Sri Lanka’s refusal to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries has become the central issue in the peace process and seems increasingly likely to derail the Norwegian initiative in Sri Lanka.
The paramilitaries themselves are now brazenly parading in Army-controlled areas carrying their weapons and threatening supporters of the Liberation Tigers in a defiant response to the Sri Lankan government’s pledge during the February talks in Geneva to disarm them.
Despite its pledge during the closed door talks in February, the Sri Lanka government in public continues to deny any link between the paramilitaries and its security forces – despite both engaging in combined cordon-and-search operations and international ceasefire monitors coming across armed men in government-controlled areas who openly admitted to be members of paramilitary groups.
Sri Lanka says that anti-LTTE groups are operating in Tiger-controlled areas but not in government-controlled areas and denies military backing. The Tigers say Sri Lankan military intelligence is organizing the paramilitary attacks on its members and supporters.
The Sri Lankan government clashed last week with the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which protested Colombo’s denials that armed groups were operating in its controlled areas.
In a two-page letter addressed to the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the SLMM’s outgoing chief, Hagrup Haukland, said the monitors encountered 10-15 armed men in civilian clothes operating in Army-controlled Valachchenai, who told the SLMM that they belong to the Karuna Group, one of five paramilitaries the LTTE says are being deployed by the military.
Haukland also referred to several “sighting of armed civilians claiming to represent Karuna is often reported to SLMM.”
Asserting that the monitors have strong suspicions about armed groups also setting up in the Vavuniya, the letter added the SLMM was aware of 11 civilians being killed in government-controlled areas in the east and six in Vavuniya since Feb. 23rd, the day on which talks in Geneva concluded.
Haukland’s letter was sent in response to the Defense Secretary’s strongly worded note about the contents of a SLMM statement issued earlier.
In a single-page letter, Rajapakse accused the SLMM of “misleading,” and making “defamatory,” inferences in their statement. He was specifically referring to paragraph 5 of the SLMM statement which said;
“The Sri Lankan Army has recently dismissed claims that armed groups are operating in Government controlled areas. However, based on SLMM’s monitoring activities and experience on the ground the Mission does not share the this view and we would like to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take this matter seriously and not close their eyes to armed elements that are to our knowledge still operating in Government controlled areas.”
The Defense Secretary charged the conclusion SLMM had arrived at was “without any conclusive evidence.” He subsequently asked for a meeting with Haukland to discuss the issue.
Haukland responded the following day, March 30th (Thursday), a day before he concluded his post as head of mission. Haukland successor, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, took over the following day.
The LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, said last week that the next round of talks would also be dominated by the same issue if the government fails to disarm the armed groups.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said that there had been a heated discussion between Haukland and Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary on March 23, when he introduced Maj. Gen. Henricsson to Rajapakse.
“You have come here to do a job of work. If you want to do that efficiently, be impartial and don’t take sides,” Rajapakse had shouted at Haukland.
Thereafter, the Defense Secretary went on to give the outgoing and the new SLMM Head some advice, the Sunday Times reported - he said they should take time to learn about the culture and history of Sri Lanka.
Rajapakse accused SLMM chiefs of serving in jobs in Sri Lanka only to add such stints to their resume and not to achieve objectives. He accused the SLMM of failing to condemn recent Tiger guerrilla attacks on the armed forces field and the police.
The remarks drew a prompt reply from Haukland, whosaid the SLMM had no evidence against the LTTE. “You cannot attack a person if there is no evidence. I will deal with the person if I can catch them,” he pointed out.
The paramilitaries themselves are now brazenly parading in Army-controlled areas carrying their weapons and threatening supporters of the Liberation Tigers in a defiant response to the Sri Lankan government’s pledge during the February talks in Geneva to disarm them.
Despite its pledge during the closed door talks in February, the Sri Lanka government in public continues to deny any link between the paramilitaries and its security forces – despite both engaging in combined cordon-and-search operations and international ceasefire monitors coming across armed men in government-controlled areas who openly admitted to be members of paramilitary groups.
Sri Lanka says that anti-LTTE groups are operating in Tiger-controlled areas but not in government-controlled areas and denies military backing. The Tigers say Sri Lankan military intelligence is organizing the paramilitary attacks on its members and supporters.
The Sri Lankan government clashed last week with the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which protested Colombo’s denials that armed groups were operating in its controlled areas.
In a two-page letter addressed to the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the SLMM’s outgoing chief, Hagrup Haukland, said the monitors encountered 10-15 armed men in civilian clothes operating in Army-controlled Valachchenai, who told the SLMM that they belong to the Karuna Group, one of five paramilitaries the LTTE says are being deployed by the military.
Haukland also referred to several “sighting of armed civilians claiming to represent Karuna is often reported to SLMM.”
Asserting that the monitors have strong suspicions about armed groups also setting up in the Vavuniya, the letter added the SLMM was aware of 11 civilians being killed in government-controlled areas in the east and six in Vavuniya since Feb. 23rd, the day on which talks in Geneva concluded.
Haukland’s letter was sent in response to the Defense Secretary’s strongly worded note about the contents of a SLMM statement issued earlier.
In a single-page letter, Rajapakse accused the SLMM of “misleading,” and making “defamatory,” inferences in their statement. He was specifically referring to paragraph 5 of the SLMM statement which said;
“The Sri Lankan Army has recently dismissed claims that armed groups are operating in Government controlled areas. However, based on SLMM’s monitoring activities and experience on the ground the Mission does not share the this view and we would like to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take this matter seriously and not close their eyes to armed elements that are to our knowledge still operating in Government controlled areas.”
The Defense Secretary charged the conclusion SLMM had arrived at was “without any conclusive evidence.” He subsequently asked for a meeting with Haukland to discuss the issue.
Haukland responded the following day, March 30th (Thursday), a day before he concluded his post as head of mission. Haukland successor, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, took over the following day.
The LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, said last week that the next round of talks would also be dominated by the same issue if the government fails to disarm the armed groups.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said that there had been a heated discussion between Haukland and Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary on March 23, when he introduced Maj. Gen. Henricsson to Rajapakse.
“You have come here to do a job of work. If you want to do that efficiently, be impartial and don’t take sides,” Rajapakse had shouted at Haukland.
Thereafter, the Defense Secretary went on to give the outgoing and the new SLMM Head some advice, the Sunday Times reported - he said they should take time to learn about the culture and history of Sri Lanka.
Rajapakse accused SLMM chiefs of serving in jobs in Sri Lanka only to add such stints to their resume and not to achieve objectives. He accused the SLMM of failing to condemn recent Tiger guerrilla attacks on the armed forces field and the police.
The remarks drew a prompt reply from Haukland, whosaid the SLMM had no evidence against the LTTE. “You cannot attack a person if there is no evidence. I will deal with the person if I can catch them,” he pointed out.
