this causes. The Norwegian-facilitated cease-fire of 2002 offered breathing space from the effects of the conflict. If adhered to, it would offer a good base from which to launch a new peace initiative. The parties to the conflict need to develop a degree of confidence in one another in order to be able to move forward to reach a common understanding of their shared future. That confidence can’t be built in an atmosphere where violence and fear flourishes. A broad political consensus for peace is essential. We hope that the new coalition government will be able to enable the parties to work together for the common good of the country.

I am looking forward to my time in Sri Lanka. It will be my second visit to this country. My fervent wish is that my visit may contribute to bringing the island’s tragic conflict to an end.

[Press Release - British High Commission, Colombo, 12 February 2007]