Norwegian-brokered talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government in Geneva this week look set to be acrimonious and confrontational, even though they are only centred on the February 2002 ceasefire agreement.

Whilst the LTTE has said it is wants to discuss the failures of implementation of the agreement, the government is at the last minute, reverting to demanding that the agreement be re-drafted. That, the LTTE says, is out of the question.

As this edition goes to print, the Sri Lankan delegation, which includes four ministers, the Navy commander and Police Chief and is led by Chief Negotiator Nimal Siripala De Silva would be arriving in Geneva, ahead of the talks on Wednesday and Thursday. The other ministers are Jeyraj Fernandopulla, Rohitha Bogollagama, and Feriel Ashroff.

The LTTE delegation, led by the movement’s Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Mr. Anton Balasingham is already at the venue, at the secluded Chateau de Bossey 22 km northwest of Geneva.

Apart from Mr. Balasingham and his wife – flying in from London – the other LTTE delegates arrived Saturday – to a rousing welcome from Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates in Switzerland.

Expatriate Tamils greeted the LTTE delegates upon their arrival at the airport with flowers and garlands. The airport was decorated with rebel flags of red and yellow. An estimated 35,000 Tamils live in Switzerland which has the largest ex pat Sri Lankan Tamil community after those in Canada, Germany and Britain.

Press access to the talks are limited to the opening statements by the Norway, the broker and Switzerland, the host, on Wednesday and to the media briefing immediately after the adjournment of the talks on Thursday, Swiss officials said.

The strict restrictions were imposed after the Sri Lankan government insisted on reducing the profile of the talks – the first face-to-face negotiations between the two protagonists since 2003.

Bus transport will be provided for registered press personnel from the Geneva Press Club at 7.00 a.m. Wednesday in time for the opening statements by the facilitator of the talks, Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim and Swiss Political Director of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Urs Ziswiler.

While the Sri Lanka government is proposing to present a draft of an amended Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) prepared by its legal team, LTTE Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham said this week that his delegation had a mandate from the LTTE leadership only to discuss the implementation of the February 2002 CFA.

The central issue the LTTE is likely to raise, with regards non-implementation of the CFA is that of the Army-backed paramilitary groups which have been waging a ‘shadow war’ against LTTE members and supporters.

Amongst five groups the LTTE is expected to provide details on and demand the dismantling of – as per Clause 1.8 of the CFA – is the ‘Karuna Group’ named after a renegade LTTE commander who defected to the Sri Lankan armed forces after his rebellion against the LTTE leadership was crushed in a lightning offensive over the Easter weekend 2004.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, who last week, adopted a confrontational approach towards this week’s talks, warning the LTTE not to ‘push him to the wall’ has offered to ‘rein in’ – rather than disarm - armed groups operating alongside the military against the LTTE.

That is unlikely to satisfy the LTTE, which is likely to stand by its demand that Clause 1.8 of the February 2002 truce stipulates the paramilitaries should be disarmed and had provided a 30-day period to do so.

The mood remains one of tense hostility, despite the release of prisoners by both sides last week. The LTTE released two policemen in its custody and the government released four LTTE cadres. All the prisoners had been arrested last year after entering the other side’s controlled areas without notice.

“The most likely outcome in Geneva is not going to be war or peace, but another in-between option,” said Bart Klem, the Dutch co-author of a World Bank-funded report released last month, ‘Aid, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka.’

But that may be an optimistic reading. Whilst the guns have been largely silent in the past two weeks, there is sporadic violence and the Northeast remains tense.

Normality is returning to northern Sri Lanka after the region went to the brink of war in January residents told Reuters, but many are awaiting the outcome of the this week’s talks: if they fail, the violence could erupt again.

Troops keep up a high presence on the streets of the Jaffna peninsula, dominated by the Tamil community, hemmed in by rebel lines and seen as a key objective for the LTTE.

Jaffna residents say some young men are still crossing into LTTE territory every weekend for military training. Further south in the de facto rebel capital, Kilinochchi, most say they hope talks will avert war, but others say it remains inevitable.

“There have been talks before and nothing has come out of it,” vegetable vendor Mutu Balu, 36, told Reuters as camouflaged LTTE vehicles drove past.

“The Sinhalese majority government will never concede to the Tamils’ demand and fulfill their rights to self-determination.”

“The violence of the army has stopped,” Tamil shopkeeper S Poobalaratham told Reuters as an armoured personnel carrier growled up the road. “We don’t hear firing, we don’t hear bombs and mines going off. We hope and pray this will continue.”

Reuters reports that many companies are waiting to see the outcome of the talks before investing in the $20 billion (11.5 billion pounds) economy, and trade on the local stock market has been volatile in recent weeks on intermittent fears of renewed hostilities and peace hopes.

International ceasefire monitors are insisting that there are indeed ‘armed elements’ operating in government-controlled areas in the volatile Eastern Province although there is no proof these armed groups had the backing of the military.

The announcement by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) follows an announcement earlier by Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry stating that a joint search operation conducted by the Police and Army in the Welikanda area last week failed to substantiate claims that ‘paramilitaries’ were in operation or had even existed in the area.

However the SLMM insisted it has proof armed elements were operating within government-controlled areas in the Eastern Province and had even confronted them on at least one occasion.

The ceasefire monitors however said there was no proof to say these groups were operating with the assistance of the military and added that only the terminology used to describe them differed with the LTTE alleging they are paramilitaries and the SLMM referring to them as an ‘armed element.’

Speaking to the Daily Mirror SLMM spokeswoman Ms. Helen Olasfdottir said the word ‘paramilitary’ only applied to an armed group operating with the assistance of the military while an ‘armed element’ is a group operating independently.

“We never said there was proof of paramilitaries operating as that would implicate the military as assisting an armed group. We said there are armed elements operating in the East. That means we are saying there is proof an armed group is operating in the East but we don’t have proof to say the group is operating with the assistance of the military,” she said.

The LTTE has however often repeated that armed groups operating in the East have the direct backing of the military, a charge denied by the Army.

The Defence Ministry said in its release that “the search and clear operation covering Karapola, Mutugala, Wadumunai and Thiruchchena villages in south-west, north-west and south-east of Welikanda in the Eastern Province under government control confirmed once again that no infiltrators or any other alleged paramilitaries have sought entry into those areas either for settlement or otherwise.”

The search operation follows the abduction of employees attached to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in Welikanda with the relief agency and the LTTE claiming that ‘paramilitaries’ were responsible for the abduction.

Full text of a statement by the LTTE Political Wing

‘The Tamil people are shocked over President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rejection of their basic political aspirations in an interview with Reuters on 13 February 2006.

‘The President had, in this interview, totally rejected the Tamil homeland concept and emphasised that a political solution to the racial conflict would be looked into only within the parameters of the unitary constitution.

‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongly condemns these sentiments expressed by the President that tend to belittle the political rights of the Tamil people.

‘That the North-East part of this island is the traditional homeland of the Tamil people is not a political concept that developed overnight. It has remained the habitat and homeland of the Tamil people for over several thousands of years. The Tamil homeland was well defined and demarcated even at the time of European invasion of this island.

‘The Tamil people have always protested against Sinhala governments’ systematic and planned Sinhala colonisation of the Tamil homeland with an ulterior sinister motive to grab territory. Ground reality dictates that obviously it is the growth of Tamil peoples’ military strength that has prevented the Sinhala regimes from furthering their agenda on this score.

‘Homeland, nationhood and self-rule are the three basic and cardinal principles that have been guiding the LTTE in its struggle to find a peacefully negotiated political arrangement to the Tamil people, resolving the racial conflict. It is the refusal by the Jayawardena regime to accept these basic principles that led to the failure of the Thimpu talks.

‘The Sinhala rulers are in a dream-psychosis that makes them wrongly perceive that their success in rejecting the Tamil homeland concept would invariably nullify the concepts of Tamil nationhood and self-rule.

‘Unitary form of government, if translated into ground reality, means Sinhala Parliament, Sinhala Constitution, Sinhala Judiciary, Sinhala bureaucracy and Sinhala armed forces ruling this country. It is within this conceptually rigid supremacy centred unitary constitution that the Tamil people continue to face a cruel genocide.

‘A resolution of the Tamil national problem through devolution of power within the parameters of the unitary constitution is a concept that has lost its credibility and adaptability almost fifty years ago.

‘The Tamil people opted for a separate state only because their call for resolution of their national problem on the basis of federation was rejected. Tamil call for federalism has seen the passage of fifty years and their option for secession dates back to thirty years.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa now goes half a century backwards and is taking shelter into a rotten unitary constitutional concept. Going the extra mile, he even wishes to place this concept before the LTTE that has under its de-facto administration major parts of the Tamil homeland.

‘President Mahinda Rajapaksa, hastily going to town without knowing correctly the deep contradictions and complexities of the Tamil-Sinhala racial conflict, would seriously impact the current efforts for talks.

‘If the Mahinda regime adopts a political stand ruling out the Tamil homeland concept and insists on a resolution of the racial conflict within the unitary constitution, the LTTE would be left with no alternative other than to endeavour hard to respond effectively to the Tamil call for self rule.’

Hailing the decline in the number of youths under 18 being recruited by the Liberation Tigers, the UN child rights agency UNICEF, also called on both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government to give top priority at the upcoming talks in Geneva to the protection of children affected by the conflict.

UNICEF called on both sides to reaffirm their commitment to the ceasefire agreement and “to ensure that the protection of children affected by the crisis is at the center of the upcoming talks in Geneva.”

“Recruitment of children has been reduced and the average age of recruitment has increased from 14 to 16 over the past four years,” UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka JoAnna VanGerpen said in a statement.

“[However] recruitment of even one child is unacceptable according to the Convention of the Rights of the Child,” she said.

The UN agency deems anyone under the age of 18 a child in terms of recruitment, and is critical of many states, including the United States and United Kingdom who recruit from the age of 16 for their militaries.

“While recruitment of children in the last six months declined to an average of 43 a month, only 79 children were released and reunited with their families during the same period,” VanGerpen said.

UNICEF representatives raised these issues at a meeting with the Liberation Tigers Sunday last week. The meeting was held with the LTTE’s newly formed Child Protection Unit (CPU) at the LTTE Peace Secretariat building in Kilinochchi.

The Peace Secretarial recently created the three-member CPU to serve as the primary liason and to co-ordinate activities with UNICEF.

Both delegations acknowledged and appreciated the commitment shown by the other party in the protecting the rights of children.

LTTE delegation pointed to the some contradictions in UN instruments that deal with age limits of youths allowed to join State and armed-groups for military training and combat, and raised the issue of resources for LTTE’s administrative (non-military) sector.

The organisation said that children who volunteered and had hidden their true age were handed over once they were identified.

Last Sunday’s meeting was attended by Mr Sudar (Child Rights Lawyer from Tamileealam Justice Department), Mr Ilanthirayan (CPU) and Ms Geetha (CPU and Gender Committee), Mr Puleedevan (Secretary General of LTTE Peace Secretariat), and Mr Thiagaraja (UN and INGO Coordinator).

Ms Penny Brune (Head of Kilinochchi Zonal Office), Mr William Kollie (Child Protection Officer, Colombo), and Ms Stina Carrlson (Child Protection Officer, Kilinochchi) represented UNICEF in the meeting.

At the meeting, the LTTE announced the release of 28 under-age recruit, saying eight children were released directly to their parents while the others left to join a “skills development” programme last month.

The coalition of Sri Lanka’s four largest Tamil parties, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which at the last minute announced its intention to contest in the NorthEast the forthcoming local government polls, even won one electorate as it was the only party to nominate candidates there.

The TNA’s participation was in doubt given the extraordinary violence that has gripped parts of the Northeast in the past few months, violence which ended last month when the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers agreed to talks on stabilising the fraying February 2002 ceasefire.

In the April 2004 in Parliamentary elections, the TNA swept the Tamil dominated Northeast, contesting on a platform of supporting the LTTE and their proposal for an interim administration.

The TNA, which is competing at the polls under the banner of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) was the only party contesting for the Verugal Pradeshiya Sabha, in the Trincomalee District and was elected uncontested, the District Returning Officer K. G. Leelananda said.

The newly created Verugal local authority is located in the LTTE held Eachchilampathu divisional secretary division.

The Trincomalee District Assistant Commissioner of Elections has written to the General Secretary of ITAK requesting the nomination of two candidates for the post of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Verugal Pradeshiya Sabha within seven days.

Nominations closed Thursday for the 270 Pradeshiya Sabhas, 42 Urban Councils and 18 Municipal Councils across the island. Elections to the other 269 councils are to be held on March 30.

ITAK is also fielding candidates in local authorities in Jaffna, Mannar and other parts of Trincomalee.

In Jaffna, ITAK is fielding Tamil and Muslim candidates, while in the Mannar administrative district, ITAK is to contest all the five local authorities, including one Urban Council and four Pradeshiya Sabhas.

“To show that Muslims and the Tamils have been living in harmony in the NorthEast and to further reinforce the amity between the two peoples we are competing on the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi ticket for the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council elections,” Moulavi S. M. Shahil and S. M .Suhair told a press conference in Jaffna Saturday afternoon.

“Several nefarious elements which are against finding a just and fair solution to the Tamil National question, are trying to create divisions between the Muslims and Tamils in the NorthEast. Our action here will derail such efforts and highlight to the International Community of the deep cultural affinity between the two peoples,” the candidates further.

The candidates added that they are satisfied at the efforts taken on the resettlement of the displaced Muslim people back in Jaffna, and that they reject the accusation that Tamil people and the movement have not taken active steps to facilitate speedy resettlement.

Three parties, ITAK, Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) and Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) are competing for the 23 seats for the Jaffna Municipal Council.

Despite the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam meeting for talks in Geneva, Switzerland this week, the fate of seven humanitarian aid workers abducted by Army-backed paramilitaries last month remains unknown.

The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has meanwhile expressed “dismay and concern” over allegations made by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, and Cabinet spokesperson Anura Priyadharsana Yapa, that TRO was “not helping” with ongoing investigations.

The TRO refuted the allegations as politically motivated propaganda by the Sri Lanka government aimed at discrediting the TRO to avoid taking action against the abductors.

TRO said in a press release Friday from Colombo that it is in fact fully cooperating with the investigations, and has provided detailed accounts of its actions with regards the abductions and events thereafter.

TRO project co-ordinator Arjunan Ethiriweerasingham meanwhile told the Daily Mirror newspaper that any attempt he made to get information from the Batticaloa police officer supervising the search have also proved futile.

“I called the DIG the other day to get some information about the abduction case. The DIG told me not to get involved in police operations and cut the line,” he said.

Two groups of five TRO staff members went missing on 30 January. One group was abducted while travelling on the A11 Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa road, the main supply route of the Sri Lanka Army. Three women from that group were released in the subsequent days, but the whereabouts of the remaining seven are not known and there are growing fears for their safety.

The TRO has accused paramilitary organisations working with the Sri Lanka Army of being behind the abductions. The paramilitaries are also blamed for a string of gun and grenade attacks on TRO offices amid other violence in the eastern province in the past few months.

There had been fears, soon after the abductions were reported, that the LTTE might withdraw from talks with the government on stabilizing the fraying February 2002 ceasefire. However, LTTE officials say that matter would be taken up in Geneva.

On February 10, a forum of international and local Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) passed a resolution appealing to the Sri Lanka government to fully investigate and secure the release of the seven remaining TRO personnel.

The signatories included the Norwegian FORUT, Berghof Foundation, INFORM, Inpact, the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) and the TRO itself.

They extended their support to the families of those abducted and expressed the wish that their loves ones be returned to them soon.

The forum was organized to address the issues and implications of the abduction of humanitarian personnel, the delivery of humanitarian aid and to update civil society on the developments regarding the abduction.

A week earlier, the entire Batticaloa district observed a shut down in protest at the continuing lack of action on behalf of missing TRO staffers.

The protest, called by the employees of local and foreign NGOs who abstained from work, also drew support from private businesses and public services. Shops and banks were closed, while public offices and schools wore a deserted look.

The NGO Workers Forum in Batticaloa district has urged the Sri Lankan authorities to take ‘meaningful steps’ to secure the immediate release of the humanitarian workers.

The Forum also urged the International Community to use its influence in not allowing the authorities in Sri Lanka to politicise the issue of abducted humanitarian workers.

The Kilinochchi Federation of NGOs also staged a peace protest march last Friday, demanding their release.

TIME: How close are we to war? Can we pull back?
Tamilselvan: There is a war environment. The government is seriously engaged in provoking people and creating an environment that looks like war. On a daily basis, three or four people are being killed and in places that are fully under military occupation. Even a Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission office outside a military base was attacked. This shows the degree of government involvement. The Tigers are not engaged in any [similar] effort. Our commitment to take things forward as we have done in the last three to four years remains the same.

TIME: Do you have any doubt about who is carrying out the attacks?
Tamilselvan: We don’t need to think of rogue elements in the Sri Lankan army forces. It’s very clear that the military structure under [Sri Lanka President] Mahinda Rajapakse is made up of hardliners who believe in war. They have a history of it. They are hawks. These things come from the top. On one hand, the government makes statements that it is committed to peace. On the other, it openly commits atrocities.

TIME: To be absolutely clear, you say there’s no link between the Tigers and the deaths of more than 70 soldiers, mostly in claymore mine attacks?
Tamilselvan: The sophistication in which the attacks have been carried out does not necessarily mean the LTTE is involved. All the battles we had with the Sri Lankan army [during the 1983-2001 civil war] were done with the full participation of civilians. Over 100,000 underwent training and without them we would have not been successful. To understand who’s attacking the army, look at the background. A humanitarian disaster [the Dec. 2004 tsunami] that necessitated joint action did not bring about a change of attitude in Colombo. So in July 2005, the Tamil people, in an uprising of their own involving hundreds of thousands of people, [demonstrated] their disappointment at the [government’s failure] to deliver normalcy. The government had failed miserably to fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, such as minimizing their military presence. The military is abducting females, raping them, killing them, killing families. These are people battered by two decades of war, who expected normalcy and who were not given anything through the joint mechanism [for tsunami aid]. Expecting those people to remain calm forever is simplistic. People were forced to take matters in their own hands because they are so frustrated. But, yes, we accept they have been trained.

TIME: The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission says your denial of involvement is “unacceptable.”
Tamilselvan: We are prepared to cooperate in any investigation. Today we’re going to meet the Norwegian ambassador and we are going to put forward our resolution to cooperate in any proceedings they deem fit to satisfy them that we are not responsible.

TIME: If you feel the government is trying to provoke you, to create an environment for war, are you going to be provoked?
Tamilselvan: As a responsible political organization, we’re not provoked. We have a commitment to the ceasefire agreement and the international community’s concern for peace in Sri Lanka. What [worries] us is the grave risk to the ceasefire by the civilians who are being killed, tortured and arrested, and kept under military occupation, people made to feel helpless, who are resorting to actions that any normal human being would take. We read the statement put out by the UN Secretary General which says that both parties should stick to the ceasefire agreement. And what does the agreement say? Deliver normalcy to people affected by war for two decades. Who are these people? They are the Tamil people. Those people need peace. This is the message. They have not specifically mentioned that the government has failed, but it is very clear that this is what the international community feels.

TIME: If I accept your insistence that this is a people’s uprising, will there come a point at which the LTTE feels it has to join in?
Tamilselvan: We would like to join the people, but not in the way you suggest. We would like to join them in the peace process and alleviate their hardship. But if people continue to be harassed, we will definitely defend them.

TIME: Why is Sri Lanka’s history so often one of wasted potential? It has a booming tourist industry, a population of smart and educated people, and billions of dollars pledged in development and tsunami aid. There’s a golden future within reach. But it all depends on peace. Why throw it all away?
Tamilselvan: We appreciate your realistic assessment of the situation. Yes, this island is blessed with such potential in manpower and material resources. Why are we unable to tap this potential? Well, look at countries that are prospering. Those countries too have different nationalities, traditions and cultures. But they commingle. There is a dignified approach to governance. The people, whichever race they belong to, consider themselves rightful citizens and contribute towards the country’s prosperity. A similar thing can definitely happen in this island as well. But that’s if there is a change of attitude in Colombo and arrangements are made to bring back the status quo of two nations, Tamil and Sinhalese, living side by side.

TIME: Two separate nations living side by side? Is this a hardening of your position from accepting federalism?
Tamilselvan: You may be correct. But our position is based on historical fact. Both nations have their own way of life, culture and language. If all that is restored, and respected, and we are returned our dignity and right to self-determination, then moving away from federalism will be ruled out. We can have a relationship and political arrangements can be worked out. But first, accept the sovereignty of our people.

TIME: There can few more blighted places on earth than one which has suffered two decades of war, a tsunami, and now looks to be tumbling back into war. Where is the compassion?
Tamilselvan: We are not a separate entity from the people. When you say ‘you’ and ‘the people’, that is inaccurate. We are part of the people. I and other LTTE members came from the people. Our families were affected by the war and by the tsunami. To ask about our compassion for the people is irrelevant. We are part and parcel of the same unit. The LTTE spearheads the freedom fighters, but we are the same community. Also, in the Tamil homeland, there is deprivation in material needs, yes, but people are living in peace and not under subjugation and that is a wholly different quality of life from people who are under military occupation. Why are people from military-occupied areas coming here? Why are they leaving their homes and jobs? Because they are prepared to undergo difficulties, but not live under military occupation.

TIME: Should fighting resume, many people think there’s so much frustration, that it’s going to be even more bloody than before.
Tamilselvan: War is not gentle and nice. It’s definitely going to be cruel. We hate war and we do not see it as an option that will produce a political solution. But we were forced into war. The decision to avoid such bloodshed, to avoid the killing of thousands of people, is for the occupying military power, the prosecutor of war, not the oppressed.

TIME: What can the international community do to help prevent this tragedy?
Tamilselvan: The international community is serious and relentless in its pursuit of peace and we appreciate that. But they are finding it very difficult to handle the situation in the south, because of the hardliners. Our opinion is that the international community has to bring about sanctions on a rogue state.

TIME: The Tamil boycott during the November presidential election helped elect Mahinda Rajapakse, the more hard-line candidate. Why do your enemies a favor?
Tamilselvan: [Laughs] Boycotts are nothing new to the Tamil people. They are born out of frustration and the Tamils have always given Sri Lankan presidential elections a lukewarm response. If Mahinda is a hard-liner, the Tamil people do not see [losing opposition candidate] Ranil [Wickremesinghe] as any different. He didn’t do anything for us. The Tamil people had no reason to participate in the election.

Alex Perry is the South Asia bureau chief for the Time magazine

Like a re-run of an old movie we have watched many times before, we are now about to sit down and watch yet another round of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam unfold in Geneva, Switzerland next week. This time though, how many of us will be waiting with bated breath for a significant breakthrough is debatable.

Peace talks were first held in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan in the mid-1980s, under the supervision of the Indian Government. Next week’s talks in Geneva are being held under the supervision of the Norwegian Government.

The chief executive officer of this process, Norway’s now Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim has told us not to expect too much from the Geneva talks. He should know, being in the driving-seat. It’s certainly a better approach than expecting too much and ending up with less than one hoped for. Better a realistic, pragmatic approach than one of wild enthusiasm and naïve hope.

When the announcement came that the LTTE had agreed to talk, there was great jubilation in quarters which once asked that the Norwegians be kicked out of the process together with Erik Solheim. That was because the LTTE had embarked on a blitzkrieg against government forces in Jaffna. That they had eventually used this to gain a bargaining lever in deciding the agenda for the Geneva talks was overlooked in the first flush of optimism.

We are now at the table in Geneva. And we would imagine that the Government brief has been well prepared and studied intensively. The careful advocacy of that brief is now what is required. From a situation of no information, there is this fear that a sudden surplus of information has been infused into our team of 4 cabinet ministers, the IGP and the Navy Commander no less.

But like in all hard fought cases - the opposite side will, no doubt, have a trick or two up its sleeve. And the LTTE may genuinely be thinking the same of the Government. President Mahinda Rajapaksa came into office - no doubt helped by the LTTE -on a platform of renegotiating the CFA (Ceasefire Agreement). His alliance found several flaws in the CFA, mainly that the truce needed to be tightened since it was evident that the LTTE was getting away with blue murder despite the existence of a CFA.

For the LTTE, they will only want a win-win situation from these talks. They will insist on the full implementation of the existing CFA and not a revised one which the Govt may propose in Geneva. Then since a new threat has surfaced with the emergence of the breakaway Karuna faction - they will simply want the Geneva talks to settle that issue -- and then if that is not done - they will use this to complain to the international community that the government is not serious in its efforts to gain peace. There are miles to go before any common ground can be found.

What is disturbing is that the whole gamut of outstanding issues that are in urgent need of attention such as child conscription; pluralism; democracy etc., in the north and east are going to be shelved for another day.

Nevertheless, there has to be a start somewhere. And we urge both parties not to be preoccupied with scoring debating points but to ensure that the larger goal - the peace that our war-weary people are longing for is achieved sooner than later.

Our senior staff have just returned from Jaffna after checking the pre-talks mood and asking the ordinary people there what their hopes are. Their feeling is akin to what we expressed soon after the LTTE agreed to come to the negotiating table. A sense of déjà vu; a sense of cautious optimism.

The people of Jaffna, no different from those in other parts of the island, want to get on with their lives; live in their own homes without fear of displacement; do their cultivation and fishing and trade in other parts of the country without the fear of violence and death stalking them at every turn.

However difficult the challenges at Geneva - the bottom-line is that the killings must stop. There is nothing else they can hope for at this stage of the peace process.

Violence continued to escalate across Sri Lanka’s Northeast over the past fortnight with claymore attacks, indiscriminate shooting, the sinking of gunboats and shelling of villages. Over 100 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the last two weeks alone across the Tamil regions.

Whilst the major incidents are reported elsewhere in this edition, the numerous other incidents are detailed below:

Two Tamil youths travelling in a two-wheel tractor were shot dead by unidentified armed men at Periyapalam, a village in the Sri Lanka government controlled territory in Muttur town, Trincomalee, Sunday.

Three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were seriously wounded when unknown assailants threw hand grenades at their foot patrol near the Post Office Junction along Jaffna-Palaly Road Saturday. Assailants had approached the junction through the road that runs behind the Jaffna Campus and escaped after hurling the grenades at the SLA troopers. Soldiers indiscriminately fired after the incident, seriously injuring an elderly civilian who was passing by along the Palaly Road.

In Batticaloa, two unidentified gunmen shot and killed a cadre from the paramilitary Karuna Group who was riding on a motorbike with another cadre. A T-56 rifle and a 9 mm gun were recovered by the Police from the site, in front of Kattankudy bus stand on Batticaloa Kalmunai main street.

A total of six and a half million rupees worth of books, computer equipment and property were destroyed when Sri Lankan troops burnt the International Students Association of Tamileelam (ISATE) building and the office of the Jaffna MP Mr. S. Kajendran, Friday night. This is the fifth attack of this kind on the same building, the MP wrote in a letter to the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

“International Students Union provides extensive services to the students in Jaffna. It hosts a library of 2000 books for the University as well as for the Advanced Level school students. Some computers and valuable office equipments were stolen by the forces and the rest were burnt,” the letter further said.

An armed paramilitary group that arrived in motorbikes from Urelu doused the building with gasoline and set fire to it while SLA soldiers from the field motorbike unit provided security, local residents said. SLA soldiers stationed at Palaly Road blocked the fire-brigade and the locals from approaching the building to extinguish the fire.

A SLA soldier with a road patrol was shot dead by an unknown gunman on Jaffna Main Street near Chundukili Girls School Saturday morning. The gunman was hiding behind a building in the Main street and escaped after the shooting.

Seventeen-year-old student Balakumar was shot dead last Friday morning in Muttur town by unidentified people on cycles. Another Tamil student was seriously injured in the attack. Separately, two motorbike riding gunmen shot and wounded a 25-year-old youth at the entrance of Valaichenai Church Friday at 7:00 p.m., Police said.

In Jaffna, the body of Rasan Santhakumar 26, a fisherman from Karainagar, was recovered from a fresh grave found in the vicinity of the SLN camp in Karainagar area Friday afternoon. Santhaumar went missing Wednesday after he went out with his bike, relatives said. Kayts police recovered the body and had handed it to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital for postmortem examinations.

Two civilians from Mankumban, 5th District area, in Kayts were seriously injured Friday when four unidentified gunmen entered their house scaling the perimeter wall, and fired indiscriminately inside the house Friday. P.Sunderalingam, 54, and his daughter S.Jeyaranee, 29, suffered serious gunshot wounds.

Separately, two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed Mr. Gnanam, 45, owner of a hair dressing saloon in Atchuveli north in Valigamam east, Friday as he was opening his saloon. Meanwhile, a relative of another disappeared saloon owner was held in Atchuvely checkpoint by SLA soldiers, tortured and threatened with death. The fate of Vellautham Gopi, 26, a hairdressing saloon owner in Point Pedro abducted by unidentified gunmen Tuesday, 09 May, is yet unknown.

A SLA trooper was seriously injured in a hand grenade attack on the SLA street patrol unit by an unidentified person at Urikadu on the Valvettiturai- Thondaimanaru road in Jaffna Thursday. Though the SLA soldiers opened fire on the attacker, neither the attacker nor other people on the site were hit.

On Thursday morning Mr.Surendran alias Surya, (22) owner of a hairdressing saloon in Muttur was shot dead by unidentified armed persons on a motorcycle. He died on the spot inside his saloon with injuries on his head and chest. The saloon is located about one hundred yards away from the Kaddaiparichchan army camp in the government-controlled territory.

In Jaffna, SLA soldiers detained six youths, all below 25 years, Thursday afternoon from a restaurant at Kalady junction near Jaffna University. The youths, two from Point Pedro and four residents of Jaffna town, were standing in front of the restaurant when they were rounded by SLA soldiers who arrived on motorbikes. The students were blind folded and were taken to the Atchelu SLA camp, witnesses said, but the SLA had not report on the missing youth.

Two SLN troopers were seriously wounded in a claymore attack in the Jaffna islet of Velanai last Wednesday. The SLN conducted a large scale cordon and search operation in Velani Vangalavadi area where the explosion took place and arrested an elderly civilian.

In Mannar, the mothers of two students lodged separate complaints with the Mannar Citizen Committee about the disappearance of their sons. Ms L.Thangarasa (44) of Kallimoddai in Murunkan in her complaint said that her son Johnson (13) a student who went for school on April 14 this year did not return thereafter. Ms B.Soosaiammah (52) of Panankattikottu in Mannar in her complaint said her son Antony Sureshkumar (17) who left home on April 24 morning had not returned thereafter.

Two civilian employees of Forestry Resources Protection unit attached to the civil administration in Vanni, were found shot dead in Panikkankulam jungle, 5 km west of A9 road northwest of Mankulam Tuesday last week. The employees who went to the jungle Tuesday, 02 May, were reported missing on 05 May, Tamileelam police officials said.

In Valaichenai, Seenithamby Logeswaran, 25, of Panichankerny, riding with a friend on his motorbike, was seriously injured and later died when he was fired at by gunmen allegedly belonging to Karuna group in Kayankerny. The gunmen who had lain in ambush near Kayankerny bridge escaped after shooting Logeswaran, reports said.

In the Jaffna peninsula, unidentified gunmen in a white Hiace van abducted two traders in Pt. Pedro town, in an SLA high security zone. The men were abducted when they were getting ready to go home after closing their shops. Also on Tuesday, a Jaffna student on his way abroad was reported missing together with his driver and the vehicle after reaching the Omanthai SLA checkpost on 6 May.

Monday last week, SLA soldiers closed entry points to the A9 at Omanthai and the Muhamalai crossing also remained closed as SLA imposed a curfew. The SLA also closed down Uyilankulam and Madhu entry points to the Liberation Tigers controlled territory in the Mannar district. Soldiers also began moving towards Forward Defense Lines (FDLs) in Nagarkovil in Vadamaradchy east, and surrounding villages of Manatkaadu and Kudathanai, in vehicle convoys from Palaly Military base.

In Batticaloa, the body of fisherman Sinnamuthu Sivalingam, 43, from Kaluvankerny, was recovered last Monday after receiving complaints that the father of four had not returned from when he went fishing the previous Friday.

Twelve police cadres including a police woman, and two civilians were seriously injured in a hand grenade attack by unidentified men riding in a motorbike Sunday in front of Batticlaoa police head office. The police were talking near a vegetable stall just in front of the police head office when the attackers lobbed the grenade. The police opened fire indiscriminately immediately after the attack, witnesses said.

The SLA also mounted artillery and mortar attacks on Liberation Tigers' controlled Vavunathivu, Batticaloa and surrounding areas last Sunday morning, but reports from the area indicated that no one was injured. Vavunathivu residents began moving out of the several residential areas after the attacks.

Unknown gunmen shot dead a youth in Thirunelvely, Jaffna, Sunday. The youth received four gunshot wounds and died on the spot.

Eight men who were guarding the Kelathu Amman temple in Chavakachcheri were killed during the night of Saturday, May 6 (see separate story).

Also in Jaffna, SLA soldiers damaged the building that functioned as the political office of the Liberation Tigers at Kokkuvil, in the early hours of Saturday last week. The troops entered the building and smashed doors and windows. Another building used by the women members of the LTTE's political wing at Kokkuvil east was also damaged.

Separately, two 23-year-old youths who had travelled to Jaffna town from Point Pedro to buy provisions for their carpentry business were reported missing Saturday. They had gone to Jaffna on Friday and had not returned by midday Saturday.

Elsewhere in Jaffna, SLA soldiers conducted a search operation in the Inuvil area Saturday morning. Kandaswamy temple road, KKS road and Cross road in Inuvil were searched by the troops. It is not known if any arrests were made.

In Mannar, the SLA and police conducted a combined cordon and search operation twice on Saturday, first in the morning and again after noon. All business establishments were searched and employees were subjected to severe interrogation.

On Friday May 5, around fifteen shots were heard from the offices of the Jaffna based daily, Namathu Eelanadu, though SLA soldiers had been deployed around the offices after the killings at the Uthayan.

Also, an unidentified attacker, armed with a handgun, fired on and SLA soldier who was guarding policemen providing security to Uthayan newspaper office. Meanwhile, another gunman in Vadamaradchi, shot and wounded an SLA soldier.

Separately Mr. Visanthy Aloysius, a Tamil farmer of Vellalarkaddu in Nanattan division in Mannar district was reported missing on May 5 after being arrested by the SLA on April 29. Several villagers witnessed the arrest, but now SLA officials are denying arresting the farmer, TNA parliamentarians said in a letter sent Friday.

In another incident, unidentified men on a motorbike shot dead a Tamil youth in Kantalai. The dead youth, who worked in sand mining and transportation of sand for the construction industry, was repairing his lorry parked close to his residence when the attackers shot him at close range and fled from the scene, Kantalai police said.

Unidentified gunman shot and killed a policeman M. Vajisiri, 39, of Batticaloa police station on May 5 in an attack on the 3 policemen posted near Batticaloa Hindu College playground. Separately, one police constable was killed on the spot and two seriously injured in a claymore explosion in Puraporukki in Vadamaradchy district. Meanwhile, in Urikadu, Valvettiturai one SLA soldier has been reported killed and one soldier and a policeman wounded, in a separate grenade attack, while a third attack on SLA troopers was reported at Maruthanarmadam in Valikamam.
Separately, military officials in Colombo said SLN attack vessels had destroyed an LTTE boat and damaged two other in Kalpitti lagoon on May 5. Three LTTE cadres were in the boat killed by the Navy, according to press reports. A military spokesman said the boats had tried to provoke the Navy to move towards the coast where a heavy calibre gun installed in a truck was waiting to fire at the navy boats. “Since the Navy detected the weapon early, it did not move towards the danger zone, but instead attacked the remaining LTTE boats,” he said.

Three policemen and three civilians including an eight year old girl were injured Friday two weeks ago in Vavuniya in a claymore attack targeting the vehicle taking lunch to the police cadres. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and policemen opened fire for 15 minutes after the explosion, civilians told reporters.

On May 4, SLA and police personnel rounded up and searched Kallady, Kallady Velore, Thiruchenthur and Dutchbar in Kathankuddy police division in Batticaloa, taking 10 people to the police station for further inquiries. Residents complain that many areas in Batticaloa are being subjected to intensive roundup searches by the armed forces.

Soldiers and police also conducted a combined cordon and search operation that morning in the predominantly Tamil areas of the Trincomalee town. Security forces took sniffer dog to detect any explosives and claymore mines concealed in houses. However no explosives were found and no suspects were arrested during the operation. Meanwhile the police prohibited motorcycles and bicycles entering the port city with immediate effect for security reasons.

Separately, two SLA troopers were seriously injured in an attack launched on their patrol team in Inuvil, a village located between Kankesanthurai and Jaffna, that Thursday morning. Unconfirmed reports said that there was firefight when unidentified attackers attempted to abduct the soldiers.

Separately, five civilians were rushed to Vavuniya hospital with gunshot wounds when Sri Lankan troopers opened fire for more than 10 minutes after a grenade attack at the heart of Vavuniya town. Two policemen were wounded in the grenade attack that Thursday. Around 300 people were detained during a cordon and search operation following the attack.

Also, two home guards were killed and four injured when a chain of claymores exploded targeting a group of 9 homeguards in Avaranthulava, a Sinhala settlement located 15 km northwest of Vavuniya.

On Wednesday two weeks ago, the LTTE Mannar district political head, Mr. S. Iniyavan, complained to the SLMM of escalating attacks by the SLA DPUs.

Also on that Wednesday, a bus carrying around 50 passengers from Puliyankulam northwards in LTTE controlled area in Periyakulam in Vavuniya North narrowly escaped a claymore blast. Tamil Eelam Police accused an SLA DPU of being behind the attack on civilians, saying the claymore missed the target as it had slipped in the rainy weather. The attackers had exploded the anti-personnel mine from a 200 meters distance and the casualties would have been high if the bus had received the full blast of the explosion, the police said.

Meanwhile, a 50-year old woman farmer was killed and two others, including a 50-year old woman and a 60-year old man, were wounded when soldiers from Iranai Iluppaikulam fired at civilians who were returning with rice straw bundles from their fields. Also, two helmeted men on a motorcycle passing the Sri Lanka police sentry point on the Batticaloa-Trincomalee main road in Batticaloa, lobbed a hand grenade into the sentry point injuring one man who was rushed to the Batticaloa Teaching hospital.

On Tuesday May 2, the most reported attack was on the offices of the Jaffna daily, Uthayan, which left two dead. The shootings, the day before World Press Freedom Day, were allegedly the work of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (see separate story).

Separately, the LTTE said it retaliated after the SLA launched artillery fire on their forward defence line at Navalady in Muttur. The LTTE cadres successfully retaliated the attack, said Mr. S. Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE. A civilian who was crossing the lagoon sustained injuries in the SLA firing, reports said.

Meanwhile, a group of soldiers who penetrated into Liberation Tigers controlled Madu division, shot and killed a 50-year old female farmer and wounded a 60-year old man and another 50-year old woman. The farmers were returning from their fields with rice straw bundles when they were shot by the penetrating group.

Also, two lorry drivers of the Vaharai Multi-purpose society in Batticaloa, who had been abducted by armed cadres of the Karuna paramilitary group on April 25 were released that Tuesday, though the fuel tanker they were driving, with Rs 500,000 worth of fuel, was unaccounted for.

Also on May 2, armed men riding in a motorbike entered a hairdressing saloon near Thirunelvely junction in Jaffna and shot at a client, a trader from nearby public market, seriously wounding the trader and saloon owner. The trader, Arumugarajah Theyvendran, 54, succumbed to his wounds at Jaffna hospital. Eyewitnesses at the site, a high security area manned by SLA soldiers 24 hours a day, alleged that the SLA withdrew it's soldiers from nearby posts 10 minutes prior to the shooting.

On the same day, armed men on a motorbike shot and killed a young auto-rickshaw driver in Kodikamam in Thenmaradchi division, Jaffna. Selvaratnam Mathiseelan, 22, was the 8th auto driver gunned down in Jaffna. At the time, locals alleged that gunmen operating from SLA intelligence camps were behind the serial killings targeting auto-rickshaw drivers and traders in SLA controlled areas.

Meanwhile, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, TNA parliamentarian for Jaffna district, complained of harassment and death threats to domestic staff at his Jaffna residence. In a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse, Mr Ponnambalam states that two individuals had entered his premises, threatened a domestic helper with a firearm and searched the premises, before leaving. “Just before they had left, they further warned the domestic help that if the authorities were informed of this incident that she would be killed,” Mr Ponnambalam said.

Tamils first came to Switzerland in the 1980s as refugees fleeing civil war in Sri Lanka and now make up a sizeable community in the country.

Although they encountered prejudices at first, Tamils are now regarded as having adapted well to their new home. But they are still not fully integrated.

In 1983 the conflict escalated and many Tamils fled abroad to Europe and North America.

An estimated 35,000 Tamils now live in Switzerland, of which ten per cent are naturalised Swiss. The ex-pat community is now one of the largest after those in Canada, Germany and Britain.

However, the arrival of Tamils in the mid-1980s was not without consequences. The authorities were forced to set up a special refugee authority in 1986 to cope with the unprecedented deluge of Tamil asylum seekers. Prejudice and xenophobia were also commonplace.

“The reception was very harsh, very aggressive, and for us it was also the first time we had been to Europe and experienced the cold snow,” said Anton Ponrajah, the head of the Swiss Federation of Tamil Associations.

“For both sides it was a difficult situation.”

Distrust

He said that some Swiss distrusted the Tamils’ motives at first.

“In earlier times, when we were in the asylum centres, people thought we were taking their tax money... but later on the government allowed the refugees to work in Switzerland and this tendency changed,” he told swissinfo.

The Tamil population have built up a reputation as good workers, particularly in the hotel and catering industry, which has helped integration.

The community is also well organised. In some cities there are regular showings of Tamil-language films, Tamil newspapers are freely available and there are now more than 20 Hindu – the main Tamil religion - temples and a string of grocery shops across the country.

Deceptive appearances

But appearances can be deceptive, warns Damaris Lüthi, an ethnologist at Bern University, who has just published a study on Tamil integration in Switzerland.

Lüthi says that from a structural point of view, Tamils are well integrated. They know how to negotiate the education and health systems and the workplace.

But she says socially and culturally it’s a different story. Contact tends to take place within the community and Sri Lankan values are still valid, especially for the first generation.

“The confrontation [between their values and those of] Switzerland and the West in general is still difficult,” Lüthi told swissinfo.

“Even for those who have lived in Switzerland for 20 years, alcohol consumption, divorce and sex outside marriage, for example, are still very stigmatised and considered to be immoral.”

Old ways

The second generation is better integrated but many still subscribe to the old ways, even if they have no intention of returning to Sri Lanka, says Lüthi.

This can be seen in attitudes towards marriage. Most weddings still take place between people of the same social caste – despite moves in Sri Lanka to outlaw the caste-system.

“If two young people from different castes get married, they are often isolated,” Lüthi explained. “And even when love marriages are spoken of, they are normally between the same caste.”

Unions between Tamils and Swiss are very rare. At the end of 2004, of the 18,000 people of Sri Lankan origin who married in that year, only 521 wed a Swiss.

“These types of marriages are not well accepted,” said Lüthi, citing several examples of when Tamil families have cut ties with their children for marrying outside the community.

For Ponrajah, integration is still an ongoing process.

“It’s not a tablet that you can swallow and it will work - it will take time to understand each other. This is the basic thing for integration.”

swissinfo/Swiss Radio International (SRI) is an enterprise of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)

International truce monitors ‘temporarily’ suspended its monitoring of the waters around Sri Lanka Saturday after a clash between the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) and the Sea Tigers left over 20 sailors and LTTE cadres dead.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Missions (SLMM) decision was a temporary one, made after increased pressure from the Nordic countries that feared for the safety of their citizens on board SLN vessels, reports said.

The development came in the wake of fresh clashes at sea between the Sea Tigers and the SLN in which the latter lost two Dvora gunboats.

The presence of an SLMM monitor on board a ship charted by the SLN to transport Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers which was trapped by Sea Tiger probably saved the ship and the lives of at least 700 military personnel in the seas off Vadamaradchi East.

Amid the sea clash the SLMM said in a statement that the “sea surrounding Sri Lanka is a Government Controlled area. Non-state actors cannot rule open sea waters or airspace. The LTTE has therefore no rights at sea.”

It also ruled that “the LTTE have committed gross violations of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in recent days by moving at sea with the aim of provoking the Sri Lankan navy and now finally embarking on an offensive operation against the navy sinking one vessel and putting SLMM monitors in grave danger.”

But the LTTE disputed this description of the arrangements at sea and rejected the SLMM’s condemnation.

“We like to point out to you that you are contradicting your own earlier statement that Sea Tigers are part of the balance of power and therefore must have the right to carry out training and exercises,” Mr S P Tamilselvan, the head of the LTTE’s political wing, said in a letter, citing an earlier SLMM ruling.

The MV “Pearl Cruiser”, a merchant vessel used by the SLN to transport men and materials by sea, had started off from Trincomalee in the morning with 710 security personnel on board and was provided security by a convoy of four “Dvora” Fast attack craft.

LTTE officials in Kilinochchi said the SLN Dvoras had interrupted some Sea Tiger boats training in waters alongside LTTE controlled territory. Some press reports quoted the SLMM as saying the LTTE attacked the convoy without provocation.

“Our monitors saw several Tiger boats attacking the transporter ship and firing,” said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the SLMM. “We have a monitor on that boat. A government Dvora has been sunk," she added as reports of the clash reached Colombo.

One Dvora was destroyed and sank in the seas off Vettilaikerny. Another damaged was and fled towards Army-controlled Point Pedro at the top of the Jaffna peninsula. The military later said the second craft had sunk off the coast near Kudarappu. There were reportedly fifteen sailors and two officers on the first Dvora that was sunk.

The MV Pearl Cruiser fled into international waters and the Sea Tigers did not pursue it there. Sri Lanka had reportedly asked for the Indian Coast Guard to provide the vessel with protection.

Meanwhile, the remaining two Dvoras returned the to attack and were joined by Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter gunships. One Sea Tiger boat was sunk, killing four LTTE cadres and another two were wounded in the confrontation. The military claimed that 50 Sea Tigers had been killed, but the LTTE denied this.

The LTTE had previously warned that any hostile acts in the areas of seas under their control would be retaliated against. They had also warned the SLMM that by boarding SLN ships, they were being used as human shields by the SLN.

“We have warned and requested the SLMM Naval Monitors to refrain from boarding SLN vessels,” said Mr Tamilselvan’s letter, annexing three letters previously sent to the SLMM.

“In spite of this and in spite of our warning, the SLMM has put its naval monitors at risk to provide protection to SLN vessels. At the same time, the SLMM has not provided protection to our fighters and our naval vessels. Even worse, the SLMM has ruled this incident a CFA violation against us,” said the letter.

“We entered the peace process based on a status-quo achieved in the battlefield in our territory. Nobody has the right to pass judgement on the sovereign rights of our access to the adjacent sea and airspace of our homeland,” Mr Tamilselvan told the head of the SLMM, Major General Ulf Henricsson, reiterating the LTTE’s stance, at a meeting Friday.

This was repeated by Colonel Soosai, the head of the Sea Tigers. “We have openly established our control, and have unequivocally asserted our rights to maritime waters adjoining our homeland, in the same way we recovered and control large areas of northeast.”

“We are not prepared to relinquish sovereign rights to the seas which we have won with the sacrifice of our people,” he told reporters when he met the press soon after the confrontation.

At the same time as the confrontation between the Sea Tigers and the Dvoras, heavy artillery fire was reported in Nagarkovil area in Vadamardchi East where Sri Lanka Army had moved in a large number of troops during the curfew on Monday.

Meanwhile, around 30 rounds of artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire hit LTTE controlled Sampoor area in Trincomalee East from Sri Lanka Army base in Monkey Bridge.

The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) retaliated for the Dvoras’ sinkings by bombing the suburbs of Kilinochchi. Kfir jets bombed the Vanni at least 8 times. Many civilians fled the areas.

Separately, in Trincomalee, SLN boats Thursday had entered LTTE controlled coastal area in Muttur east where ten boats of the Sea Tigers were engaged in training exercises. Despite the warnings issued by the Tigers, the naval boats with SLMM officials on board, had approached the LTTE controlled area in Muttur east and reports indicate sounds of mortar and gun in the seas were heard from the seas.

The forty-fifth day remembrance of five Tamil students shot dead in an execution style killing by Sri Lankan armed forces close to a Trincomalee beach on January 2 was held last Wednesday at the location where they died, as investigations into the killings began.

A large number of students, parents, teachers and members of the public attended the memorial event, organised by the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples’ Forum and Students’ Association.

Photographs of the five students and other Tamil civilians including Sudar Oli journalist killed in Trincomalee by suspected military personnel were kept on a raised dais, with the surrounding area decorated with yellow and red flags.

Relatives and religious leaders of all faiths paid their respects to the slain students and civilians by offering flowers to the photographs. Five candles were lit at the site where the five students died.

Meanwhile, thirteen personnel belonging to Sri Lanka’s elite Special Task Force (STF) are to be produced before the Colombo Judicial Magistrate in connection with the killing of the students.

The STF is the counter-insurgency arm of Sri Lanka’s police force.

The students, former pupils of Trincomalee Sri Koneswara Hindu College and all under the age of 20, were reported by the military to have died in a grenade explosion. However medical staff said they were found to have been shot.

The victims had completed their GCE Advanced Level Examinations in 2004 and 2005 and two had reportedly just received places in university. The murdered students were identified as Shanmugarajah Gajendran, Logitharajah Rohan, Thangathurai Sivanantha, Yogarajah Hemachchandra and Manoharan Rajihar.

“The court determines that the five Tamil youths killed on January 2 night near the sea beach of the east port town had died due to gunshot injuries instantaneously. The court has come to a conclusion that an offence has been committed in this instance. Therefore the court orders the Police to conduct further inquiry into these deaths and to produce the suspects before the court,” said Mr. V. Ramakamalan, Trincomalee Magistrate in his order after a magisterial inquest.

Eyewitnesses reported that unidentified men in a three-wheeler threw a grenade at a group of students gathered at the beach.

Soon after the grenade explosion at the Dock Yard road, uniformed armed men arrived in a vehicle at the scene and the students were taken into the vehicle and were beaten up. Thereafter the armed men ordered the students to lie on the ground and shot at them in the head, according to student witnesses who escaped from the scene.

The Trincomalee Magistrate visited the scene of the crime later that day and found bullet ridden bodies on the road, reported TamilNet.

Members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the February 2002 ceasefire who probed the killings immediately after the incident also found evidence that the five youths died due to shooting.

The Sunday Times reported on January 8 the execution style killings were carried out by a team of Police Special Task Force (STF) commandos.

The paper learnt that after the initial grenade blast, a Chief Petty Officer of the Navy rushed to the spot with some sailors from one road. “By [the time he reached the spot], a team of STF commandos from a neighbouring location arrived at the scene along another road. They allegedly opened fire,” the paper said.

The Sunday Times’s popular ‘Situation Report’ column said the deployment of the STF was ordered by “a retired police official who has now been named as an advisor in the Defence Ministry,” and the order was issued during the period “when Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse was away in India accompanying his brother, President Mahinda Rajapakse.”

“With little or no knowledge of the senior armed forces officials in the Trincomalee district, a team of 24 STF commandos led by only a Chief Inspector had been ordered for deployment in Trincomalee,” the paper.

Responsible for this, The Sunday Times learnt, “was a retired police official who has now been named as an advisor in the Defence Ministry. He is reported to have called upon the police commandos to act tough against terrorist elements.”

The paper added that “even if a dispute continued over how the incident [killing of students] began...there was no debate that there was gun fire.”

The advisor referred to by the paper is former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, H.N.G.B. Kotakadeniya, a hardline Sinhala Nationalist who was appointed to the advisor position by Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse.

In an interview that appeared in The Sunday Leader newspaper of January 1, Mr Kotakadeniya “had expressed the need to re-capture Government land in the north now held by Tiger guerrillas” - a suggestion that a war should be waged, it was widely interpreted.

Two weeks ago, Police Chief Chandra. Fernando issued a directive to Asoka Wijetilleke, now DIG Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to detain a group of policemen and question them further with regard to the death of five students in Trincomalee, the Sunday Times reported.

Earlier, President Rajapaksa had directed Mr. Wijetilleke, who was then DIG (Colombo North) based in Gampaha, to conduct investigations into the incident where commandos of the Police Special Task Force (STF) were allegedly involved.

Acting on the directions of DIG Wijetilleke, Director of CID last Monday obtained detention orders under the Emergency Regulations to detain a Sub Inspector attached to the Trincomalee Police and 12 STF personnel for a month.

CID sources told the Sunday Times they would be interrogated but made clear their arrest did not, however, mean their complicity. “Further investigations are necessary to determine that,” the sources said.

UNTIL two months ago, his political friends didn’t need him and television cameras had stopped tracking him. Reviving old emotional ties with school pals and participating in volleyball matches in rural backyards, he had taken to a quiet life in his village—Kalingapatti in southern Tirunelveli district. But the spotlight is back on 61-year-old Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) chief Vaiko (Y. Gopalasamy).

Today, the ‘puratchi puyal’ (revolutionary storm as partymen call him) is the most sought after politician and his party could well decide the fate of the two major Dravidian parties—the ruling AIADMK and the main opposition DMK—in the coming Assembly election.

With the political stakes high, the MDMK chief is playing his cards close to his chest. While the political buzz is that the firebrand politician is likely to swing Amma’s way, Vaiko insists he is still a part of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu, which includes also the MDMK, the Congress, PMK, the two Left parties and the Indian Union Muslim League.

But even while mouthing diplomatic niceties about MDMK’s standing in the DPA, Vaiko has reportedly informed the Congress leadership that he might be doing a Paswan in Tamil Nadu—back the UPA at the Centre and go with Amma for the state election.

Strangely, the most wanted politician in Tamil Nadu has a rather bleak track record in the Assembly. Since its launch in 1993 December, the MDMK has not won a single Assembly seat. In the last Assembly election in May 2001, Vaiko quit the DMK-led National Democratic Alliance, upset with the ‘‘measly offer’’ of seats and went solo. His party drew a blank despite fielding candidates in 211 of the 234 Assembly constituencies. But though fighting on its own, the party polled 4.47 per cent of the votes.

The MDMK rank and file is in no mood for any misadventures this time. In fact, Vaiko is under tremendous pressure from his cadres to quit the DPA and join forces with the chief minister and AIADMK supremo, J Jayalalithaa, even though she was responsible for his 19-month incarceration under POTA.

Known for his blatant pro-LTTE stand, Vaiko, who was a trusted lieutenant of Karunanidhi, quit the DMK in 1993 after he was accused of conspiring with the LTTE to kill his mentor.

It was the AIADMK that tied up with the MDMK first for the 1998 Lok Sabha election, endorsing the latter’s political credibility. In the subsequent 1999 Lok Sabha election, after the AIADMK pulled down the Vajpayee government, the MDMK remained in the NDA.

After the last Assembly election when the MDMK snapped ties with the DMK, the two got together again after Karunanidhi visited Vaiko in prison.

Vaiko wore his LTTE leanings on his sleeve. He shot into limelight in 1989 after his mysterious boat trip to Jaffna to spend a month in the jungles with LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan. The MDMK leader named his grandson Pirapaharan and his home in Kalingapatti boasts a framed photograph of the LTTE supremo.

Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, who changed his name to Vaiko some years ago, was drawn into Dravidian politics in his student days during the anti-Hindi agitation. His organisation skills were apparent during his early days in politics when he headed the DMK’s Palayamkottai (in Tiruneveli district) cadre wing. The fieriest speaker in the DMK, Vaiko made his first speech on a public platform when he was barely eight.

He became a Rajya Sabha member first in 1978, rising rapidly within the party gaining closeness to Karunanidhi. He contested and won the Lok Sabha election from Sivakasi in 1998 as part of the BJP-led NDA.

Karunanidhi is now desperate to retain his once trusted lieutenant within the rainbow alliance. A united front would be the DPA’s biggest trump card. While everyone is waiting to see which side Vaiko will swing, the MDMK chief has sought refuge in his ancestral home. He’s busy conferring with colleagues on his next move, which will not only decide the fate of the two main political fronts in Tamil Nadu, but also redefine his own party’s prospects.

Sri Lanka was treated on Thursday to the first episode in the new drama of local government elections that is going to be staged soon. We are compelled to view this democratic feature of elections as a drama because of the inappropriate manner in which the elections are treated and conducted.

In the first place, all agitations for a postponement of these local government elections were rejected. Besides political motives behind the clamour made by some parties for this postponement, there were other genuine and serious reasons for this demand. The main among them was the reason of lakhs of qualified voters losing the right to vote in this election. Apart from those who will be deprived of their right in the south there are thousands of voters in the North-East region who will not have the opportunity of exercising their right in the proper democratic manner.

There were other reasons for postponement of these elections, such as the non-implementation of the accepted reforms to provide for the restoration of the wards system and the non establishment of the independent elections commission. The government chose to ignore these requirements and to proceed with the elections. Why? Was it because of its irrepressible attachment to democracy or its unconquerable aversion to depriving the people of their desire to have local government elections strictly in due time?

The undeclared reason for this promptitude obviously was the government’s desire to strike while the iron is hot. It is confident that with the optimism created for a breakthrough in peace efforts and the main opposition party, the UNP bogged down in disarray, the conditions seemed conducive to consolidating its presidential polls success, by achieving control of local bodies as well. Gaining power and retaining it in their hands is undeniably the main motive of all political parties. This, of course, is a legitimate aspiration which cannot be objected to by anyone who accepts parliamentary democracy with a multi- party system as one of its essential features.

What is necessary, however, is to enhance the quality of this system without letting it to be bastardised and abused by those involved in its operation. The way the system operates in this country does not inspire admiration or confidence among people. We however, concede that there has been some degree of enhancement of democracy in some aspects. But it is clear that the country has to go a long way before it can earn the appellation of enlightened or mature democracy. Until then we have to be content with the status of a fig leaf democracy.

The depths to which the political party system in this country has reached is clearly evident from the shameless ease with which politicians cross over from one party to another. Principles and policies are ignored when the carrot of power, position and perks is dangled before them. This phenomenon of crossovers indicates, on the one hand the absence of any substantial difference in the policies of these parties while it shows, on the other hand, how firm the grip of selfishness is on the politics of this country. All of them, of course, affirm that they are motivated by nothing other than patriotic concerns. The patriotic spirit in some of them appears to begin when expected positions or party nominations are denied to them..

Much enthusiasm was shown when the first episode of handing in nominations was staged. The level of eagerness of those contesting as candidates from various parties could be gauged from the posters and placards that have dirtied the walls and buildings around the country. The smiling faces in these posters display their concern for bringing happiness to the people whose votes they expect. But the real motives of most of them are obvious to the discerning people of this country.

However, enthusiasm thus shown by these aspirants for positions is conspicuously absent among the people for whose sake these exercise are launched. In fact, they resent and view with contempt the power games played by political parties and politicians in this country. They have begun to view these frequent elections as wasteful exercises that divert the people’s attention from their burning problems for the politicians to engage in their schemes aimed at self aggrandizement.