The conflict in Sri Lanka - Is there a way forward? - 2007 February 10

 

The conflict in Sri Lanka - Is there a way forward?

Dear Friends,

The purpose of my presentation today is to give you an outline of the current situation in Sri Lanka and events which, in my opinion, prevents a peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict in the country, the current government’s tilt towards a military solution and the impact this has had on the ordinary people.

Let us start with something familiar, the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. The outpouring of human compassion from all over the world towards the victims of this tragedy was enormous.

In Indonesia, this generosity and goodwill contributed partly in calming the separatist demands of the Free Aceh Movement, a conflict which had raged for years. Sadly though, in Sri Lanka, it partly contributed to rekindling the flames of the armed conflict.

There were many in Sri Lanka who hoped that the tragedy would bring the parties to the ethnic conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), to work together to bring relief and a common understanding for a long-term solution to a war-battered population.

The former President, Mrs Chandrika Kumaranatunge, appealed for “unity” amongst Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils to “rebuild the nation”. But the deep suspicion between the warring parties, coupled with misplaced priorities and lack of strategies to fairly distribute the assistance received either in the north and east or in the south has exacerbated the situation even further. The government’s focus, it seemed, was on developing tourism in the devastated areas rather than re-settling the victims.

Today, in the north and east, many tsunami reconstruction projects have stopped due to the security situation and an economic embargo imposed. The violation of human rights, abductions and disappearances of political opponents, the dangers to aid workers and intimidation of the media has increased enormously.

Unlike in Aceh, Sri Lanka, it seems, is on a downward spiral both politically and economically. Let me highlight some incidents which illustrate the current situation.

In August 2006, an overseas group had almost rebuilt a fishing village in the east coast called Kallady, with water systems, new houses, schools, a clinic, a fishing fleet etc. in eighteen months at a cost of more than $1 million. The escalation of violence led to a government blockade on fuel, cement, medicine and food.

Then came the bombing and shelling of Tamil areas including Kallady, and the assassination of 17 ethnic Tamil aid workers employed by the French aid group Action Against Hunger. The shelling of Kallady destroyed several homes and all 600 residents had to flee to Vaharai, which already had thousands of internally displaced people. Shelling of Vaharai caused many deaths wounding hundreds.

Last month, the security forces captured Vaharai from the LTTE with a vast amount of military hardware. According to the government, this was an effort to neutralise LTTE attacks on security forces and destroy their military capabilities. According to the LTTE, the government attacks are merely a plan to capture LTTE areas and force Tamils into submission.

Such attacks have caused significant refugee flows to India. Some sources see the attacks as a deliberate government ploy to force civilians out of the LTTE controlled areas so that the forces can go for all out attacks on the LTTE, to capture their areas and destroy them.

By opposing a government proposal to form a temporary joint administrative mechanism with the LTTE to distribute aid to the victims in the north and east, called PTOMS, a formerly radical but now nationalist JVP whipped up communal antagonisms. The pretext used was that such a concession would strengthen the demand for a separate state. “Motherland first!! Workplace second! All those who do not participate in defending the motherland are traitors” was their slogan. Their campaign in the late 1980s against the Indo Lanka Accord led to the assassination of dozens of workers and political opponents for refusing to take part in “patriotic” protests and strikes.

The Supreme Court made an interim ruling on a case filed by the JVP that some aspects of PTOMS were unconstitutional. The JVP capitalised on the ruling saying that it thwarted handing over of administrative and financial powers to a terrorist group. Though the ruling allowed redrafting the agreement in a constitutionally acceptable manner, nothing eventuated.

From the point of view of the government, the JVP and other nationalist forces, the conflict today is solely due to the LTTE and its terrorism. Nothing more, nothing less; a view that I do not share.

Many Tamil parties cited abandonment of PTOMS as yet another example of discarding agreements the government reached with Tamils. The Tamil parties allege that on each occasion, successive governments used divide and rule schemes against Tamils while openly and covertly using terror acts. According to them, violence was systematically unleashed so as to distract and divert the attention of the international community.

The government and the nationalists question why the LTTE rejected the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1986, the Mangala Munasingha proposals in 1992, the former President’s proposals in 1995, and the government’s draft constitution proposals of 2000 and so on.

Charges and counter charges continue. The LTTE leader, Mr Velupillai Piraphaharan, in his last speech, said that the LTTE postponed their plan to ‘advance their freedom struggle’ twice providing opportunities for peace, once when the tsunami struck and then when the current President was elected.

Tamil groups say the new President’s administration is no different from the previous ones. According to them, sixty years of agitation and communal strife, more than two decades of war has not changed the attitudes of the Sinhalese.

Let us briefly examine how this disastrous situation developed historically.

It is a fact that after 1948 the Tamils in the island have been continuously denied their legitimate rights, mainly relating to equal opportunities in the areas of language, colonisation, education and employment.

Successive Sri Lankan governments unilaterally abrogated or disregarded agreements they reached with Tamil representatives, for devolution of power to Tamil areas and recognition of Tamil as a national language. Frustrated by the government's failure to act on such agreements, Tamil movements stepped up their campaign of civil disobedience and non-violent protest. Sinhala nationalists launched counter civil disobedience campaigns.

In 1972, the then government adopted a new constitution with the support of the former left parties affording Buddhism the 'foremost place' in the state, confirming Sinhala as the only official language, and defining the country as a unitary state. Non-violent protests were brutally and violently put down. Tamil movements which have been demanding federalism until 1976 adopted Vadukkodai Resolution demanding a separate state called a Free Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of Tamil Eelam. However, there was a generational gap in the tactics used. The established parties preferred parliamentary methods while the youth had different ideas.

The 1978 constitution, adopted by the then government did not quell the rising Tamil militancy. In 1979, the government extended new powers to security forces, suspended constitutional safeguards against human rights abuses, proscribed militant groups and enacted the Prevention of Terrorism Act. In 1980, the government adopted a system of decentralisation under the District Development Councils Act, but always were insufficiently funded, inadequately empowered, and constantly subjected to government interference.

In 1958, 1961, 1974, 1977 and 1983, Tamils in the south were brutally and inhumanely attacked and hundreds were massacred in cold blood. Many were burnt alive while they were at home or fleeing. Hundreds of thousands became displaced and their properties destroyed. This carnage was unleashed to force Tamils into submission. During the war, civilian targets were attacked. Entire villages including women and children were wiped out.

The LTTE reprisals have been similarly brutal and inhumane. Sinhala and Muslim civilians including women and children have been hacked to death, attacked and massacred. The LTTE came into being in the eighties as a small group but its ranks swelled since 1983 Black July riots.

They launched violent onslaughts against their political adversaries. Many Tamil and Sinhala political leaders were assassinated. By the end of 1990s, the LTTE had become the predominant Tamil militant group. All other Tamil political groups became associates of either the LTTE or the security forces. The LTTE was created by the policies of the post-1948 governments of Sri Lanka, no body else.

The LTTE put forward its first set of political proposals in the form of an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) for the north east. The government declared that this authority was demanding much more than federalism and refused to hold talks with the LTTE. Instead of holding negotiations, they used force to undermine the strength of the LTTE, which escalated the war. By 2001, parties to the conflict and the people were exhausted and battered militarily and economically to the extent that they could not carry on with the war.

The LTTE ceased hostilities first and with the former United National Party government in power in 2002, the cessation became formalized through an agreement signed between the government and the LTTE. Yet, the government did not fully implement certain agreed clauses on the withdrawal of security forces and high security zones from public locations they had previously occupied.

The LTTE intensified attacks on Sinhala and Muslim civilians and killed political and civilian leaders who differed with them, informants, and intelligence operatives. Prior to the election, the former government had also admitted to developing a US led international safety net to resist LTTE advances, and contributing to the split in the LTTE leadership.

Thus the Tamil People's Liberation Tigers was born, which is led by Mr Venayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a former LTTE leader in the Eastern province, who is now said to be collaborating with the current government against the LTTE both politically and militarily.

The former President, Mrs Kumaranatunge, assisted by the JVP, highlighted aspects of the ceasefire that were disadvantageous, took over several ministries including the ministry of defence of the former government and dissolved parliament. The crisis of the traditional ruling parties in Sri Lanka had faced with was evident when the current coalition government under President Mahinda Rajapkse, was forced to rely on the nationalist JVP to form government. In September 2005, the JVP signed an electoral pact with the presidential candidate, Mr Rajapakse. The candidate, who was the then prime minister unequivocally agreed to JVP’s demands, i.e., to renounce PTOMS, rewrite the ceasefire agreement negotiated by the then UNP government, expel Norway as the facilitator and boost the military in quantity and quality. Thus the presidential candidate committed himself to the war.

In a bizarre twist, the LTTE, which had negotiated the ceasefire agreement with the UNP, campaigned amongst Tamil people not to cast their votes, virtually contributing to the defeat of the UNP and handing power over to Mr Rajapakse’s coalition. At his swearing-in, President Rajapakse extended an open invitation to the leader of the LTTE to have face to face discussions, while maintaining that any solution to the crisis should occur within a unitary state, a complete departure from the position adopted by successive governments before him.

This hardline stance could have only one result, a sharp escalation of LTTE attacks on armed forces and violent provocations and retaliation against Tamil people by sections of the security forces. In January 2006, five innocent Tamil students were executed publicly on Trincomalee’s crowded beachfront. This was the beginning of a new campaign of deliberate reprisals aimed at terrorising the Tamil civilian population. It is alleged that behind these executions were Sinhala and Tamil extremists connected to the defence ministry.

In April 2006, a bomb blast at the Trincomalee vegetable market saw similar reprisals against Tamil civilians and establishments. Apparently, Tamil residents who tried to telephone the security forces chiefs found the phones ringing without any response. Civilian casualties were the last thing on the minds of both warring parties. In April 2006, the LTTE launched an abortive suicide attack on the Army Commander, followed by an attempt on the life of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, a brother of President Rajapakse. The Government’s attitude hardened and missile attacks on Sampoor across the bay from Trincomalee commenced. In July, when the LTTE closed the Mavil Aru sluice gate in Sampoor, depriving many farmers of their water supply, a major strategic blunder by the LTTE in my view, there already was a large Tamil refugee population in Mutur East owing to army reprisals.

Recent capture of Vaharai indicates the imminent control of the entire Eastern Province by the security forces helped by the LTTE’s breakway faction. The government has declared that the LTTE will be pursued everywhere until all their military assets are destroyed and they are exterminated. The LTTE, it seems, has decided to cut their losses and retreated to their stronghold in the north from where they may continue their guerrilla warfare.

The power balance in the east seems to be in favour of the government. The Norway brokered ceasefire signed in 2002 seems to exist only on paper.

At the same time, the Supreme Court ruled that the merger of the north and east following the Indo-Lanka Accord is not valid in law. The government promptly de-merged the north and east, re-established two provincial councils and appointed two retired army officers as the governors of the two provinces. An army officer has been appointed as District Secretary of Trincomalee.

How the war will unfold in the future, i.e., whether the warring parties would accept the new balance of forces as the starting point for talks, or each party would intensify the war for tilting the equilibrium in their favour, is yet to be seen. The conflict that grew out of discrimination against Tamils on the basis of their language, colonisation, education and employment is projected today as a simple issue of terrorism, both internationally and nationally.

The Government’s military success in the east has also brought about an erosion of human rights, freedom of expression and democratic norms. The so-called global anti-terror campaign, it seems, is used to suppress all struggles for fairness, justice and dignity. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern about the steady erosion of press freedom in Sri Lanka. On several occasions, the security forces have prevented the press from entering combat zones and regions controlled by the LTTE.

There is no official censorship in Sri Lanka. Yet, newspapers are allegedly forced to follow self-censorship through the Emergency Regulations (Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities). Murders, arrests, threats and bombings have become the daily lot for many reporters, particularly in the north and east of the island.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted and implemented in Sri Lanka since early 1980s. When the ceasefire was holding, this brutal piece of legislation was kept dormant. The government re-activated it recently. It is alleged that it may be applied against all who are critical of the government. Now, the government has moved a step further by painting individuals who advocate a negotiated solution based on devolution of power as supporting terrorism.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) noted that the regulations adopted in December 2006 incorporated some of the features of the old Prevention of Terrorism Act and urged that the government and the parliament should "immediately carry out a full review of the security-related legislation."

There has been a steady increase in extra-judicial killings, abductions and disappearances mainly of Tamils. According to the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission 583 people had disappeared in the North East, between April and December last year.

White, unmarked vans have played a major role in the abductions and disappearances that took place in Sri Lanka at the end of 1980s.  The practice appears to have been revived once again, with many abductions taking place in high security zones.

The most widely known recent abduction was of Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka who was abducted on 15 Dec in Colombo in a High Security area and is still missing.

According to his wife, the family has “approached very high authorities with political powers to intervene in this matter and facilitate the release of his captivity. But, it is of no avail. There is ominous silence from all quarters. The police department is also not aware of his whereabouts."

More than 5,000 children between 10 and 18 years of age have been abducted by the armed groups. The UN and Human Rights Watch have accused the parties to the conflict, mainly, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil People's Liberation Tigers of these abductions. Other former militant groups such as PLOTE and EPDP have also been implicated in recent abductions. The LTTE has admitted to some abductions and released some of the under aged children while the others have vehemently denied it.

Through the suppression of any dissent and control of the mainstream media, the current Government is engaged in glorifying its military successes and pronouncing to the country and the world, that its military option is the only way to settle the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka today.

Sadly, there are similar-minded people in expatriate communities on both sides of the conflict who appear to cheer on the violence and killing while enjoying the comforts of peaceful and harmonious environments available in their adopted countries.

Even concepts pronounced by compassionate and tolerant religions are utilised to support inhuman war efforts.

I will conclude my speech with a report of a recent incident:

A 38 year old pastor of the evangelical Tamil mission church and a member of the National evangelical alliance clergy fellowship in Jaffna, Rev. Nallathamby Gnanaseelan, was shot dead as he was traveling on his motor cycle in Jaffna.

Soldiers had signaled Rev. Gnanaseelan to stop and the pastor had promptly obliged. One of the soldiers had fired from a few yards away hitting Rev. Gnanaseelan. When the pastor fell with the bike, the soldiers had walked closer and shot the bleeding priest in the head. They had then taken away his bible, bag, identity card, his other possessions and his motor cycle.

When distraught family members went to claim the body they were informed that the body was that of a “terrorist”. The soldiers on duty had reported that the victim had tried to throw a grenade at them and they had shot him dead in self-defence. In a bid to frame Rev. Gnanaseelan a grenade had been apparently placed inside the bag.

When they came to know that the dead man was a well - known Christian pastor, they changed their original story to claim that the priest had not heeded instructions to stop. Therefore, the soldiers were constrained to shoot and kill.

The Tamil Christian community in Jaffna was horrified by the attempts to paint this Christian priest murdered in broad daylight as a “terrorist”. A statement issued by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance denied all allegations regarding the murdered priest. The statement added, I quote “His death is not an isolated incident, but one of many, which takes place in the North East of Sri Lanka, daily”.

We call upon the international community to raise their voices and prevent the massacre of the innocents in this country. The establishing of a United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is an urgent need. The world cannot stand by and watch as this situation deteriorates, while every day, people pay with their lives.” Unquote

Thank you very much.