Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka’s Northeast are bearing the brunt of an accelerating cycle of violence as vengeful troops, harried by a shadowy, unseen enemy, lash out at nearby residents instead.
Dozens of civilians have been shot out of hand, been abducted and murdered or killed in indiscriminate firing by Sri Lanka Army and Navy personnel. The Air Force has bombed civilian dwellings in retaliation for attacks blamed on the LTTE.
Jaffna has seen many of the incidents of mass killings, but civilians are being killed in all of Sri Lanka’s Tamil districts by vengeful troops taking casualties from a series of gun and grenade attacks.
The LTTE this week criticized international ceasefire monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for not doing more to stop the killings.
“Though the injured victims, the relatives of the killed and our Political office have submitted concrete evidence to the SLMM in Jaffna proving the killings of innocent civilians by security forces and paramilitaries, the evidence has not been made public by the SLMM,” the head of the LTTE’s political wing in Jaffna said.
“Unfortunately, this delay has resulted in marked escalation in killings,” he said further. “Withholding this evidence has in fact encouraged the killers to continue the murders.”
Analysts and reporters say Sri Lanka is at war, albeit an undeclared one. In the past two weeks, Sri Lanka’s air force has bombed targets in Tamil –Tiger held parts of the island, Navy gunboats have been sunk in Sea Tiger attacks, and deep penetration units of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and paramilitaries have launched raids into LTTE controlled areas.
But both sides are, officially at least, still committed to the February 2002 ceasefire. But international monitors say a ‘low intensity’ war has gradually broken out. The monitors, who oversee the truce, have meanwhile become mired in controversy and some have narrowly escaped becoming caught in the crossfire.
With almost 300 deaths estimated since early April and the worst military confrontation since the truce erupting at sea last week, the ongoing violence looks just like the now remembered periods of conflict, replete with clashes at sea and military retaliation against Tamil civilians.
“You could in some definition say we already have a war. We don’t have a peace agreement, we have a ceasefire agreement. So there is a war ongoing. It is a low-intensity war. You can say that,” Major General Ulf Henricsson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters last week.
Over the weekend enraged Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel and paramilitary allies unleashed a wave of killings amongst Tamil residents of the islets of Jaffna, where the Navy has large bases.
At least thirteen people were killed when Navy troops and paramilitaries moved through residential areas throwing grenades and firing. Four children, including a baby and a toddler, were amongst the bloodied corpses found by fellow residents.
The Navy personnel were exacting revenge for the deaths of 18 navy personnel in a clash with the Sea Tigers off the Jaffna coast on Thursday.
Two Dvora gunboats were sunk and a ship carrying 700 soldiers was spared by Sea Tiger boats that trapped – only after frantic appeals by the SLMM whose officials were on board the ship.
The SLMM condemned the LTTE for violating the truce. But the LTTE, saying it was merely responding to SLN attacks on its own boats engaged in a training exercise, has warned monitors not to board SLN vessels in future.
“We urge you for the last time not to be on board Sri Lankan naval vessels until further notice from us. If you chose to ignore our warning and request, we are not responsible for the consequences,” the LTTE said in a letter which pointed out that the SLN was using the monitors’ presence as cover for its activities.
As this edition goes to print, there is confusion over the SLMM’s stand on monitoring the sea. Having declared on Saturday that the SLMM would no longer monitor the seas, the Nordic-staffed mission was reportedly acceding to Sri Lankan government pressure not to pull out of its naval role.
Residents in north and east Sri Lanka who were forced to flee their homes during the island’s two-decade civil war are bracing themselves, Reuters also reported. After the spate of attacks in recent weeks, some have packed their suitcases, while others are determined to stay put.
On Friday United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to “change course and bring the country back on a path to peace” in the wake of a continuing upsurge of violence.
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he was disturbed by latest news of major sea and aerial attacks, including an attack on the troop vessel.
“He repeats his call on all the parties to summon the political will to resume their dialogue under the facilitation of the Norwegian Government,” the statement concluded.
Two weeks ago UN agencies began delivering food, safe water and other basic needs to over thousands of people displaced by recent clashes and government bombardments in parts of the island’s northeast.
But amid soaring civilian casualties, the international community’s hesitance to condemn the Sri Lanka government for its bombardments of Tamil areas has heightened Tamil frustrations. The impunity with which Sri Lankan forces are abducting and killing Tamil civilians or simply shooting them out of hand has fuelled Tamil rage.
Tamil press reports say large numbers of youth are joining the LTTE, which has urged the people to join the liberation struggle.
Meanwhile, the international community has condemned the LTTE for the violence, whilst praising the ‘restraint’ of the Sri Lanka military.
“The reckless behaviour of the LTTE in the last days can only contribute to a dangerous escalation that results in growing hostilities and jeopardises any possibility for future peace talks,” the European Union said in a statement.
“The claim by LTTE that SLMM has put its own monitors at risk by allowing them to travel on naval vessels is utterly unacceptable,” it added.
The United States on Friday condemned the attack on a Sri Lankan naval vessel, saying the violence might result in returning of civil war.
“We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence by the Tamil Tigers, which has put Sri Lanka at risk of a return to war,” said a statement by Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs.
“We urge the government of Sri Lanka to continue to show restraint in the face of these provocations,” said the US statement.
However, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse threatened the LTTE with further attacks by his military.
“If they insist on continuing their attacks, I will have to defend my country,” Rajapakse said in an interview published in Colombo’s Sunday times.
“I have vowed to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka,” Rajapakse was quoted as saying.
Amid international calls for talks, Rajapakse told the Sunday Times this week: “It is my personal view that the ethnic issue should not have been internationalised. We should have treated it as a domestic issue and resolved it ourselves. As for me, I do not want to internationalise it any further.”
However, Rajapakse also demanded the international community must pressure the Tigers to enter into peace negotiations with him.
“It is important to have direct negotiations to de-escalate violence which have come very far”, Japan’s peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said last week after visiting Sri Lanka.
Dozens of civilians have been shot out of hand, been abducted and murdered or killed in indiscriminate firing by Sri Lanka Army and Navy personnel. The Air Force has bombed civilian dwellings in retaliation for attacks blamed on the LTTE.
Jaffna has seen many of the incidents of mass killings, but civilians are being killed in all of Sri Lanka’s Tamil districts by vengeful troops taking casualties from a series of gun and grenade attacks.
The LTTE this week criticized international ceasefire monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for not doing more to stop the killings.
“Though the injured victims, the relatives of the killed and our Political office have submitted concrete evidence to the SLMM in Jaffna proving the killings of innocent civilians by security forces and paramilitaries, the evidence has not been made public by the SLMM,” the head of the LTTE’s political wing in Jaffna said.
“Unfortunately, this delay has resulted in marked escalation in killings,” he said further. “Withholding this evidence has in fact encouraged the killers to continue the murders.”
Analysts and reporters say Sri Lanka is at war, albeit an undeclared one. In the past two weeks, Sri Lanka’s air force has bombed targets in Tamil –Tiger held parts of the island, Navy gunboats have been sunk in Sea Tiger attacks, and deep penetration units of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and paramilitaries have launched raids into LTTE controlled areas.
But both sides are, officially at least, still committed to the February 2002 ceasefire. But international monitors say a ‘low intensity’ war has gradually broken out. The monitors, who oversee the truce, have meanwhile become mired in controversy and some have narrowly escaped becoming caught in the crossfire.
With almost 300 deaths estimated since early April and the worst military confrontation since the truce erupting at sea last week, the ongoing violence looks just like the now remembered periods of conflict, replete with clashes at sea and military retaliation against Tamil civilians.
“You could in some definition say we already have a war. We don’t have a peace agreement, we have a ceasefire agreement. So there is a war ongoing. It is a low-intensity war. You can say that,” Major General Ulf Henricsson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters last week.
Over the weekend enraged Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel and paramilitary allies unleashed a wave of killings amongst Tamil residents of the islets of Jaffna, where the Navy has large bases.
At least thirteen people were killed when Navy troops and paramilitaries moved through residential areas throwing grenades and firing. Four children, including a baby and a toddler, were amongst the bloodied corpses found by fellow residents.
The Navy personnel were exacting revenge for the deaths of 18 navy personnel in a clash with the Sea Tigers off the Jaffna coast on Thursday.
Two Dvora gunboats were sunk and a ship carrying 700 soldiers was spared by Sea Tiger boats that trapped – only after frantic appeals by the SLMM whose officials were on board the ship.
The SLMM condemned the LTTE for violating the truce. But the LTTE, saying it was merely responding to SLN attacks on its own boats engaged in a training exercise, has warned monitors not to board SLN vessels in future.
“We urge you for the last time not to be on board Sri Lankan naval vessels until further notice from us. If you chose to ignore our warning and request, we are not responsible for the consequences,” the LTTE said in a letter which pointed out that the SLN was using the monitors’ presence as cover for its activities.
As this edition goes to print, there is confusion over the SLMM’s stand on monitoring the sea. Having declared on Saturday that the SLMM would no longer monitor the seas, the Nordic-staffed mission was reportedly acceding to Sri Lankan government pressure not to pull out of its naval role.
Residents in north and east Sri Lanka who were forced to flee their homes during the island’s two-decade civil war are bracing themselves, Reuters also reported. After the spate of attacks in recent weeks, some have packed their suitcases, while others are determined to stay put.
On Friday United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to “change course and bring the country back on a path to peace” in the wake of a continuing upsurge of violence.
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he was disturbed by latest news of major sea and aerial attacks, including an attack on the troop vessel.
“He repeats his call on all the parties to summon the political will to resume their dialogue under the facilitation of the Norwegian Government,” the statement concluded.
Two weeks ago UN agencies began delivering food, safe water and other basic needs to over thousands of people displaced by recent clashes and government bombardments in parts of the island’s northeast.
But amid soaring civilian casualties, the international community’s hesitance to condemn the Sri Lanka government for its bombardments of Tamil areas has heightened Tamil frustrations. The impunity with which Sri Lankan forces are abducting and killing Tamil civilians or simply shooting them out of hand has fuelled Tamil rage.
Tamil press reports say large numbers of youth are joining the LTTE, which has urged the people to join the liberation struggle.
Meanwhile, the international community has condemned the LTTE for the violence, whilst praising the ‘restraint’ of the Sri Lanka military.
“The reckless behaviour of the LTTE in the last days can only contribute to a dangerous escalation that results in growing hostilities and jeopardises any possibility for future peace talks,” the European Union said in a statement.
“The claim by LTTE that SLMM has put its own monitors at risk by allowing them to travel on naval vessels is utterly unacceptable,” it added.
The United States on Friday condemned the attack on a Sri Lankan naval vessel, saying the violence might result in returning of civil war.
“We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence by the Tamil Tigers, which has put Sri Lanka at risk of a return to war,” said a statement by Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs.
“We urge the government of Sri Lanka to continue to show restraint in the face of these provocations,” said the US statement.
However, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse threatened the LTTE with further attacks by his military.
“If they insist on continuing their attacks, I will have to defend my country,” Rajapakse said in an interview published in Colombo’s Sunday times.
“I have vowed to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka,” Rajapakse was quoted as saying.
Amid international calls for talks, Rajapakse told the Sunday Times this week: “It is my personal view that the ethnic issue should not have been internationalised. We should have treated it as a domestic issue and resolved it ourselves. As for me, I do not want to internationalise it any further.”
However, Rajapakse also demanded the international community must pressure the Tigers to enter into peace negotiations with him.
“It is important to have direct negotiations to de-escalate violence which have come very far”, Japan’s peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said last week after visiting Sri Lanka.
