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  • Sri Lanka dusts off the begging bowl

    Mar 17
    Sri Lanka is going on bended knees to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - an institution it chased away two years ago - for a bailout package worth US$1.9 billion as the country's authorities scrape the barrel for foreign exchange.

    Sri Lanka's economic crisis is two-fold: sagging export income and the Central Bank using the few dollars it has to intervene in local money markets to defend the rupee from depreciating against the US dollar.

    At the same time, the government's access to cheap commercial borrowing from foreign sources to fund the costly war against separatist Tamil rebels and other state expenses has dried up with the global financial meltdown.

    Last week, the government took the plunge and announced it was in negotiations with the IMF for a $1.9 billion standby arrangement.

    Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal - who has been criticized by economists and opposition legislators for misleading the country on the state of its finances - was quoted as saying: ''The offer was made for a facility without conditions. We didn't think we needed it but then this happened to be a good opportunity.''

    The country had $1.7 billion in gross official reserves at the end of December, sufficient just for 1.5 months of imports, compared with more than $3.5 billion a year earlier.

    Senior economist Sirimal Abeyratne from the University of Colombo told Inter Press Service (IPS) that the financial crisis is so acute that Sri Lanka had few choices. ''Otherwise, why ask for money if we have money, particularly from an institution [IMF] that the government didn't want,'' he said.

    Dushni Weerakoon, senior economist at the Institute of Policy Studies, said Sri Lanka's main problem has been the ''outflow of foreign exchange last year following the global economic crisis and using whatever resources we have to defend the Sri Lanka rupee in local money markets''.

    She told IPS that in addition to an outflow of $600 million after foreigners withdrew money in central bank bonds in the second half of 2008, the bank has been pumping some $200 million a month (in the last three months of the year) in an unsustainable exchange rate policy to prop up the rupee.

    Sri Lanka last year kept its exchange rate at about 108 rupees to the US dollar until October 2008 as the government sought to slow inflation. The rupee has since dropped to about 114.30.

    The move to return to the IMF for emergency cash comes after the government virtually threw the organization out of the country in January 2007, with the IMF closing its Colombo office, saying it had no program left.

    The opposition and economists at that time said the government had come under pressure from hardline partners like the JVP (People's Liberation Front) and the JHU, formed mainly by Buddhist monks, who frowned on Western-led multilateral agencies like the IMF or World Bank and their tough, conditional lending.

    Loans from the IMF, generally seen as a lender of last resort, generally come with conditions such as demands for a reduced budget deficit, cuts in government spending, tighter monetary policy and a flexible exchange rate policy, which would allow the rupee to float freely against major currencies.

    Economists said much of the Sri Lanka's spending, particularly on the military, came from domestic borrowings and when that dried up, it came from foreign borrowings from commercial sources, and China and Iran.

    Sri Lanka has been relying on China for political and economic support after turning away from the once-favoured West, which has been repeatedly critical of the government in Colombo over human-rights violations.

    Early last year, before the global crisis, the government was so gung-ho about the access to cheap credit from commercial sources that one powerful Finance Ministry official told a senior World Bank staffer: ''We don't need your conditional money. We have access to cheap credit without conditions.''

    With foreign reserves fast dwindling, the central bank, whose governor is a political appointee and former advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in February, announced two measures to shore up reserves: raising $500 million from Sri Lanka's diaspora and currency swaps with other central banks in the region. However neither has worked as expected.

    Economist Abeyratne said Sri Lanka was in a debt trap, where one had to borrow to pay off debts. ''We are down to our lowest levels. Diaspora funds have not come as expected. Last year, the government paid close to half a million dollars in debt payments and this year it will be higher. So we are borrowing to pay off our debt - which is where part of the $1.9 billion IMF facility will go.''

    Weerakoon said the debt payments will increase this year once some central bank bonds expire and payments are made. There was also payment to be made to Iran for an oil credit line, she said. ''There is quite a list of payments.''
     
    [Edited for Brevity]
  • Sri Lankan economic woes deepen as buyers stay away
    Sri Lanka’s economy is going through a severe crisis as key exports including garment and tea significantly drop with buyers staying away.

    According to a recent survey in the past four years, many large international garment buyers moved their business out of Sri Lanka and into cheaper manufacturing destinations.
     
    75 factories, in seven provinces have closed down in this period and out of this around 24 factories closed down over the past six months alone, according to the survey.
     
    These factories were mainly located in the free trade zones in Katunayake, Biyagama, Koggala and Seethawaka Pura. Some factories were registered under the Board of Investment and some under the Textile Division of the Ministry of Industrial Development.
     
    In addition to job losses and foreign exchange losses these garment factory closures have also hit other connected industries.

    “Out of around 50 main international garment buyers registered with the Sri Lanka Garment Buying Offices Association, 12 shut down their offices in Sri Lanka within the last three years. These buying offices were shifted mainly to Singapore, India and Pakistan. Production was shifted mainly to India, Bangladesh and Vietnam,” Yarns and Fibres Exchange reported quoting Mr Dawson, a private consultant who conducted the survey.

    The survey blamed the unstable security situation along with comparatively higher cost of production in Sri Lanka as reasons for foreign buyers leaving Sri Lanka.
     
    Elaborating on the security concerns the survey stated buyers felt it was difficult to send technical staff to local factories for periodic factory inspections, because of security worries.

    Island’s other big earner, tea, is also not faring well according to the Sri Lanka Tea Board, which announced a 30% drop in overseas sales in January.
     
    Sales from tea shipments fell to 6.9 billion rupees (61.37 million dollars) in January, compared to 9.8 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.
    Volumes of tea exports also fell 25 percent to 17.76 million kilograms in January, over the same month in 2008, the board said.
     
    "We are reeling from twin effects of lower rainfall and a deliberate effort to curtail our own production. This has hit our exports in terms of volumes and earnings," according to Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi.
     
    Russia and former Soviet republics are the largest markets for Sri Lankan tea, accounting for nearly a fifth of total exports, followed by the Middle East and North Africa.
     
    With the onset of the global economic meltdown, prices have collapsed to an average of 2.65 dollars a kilo (1.20 dollars a pound) from record highs of 4.26 dollars a kilo between January and September last year.
     
    The drop in export earnings combined with the spiralling cost of imports, especially due to increased military purchases to sustain the war, is impacting the dwindling foreign reserves, forcing the government to seek bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
     
    Adding to the country’s financial woes, in February, Fitch Ratings downgraded Sri Lanka long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs), making it harder for Sri Lanka to borrow in the global markets.
     
    Fitch cited ‘the increased vulnerability of sovereign creditworthiness to adverse shocks associated with rising inflation, persistently large fiscal deficits and worsened terms of trade due to soaring oil prices in the context of greater government recourse to commercial and market-based financing’ for the downgrade.
     
    However, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, which is now in discussion with the IMGF for a bailout, said the Fitch assessment was based on 'pessimistic views on the security situation, inflation and foreign currency borrowings’.
  • Aceh tense as elections near
    The road where Abu Karim died is as pretty as a picture - a place where flowering branches hang over the dusty road and neighbours gather to while away the afternoon.

     

    There's a small mosque on the corner, and a tiny coffee stall sits tucked between the small, neat houses. It's very quiet.

    The forecourt outside Abu Karim's house is blackened with patches of rubber, where the wheels of his car spun and burned as he sat dying at the wheel.

    He had been shot twice in the head by unknown gunmen, just a few weeks before parliamentary elections.

    The police have been up and down this little street several times. No one, it seems, saw anything that might help catch his killers.

    His neighbour, Sooratnawati, helped take him to hospital the night he was shot. She told me she thinks it strange the police have not found the people who killed him.

    "Maybe it's because there were no witnesses," she said. "And I think it's weird that there were no witnesses but what can I say? Everyone said they didn't see anything."

    Inside the house Abu Karim's wife, Cut Dede, watches nervously over her four-year-old son. Like many people here she is in no doubt this was a political killing.

    Aceh Party

    Abu Karim was a former guerilla in Aceh's independence struggle. That struggle came to an end with a peace deal, signed in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 tsunami.

    The deal saw the rebel Free Aceh Movement (Gam) give up their claim to independence in return for far-reaching autonomy and the chance to form a political party.

    Aceh is now gearing up for parliamentary elections in April. For the first time ever, local parties will be able to contest the polls in this province. That includes the former rebels in the new Aceh Party who are predicted to do very well.

    Abu Karim's death is one of several recent attacks against the former rebels and their new political party. Three men have died, and one has been injured in the shootings.

    Grenades have landed in Aceh Party offices, and campaigning has been interrupted on several occasions.

    But Aceh's police spokesman, Farid Ahmad, is adamant: the killings have nothing to do with politics.

    Instead, he says, the motive was most likely in-fighting between the former guerillas, many of whom have failed to reintegrate properly.

    "The people that did this," he tells me, "maybe they're hungry, or don't have a job and so they use their weapons to find food. It's not political."

    Army security

    Whoever killed Abu Karim, his death is feeding tensions in Aceh ahead of the elections.

    Rumours pointing towards the involvement of groups linked to the Indonesian army are unsubstantiated, but potent nonetheless.

    And they come at a time when the army is quietly repositioning itself back in Acehnese villages.

    Down a rugged track in one sleepy village we found nine young soldiers holed up in an abandoned house. They told me they had lived there for three and a half months, patrolling the nearby villages in case of any problems.

    "Elections in other places sometimes end in violence," they told me, "so particularly in this area, where there was conflict in the past, there's a need to make sure things will be secure here".

    But according to the peace deal, this kind of security is not what the army's for. At Aceh's tiny airport, we found the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari - the architect of that peace deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU.

    I asked him what he thought of the army going back into the villages. "That's totally against the MoU," he said.

    "The MoU is very clear - the army had to remove itself from the villages and focus on external defence. We have to be careful that we don't create similar sorts of situations that existed during the conflict years, otherwise there's a risk of intimidation."

    The Aceh Party has vetoed any mention of independence on the campaign trail.

    But some in the army are reported to be worried that that is the new party's true agenda. With polling day less than a month away, there's a nervousness in the air.

    As one young politician here put it: people think these elections are the end of Aceh's peace process. Actually, they're the beginning.

  • Riches of Somaliland remain untapped

    Until Somaliland gets official international recognition it cannot exploit its rich reserves of natural resources.

    Although agriculture is the most successful industry, surveys show that Somaliland has large offshore and onshore oil and natural gas reserves.

    Several wells have been excavated during recent years but because of the country's unrecognised status, foreign energy companies cannot benefit from it.

    Somaliland is in north east Africa but, as far as the outside world is concerned, it is simply a region of war-torn Somalia which has not been a nation since Britain gave it independence in 1960.

    Yet the area the size of England declared independence 18 years ago and, while the rest of Somalia remains in a chaotic state, Somaliland has established a stable government, peace and relative prosperity.

    Self reliance

    The country's progress is limited however, because aid donors and trade partners do not officially recognise its existence.

    After declaring independence in 1991, Somaliland formed its own hybrid system of governance consisting of a lower house of elected representatives, and an upper house which incorporated the elders of tribal clans.

    Somaliland made its final transition to multi-party democracy with elections in 2003.

    The country has its own flag, national anthem, vehicle number plates and currency - although the Somaliland shilling is not a recognised currency and has no official exchange rate.

    It is regulated by the Bank of Somaliland which was established constitutionally in 1994.

    Foreign minister Abdillahi Duale says the recession affecting the rest of the world is causing him particular concern.

    "As a country which is not yet recognised this global phenomenon is affecting us very seriously," he laments.

    "We do not have access to international trade or international financial institutions," he says. "So we have to rely solely on our meagre revenues and the investments of our own people."

    'De facto' state

    Mr Duale insists that his people have a great entrepreneurial spirit and are business-oriented.

    Most trade is carried out with the Gulf States, Indonesia and India.

    "Trade doesn't require recognition," he says.

    The main export is livestock, with sheep and camels being shipped from Berbera, the country's largest port.

    In order to export livestock, a veterinary license has to be issued.

    To facilitate that, a veterinary school has been built in Sheikh and it attracts students from the Horn of Africa and as far afield as Uganda and Kenya.

    Mr Duale is unperturbed that such licences will not have the force that a United Nations-sponsored veterinary licence would have.

    "We are not members of the UN but nevertheless, the international community trades with us because we are a de facto state," he says.

    He admits however, that one of the major problems the lack of official recognition creates is the inability to access international financial institutions.

    "We cannot talk to the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank because they only talk to recognised states," he says.

    "We rely on ourselves and our Diaspora, which accounts for almost $600m of revenue a year.

    "People get by but it is very difficult without infrastructure," he says, "We need butter, we are not asking for guns."

    Growth industry

    Apart from livestock, other exports include hides, skins, myrrh and frankincense.

    Mining has the potential to be a successful industry although simple quarrying is the extent of current operations - despite the presence of diverse mineral deposits including uranium.

    One industry which has seen growth however, is tourism.

    The historic town of Sheikh is home to old British colonial buildings which have been untouched for 40 years, whilst Zeila was once part of the Ottoman Empire.

    Due to the fertility of some regions, many people travel to see the wildlife, while the offshore islands and coral reefs provide another major attraction.

    Whoever is brave, or reckless enough, to break ranks with the world community and gives Somaliland the recognition is craves, must surely be well placed to take advantage of the riches the country has to offer.

  • Papua's struggle for independence

    The word most often associated with West Papua is remote.

    An area of thick jungle and mountains, roughly the size of Spain, Papua is the eastern-most outpost of the Indonesian archipelago, some 3,200km (2,000 miles) from the government in Jakarta.

    Culturally it feels even further.

    Papua became part of Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial and very limited vote. Ever since there have been calls from some Papuans for independence and for decades a low-level armed resistance has been rumbling on, largely unnoticed by the outside.

    International journalists are severely restricted from working in the province. A special permit is required.

    But the BBC's Newsnight programme was recently offered rare footage of rebel fighters in their jungle hide-out.

    The pictures were filmed by a British man keen to document the independence movement. He travelled undercover, aided by local activists, and asked that he remain anonymous to protect those who helped him.

    It took him nine hours in a car and 16 hours on foot, trekking through the jungle, to reach the mountain stronghold of the Free Papua Movement Rebels.

    Cultural erosion

    They are, in truth, a pretty fragmented, poorly armed band of warriors. Some dress in Western-style shorts and T-shirts, with wellington boots the footwear of choice

    Others proudly sport more traditional attire - a few feathers and beads, unkempt beards, wild hair and penis gourds. The size and curlicue of the latter denoting status.

    They are armed with a few assault rifles stolen from the Indonesian security forces, and homemade bows and arrows.

    The power of the rebels lies as much in the symbolism of their existence as it does in their ability to wage war.

    Many Papuans feel their culture and identity are slowly being eroded. Papuans don't look like other Indonesians. They are Melanesian, closer to Aboriginals than Asians.

    But migrants from other Indonesian islands now make up about half the local population. Some of these incomers consider the traditional Papuan way of life backward and uncivilised.

    Layers of grievance have built up over the decades.

    "We've had enough," said Anton, a tribal leader. "Indonesia has committed crimes, killing people and other human rights abuses. We want freedom, justice and democracy."

    Investigation promised

    A rebel commander, Goliath Tabuni, sits at Anton's right hand. Compared to the chief's traditional body decorations, the commander looks a bit dishevelled in his floppy camouflage hat.

    But in terms of their passion for the cause, they are equals.

    "This is my land," said Goliath. "Our ancestors gave us this land. Indonesia has stolen it from us."

    Over the years there have been serious abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces. Accusations of torture and rape persist.

    But under the democratically elected government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the military and police are being reformed.

    In a statement responding to the Newsnight programme, the Indonesian Embassy in London said: "No-one in Indonesia will ever condone human rights violations. Therefore, it is a sad fact if one still judges Indonesia by the old yardsticks.

    "We can confirm that all human rights abuses will be duly investigated in Indonesia and, if proven guilty by the court, all abusers of human rights will be punished. No-one is immune."

    But the legacy of past behaviour will take time to erase.

    Elusive dream

    As long as the independence fighters exist, the soldiers and police will stay in Papua in large numbers.

    Their mission is not just to root out the rebels, but also to protect vital business interests. Papua is rich in natural resources.

    It is home to the world's largest gold and copper mine and there are big investments in gas, timber and palm oil. A blessing for some. A curse for others.

    "We believe it's about morality," said Anton, the tribal leader. "Because the world is interested in our resources, they won't talk about us. That's why the world just ignores us and our struggle."

    On 1 December, independence supporters gathered in a clearing in the jungle to mark Papua's self-declared Independence Day.

    With great ceremony and formality they raised the Papuan flag. It was a very deliberate act of defiance: raising the Morning Star flag is illegal in Indonesia.

    In the jungle no one could see. But when, in 2004, the flag was raised in the provincial capital, Jayapura, the police were looking on.

    Yusak Package, who spoke at the rally, was arrested and charged with treason. He is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence and is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience.

    In terms of raising the international profile of the Papuan cause, Yusak's case, and others like it, are probably more effective than the armed rebellion.

    But there is no sign yet that independence is any closer. And in their remote mountain hide-out, that is still the dream the rebel fighters are striving for.

  • Tamil Nadu parties call for UN and US intervention
    The Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, an umbrella organisation of outfits like PMK, MDMK, VCK, CPI and the Tamil Nationalist Movement, has launched campaign to collect 20 million signatures for a petition calling to save Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    Signatures collected from across the State will be submitted to the United Nations Secretary General, Presidents of the United States and Russia.
     
    Political analysts said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement has decided to appeal to the UN and the US, as the Congress led Indian government did not have any leverage over Sri Lanka and was indifferent to the Tamils plight.
     
    Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko, State secretary of the Communist Party of India D. Pandian and senior CPI leader R. Nallakannu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi president Thol. Tirumavalavan, who are members of the movement, signed the memorandum on behalf of their parties.
     
    Vaiko speaking to reporters said the campaign called for immediate UN intervention to save the Sri Lankan Tamils, “who are facing annihilation at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army.”
     
    Ramadoss said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement was not setup to destabilise State government and the movement’s only aim was to protect the Tamils across the Palk straits. He further added that if there was any threat to the government of Karunanithi, the PMK would come to its rescue.
     
    Pandian said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement would decide the next phase of the agitation in Madurai on March 3 following a public meeting.
     
    Pandian also criticised the state authorities’ actions aimed at denying permission for a State-wide demonstration and called it an attempt by the government to stifle democratic rights of political parties.
     
    The Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Movement, in a memorandum submitted to the US Consulate general in Chennai, asked the US to take all diplomatic measures to ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

    The Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Movement is organising a series of rallies including one at Madurai on February 24, at Tiruchirapalli on February 28 and on March two at Tuticorin, demanding ceasefire.
     
    Meanwhile, Vaiko, the General Secretary of MDMK courted arrest with 300 other activists for waging black flags in protest against Mr. Mukherjee, who was on a visit to Tutucorin.
     
    Following the arrest of Vaiko, Karunanidhi warned that his government will not hesitate to invoke the National Security Act against the MDMK leader. 
  • The Diaspora as genocide resistors
    Last issue we looked at the continuing failure of the United States, and its diplomatic allies, the co-chairs of the Sri Lankan Peace Process and leading European governments to comply with their obligations to the Tamil people under the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide. In this second part, we look at what ‘Genocide Resistors’ – particularly the Tamil Diaspora – can do to achieve compliance.
    Under the International Criminal Court (ICC) rules there is no time limit (statute of limitations) for prosecution of the particular crime of genocide, so heinous is it.
     
    In 2008 - unlike in 1958, 1977 and 1983 – Europe and North America have significant populations of motivated and politically organised Tamil citizens.
     
    This Diaspora can and must lobby for implementation of their host countries legal obligation to punish the genocides of 1977 and 1983, and the ongoing genocide today.
     
    Further, this legal understanding must form a base for Diaspora activity.
     
    Any mass protest seeking implementation of the UN Convention against genocide is not just entirely lawful: it is a civic duty, for it is a civic duty of citizens to highlight illegalities committed by their government.
     
    The Tamil Diaspora globally must ask the state and federal governments of their countries to recognise the genocide of Eelam Tamils and to abide by their UN treaty obligations to prevent and punish this genocide.
     
    If the Sinhala State is a genocide perpetrator, there are many genocide resistors. These are invariably Diaspora and local Tamil organisations that operate in an atmosphere of harassment, prejudice and even race hate.
     
    But to prevent or intimidate the genocide resistors - Tamil community organisations - from protesting against Tamil genocide is also collusion in the genocide.
     
    So for example given that July’s Ponghu Tamil event had as one objective among others the prevention of genocide of the Tamil people, the attempts by the Sri Lankan embassy and officials of “friendly” governments to obstruct these could constitute collusion.
     
    Blatant forms of collusion in genocide include sales of weaponry, surveillance or other military equipment to a government that is perpetrating genocide, as well as provision of military consultancy.
     
    Collusion includes military agreements that benefit from the proceeds of genocide: for example strategic naval use of the Trincomalee harbour, made possible by the forcible displacement of Tamil civilians, destruction of their lives and habitats.
     
    Collusion includes commercial agreements to benefit from the proceeds of genocide – for example land, access to the sea, oil, titanium and other natural resources acquired or made possible by the killing and forcible displacement of Tamil people from their traditional habitats.
     
    Collusion includes the direct or indirect financing of the perpetrators of genocide. Where aid is provided for “legitimate purposes”, that aid should be monitored so as to ensure it is not being misused. If there is lack of transparency or accountability – the aid should be withheld rather than risk it being used to perpetrate genocide. To fail to monitor such aid, knowing that conditions for genocide exist, is reckless at best, collusion at worst.
     
    With respect to Eelam, we see many international governments engaging in the forms of collusion outlined above: benefiting commercially or militarily from the proceeds of the genocide, for example, and providing weapons, training and advice.
     
    They do so with impunity, because they believe they can get away with it: they expect the Tamil people to be militarily crushed and so do not expect to be called to account.
     
    But the Tamil Diaspora must continue to assume good faith on the part of the international community and to persist with its case for justice.
     
    In addition to the Diaspora’s duty towards the Tamil people, the Diaspora has a civic duty (to their host countries) to ask their governments to comply with the UN convention.
     
    The first step is for the Tamil Diaspora to inform all key decision makers – including and especially the relevant ambassadors, members of parliament, Foreign office and State department officials – that we hold that genocide is taking place.
     
    We must then ask them to agree with us. If they do not, we can ask for reasons and engage in dialogue.
     
    This notification of genocide must be made individually as well as to the relevant department as a group – to each person as well as their department or office – so that people can be held individually accountable.
     
    In summary the Diaspora must first build awareness of genocide – so that international collaborators cannot later say: “I did not know.”
     
    As a first step in notification, one can cite recognition of genocide by individual politicians, specific political parties, the international media and civil society.
     
    Such popular recognition precedes official government recognition.
     
    For example, the Times of London recognised genocide in 1983 saying “"Genocide is a word that must be used with care; but how else is one to describe the impulse which guided the Sinhalese lynch-mobs this week." 
     
    “The Hindu” and numerous Tamil publications in India have taken a similar position in 2009. The Toronto Star ran a headline in January “Tamils protest Genocide”.
     
    Elected Tamil politicians, both in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in India have recognised genocide.
     
    For example, the Hindu recently ran a headline, quoting DMK leader Kanimozhi: “Tamils gradually being wiped out in Sri Lanka”.
     
    There is widespread recognition among the political parties of Tamil Nadu of the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    MDMK leader Vaiko, VCK President Thirumavalan, PMK leader Ramdoss, the Communist Party of India, and many other Tamil Nadu politicians have recognised the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    Vaiko has written to the Indian Premier, Manmohan Singh warning him of the genocide of Tamils. He cannot later say: “I did not know”.
     
    In Sri Lanka itself, the Tamil National Alliance, have repeatedly recognised genocide and called upon International governments to act.
     
    Many Tamil media figures such as film director Seeman and Oscar and Grammy nominated musician M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) have come out to recognise genocide. Poets, artists and actors have recognised genocide.
     
    For the record, the Diaspora must then seek formal recognition of the continuing crime of genocide (as opposed to specific individual acts).
     
    Governments that refuse to acknowledge genocide (because this will require them to comply with the UN convention) may nevertheless be persuaded to recognise “Acts of genocide” as first step.
     
    The Diaspora must invoke the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and seek action against current genocide. Economic sanctions against the perpetrating government, military and travel restrictions are such actions.
     
    The Diaspora must ask that its own efforts to prevent genocide must be fully assisted by their own governments.
     
    The Tamil Diaspora has demonstrated against tremendous odds its determination to resist genocide and its overwhelming support for a Free Eelam.
     
    We toil in the face of both thinly veiled intimidation and malignant prejudice under euphemisms such as the “war on terror”.
     
    But it is the International community’s wilful refusal to prevent genocide, their obstruction of Tamil efforts to resist genocide, their willingness to benefit from the proceeds and even active collusion in it, that remains the real crime.
  • Diaspora Tamils continue protests
    Tamils across the world held demonstrations and rallies highlighting the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and urging the international community to intervene to stop the suffering of their kin and kith back home.
     
    Washington
    Nearly seven thousand U.S. and Canadian Tamils filled the Ellipse at the southern perimeter to the White House on Saturday February 21, as a show of solidarity with the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians undergoing daily aerial bombardment and artillery attacks in Vanni.
     
    The rally, organized jointly by the US-based activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and several local organizations, drew a record crowd, dewarfing the "hurriedly arranged" counter-rally organized by supporters of Colombo, an AFP report said.
     
    A memorandum submitted to the State Department South Asia official demanded:
     
    Publicly condemn the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government.
     
    Ask the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to allow unfettered access for international humanitarian aid agencies and journalists into the conflict zone.
     
    Exert political, economic or other pressure on Sri Lanka for an immediate ceasefire.
     
    Use your goodwill with Sri Lanka’s neighbors to exert pressure on Sri Lanka, and, together with the co-chairs bring about an immediate ceasefire.
     
    Help find a political solution where the Tamil people living in Sri Lanka and exiled in other countries are allowed to determine the terms of coexistence with the Sinhalese state based on the universally accepted principle of self-determination.
     
    Geneva
    More than 15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils from all over Europe gathered in front of the UN office in Geneva in Switzerland Friday, February 20 voicing their demands calling the Sri Lanka government of stop the war on Tamils at once.
     
    The representatives of the Eelam Tamils youth organizations handed a memorandum to the officials of the UN, during the demonstration.
     
    The demonstrators began their march from the park next to Geneva Railway Station bearing placards showing slogans such as, ‘We want Tamil Eelam’, ‘Our Leader is Pirapaharan’ and ‘Sri Lanka Government stop the war!’

    The demonstrators paid their homage to Murukathasan who had immolated himself in front of the UN office in an attempt to draw the attention of the world to the unending sufferings of the Vanni Tamils in the artillery barrage and bombings by the armed forces of Sri Lanka.

    Oslo
    Hundreds of Norwegian Tamils including many youngsters gathered in front of Norwegian parliament Monday, February 23 where they urged Norway government to help bring about a ceasefire immediately to stop the genocide of Tamils in Vanni.
     
    Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), which organized the demonstration in which members of Norway political parties addressed the gathering, submitted a memorandum to Norwegian parliament.
     
    “Sri Lanka government has unleashed a merciless genocidal war on the Tamils creating a humanitarian disaster in Vanni and we are demonstrating here today to stress the need to stop the war on the Tamils immediately,” TYO representatives said.

    Paris
    Thousands of Tamils marched in Paris on Saturday, February 28 to denounce the Sri Lankan government's genocide of the Tamils.
     
    TYP, who organised the march  said over 7000 people came together to protest against Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils..

    The marchers shouted slogans such "EU impose a truce", and "The Sri Lankan president is a murderer", and "Stop the Tamil genocide".
  • Negative outlook for Sri Lanka…
    Sri Lanka’s credit rating outlook was downgraded to negative following the ‘marked’ decline in the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
     
    Down grading Sri Lanka’s credit rating outlook from stable to negative, Fitch Ratings on Friday February 27, rated Sri Lanka’s long-term foreign currency rating at B+, four levels below investment grade.
     
    Fitch also cited concerns about the stresses in the country's balance of payments, its fiscal deficit and the government's increased reliance on foreign-currency borrowing in recent years.
     
    "Without a sharp contraction in domestic demand to curtail imports, or a significant depreciation of the exchange rate to otherwise correct the trade imbalance, Sri Lanka may not have access to sufficient international funding to cover the current account shortfall and its international debt repayments, resulting in ongoing pressures on official reserves," the rating agency said in an email statement.
     
    Credit rating was not the only economic indicator that projected a bleak outlook for the country. In the same week the rating was downgraded the local currency hit an all time low value and the parliament was told that the country’s outstanding debt is at an all time high.
     
     
    All time low
    Sri Lanka's rupee, which has been steadily losing value in the past few months, hit a new all-time low of 115.75/95 a dollar on Friday February 27 amid import dollar demand from state banks, according to brokers.
     
    "The dollar is sold at 115.75 level and the offer is at 115.95," said a currency broker, who asked not to be named.
     
    Three other dealers confirmed the rate. "State banks are buying dollars for import bills, while one state bank still sells dollar at 114.25."
     
    Record debt
    On Thursday February 19, Sri Lanka’s Revenue minister, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya announced in the parliament that the country’s  total debt in the past 8 years had exceeded Rs. 3,400 billion.
     
    The minister further said that interest costs stemming from local and foreign loans had more than doubled during the same period.
     
    From 2001 to 2008, the country’s total local and foreign debt amounted to Rs. 3,436,837 million and by the end of last year interest costs per year was at a record Rs. 210 billion. An increase of Rs. 16 billion compared to the Rs. 94 billion interest costs in 2001.
     
     
    Presidential confession
    Sri Lankan political leaders who have been claiming that
    President Rajapakase’s Mahinda Chnintana has saved Sri Lanka from the devastation of the global economic meltdown, are now starting to realise the direction the country’s economy is heading.
     
    Rajapaksa speaking at a SAARC meeting last week labelled the financial crisis as a "common challenge to our region and to the world".
     
    "The effects of synchronised slow-down in developed economies, can reach us sooner than later," Rajapaksa cautioned.
     
    Sri Lanka’s economic growth slowed to 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008 from 7 percent in the previous three-month period as declining overseas demand eroded the country’s key exports - tea, rubber and textile.
  • … May Need Bailout as debt drains reserves
    Sri Lanka may need a bailout from international donors to help pay its debts as the island’s 26- year civil war draws to a close.
     
    Since August, the South Asian nation has spent half its foreign reserves, now $1.7 billion, on supporting its currency, paying debt and buying imports. That doesn’t leave much after the government shells out another $900 million due in 2009. The reserves aren’t getting replenished as the ailing world economy pummels exports and overseas investors flee emerging markets.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is unwilling to turn to the International Monetary Fund, which requires austerity measures in return for loans. Securing financing from other countries may be challenging for a nation whose credit rating from Standard & Poor’s is the lowest apart from those of Bolivia, Pakistan, Grenada, Argentina and Lebanon. Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on Sri Lanka today.
     
    “Sri Lankan authorities have to act fast to beef up the country’s reserves,” said Ashok Parameswaran, senior emerging markets analyst at Invesco Inc. in New York. “Otherwise, they may have to devalue their currency significantly.”
     
    Since December, countries including Russia, Vietnam and Kazakhstan have weakened their currencies rather than use reserves to prop them up. That has made imports costlier, reducing demand for goods from overseas.
     
    Neighbouring Currencies
    Sri Lanka kept its exchange rate at about 108 rupees per dollar between January and October 2008 to slow inflation, even as the currencies of neighbouring India and Pakistan weakened. The Sri Lankan rupee has since dropped to 114.95.
     
    “Sri Lanka has relaxed the rupee in stops and starts, but they need a controlled devaluation,” said Agost Benard, a Singapore-based sovereign analyst at S&P. “The implicit currency peg will have to change and that’s one of the long-term solutions to the nation’s foreign-exchange problems.”
     
    S&P cut Sri Lanka’s rating by one level in December to B, five steps below investment grade. Fitch Ratings lowered the nation’s rating outlook to negative from stable because of “heightened concern” over a “marked” decline in the nation’s reserves. It affirmed Sri Lanka’s rating at B+, which is four levels below investment grade and unchanged since April 2008.
     
    Sri Lanka is banking on currency swaps with central banks, sales of treasury bills and bonds and offering higher interest rates on deposits to citizens living abroad to boost reserves.
    Tamil Tigers
     
    Once the northern region of the country is recovered from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, peace will lead to more remittances and aid for construction of houses, schools and hospitals, said P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, chief economist at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This will provide “some balance of payments support,” he said.
     
    The Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate homeland, have retreated from most of the northern part of the island nation. They now control a pocket of only 87 square kilometers (34 square miles) in the Mullaitheevu region in the northeast, the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry said Feb. 22.
     
    John Keells Holdings Plc, Sri Lanka’s biggest diversified company, last week doubled its stake in Union Assurance Plc, a local insurer, to 74 percent. The company said it’s anticipating that the liberation of Tamil Tigers-occupied territories will spur demand for finance and insurance.
    To be sure, the dispute hasn’t ended yet.
     
    “Although there is the possibility of outright military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, a potentially different style and lower-intensity conflict will continue to pose a risk to growth prospects and public finances,” S&P’s Benard said.
     
    Still Raiding
    Tamil Tigers launched an air raid in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Feb. 20. Their two aircraft were shot down, one crashing into a building housing the Inland Revenue Department and the second north of the city.
     
    Sri Lankan police yesterday arrested a Tamil newspaper editor in connection with the air raid, prompting a protest by media rights group Reporters Without Borders.
     
    At the end of November, Sri Lanka had 1.4 trillion rupees ($12 billion) of foreign debt outstanding. Its total debt is 3.4 trillion rupees, or 75 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to S&P.
     
    Liabilities increased as Sri Lanka, which spends a fifth of its annual budget on defense, borrowed from local and foreign sources to build roads and ports, among other spending. The nation’s budget deficit has averaged 8.7 percent of GDP in the past decade.
     
    Debt ‘Distress’
    Sri Lanka must reduce reliance on dollar-denominated short- term commercial borrowings to ease public debt “distress,” the IMF said in October. It called on the government to weaken the rupee as part of a “comprehensive policy package that would underpin confidence in the currency.”
     
    The central bank said Jan. 19 that it will neither let the currency fall nor approach the IMF for a bailout to pay for imports and repay its debt.
    On Feb. 19 Governor Nivard Cabraal said the central bank received $200 million from Malaysia, declining to reveal the terms of the deal or whether it was a swap or any other facility with Bank Negara Malaysia. Bank Negara didn’t respond to an e- mail sent by Bloomberg News for comment.
     
    “It’s unlikely that Sri Lanka will go to the IMF for funds,” said Dushni Weerakoon, deputy director of the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo. “At whatever cost, they will try to raise small sums from other countries.” 
  • UN nods ‘fight to the finish’
    The position taken by UN Security Council Friday, February 27, indicating no go beyond ‘hearing’, and the considerate briefing of John Holmes largely endorsing and trusting Colombo’s agenda and assurances for civilians, are read between the lines by international political observers as a ‘knowing wink’ at Colombo to pursue its offensive.
     
    Alternatively, the UN stance either paves way for intervention by interested powers outside of the UN or perhaps reveals an actuality that the UN can be shaken not when people face genocide, but only when ground realities endanger the Sri Lankan state, observers said.
     
    While the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday, February 24, called for a suspension of fighting and beginning of political discussions, John Holmes, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who briefed the Security Council Friday spoke of tackling underlying political issues only after the end of fighting.
     
    “It appears that the UN Secretariat’s public call is undermined by a more private green light to the Sri Lankan military’s offensive in north Sri Lanka”, reported Inner City Press on Friday.
     
    In British Parliament Wednesday, Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey questioned British Foreign Secretary David Miliband why Britain’s representative in UN earlier failed to support a briefing on Sri Lanka while ministers in London call for ceasefire.
     
    Miliband replied: “I am sorry to hear the hon. Gentleman talk in that way, because he knows that a failed resolution—one that faces a veto—is worse than no resolution at all, and it would strengthen precisely the forces that he and I oppose. I can assure him that our diplomats, whether in New York or in the region, are all working off the same script, which is one that has been set by the Prime Minister and me.”
     
    The British silence at UN on Friday may mean that the UN Security Council is still not seasoned to consider the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    At the beginning of the UN briefing Russia said that it is only a ‘one-time hearing’.
     
    The permanent representative of US was not present during the briefing.
     
    The British representative at UN, John Sawers, who earlier said that the LTTE’s long ‘blighting’ of Colombo should be brought to an end, neither demanded a presidential statement of the council after the briefing nor answered questions put on Sri Lanka by the media, according to Inner City Press.
     
    Interestingly, John Holmes admitted his ‘knowing’ stance on events.
     
    When asked by Inner City Press on reportedly mischievous translations he received while visiting civilians in Vavuniyaa, he replied, “you should credit me with enough intelligence to assess what people told me, surrounded by the military’s armed guards”.
  • Why everyone should boycott Sri Lanka
    The United Nations Agreement on Human Rights states, amongst other things, that individuals have the “right to life”, “the right to equality before the law” and “the freedom of assembly and association”.
    The United Nations Agreement on Human Rights forbids, amongst other things, “torture and inhumane degrading treatment”, “arbitrary arrest and detention” and “hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or language”.
    Sri Lanka, however, being one of the 192 countries of the United Nations, has broken its agreement to abide by the Geneva Convention, by mercilessly launching a massive military campaign to exterminate every Tamil in Sri Lanka, for one reason and one reason only; they are Tamil.
    Since the start of 2009, more than 3000 Tamils, most of who are innocent civilians, have been executed. All the hospitals in the areas of conflict have been fired upon, several times, destroying them and killing already wounded patients who went to seek medical help, as well as doctors and nurses. The small number of surviving doctors living amongst the civilians have set up make-shift hospitals in schools, temples and churches, but without adequate medical facilities.
    The Sri Lankan government is doing everything in its power to thin down the Tamil population, including refusing the access of medical aid and food into the war zones and banning international aid groups, such as the ICRC, from providing essential care to the injured and dying Tamils.
    As the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka continues to escalate, we cannot just sit by as Tamils of the international community and watch our brothers and sisters back at home being butchered on a daily basis.
    As British Tamils, we have a duty to do all we can to stop the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka and to save our people. After attempting many different strategies to bring an end to this horrific war with little success, international Tamils have decided to chance their tactics and launch an attack on the Sri Lankan economy.
    Each Sri Lankan product that is purchased contributes towards financing the arms and ammunitions that are being used to slay our Tamil people back at home. As Tamils, by buying these products, we are contributing towards the complete annihilation of our own people.
    Consequently, to cause a downturn in the Sri Lankan economy, all Sri Lankan products must be boycotted for the next 100 days. Listed below are a few products which must be avoided:
    1. Food items by Larich, Maliban and Nestle milk products
    2. Food items that are imported by Sri Lankan Tamils and packed in Britain.
    3. Garments made in Sri Lankan and sold in supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer and footwear including Bata
    4. Products made from rubber and coconut
    5. All forms of tea grown in Ceylon.
    6. Medicinal products
    7. Fish, fish products and vegetables
    Investors are also being requested to stop purchasing bonds, treasury bills and shares in corporations as well as saving their earnings in Sri Lankan banks. This will directly affect the foreign reserve that the Sri Lankan government uses to by weapons from other countries in its genocidal war on Tamils.
    Before buying any product, consumers are advised to ask the retailer if the product is from Sri Lanka. If it is, buying it is not only costing the consumer money, but is also costing Tamil lives.
    Many retailers are willing to cooperate but are asking for the consumers to conduct the boycott, and then they too will stop buying Sri Lankan products. We appeal to the few importers of Sri Lankan products to the UK to give this matter their urgent consideration and seek alternative sources of similar products in South Asia.
    This appeal, if successful, could bring down the Sri Lankan economy and salvage thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
    Every Sri Lankan product that is bought by each individual consumer is serving to help the Singhalese to defeat the Tamils so every British Tamil must make these diminutive sacrifices to pressurise the Sri Lankan government to stop the war.
    Let us all work together as a community, the Tamil community, to ensure that soon, very soon, our people back at home can live with the serenity, self - respect and equality that they deserve.
  • Self-sacrifice for the greater good has a long tradition
    Tamils across the globe have engaged in acts of fasting, marches, sit-ins and formed human chains to voice their opposition to Sri Lanka’s genocidal war and demonstrate their solidarity with the suffering of Eelam Tamils. Acts of self immolation, in the midst of these other protests from the standard repertoire of modern politics, may at first sight appear fanatical and imbued with a certain irrational excess.
     
    However, these acts are not as exceptional and unusual as the might at first appear and have a resonance with iconic acts of protest from the twentieth century as well as Tamil cultural understandings.
     
    Critical to understanding the meaning of self immolation as political protest and the resonance it appears to have amongst the wider Tamil anti genocide movement are the notions of voluntary suffering and a willingness to sacrifice for a higher ideal or for the greater good of the whole.
     
    The political activism of Monhandas K. Gandhi, popularly known across south Asia as Mahatma Gandhi, exemplifies the relationship between political protest against oppression and injustice and THE voluntary acceptance of suffering as a form of self sacrifice for a wider good.
     
    Gandhi’s practise of non violence can be seen as incorporating two important conceptual elements. Firstly the idea of ahimsa – of doing no harm – which stems from an appreciation of the equal moral value of the other. The second important element is the voluntary acceptance of suffering by the protestor as a means of appealing to the conscience of the oppressor without harming him / her.
     
    When Congress activists willingly and without resistance accepted the blows of the colonial police, they were trying to demonstrate to colonial officials, the Indian public and the British public the injustices of British colonial rule in India.
     
    This tactic was used with great effect by Gandhi in 1930 during the famous salt march when he walked along with volunteers to the sea at Dandi and publicly performed the then illegal act of making salt. Before setting off on the march, Gandhi informed the Viceroy, Irwin of his intentions and noted that he would be courting arrest in breaking British laws.
     
    Through accepting the punishment of breaking an unjust law, Gandhi and the many thousands of volunteers who followed his example hoped to demonstrate the oppression and violence contained in the British monopoly on the production and distribution of salt.
     
    In this and other similar acts of fasting or the self conscious courting of police repression and violence, Gandhi and anti colonial activists willingly accepted suffering not for personal gain but in order to promote a wider good, that is the possibility of Indian self rule.
     
    The acts of political protest, often communicated through what have become iconic images of Gandhi fasting and unarmed protestors beaten down by police charges had a strong resonance with the mainly rural and illiterate population of India. The voluntary acceptance of suffering and self sacrifice has long been part of a tradition of exemplary protest that is also included in day to day practices.
     
    In the Tamil speaking areas the earliest forms of literature from Sangham corpus describes many such acts of exemplary protest. The later Saivite literature also recounts tales of devotees who willingly undertake acts of suffering to prove their faith.
     
    The intertwining of non violence and exemplary suffering is also apparent in many day to day forms of social interaction in south Asian cultures. These acts are particularly associated with women who often deploy non violent forms of protest within a domestic context as a means of appealing to the conscience of those who have transgressed norms.
     
    A classic incident in the lives of many south Asian families is that of a woman who protests the wrongful behaviour of a partner or child by refusing to eat. The logic of these incidents, which are now regularly portrayed in television dramas and the cinema, involves the woman willingly accepting the suffering of hunger as a means of appealing to the conscience of those who have transgressed familial norms and expectations.
     
    Whilst the south Asian cultural landscape made it especially receptive to the Gandhian message, the twentieth century is littered with iconic acts of political protest through exemplary suffering from many different parts of the world.
     
    During the Vietnam War there were several acts of self immolation by Buddhist monks and nuns protesting the United States’ massively destructive military campaign in Vietnam.
     
    These acts of public and violent self sacrifice appealed to the moral conscience of the United States population and the wider world by demonstrating in an urgent way the suffering caused by the United States’ actions in Vietnam.
     
    Similarly in 1913, the Oxford educated Suffragette Emily Wilding Davidson threw herself under the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby to protest the British establishment’s refusal to grant women the right to vote. As she ran onto the racecourse facing certain injury and probable death she was heard to shout ‘votes for women’ - a demand that was known to be resolutely opposed by the king.
     
    Acts of exemplary suffering have an important place in the Tamil struggle as means of resisting the Sri Lankan state’s genocidal programme. During the ill-fated Indian occupation of the Tamil speaking areas Thileepan and Annai Poopathi undertook fasts unto death as a means of provoking the conscience of the Indian establishment and drawing attention to the suffering of the Tamil speaking people.
     
    The most recent acts of self immolation have taken place in a period of exceptional suffering for the Eelam Tamils. Although Sri Lanka’s genocidal programme has deep mythical roots and a contemporary history that begins with political independence in 1949, it is only in the last few months that the state has pursued the annihilation of the Tamils with such public abandon.
     
    In the aftermath of the anti Tamil pogroms that took place between 1977 and 1983, Eelam Tamils abandoned their attempts to engage the Sri Lankan state and directed their protests to the international community, the west and India in particular. The Tamils no longer regard the Sri Lankan state as a moral interlocutor with whom dialogue is possible and their efforts are now solely directed at the conscience of outside powers.
     
    The global Tamil anti genocide movement has placed the moral imperative of responding to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni firmly on the shoulders of the international community. The intensity and momentum of the protests reflect the crisis that is now facing the Eelam Tamils and these acts of self immolation are intended capture the moral urgency of the situation in the Vanni.
     
    The leadership of the Tamil resistance has, along with other Tamils, a nuanced response to acts of exemplary suffering as a means of resisting the Sri Lankan state’s genocidal programme. The LTTE, whilst understanding and appreciating these acts for their moral intent, has argued that the Tamil struggle would benefit more from the continued participation of those who feel so acutely the moral imperative to respond to the Tamils’ suffering.
     
    The global Tamil response to the most recent acts of self immolation have taken a similar tone. Whilst these acts are understood as forms of exemplary suffering and self sacrifice undertaken in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Vanni, Tamils echo the LTTE’s argument that the movement as a whole would benefit more from the continued participation of all anti genocide activists.
     
    The Sri Lankan state’s nakedly genocidal campaign in the Vanni has created a unified sense of urgency amongst Tamils across the world. Whilst Tamils cannot distance themselves from the exemplary purposes and sacrificial intent of the recent acts of self immolation, the movement cannot afford to loose the committed and continued participation of any activist who feels the imperative of making the world listen. 
  • Grab LTTE ceasefire offer, India tells Sri Lanka
    India has urged the Sri Lankan government to ‘seize the opportunity provided by LTTE's ceasefire offer to bring about a pause in hostilities’, indicating another shift in its policy on its southern neighbour and the ongoing conflict.
     
    However, political observers in Tamil Nadu labelled the move as a tactic to nullify their calls for a permanent ceasefire and dismissed it. According to them, this diplomatic move of India can prevent any other powers that may come in on one hand, and provide electoral advantage of showing a human face to the voters of India on the other hand.

    The move, confined only to a 'pause', also doesn't interfere with the war India is abetting in the island, observers said.
     
    "It is reported that the LTTE has offered a ceasefire. While this may fall short of a declaration of willingness to lay down arms, it is our view that the government of Sri Lanka should seize the opportunity presented by the offer to bring about a pause in the hostilities," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters during a visit to West Bengal.
     
    “The government of India would, therefore, appeal to the government of Sri Lanka to immediately work out safe passage for trapped civilians to secure locations,” Mukherjee said.
     
    “This would require the cooperation of the LTTE,” he underlined reading out from a statement.
     
    Mukherjee also underscored India’s “grave concern over the humanitarian crisis that is building up with every passing day in Sri Lanka.”
     
    “I sincerely hope that the government of Sri Lanka and all others will respond to this sincere appeal that is made in the interest of all sections of the people in Sri Lanka,” Mukherjee added.
     
    In the space of three weeks India has changed its stance three times, making political observers claim that India is reacting to ground realties and does not have a clear policy on the Eelam Tamil issue.
     
    On Tuesday February 3, when the co-chairs demanded the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender to the Sri Lankan government, India too followed suit with the same call.
     
    However, 9 later days, on Thursday, February 12, addressing the parliament Indian President Pratibha Patil announced a change in India’s stance over the Sri Lankan conflict. This time instead laying down the weapons, India urged the LTTE to indicate its willingness to lay down arms and Sri Lanka to suspend military operations, so that both sides can return to the negotiating table.
     
    Following the LTTE air raid on SLAF targets in Colombo on Friday, February 20, Indian External Affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee skipped all references to laying down of weapons and urged both sides to ‘sit across the table for a negotiated settlement of the issue’.
     
    "An LTTE plane has been shot down. This is of concern. Political solution has to be found to the LTTE issue and military action will not do," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukhjerjee, said on Saturday, February 21.
     
    Maintaining that ‘a political solution is the only way out’, he said, "The two sides should sit across the table for a negotiated settlement of the issue.”  
     
    In the latest statement, Mukherjee has urged the Sri Lankan government to ‘seize the opportunity provided by LTTE's ceasefire offer.
     
    In the past few weeks, international organisations, including the UN, for one reason or another, have made repeated appeals for a cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka. Colombo, however, have rejected all calls for truce and labelled the LTTE’s ceasefire call as a desperate plea “to save their miserable skins.” 
  • Ceasefire and solution first, laying down arms irrelevant says LTTE
    Urging International Community to effect a ceasefire and initiate a political solution as a priority than insisting Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lay down arms, the Political Head of the LTTE, B. Nadesan, made an appeal Sunday, February 22, to the heads of the Co-chairs countries saying that "when a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people, with the support and the guarantee of the international community, the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE."

    Earlier, the Tokyo Co-chairs urged the LTTE to discuss with the Government of Sri Lanka the modalities for ending hostilities, including the laying down of arms.

    "The world should take note that calls for the LTTE to lay down its arms and surrender is not helpful for resolving the conflict," wrote Mr. Nadesan.

    "The LTTE has [earlier] taken part in numerous peace efforts. No one insisted then that the LTTE should lay down its arms," Nadesan said in his letter.

    Expecting the LTTE to lay down arms without political solution is degrading human struggle for freedom and amounts to congratulating genocide, he said.

    The letter was addressed to Barack Obama, the president of the United States, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, the Security Council of the UN, Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway and Taro Aso, the prime minister of Japan.

    Full text of the letter follows:

    22 February 2009

    Expressing the Tamil position to the International Community

    As the political representatives of the Tamil people, who are daily facing danger of genocide, we wish to put some information before the international community.

    Before expressing our views on the partiality in the messages that the international community wishes to convey to the two sides (Sri Lanka Government-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), we wish to state some basic historical facts about our liberation struggle.

    Tamil people are a nation in the island of Sri Lanka. The contiguous north-east part of the island is the traditional homeland of the Tamil people. For more than fifty years, the Sri Lankan Governments have attempted to suppress and oppress this ethnic community that has the right to nationhood and self determination. In this attempt, it has confiscated their land and committed genocidal attacks on this community.

    The atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Government on the Tamil people, whom it claims to be its own people, are blatant State Terrorism.

    The Tamil community has been waging a struggle against this State Terrorism for more than fifty years.

    At the start, for almost 25 years, this struggle with the aim to achieving self-determination was non-violent.

    This non-violent struggle, accepted world wide as a lawful means of waging struggles, was suppressed with a lot of blood letting by the Sri Lankan Governments using its armed forces that was made up only of young men of Sinhala ethnicity.

    At the same time, under the pretext of ethnic-riots, many genocidal acts were committed against the Tamil people with the support of the Sri Lankan Governments. With State assistance Sinhala people were settled on land belonging to the Tamils. Tamils were also discriminated in the areas of education, job opportunities and economic development.

    The Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict was further sharpened by these oppressive actions. As the non-violent struggles of the Tamils became ineffective in the context of the violence of the Sri Lankan State, this external condition necessitated the Tamil struggle to become armed. This gave birth to the LTTE and which gave the leadership for this armed struggle.

    It is the Tamil people and not the LTTE that chose the political aim of the Tamil people. In the parliamentary voting of 1977, the Tamil people through their voting announced to the world their political aim. Tamil people voted for the common decision of the Tamil political parties to establish an independent state in the joint north-east part of the island, the traditional homeland of the Tamils.

    The LTTE took up the national duty of fulfilling the democratic verdict of the Tamil people.

    The liberation struggle of the Tamil people gained fame on the world stage for its military feats over the last thirty years. It achieved this through the most supreme dedication that could be expected of liberation fighters.

    Whenever the LTTE had the upper hand militarily, the Sri Lankan ruling party pretending to find a political solution came for peace talks. But, once finding the time space to strengthen its armed forces, the Sri Lankan ruling party disrupted the peace talks and again created the conditions for war.

    The Sri Lankan Governments have staged this drama of deceiving the world and the Tamil people starting from the very first talks, after the launch of the armed struggle, in Thimbu in 1985 till the 2002 ceasefire agreement and the following five years of peace talks under Norway's facilitation.

    With Norway's facilitation and the support of the Co-Chair countries, three important agreements were signed between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE. The Sri Lankan Governments rejected all three agreements, the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement, the Post Tsunami Operations Management Structure, and Secretariat for Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation for North East for the development of North East, dealt the final blow for peace.

    The world knows how the Sri Lankan Government ignored the repeated calls of the international community to not seek a solution through war but to seek a political solution through talks.

    No one except the LTTE had identified correctly the stance of the Sri Lankan State on the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict. The LTTE has been saying for a long time that the Sri Lankan Governments have continued to seek a military solution to the conflict and they will never find a political solution to the conflict.

    The Sri Lankan Government put forward its stance against a political solution and for a military solution in a style appealing to the international community as war on terrorism.

    Just like how it formulated the liberation struggle of the Tamils as terrorism, it also used the pretext of "security reasons" to expel some humanitarian agencies and journalists. If any western diplomat or journalist dares to say that the Sinhala armed forces are violating the rights of the Tamil civilians, they are immediately categorized as "White Tigers" or terrorists.

    The people of the world are watching the tolerance exhibited towards the atrocities of the Sri Lankan State just because of its status as a "State" and the rejection of the just struggle of the LTTE just because it does not have the status of a 'State".

    From Hitler's government to Rwandan government to Sudan government, it is the governments that have been committing genocide. Sri Lankan Government is also committing numerous genocides against the Tamils. This genocide history that started in 1956 has expanded today. More than 200,000 people have already been killed in this genocidal history since 1956.

    The international community, though it is hesitant to support the political aspirations of the Tamil people for an independent state, it must re-examine our point that an independent state is the only permanent solution to the Tamil-Sinhala conflict. Tamil people are frustrated and dejected after long years of massacres by the Sinhala armed forces and the Sinhala State.

    The confidence of the Tamil people for living together has been destroyed by their huge losses, their untold miseries, and their haunting memories. This will never permit a peaceful life of equality between the Tamils and Sinhalese within Sri Lanka.

    This is the ethno-political reality of this island. Brutal acts are being committed in Vanni at present further solidifying this ethno-political reality.

    Weapons like artillery and multi-barrel launcher that are used by combatants against each other in war are used by the Sri Lankan armed forced on the Tamil civilians, and their IDP camps. Women, children and old people are getting killed, maimed and injured in thousands by these attacks.

    For past few weeks from 50 to 100 Tamil civilians are daily getting killed by such attacks by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Already more than 2000 civilians have been killed and more than 5000 have been injured. It is painful to see the world maintaining silence on this immense human suffering as if it is amused by what is going on.

    The Tamils of Tamil Eelam are facing the worst genocide of the 21st century.

    In this situation, the LTTE is ready to accept the calls for a ceasefire issued by the international community with the good intention of ending the human suffering. The LTTE desires that this effort for a ceasefire to grow further into peace talks to seek a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

    The world should take note that calls for the LTTE to lay down its arms and surrender is not helpful for resolving the conflict.

    It is the political reality that the arms of the LTTE are the protective shield of the Tamil people and their tool for political liberation.

    The LTTE has taken part in numerous peace efforts. No one insisted then that the LTTE should lay down its arms.

    The protection of the Tamil people is dependent on the arms of the LTTE. When a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people with the support and the guarantee of the international community the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE.

    Expecting the LTTE to lay down the arms, when the Tamil people are facing a horrendous genocide - and in the absence of any efforts to find a political solution is degrading the centuries of human struggle for freedom. At the same time it also appears to be congratulating the Sri Lankan Government on its genocidal war.

    Therefore, the LTTE appeals to the international community, to take actions to stop the genocidal attacks on the Tamil people rather than call for the laying down of the arms of the LTTE. International community should apply pressure of the Sri Lankan Government to seek not a military but a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

    The international community must do everything in its power to bring a ceasefire so that the miseries of the Tamils in Vanni are brought to an end and they are protected and the food and medicine requirements for them are fulfilled.

    We also wish to inform the international community that we are ready to discuss, co-operate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement.

    Yours Sincerely

    B Nadesan
    Head of the Political Wing of the LTTE     
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