Simmering violence continued across Sri Lanka’s Northeast this week, with little prospect of the ‘shadow war’ between Army-backed paramilitaries and the Liberation Tigers ceasing or of harassment of Tamil civilians by the military easing.
More than 150 people, including military personnel, LTTE cadres and many Tamil civilians, have died in the last month in the bloodiest period by far since a 2002 ceasefire.
Apart from a suicide bombing within the heart of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) headquarters in Colombo that killed eleven people and wounded 30, including Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, and the government’s subsequent revenge bombardment that in two days of heavy shelling and bombing killed 18 Tamil civilians as well as an LTTE raid on three paramilitary camps which killed 30 gunmen, there have been over 90 deaths, mainly of civilians.
Unsolved killings - particularly of Tamil civilians - continue in the north and east. The government has denied any involvement in the killings, but Army-backed paramilitaries and security forces have come under criticism by international truce monitors and human rights groups.
“Jaffna has become a graveyard,” 20-year-old student Suresh Rajaratnam told Reuters. “Every day, there is an average of three killings.”
In the wake of the suicide bombing, the capital Colombo remains jumpy, Reuters reported. Vehicles approaching the business district are stopped and checked, and police commandos have joined private security guards at the entrance to high- profile economic and financial targets.
Sri Lanka’s main political parties called off their main May Day rallies amid security fears. A government spokesman said that all political parties which met with President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday agreed to cancel their main public rallies marking May Day, a key celebration that allows political parties in the island nation to display their strength.
Earlier, representatives from the key states overseeing the Sri Lanka peace process met in Oslo on Friday to discuss ways to stop the escalation of violence.
The European Union, the United States, Norway and Japan are the ‘Co-chairs’ of the peace process, which has all but disintegrated save for a fragile truce between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers.
Norway’s International Development Minister Erik Solheim, chairing last week’s talks, which were focused on “what can be done to get the parties to respect the cease-fire and continue with the peace process,” the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said.
“I am extremely concerned about the recent upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka,” Mr. Solheim said.
“The international community will now come together to discuss this serious situation,” he said ahead of the meeting.
Assistant US Secretary of State Richard Boucher represented Washington at the Oslo meeting, while the EU sent Deputy Director of External Relations Herve Jouanjean and Yasushi Akashi, Japan’s special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, represented Tokyo.
“We strongly urge the parties to sit down together for talks in order to put a stop to the violence,” Mr. Solheim.
The two sides might not resume peace talks soon, the chief ceasefire monitor said Monday.
“When I look into the activities of the two parties, I am not quite so optimistic any longer about the peace talks in the near future,” Ulf Henricsson, the Swedish head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), told The Associated Press.
“Both parts are violating the cease-fire agreement, so a lot of people ask us whether the cease-fire is still on,” Henricsson said.
“Of course in reality not, because there are a lot of violations, but the agreement is still valid and the parties have not terminated it, so I think we still have a basis for negotiations,” he said.
“We will not go back to a full-scale war, because for me there is no military victory possible for (any) of the parties.”
Although a second round of talks were scheduled to be held in Geneva on April 24-26, the effort collapsed after Sri Lanka refused its customary practice of flying LTTE commanders from their controlled areas in the island’s volatile east to their main bastion in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka.
The Tigers have said they must hold a meeting among themselves before they agree to attend the planned peace talks in Geneva. They also insist the government disarms Army-backed paramilitaries whose murderous campaign against LTTE cadres and supporters – and counter-violence by the LTTE –over the past two years have frayed the truce and precipitated the present intense violence.
With regards the LTTE’s eastern commanders, the government initially insisted Colonel Sornam and Colonel Bhanu should travel by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) boat, a provocative demand rejected by the LTTE.
Amid escalating violence and international pressure, Colombo later agreed to allow international truce monitors to move the officers by small private helicopters, but the LTTE insists that only the large Air Force helicopters with their sophisticated defences could be deemed safe enough.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera will be travelling to New Delhi over the weekend to seek India’s action to coerce the LTTE to the negotiating table.
But analysts said this week that India is not yet at a point where it wants to walk back into the Lanka quagmire, and little short of complete breakdown where it directly impacts India’s security interests, Delhi will counsel from the sidelines.
Lieutenant General A.S. Kalkat, who is said to have led the most difficult expedition of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980s, told Gulf News that India cannot be a participant in the Lankan peace process because that would only make a complex issue more difficult.
Samaraweera will meet foreign secretary Shyam Saran, national security adviser M K Narayanan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reports said.
India has been a key player in the island’s peace process in the past few weeks, repeatedly intervening to compel Colombo to call off its vengeful retaliation against Tamil civilians for the suicide bombing and, earlier, to pressure Colombo to allow the LTTE commander’s movement.
More than 150 people, including military personnel, LTTE cadres and many Tamil civilians, have died in the last month in the bloodiest period by far since a 2002 ceasefire.
Apart from a suicide bombing within the heart of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) headquarters in Colombo that killed eleven people and wounded 30, including Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, and the government’s subsequent revenge bombardment that in two days of heavy shelling and bombing killed 18 Tamil civilians as well as an LTTE raid on three paramilitary camps which killed 30 gunmen, there have been over 90 deaths, mainly of civilians.
Unsolved killings - particularly of Tamil civilians - continue in the north and east. The government has denied any involvement in the killings, but Army-backed paramilitaries and security forces have come under criticism by international truce monitors and human rights groups.
“Jaffna has become a graveyard,” 20-year-old student Suresh Rajaratnam told Reuters. “Every day, there is an average of three killings.”
In the wake of the suicide bombing, the capital Colombo remains jumpy, Reuters reported. Vehicles approaching the business district are stopped and checked, and police commandos have joined private security guards at the entrance to high- profile economic and financial targets.
Sri Lanka’s main political parties called off their main May Day rallies amid security fears. A government spokesman said that all political parties which met with President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday agreed to cancel their main public rallies marking May Day, a key celebration that allows political parties in the island nation to display their strength.
Earlier, representatives from the key states overseeing the Sri Lanka peace process met in Oslo on Friday to discuss ways to stop the escalation of violence.
The European Union, the United States, Norway and Japan are the ‘Co-chairs’ of the peace process, which has all but disintegrated save for a fragile truce between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers.
Norway’s International Development Minister Erik Solheim, chairing last week’s talks, which were focused on “what can be done to get the parties to respect the cease-fire and continue with the peace process,” the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said.
“I am extremely concerned about the recent upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka,” Mr. Solheim said.
“The international community will now come together to discuss this serious situation,” he said ahead of the meeting.
Assistant US Secretary of State Richard Boucher represented Washington at the Oslo meeting, while the EU sent Deputy Director of External Relations Herve Jouanjean and Yasushi Akashi, Japan’s special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, represented Tokyo.
“We strongly urge the parties to sit down together for talks in order to put a stop to the violence,” Mr. Solheim.
The two sides might not resume peace talks soon, the chief ceasefire monitor said Monday.
“When I look into the activities of the two parties, I am not quite so optimistic any longer about the peace talks in the near future,” Ulf Henricsson, the Swedish head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), told The Associated Press.
“Both parts are violating the cease-fire agreement, so a lot of people ask us whether the cease-fire is still on,” Henricsson said.
“Of course in reality not, because there are a lot of violations, but the agreement is still valid and the parties have not terminated it, so I think we still have a basis for negotiations,” he said.
“We will not go back to a full-scale war, because for me there is no military victory possible for (any) of the parties.”
Although a second round of talks were scheduled to be held in Geneva on April 24-26, the effort collapsed after Sri Lanka refused its customary practice of flying LTTE commanders from their controlled areas in the island’s volatile east to their main bastion in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka.
The Tigers have said they must hold a meeting among themselves before they agree to attend the planned peace talks in Geneva. They also insist the government disarms Army-backed paramilitaries whose murderous campaign against LTTE cadres and supporters – and counter-violence by the LTTE –over the past two years have frayed the truce and precipitated the present intense violence.
With regards the LTTE’s eastern commanders, the government initially insisted Colonel Sornam and Colonel Bhanu should travel by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) boat, a provocative demand rejected by the LTTE.
Amid escalating violence and international pressure, Colombo later agreed to allow international truce monitors to move the officers by small private helicopters, but the LTTE insists that only the large Air Force helicopters with their sophisticated defences could be deemed safe enough.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera will be travelling to New Delhi over the weekend to seek India’s action to coerce the LTTE to the negotiating table.
But analysts said this week that India is not yet at a point where it wants to walk back into the Lanka quagmire, and little short of complete breakdown where it directly impacts India’s security interests, Delhi will counsel from the sidelines.
Lieutenant General A.S. Kalkat, who is said to have led the most difficult expedition of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980s, told Gulf News that India cannot be a participant in the Lankan peace process because that would only make a complex issue more difficult.
Samaraweera will meet foreign secretary Shyam Saran, national security adviser M K Narayanan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reports said.
India has been a key player in the island’s peace process in the past few weeks, repeatedly intervening to compel Colombo to call off its vengeful retaliation against Tamil civilians for the suicide bombing and, earlier, to pressure Colombo to allow the LTTE commander’s movement.
