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  • ‘Colombo is removing witnesses to the coming carnage’

    Jan 06
    Sri Lanka’s government tore up the six year old ceasefire agreement to remove the presence of the international monitors who have been exposing human rights abuses, Tamil parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said this week.

    Moreover while the blatant targeting of the island’s Tamils by the government of President Rajapakse is taking place in the full glare of the International Community, the latter is able to only make verbal condemnations and remains largely ineffective in stopping the Sinhala state.

    The full text of Mr. Gajendrakumar's interview with TamilNet follows:

    TamilNet: Last week the Government served notice of its formal withdrawal from the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has informed that it will be terminating its mission from the 16th of January. What do you see as the reasons for this decision by the Government particularly when it was well known that the CFA remained merely on paper?

    Gajendrakumar: Despite the ineffectiveness of the CFA, the presence of SLMM has been a major factor in containing Rights abuses in the NorthEast. The SLMM continued to come out with its reports on a regular basis. Of late, the SLMM has been exposing the Government’s activities in the East.

    In my view, the Government had to disable the SLMM before it starts intensifying its military project. The Government will want to rid the Northeast of any witnesses of the carnage that it intends to unveil on the Tamil people in the name of safeguarding the Sovereignty of the State. It wants to have a free hand. It will also want to create the ground conditions where only its versions of events come out of the Northeast.

    There is also an image factor. The CFA and the SLMM are seen as creations of the Western Nations. By taking steps to negate these, particularly amidst the Sinhala Nationalist frenzy the South finds itself in, Rajapakse and his Government will come across as standing up to the West and will project an image of strength. Naturally, the Government will see these as scoring strong points from its constituency.

    TamilNet: But if the intention is to rid the Northeast of witnesses, and have a monopoly on the information, surely the SLMM is not the only source?

    Gajendrakumar: I agree. The SLMM was only one such potential source. There are many INGOs, Media Institutions, Civil Society activists, religious leaders, intellectuals and political actors who could serve similar purpose.

    But it is also true that these actors have also been systematically targeted over the last two years, to the point that all of them are finding it near impossible to function freely and safely. It is well known that the Government is making it very difficult and unsafe for the INGOs to work.

    Many INGOs that used to work in the Northeast, no longer function. There have been targeted killing of other actors. The space for independent actors to work in the Northeast has been successfully curtailed to the extent the Government would consider them ineffectual. Getting the SLMM out was the icing on the cake, if you like.

    The strong need to keep witnesses out, and have its version of events go uncontested, are also reasons why the Government would never agree to have a UN Monitoring Mission to have a presence on the island.

    When the Government is about to violate every conceivable human right of the Tamils in pursuing a military solution, and is relying increasingly on its military agenda to garner support from amongst the Sinhala people for its political survival, it would be only logical for it to ensure that there are no independent witnesses of its crimes; and for it to ensure it has a monopoly on the information that comes out of the Northeast to project it in a positive light vis-à-vis its electorate.

    TamilNet: The effect of the Government’s actions on the INGOs for example, has also worsened the humanitarian situation facing the people in the Northeast. What steps has the TNA taken in this regard?

    Gajendrakumar: Well, the TNA for some time now has been warning the International Community that the humanitarian crisis faced in the Northeast is not a byproduct of the military actions of the Government, but that it is in fact a part and parcel of the Governments military strategy itself.

    Our warnings have been proved correct by the way the Government carried out military operations in the East, where humanitarian aid agencies were prevented from reaching the affected people. The result was the colossal human suffering that innocent civilians had to face. All those people are continuing to suffer even today. The Government’s intended future operations in the North will be no different from what happened in the East and will make the humanitarian situation many times worse.

    It is in this backdrop that some Countries have been applying pressure on Tamil Diaspora humanitarian initiatives. This is very unfortunate. At a time when the International Community through its own INGOs are unable to deliver to the suffering Tamil people, the fact that Tamil Diaspora humanitarian institutions are also being prevented from helping their own suffering people, we find is particularly cruel.

    Whatever the intentions of these Countries might be, there can be no doubt that their actions are only helping the Sri Lankan Government in its war efforts, and it is the innocent Tamil civilians who are made to suffer. We would therefore continue to appeal to these Countries to at least allow space for the Tamil Diaspora to provide the much needed humanitarian assistance to their own people.

    TamilNet: You have talked about the Government’s intentions regarding the Northeast. Mr. Maheswaran was assassinated in a Kovil in Colombo, in the South. Mr. Mano Ganeshan has complained of threats to his life. These are actors based outside the Northeast. What are your views on these developments?

    Gajendrakumar: I think there are a number of reasons that would have had a cumulative effect in driving Governments actions on Tamils in the South.

    Firstly, both Mr. Maheswaran and Mr. Mano Ganeshan are Tamils. As far as Sri Lankan Governments are concerned, Tamils are an easily expendable lot.

    Secondly, both Maheswaran and Mano Ganeshan have been critics of the Government. As stated earlier, the Government will work hard at silencing its critics. Them being Tamil, makes the Governments job that much easier.

    Thirdly, I also think that there is a larger project of the Government at play here. When the Government intensifies its military project, it will want to make sure that the South is kept stable. For this, the Government will see every Tamil as a potential threat. To eliminate this threat, the Tamils will either have to be removed from the South, or at the very least, be terrorized to the extent that they are neutralized.

    The forced eviction of Tamils from Colombo a few months ago, along with continuous rounding up and arrests of Tamils, is for this reason. Targeting prominent Tamils who have been elected in the South also serves this purpose – if high profile Tamils can be got rid of so easily, the message to the ordinary Tamil people living in the South is very loud and clear indeed.

    Fourthly, I also think the Rajapakse regime would be keeping an eye on the possibility of having to face an election. His is a coalition Government that is not completely stable. The recent drama during the budget would have driven home this point.

    If elections are to be held, Rajapakse will want to ensure that his opponent’s chances are reduced. Since he is certain that the Tamils in Colombo will not vote for him, he needs to ensure that their votes will not benefit his opponents. By Targeting opposition Tamil MPs based in Colombo who work with his opponents, he will make a prospective Tamil candidate at future elections think twice before putting his or her name forward. The sense of impunity that is created by such targeting, he will hope, will also keep the Tamil voter from getting out and voting, which will only be to his Government’s benefit.

    TamilNet: So under these circumstances, where do the Tamils stand?

    Gajendrakumar: Fundamentally what the Tamils are facing is nothing new. However, since the Rajapakse regime came to office, the anti-Tamil actions of the Sri Lankan State have been unparalleled. All of this has been happening in the full glare of the International Community. Unfortunately, other than for statements that have been issued from time to time, the International Community has been ineffective in restraining the Sri Lankan State.

    Under these circumstances the Tamil people would believe that the only way the Sri Lankan Government could be brought to its senses is through enforced reversals on the battlefield. But the TNA will continue to engage with the International Community in the hope of trying to convince it to take meaningful steps against the Sri Lankan State that would convince the latter to abandon its current single-minded pursuit of a military solution to the conflict.

    Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna district, and is a Member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Constitutional Affairs.

  • The futility of human rights monitoring

    The most significant consequence of Sri Lanka's formal decision this week to withdraw from the Norwegian mediated ceasefire is the termination of the mandate for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). This has intensified calls for a United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to formally continue the human rights work that had, by default, fallen to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. The demand for a UN mission has become the standard liberal response to Sri Lanka's fast deteriorating human rights situation.

    However, it is unclear whether the language of human rights and humanitarianism can actually capture or address the issues that are driving Sri Lanka's dismal slide to lawlessness and brutality.

    To argue that the solution to Sri Lanka's problems might not be found in the language and techniques of human rights and humanitarianism seems in the current climate at least counter intuitive, perhaps even demonstrating a callous disregard for the victims of this violence.

    However, the point here is not to argue that violence and brutality are inevitable, simply to suggest that the human rights / humanitarian paradigm cannot provide the means to explain the dynamics of violence and consequently is incapable of establishing the conceptual foundations for a different, positive form of politics.

    Despite the deep ideological divisions on the Sri Lankan political scene all shades of opinion can nominally agree that the current situation in which politics is conducted through assassination, extortion, bombings, rapes, enforced starvation, displacement, ethnic cleansing and abduction is abnormal. It is not that politics has been marred by brutality rather politics is coercion, fear and violence.

    The human rights / humanitarian paradigm appears at first sight to be eminently capable, if not absolutely essential in these conditions of abnormal politics.

    The current situation is one where human rights are violated with gay abandon and in which humanitarian norms have lost all force as guiding or restraining principles.
    However, there is a circularity to the human rights / humanitarian paradigm that explains its inability to provide a viable strategy that can move Sri Lankan political dynamics away from abnormal politics.

    The human rights / humanitarian paradigm describes the current situation in terms of violations of its norms: so many abductions, so much displacement, the numerical dimensions of humanitarian need. However, it also explains the current crisis in terms of its own norms - thus producing circularity:

    Q: What is the problem in Sri Lanka?
    A: The LTTE and the Sri Lankan government are committing human rights violations.

    Q: Why is this?
    A: Because they are human rights violators.
    Using the same terms to describe and explain a problem produces circularity that can be compared to explaining flooding in terms of too much water.

    Q: What is the problem?
    A: The room has flooded?

    Q: Why is this?
    A: Because there is too much water.
    Just as the flood is caused by some other problem that cannot be explained solely in terms of water levels so Sri Lanka's problems require a language that moves beyond the metrics of human rights violations and humanitarian needs.

    A significant proportion of human rights violations in Sri Lanka are related, in the organic and causal sense, to the ongoing civil war. Nothing demonstrates this better than the reduction in human rights violations in the months immediately following the ceasefire agreement of February 2002.

    The ceasefire recognized the civil war as a military conflict between two protagonists and consolidated a mutually agreed balance of forces. It was thus an expressly political and pragmatic document that it in its immediate wake produced a noticeable improvement in the human rights / humanitarian metrics.

    The ceasefire, initially at least, checked and contained the activities of the army backed paramilitary death gangs that had stalked the Jaffna peninsula spreading murder, gang rape and abduction in their wake.

    It gave the Vanni a respite from constant aerial bombardment, displacement and saw the ending of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's cruel, not to mention illegal, embargo that had brought the population to near starvation and deprived it of medical essentials including pain killers and anti snake venom. (As an aside, the needless distress and indignity suffered in death by Vanni civilians is one of the many inhuman aspects of Chandrika's war not fully captured by humanitarian metrics.)

    In return for greater stability and security in the north levels of insecurity in the south declined and the economy started to recover from the negative growth it experienced in 2001.

    The brief period of military security gave the LTTE the confidence to engage with international actors on key issues such as under-age recruitment, police reforms and development amo-ngst others. Although all sides have since expressed dissatisfaction with the process, the current situation is clearly by all metrics a deterioration from a dynamic of limited if not entirely satisfactory engagement.

    The breakdown of the ceasefire and the consequent deterioration in human rights / humanitarian standards cannot be explained in terms of the metrics alone. There is an increase in human rights violations not because the LTTE and the Government suddenly rediscovered their human rights violating tendencies but because the ceasefire has broken down and both sides are pursuing a military option.

    The ceasefire broke down for a number of reasons but principally perhaps the international backers lost sight of the mutually recognized military balance that had created the conditions for the ceasefire in the first place.

    Instead a narrow minded determination to contain and weaken the LTTE led to a deterioration of the military balance, eroded political parity and the culminated in a resurgent and vibrant Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism revival that is again pursing war - with international backing.

    The current pattern of human rights violations reflects the new dynamics of war. Abductions and extortions of Tamils in Colombo, Jaffna and the East are a consequence of this government's greater reliance on paramilitary groups. These acts are carried out by army backed groups and the ransom money is used to fund paramilitary activities, mainly in the East. Tamil politicians are being assassinated to clear the space for paramilitary politicians.

    These activities cannot be explained in terms of the anti human rights tendencies of Douglas, Pilliyan or Karuna alone. Rather abductions in Colombo are fuelling paramilitary activities in the east, precisely so as to free up the army to capture the north.

    Abductions were not a major feature of Chandrika's regime as she did not need a large paramilitary group to control and pacify the east and could fund paramilitaries like the EPDP in the north through the ministries channeling the generous financial assistance given to redevelop military-controlled Jaffna.
    Counting, condemning and monitoring abductions and assassinations simply describes the dimensions of the problem, it cannot explain why they occur or produce a viable strategy for building a different kind of politics.

    In short, the distressing dimensions of Sri Lankan human rights / humanitarian matrices simply reflect larger military and political strategies. The matrices will not improve until these larger issues are addressed. These larger issues require political concepts such as justice, security and stability that have become almost alien to Sri Lankan political thinking.

    Thinking about justice cannot turn on the individual citizen but must incorporate the historic and ongoing oppression of the Tamil people and their exclusion from meaningful access to public, legitimate power.
    Security cannot just mean, as it presently does, the security of the Sinhala state and polity and the larger international community but must be the physical, political and economic security of the Tamils.

    Finally stability refers to the long term stability of any solution that must include the idea of military balance. A political condition that effectively addresses these issues of justice, security and stability would also be one where there was a noticeable and qualitative improvement in human rights / humanitarian matrices.
    However, the matrices would simply describe the situation, they cannot help create it.

    The ceasefire was the first meaningful step in this direction and as such brought a brief respite in the deterioration of the human rights matrices. It addressed the questions of security and stability and might have provided a means to addressing questions of justice.

    UN monitoring as envisioned by its advocates does not address any of these issues and will therefore be unable to check the rising tide of human rights violations.

    No doubt the international community hopes that independent human rights monitors would be able to collect information that could be used to bring or threaten war crimes charges against both the government and the LTTE. The possibility of war crimes could conceivably act as a threat that shapes the behavior of both protagonists.

    However, neither protagonist is fighting the war to avoid war crimes trials. Both are fighting to win and are convinced - with good reason - that war crimes charges can be avoided through military victory. All past political experience suggests that war crimes trials are simply victor's justice that can be completely avoided by the very powerful, notably the United States of America.

    The international community's moral authority is also severely tarnished by the activities of its most powerful members. Both sides in Sri Lanka can justifiably point to the aberrations of the 'war on terror.' Moreover, the Sri Lankan states can - and successfully does - use this particular rhetoric to deflect all criticism.

    Conversely the West's unqualified military and political support for Sri Lankan state terror means that the LTTE's refusal to recognize the moral authority of these states will - and demonstrably does - resonate with the Tamil polity.

    The international community's reliance on the human rights / humanitarian paradigm will exclude fundamental issues of justice, security and stability from political consideration and thus fuel the war which will then fuel a further deterioration of the human rights / humanitarian matrices fuelling calls for UN monitoring.

    Thus will the cycle continue.

  • Eyes Tight Shut

    The Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapakse (finally) tore up the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers last week. Whilst the truce existed only on paper after almost two years of high-intensity war, the move was not without its consequences. The ejection of the Nordic ceasefire monitors, a key set of international eyes on the ground, was one. The smashing of the vestiges of Norway’s once much lauded peace process is another. The most important, however, is the Rajapakse regime’s brazen demonstration of its contempt for international opinion.

    As with all of Sri Lanka’s odious actions, the reaction of the international community, broadly defined, has been inexcusably muted. The United States is ‘troubled.’ Australia ‘fears’ for the future. Norway ‘regrets’ Sri Lanka’s action. Contrast this with the howls of rage that would have followed had it been the LTTE that had opted to exit the CFA. Indeed, despite the brazenness with which the Sri Lankan state is abducting, murdering and disappearing Tamils, the international community’s reactions have so far been limited to temporarily stopping a fraction of aid flows to the country. Compare this to the haste with which the EU and Canada rushed to proscribe the LTTE in early 2006. Indeed, since that point the newly emboldened Sri Lankan state has waged relentless and indiscriminate war in the Northeast.

    The fundamental problem here is the international community’s stubborn refusal to accept, even when it is thrust in their faces, the racist oppression that underpins ethnic politics in Sri Lanka and, consequently, the impossibility of reforming the Sinhala state. In the past eighteen months the claim that Tamil-Sinhala relations are amicable, disturbed only by the agitation of ‘extremists’, has been exposed for the fiction it is. The vast majority of Sinhalese are behind President Rajapakse’s militarist project which is as much about ‘crushing Tamil rebellion’ as ‘defeating Tiger terrorism.’ And yet, for three decades now, even as the Tamils have been protesting state terror, the international community has repeatedly called for a solution “within a united Sri Lanka.” Indeed, the adamant refusal to see the violence in Sri Lanka as a cycle of oppression followed by resistance was reflected again last week. Sri Lanka’s abrogation of the ceasefire, Erik Solheim, Norway’s former Special Envoy, lamented, “comes on top of the increasingly frequent and brutal acts of violence perpetrated by both parties.” It is this ready equating of the violence of the oppressor with the resistance of the oppressed which reveals the international mindset.

    Eager to pursue joint interests with the Sri Lankan state, international actors (and their local partners) have long sought to mischaracterise the island's conflict as one of opposing extremist demands (a unitary state versus independence) and, of late, the protagonists (the state and the LTTE) as mirrors of each other. Sinhala and Tamil nationalisms are equated and denounced alike. The vast majority of civilians who have died in this conflict are Tamils - mown down by Sri Lanka's military machine or diseased and starved amid government embargos. Yet, as much as the Tamils rage against Sinhala chauvinism, the international community serenely assures us it is merely poor governance. The violence of the LTTE ('terrorists') is the problem, we are repeatedly told, not state oppression. Our demand for Eelam is a quest for 'ethnic purity' as one US Ambassador told us (we doubt he would address the people of Kosovo or Somaliland in such terms).

    There was a time when such name-calling, the labeling of Tamil resistance as terrorism, the mischaracterization of the Tamil freedom struggle as 'extremism' was both hurtful and alarming. That was when the Tamils still had faith in the international community's preparedness to stand up for principles of justice and humanity and were eagerly, even naively, trying to make their case. However, the lethargic response of the international actors to the Sri Lankan state's ongoing brutality and its defiance of international norms have revealed - to both the state and the Tamils - the limits of international commitment to principles that were, not that long ago, brandished as justification for denying the Tamils not only urgently needed humanitarian aid, but a peace process on our terms. In short, we have become accustomed to be being blamed for our own suffering. Especially under the prevailing conditions in Sri Lanka, the equating of the state's violence against our people with the LTTE's resistance to the state says less about the moral standing of our freedom struggle than the strategic imperatives of those making this argument.

  • ‘Pervasive fear’ amongst Tamils - UN envoy
    While stressing that there is a 'pervasive sense of fear' among the thousands displaced by the ongoing war between the Sri Lanka army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, a top UN official has urged parties concerned to find peaceful solutions and prevent fresh displacement of people.
     
    “The predominant concern among internally displaced persons (IDPs) is physical security,” Walter Kalin, the UN secretary general's representative on human rights of IDPs, said last Thursday in his report following a visit to war-affected parts of northeast Sri Lanka.
     
    Mr. Kalin said the refugees, whose officially registered numbers in the island had swelled to 300,000 since 1980, feared continued violence.
     
    There have also been abductions, lootings and attacks on individuals by the Tamil Makkal Vidhuthalai Puligal, a group led by a small group of renegades that had broken away from the LTTE in 2004 and has been operating in the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Amparai with the backing of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
     
    Incomplete mine clearance, round ups by Sri Lankan security forces and detention of people without notification to their families about the reason and the place of imprisonment are some of the major concerns of the refugees.
     
    Kalin felt that the government has made 'considerable efforts' to assist the displaced after the tsunami of December 2004.
     
    But Sri Lanka's recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 2004 has been uneven and other UN officials said the Northeast had not benefited.
     
    And it was the northeast, which took the brunt of the killer waves on Boxing Day, which destroyed about 1,21,000 houses and killed over 30,000 in the island.
     
    Thousands of families in the war-ravaged north and east are still living in basic, temporary shelters with palm-frond roofs and corrugated metal sheet sides, their numbers swollen by others displaced by the war.
     
    The ever-deepening civil war between the Sri Lankan state and Tamil Tigers has hamstrung rebuilding work in the east and halted it in parts of the LTTE-held north, where materials such as cement and steel rods have dried up because of a government ban.
     
    "Three years after the tsunami nearly 100,000 families, or around 80 percent of those affected by the disaster, are back living in totally new or repaired houses," said David Evans, chief technical adviser for UN Habitat in Sri Lanka.
     
    "But the conflict has badly hampered or brought reconstruction work to a standstill in some parts of the north and east and another 21,000 houses are still required," he added.
     
    "So a big task still lies ahead in 2008 and progress in parts of the north will be impossible until the fighting stops."
     
    In southern Sri Lanka, away from near-daily artillery duels and land and sea battles, it's a different story.
     
    Unhindered by the war that is focused in the north, legions of donors were able to put up housing schemes and fund many self-build projects via grants, though still slowed by red tape and difficulties securing land to build on.
     
    However, without differentiating the ethnic differences, Mr. Kalin reported that over 200,000 displaced people had returned to their homes or had been provided with temporary shelters and were beginning to regain their livelihoods.
     
    He said he was encouraged by the government's recognition of the need to attend to the problems of Muslim refugees from the northern Tamil-speaking district of Jaffna.
     
    Several thousand Muslims were driven out by the Tamil Tigers and have been living in refugee camps in Puttalam, north of Colombo, for the past 17 years.
     
    Looking at the future, Kalin urged the Sri Lankan government to take measures in line with international human rights standards and the UN guiding principles on internal displacement in the areas of security, livelihoods and access to humanitarian help.
     
    This was essential if the return of the refugees to their homes was to be sustainable both in the near and the long term, he said.
     
    He emphasized the need for providing safe exit routes for refugees during military operations.
     
  • Sri Lanka president vows to crush Tamil Tigers
    Sri Lanka's president has repeated a vow to crush the Tamil Tigers before conducting “peace talks” to end Asia's longest-running ethnic conflict.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapakse, addressing a public rally in this southern heartland of the majority Sinhalese on December 26, said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will not resume peace talks without first being militarily defeated.
     
    "We are for a political settlement. But there is no point in talking about a political settlement without first defeating terrorism," the president said during a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the Asian tsunami.
     
    "The LTTE is not interested in negotiations. They must be made to realise that problems cannot be solved through the barrel of a gun," he said, adding that the Tigers must be forced to lay down arms.
     
    He said security forces had already scored major victories against the guerrillas in the past year and hoped to build on them.
     
    "Like we overcame the tsunami tragedy, we will face the threat of terrorism and overcome it soon," he said at the tightly guarded Sanath Jayasuriya grounds in this coastal town 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Colombo.
     
    The president, who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said the military wrested control over the eastern province from the Tigers in July after heavy fighting and there would be no let up in the military drive.
     
    Rajapakse's brother Gotabhaya, who is the country's defence secretary, had earlier announced that security forces will move to dismantle the mini state of the Tigers in the north of the island.
     
    Heavy fighting in the north of the island has claimed a high death toll among combatants since a Norwegian-arranged truce began to unravel since December 2005, according to both sides.
     
    "We have recorded unprecedented military gains and they, no doubt, will pave the way for a political solution," Rajapakse said.
     
    "There is no point in talking about a political solution without militarily crushing terrorism."
     
    Lanka's army chief said the leader of the country's Tamil Tiger rebels could be dead within six months and the military's aim is to kill 10 rebels a day, a newspaper report said on Sunday.
     
    Meanwhile, Sri Lank Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka was quoted by the state-run surrounded the northern LTTE held Vanni and that there were only 3,000 Tigers left.
     
    "The LTTE could not prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres and there is no assurance that the LTTE leader would survive for the next six months as the Air Force plans to attack all the LTTE bases," Fonseka said.
     
    "Our daily target is to kill at least 10 LTTE terrorists and for the last few months over 500 LTTE ... have been killed by the armed forces," Fonseka claimed.
     
    "We have weakened the LTTE by 50 percent or more and we are confident we can go that extra mile in the coming year."
     
    The Tigers have been outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain and the European Union.
  • ‘2008 will bring clarity’
    The International Community has been vacillating in taking decisive actions on Sri Lanka because they are unable to relate their own interests to the chaotically unfolding political and military situation in Sri Lanka and only the demonstration of military strength by the Tigers can bring sufficient clarity for the international community to correctly relate their interests and assertively engage.
     
    This was the assessment of Mr. K. V. Balakumaran, a top official of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), speaking on a political analysis program, Nilavaram, in National Television of Tamileelam (NTT), last week.
     
    NTT: Sri lanka has taken the east, and continues attempts at capturing areas in Silaavaththurai, Mannaar. Liberation Tigers have stopped close to 60 attempts by the SLA to encroach into LTTE held territory. How do you see the military confrontation progressing?
     
    Balakumaran: The real objective of the attacks in the West, Silaavaththurai, the East in Manalaaru and in the north Mukamaalai, are to get inside the Tiger den of Vanni, and attack the heart of the Liberation Tigers.
     
    Sri Lanka's military plan is not different to previous attempt to capture the A9 in 1999, 70 miles of which goes through Vanni . The attempt to capture A9, described as highway of death, resulted in dismal failure to the Sri Lanka security forces where they lost close to 6000 troopers, and we lost nearly 3000 of our fighters.
     
    In my view, currently Sri lanka is trying to enter through A-32 to Pooneryn or use A-34 to advance through Oddisuddaan; One of these highways will result in being renamed as highway of death.
     
    Whichever path Sri lanka chooses to enter into Vanni, they have to directly confront our fighters. As a precursor to the anticipated battle, the SLA is trying to chip away the strength of the LTTE, as well probing the LTTE strength through small scale skirmishes at the periphery. We understand their tactics, we haven't underestimated their strength either.
     
    Security Forces are waiting for an opportune moment to break through a high way. This reminds me of old times; then there was Indian intervention, and currently there is some international intervention; Tiger military resistance eventually determined the conflict resolution phase that followed.
     
    We are similiarly waiting for their eventual SLA offensive. We are cognizant of the enormity of the possible disaster that can unfold, and bloodbath waiting to happen. Tamil people have no other option, except to face these possibilites.
     
    Once the fire of freedom is lit, there is no turning back; sacrifices are part of this decision, and our people fully understand this. We are confident of our strength to achieve our goals.
     
    NTT: From 2006, the government has prevented visits of international diplomats to Vanni. What do you think of the International community's approach to resolve Sri Lanka's conflict?
     
    Balakumaran: We have to have a clear view of what diplomacy means. Whether Sri Lanka allows diplomats to visit, or when Sri Lanka stops diplomats visiting Vanni, Sri Lanka is trying to achieve the same objective. That is to find ways to advance the self-interests of Sri Lanka and the host countries of the visiting diplomats. It is wrong to think that allowing diplomats to visit Vanni is in the interest of LTTE; we should not entertain such delusions.
     
    Tigers were led into diplomacy by Norway, and not through LTTE's initiative. 2007 is a year where diplomacy is in the forefront. In our long walk to freedom, this is an inclusive part.
     
    In my opinion, how we are looking into this is, in 1987, there was regional intervention into the conflict from India. LTTE leader Pirapaharan acted in accordance with the political climate of that time. In his Chuthumalai declaration, he started the speech by saying "we are friends of India." His 2007 Hero's day speech, has stated the same sentiments. We can consider the speech as another Chuthumalai declaration.
     
    We expect diplomatic pressures in this time period. We are not troubled by Sri Lanka allowing the international diplomats to visit us or stopping them from visiting us.
    What we are really troubled by is the indecision of the International community. India is indecisive, the international community is indecisive; they are unable to relate their interests to unfolding situation in Sri Lanka. Even Russia has shown interest; they say Iran is also interested. The diplomatic front is muddled.
     
    Only the demonstration of military strength by the Tigers can bring clarity to the situation, for the international community to correctly relate their interests, and assertively engage.
     
    Consider the countries Somali land, Kosovo, and Montenegro. The west will intervene when their interests are impacted. But they are reluctant to enter forcefully in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has state power, which [Professor Jayadeva] Uyangoda has summed succinctly - the basis of the conflict in Sri Lanka is State power.
     
    Rajapaksa is giving an image that he can eliminate the LTTE. The international community appears to have accepted this. The situation is very close to what happened in Sudan; China tried to deviate from the international community's attempts to resolve the Sudanese situation, but the international community put pressure on China to toe the line.
     
    India is acting similar to China in Sri Lanka's situation, but International Community appears to be giving a free hand to India. Diplomats are trying to show they have concern for the Tamils by visiting Vanni, but this is the like cat playing with the mouse before it's ready to eat.
     
    During the [lat phase of] war, to open A-9, up to 6000 Sri Lankan soldiers perished, and nearly 3000 Tigers sacrificed their lives. The international community accepted the results of that war, and recognized the LTTE's strength. The question is why they are not responding the same way now. In order to change the international community's view, we are called to suffer more sacrifices of life.
     
    We expect 2008 will be the year where we can overcome the diplomatic hurdles that confront us. In 2003, we proposed ISGA (Interim Self Governing Authority) as a framework with which will satisfy us, our minimal requirements for power-sharing. So based on this, the international community cannot call us obstinate, or terrorists. Hilary Clinton also identified us when she articulated a more nuanced definition of terrorism.
     
    We expect in 2008, the Tigers will bring clarity to Sri Lanka's conflict.
     
    Interview published Wednesday 2 January 2008
  • Sri Lanka tears up 2002 ceasefire
    The Sri Lankan government formally withdrew from the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Wednesday, January 2, saying it now has the upper hand in the decades-old ethnic conflict.
     
    Sri Lanka also signaled Friday it wanted to end Norway's position as the island's peace broker as international concern mounted over Colombo's decision to end the truce with the Tigers.
     
    Norway was instrumental in persuading the government and the Tamil Tigers to sign a truce in February 2002, and has since then tried but failed to secure progress at successive rounds of negotiations.
     
    Accusing the government of "war-mongering", the main opposition party, which signed the CFA, claimed the decision to scarp the truce had benefitted LTTE's aspirations for an independent state, weakened Sri Lanka and "disappointed" the international community, including India.
     
    "This self-serving decision of President Mahinda Rajapakse has weakened us (Sri Lanka) both internationally and domestically; it benefits only the LTTE's aspirations for a separate state," the United National Party said in a statement.
     
    The UNP said military assistance to Sri Lanka from the US, India and the UK "symbolised the international community's faith in the ceasefire agreement and their backing for the ongoing peace initiative".
     
    "It is clear that not only have the blood-thirsty and war-mongering rulers of this country lost touch with reality but they do not have the capacity to learn from past experiences -- both internationally or locally," the UNP said.
     
    Sri Lankan Cabinet spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, said that the "foremost thing in the country is to uphold national security" which was why the government had taken the decision.
     
    "National security is threatened at every corner," he said.
     
    Rambukwella said the government had also decided to formally end any negotiations with the LTTE.
     
    "The government sees no point in having any attempt to come to a settlement with a terrorist outfit,"
     
    Under the ceasefire that went into effect from February 23, 2002, both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE had the option to pull out after giving two weeks' written notice to Norway, the facilitator of the peace process and the ceasefire agreement.
     
    Fighting has escalated in recent months, and the government now believes it has the upper hand and is in a position to capture the Tamil Tiger defacto state in the north.
     
    Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the Sri Lankan government will press ahead to crush "the scourge of terrorism," while working on a "practical and sustainable political solution."
     
    He also said the truce deal was "flawed from the start," although he stopped short of calling for Nordic diplomats - frequently accused by Colombo of being sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers - to go home.
     
    The Nordic countries responded by saying they were "deeply concerned" by the worsening situation in Sri Lanka and they are worried that “the violence and human suffering will now further escalate”.
     
    "During the first three years (of the truce) ... as many as 10,000 lives may have been spared," the foreign ministers of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland said in a joint statement.
     
    The Sri Lankan government lashed out at the Nordic countries, saying their claim was ‘dubious.’
     
    Meanwhile, Nordic ceasefire monitors from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) began wrapping up their six-year mission to Sri Lanka.
     
    The SLMM, which kept a tally of violations of the truce agreement, became increasingly ineffective as its access in conflict areas was hampered and fighting escalated. Its role ends with the ceasefire.
     
    In a statement on January 3, SLMM said: “The Government of Sri Lanka has decided to abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 … effective as of 16 January 2008. Thus the SLMM will terminate its current operational activities in Sri Lanka effective 16 January at 1900 hrs.”
     
    Earlier government spokesman and media minister Anura Yapa said that the decision to abrogate the ceasefire agreement was taken at a cabinet meeting presided by President Mahinda Rajapakse on Wednesday.
     
    According Yapa Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake proposed that the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002 be abrogated. It was approved unanimously with no lengthy discussion.
     
    Yapa said that the government viewed the 2002 truce agreement, which was backed by the international community, as a "flawed document."
     
    "The government does not want to be a party to a non-functioning ceasefire agreement," Yapa told reporters. "But, it does not imply that the government has shut the door for negotiations."
     
    He said that if the LTTE were to lay down their arms - an unlikely event - the government could resume talks facilitated by Norway which broke down in October 2006.
     
    The Sri Lankan government also said it wanted Oslo to have a "redefined role" in the country where tens of thousands of people have been killed in protracted ethnic conflict.
     
    "Now that there are new circumstances, we naturally expect the Norwegians to have a redefined role," Bogollagama told reporters.
     
    "We will tell you what that role is when the (Sri Lankan) government decides."
     
    Sri Lankan military chiefs have said 2008 will be a turning point in the war and have vowed to eject the LTTE from their defacto state in the island's Northeast.
     
    The decision to abrogate the CFA comes amidst both political and military leaders making declarations in the past weeks that the war to crush the LTTE would be intensified this year.
     
    Last week, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said in public that the truce between the two sides was "moribund" and that the CFA was a "joke".
  • Rights Organisation repeats call for UN mission in Sri Lanka
    Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international rights watchdog, has called for a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka in the wake of the Sri Lankan government quitting the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers.
     
    The New York-based group said Thursday new monitors were needed to replace the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), hitherto tasked with supervising the truce and which is pulling out due to the abrogation of the ceasefire.
     
    "The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission was deeply flawed, but its monitors helped to minimize abuses against civilians," said HRW's deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson in a statement.
     
    "Now the need for a UN monitoring mission is greater than ever," she said.
     
    "Civilians caught up in the fighting will have a harder time finding safety once the monitors have withdrawn."
     
    Writing in a Sri Lankan newspaper this week, James Ross, Legal and Policy Director of HRW, said the Sri Lanka government has failed to "seriously investigate and prosecute those responsible for the horrific abuses of the past two years – the unlawful killings, the “disappearances,” the Army-backed paramilitary Karuna group’s abduction of children.
     
    “The cover-up is the government’s determined effort to keep the issue off the international agenda,” he said. “The cover-up machinery has been in high gear.”
     
    “Cover-ups work only so long as they can be kept secret, but Colombo’s tactics are hard to hide. … Either the Sri Lankan government can unilaterally address the problem – which it has thus far failed to do – or it can genuinely work with the United Nations to do so.”
     
    “The Sri Lankan government understandably does not want to see itself lumped together with international pariah states such as Sudan and Burma, both of which were subjects of UN resolutions. So it is all the more disconcerting to see Colombo respond in the same obstructionist manner as these countries instead of adopting a constructive approach.”
     
    “More than a year ago, Sri Lanka talked the major donor states into believing that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry would bring about tough-minded investigations and prosecutions of the worst cases of the past two years. … Now, not only are the international “eminent persons” on the verge of giving up on this commission, but initial supporters like the United States and the European Union are expressing serious doubts.”
     
    Last month, HRW said its current focus is on the "shocking" disappearances and killing in Sri Lanka where the Sri Lanka Government has done "shamefully little" to investigate the cases.
     
    HRW officials said the democratic institutions that would otherwise be capable of highlighting human right abuses, infringements to freedom of speech, and erosion in independence of judiciary in Sri Lanka, have collapsed under an ineffective Parliament.
     
    Fred Abrahams, HRW’s Senior Researcher for Emergencies, was amongst rights activists who toured the US last month to raise support for action against Sri Lanka.
     
    Mainly Tamil men between ages 18-35, are being abducted or killed at a rate of four persons a day, he told a radio program.
     
    Men are often taken in for questioning, interrogated, tortured; some of them may be held in detention facilities but the government does not release their names; under Emergency Regulations the abductees are not charged and can be held for long periods of time, Mr Abrahams said.
     
    Democratic institutions have either collapsed or not functioning, Mr Abrahams said. Police, prosecution, and the courts are not effective and Colombo has taken very concrete steps to undermine the function of the Human Rights Commission.
     
    Therefore, a U.N. Monitoring mission is necessary to contain the increasingly hostile engagements between the parties by reigning in on human rights violations, Mr Abrahams said.
  • India a major factor in Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa
    India is 'a major factor' in any resolution of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict and Sri Lankans must realise this, says Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
     
    Asked about India's role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict, Rajapaksa told the state-run Sunday Observer: 'India is a major factor and we have recognised it from the very beginning.
     
    'Lots of people talk about the international community but we believe that India is the major factor in our problem.
     
    'We have to realise the importance of India because it is becoming a superpower,' he added.
     
    Rajapaksa, a brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, added: 'It is true that India has concerns over us. When they are powerful, they have to think about their security. It is natural they should be concerned about what is happening around them. So we have to be concerned about their concerns.
     
    'Whatever steps we are taking, we are briefing them. We do not have anything to hide. We have won their confidence. We do not want to do anything that will harm their security and their concerns.
     
    'They know that we are not against the Tamil community and we are doing all these only to defeat terrorism,' he said.
  • Indian intelligence, not LTTE, targeted Pakistan envoy
    Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Basheer Wali Mohammed said in Islamabad last week that he had "convincing evidence" that a powerful regional intelligence agency, rather than the Tamil Tigers, was behind the August 2006 bid to assassinate him in Colombo.

    Dismissing widespread claims that the LTTE executed the claymore mine attack in Kollupitiya while he was returning after attending Pakistani Independence Day celebrations, he said a two-paged newspaper article written by a person closely linked to this intelligence arm made pointed reference to his Colombo assignment shortly before he took over as the High Commissioner.

    The envoy’s comments were a thinly veiled reference to the Indian intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

    Speaking to a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists at the prestigious Pakistan Club in Islamabad, he explained that he had traveled extensively in Sri Lanka sans any personal security during the major part of his two years as an envoy.

    "I even visited the North, and if the LTTE wanted to kill me, they could have struck at any time", he pointed out. "But apparently, they were disinterested in harming me".

    At the time, the LTTE was blamed for the assassination attempt on Wali Mohammed, a professional soldier who later headed Pakistan’s key intelligence bureau.

    The LTTE’s alleged motive was Pakistan’s close military cooperation with Sri Lanka, reports suggested.

    "At face value, the LTTE was taken as the perpetrator, but subsequently we were able to establish the involvement of this intelligence agency of a neighbouring country", he asserted.

    He was strongly behind Sri Lanka’s war with the LTTE.

    "It was I who persuaded the President [Mahinda Rajapakse] to crush LTTE terrorism militarily as the government had adequate resources at its disposal", Mr. Mohammed noted. "I am glad the President heeded my advice as terrorism is a global menace".

    He pledged continued Pakistani military assistance to fight the scourge of LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka.

    He recalled that his daughter who generally drives behind his official Mercedes Benz had a narrow shave because he was taking her to a doctor as she was suffering from a severe tooth ache that day. "Otherwise, she would have also been killed".

    He also recounted how President Mahinda Rajapakse personally telephoned him minutes after the blast and even sent his official bullet-proof car for his use.

    "I think I have seen so much of fighting in my life as a battle-hardened cavalry soldier that I remained calm when saw this ball of fire", he said. "There were two deadly mines".

    "I heard my wife scream that we were under attack and when I looked to the rear I saw the jeep of the soldiers guarding me missing", he recalled. "Everything happened within seconds".

    "The devastation I saw transported me back to the time when my armoured vehicle was blown up during the war with India, and I was badly injured", he said, showing a scar on his forehead.

    Wali Mohammed, now a provincial Minister, said that he personally paid Rs. 200,000 to each family of the five Lankan soldiers killed in the explosion. "It was out of my pocket as the money was not reimbursed by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry".

    Later, the Pakistani government also paid another Rs. 400,000 to 500,000 each to these dependents while one family of a soldier, who had a young son, was given a house as well, the former envoy said.

    Describing President Mahinda Rajapakse as a "personal friend", he said that he still maintains a close link which took him back to Sri Lanka as a special guest even after his tenure as a diplomat.
  • India bolsters Sri Lanka air defences
    An Indian defence delegation visiting Sri Lanka has offered assistance in the form of "joint air-defence exercises" to face any threats posed by the aerial capability of the Tigers, press reports in Colombo said.

    India which has stepped up its military support to the Rajapakse administration in recent months sent a high level delegation to Colombo to review the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation.

    Indian Defence Secretary Vijay Singh who called on Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in Colombo earlier this week has made the offer.

    The delegation arrived in Colombo last Sunday and left the island on Wednesday, after meeting with the Commanders of the Sri Lankan Army, Air Force and Navy.

    The eight-member Indian delegation, comprising several top officials from the Indian Defence and External Affairs ministries, had told Sri Lanka that India was concerned since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) now had its own air wing.

    Following the successful night time air raids carried out by LTTE’s Tamil Eelam Air Force (TAF), SLAF upgraded its night flying capability. However it has not assisted in defending targets against LTTE air crafts. The LTTE air crafts have been able to repeatedly attack targets in deep south and return to base safely.

    Indian defence establishment is said be of the view that SLAF night operational capability is vital for meaningful and fool proof air defence.

    Indian News service, IANS, reported that efforts are on to equip SLAF aircraft with night fighting capability but these are yet to bear fruit because of the expenditure involved and the reluctance of countries to part with the appropriate technology.

    According to IANS both India and Pakistan are keen to help out Sri Lanka to improve its air defence.

    It is in this context that the current visit of an Indian military delegation to Sri Lanka assumes significance.

    Speaking before the visit an Indian high commission spokesman said, 'among the issues which will be discussed is air defense,' while downplaying the visit as a 'routine one' meant to discuss administrative and other issues related to defense cooperation.

    The spokesman said the Indian radars given to Sri Lanka were working 'extremely well'.

    Two weeks ago, the IAF conducted its largest-ever war exercise in south India involving the Army, Air Force and Navy. An official statement by the IAF detailed the use of French-made Mirage-2000s, Russian-built Su-30s, Mi-8 helicopters and unmanned aircraft in the exercise.

    According to Indian media the objective of the exercise, codenamed 'Dakshin Prahar', was to defend military, strategic and economic targets in south India against air attacks by regular and rogue air forces.

    Reports further added that India may like Sri Lanka's cooperation in any system it may put together in the near future, indicating further cooperation between the two forces in future.

    On the naval front also India has stepped up cooperation with the Sri Lankan Navy and has been involved in coordinated patrolling.

    Commenting on the issue, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan on Monday said the Union government was 'careful' about the activities of LTTE.

    "We are always careful about LTTEs activities in Tamil Nadu or anywhere else in India." he said after a meeting with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

    He further said a strict round-the-clock vigil was being maintained all along the coastline.

    Asked whether they was any move for joint patrolling between the Indian and Sri Lankan navies in the Indian ocean, he said there was coordinated patrolling, wherein both navies were patrolling in their respective areas.
  • Pakistan to step up assistance to Sri Lanka
    The Pakistan Government is considering another US $31 million military assistance to Sri Lanka for its fight against the Tamil Tigers, apart from the US $ 50 million assistance to the Sri Lankan Government to purchase military hardware.

    The announcement was made Pakistan Foreign Minister Inam ul Haque when he met a visiting Sri Lanka media delegation in Islamabad.

    The Pakistan Foreign Minister, however did not elaborate what kind of military assistance they were going to provide Sri Lanka through this assistance. He said Pakistan has always assisted Sri Lanka in its fight against terrorism and will continue with its assistance to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lankan soil.

    He said Pakistan accommodates 250 to 300 military officials from Sri Lanka in various military training schools including the highest military training school, the National Defence University of Pakistan.

    Sri Lankan military personnel are trained annually and the number can be increased if there is request from the Sri Lankan Government, the Minister said.

    “If there is a request from the Sri Lanka side to increase the training slots, that can be arranged,” the Foreign Minister added.

    He said a defence pact is not necessary for Pakistan to support Sri Lanka for its fight against terrorism since it is no longer a bilateral issue and it has become part of global terrorism.

    Haque said the issue of suicide bombing started in Sri Lanka by the LTTE has spread to Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. (In fact ‘suicide bombing’ as presently known was being practied by Middle Eastern militants in the early eighties long before the first Black Tiger attack was in 1985. Lebanese militants driving truck bombs destroyed the bases of US and French in Beirut in1983, killing hundreds of troops).

    “There is an element of transnational terrorism and it is no longer a bilateral issue,” the Pakistan Foreign Minister said. Pakistan as a sovereign country is always concerned about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and it will continue to support Sri Lanka to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Haque said.

    “No third country can impose any limitations on Pakistan’s assistance to Sri Lanka for its fight against terrorism,” the Minister said.

    Haque said Pakistan strongly backed Sri Lanka’s proposal to hold the 2008 SAARC summit in Sri Lanka in view of the 60th anniversary of Independence.
  • Major war looms in Sri Lanka
    The Sri Lankan government is building up to large scale war in the north of the island and has stepped up operations with the stated aim capturing Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administered Vanni by August next year.

    Earlier this month, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Lt. Gen Sarth Fonseka addressing his high ranking officers in the Army Headquarters declared that he would wipe out the LTTE by August next year. He requested the officers’ fullest commitment towards this goal.

    Skirmishes along the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) have intensified in the past month with the SLA trying to breach LTTE defences on a daily basis.

    The attacks are on three fronts around Vanni: through Muhamaalai- Nagarkovil FDL in the Jaffna peninsula in the north, Mannar in the southwest and Manalaaru in the southeast.

    The southern FDL running on either side of Omanthai, dividing the Sri Lankan government controlled territory and the LTTE administered Vanni which lies north of Vavuniya, links Mannar and Manalaaru.

    Some of these incursions have resulted in severe casualties on the Sri Lankan side.

    On Saturday 22 December, LTTE thwarted a major SLA offensive towards Uyilangkulam in Mannaar. Backed with heavy artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher fire, the SLA troops attempted to enter LTTE controlled area on two fronts, but were defeated after 12 hours of fierce resistance in which 17 SLA troopers were killed and 54 wounded.

    Previously on Tuesday 11 December, the LTTE beat back another major two-pronged offensive by the Sri Lankan forces in the Mannar region killing at least 20 soldiers and injuring more than 75.

    LTTE military spokesperson, Mr Ilanthirayan said SLA began retreating in two fronts in Adampan and Paalaikkuzhi after three hours of fierce resistance by the LTTE.

    He further added that at 6:00 p.m. the SLA was pushed back to its original FDL position and the LTTE recovered arms and ammunition from the battle field including Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers, assault rifles and explosives.

    With daily skirmishes and no real progress from the military onslaught, the Sri Lankan defence establishment has been twisting casualty numbers, inflating LTTE casualties.

    According to Sri Lankan defence ministry 371 LTTE fighters have been killed in battle since December 1, at a rate of 15 fighters a day, whilst only a tiny handful of government troops were reported killed in battle in the same period.

    Commenting on the current situation, Indian military analyst and former IPKF intellgence head R. Hariharan said: "They have nibbled into LTTE territory. But persisting along the failed axis will not yield results."

    Speaking to Sunday Leader newspaper Hariharan stated that the Vanni is a difficult terrain for the Sri Lankan army and LTTE would be able to retaliate easily against any attack.

    "They (Tigers) always bounce back in the Vanni which is a difficult terrain due to trees that grow up to 60 ft. This makes air support difficult and operations, time consuming.”

    According to Hariharan, the LTTE will hold out without difficulty unless the SLA launches a huge offensive.

    Echoing other analysts’ opinion that the daily offensives by the SLA is to keep the LTTE forces from building up for a major offensive against the Sri Lankan military, Hariharan said: “the Sri Lankan army is lulling the LTTE into a routine of skirmishes almost daily and [would] break in suddenly without giving (the Tigers) time to build.”

    But the battles would be bloody and long, he warned. The Tigers and the security forces maintain a three tier defence line along the FDL, and breaking through the heavily mined line from either side is not going to be an easy task.

    However, the government of hard-line president Mahinda Rajapkase believes in a military solution to the ethnic conflict and has been whipping up popular support for its war and building its military capacity through intense recruitment and arms purchasing.

    A survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) this month through interviews with 1,600 Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Indian origin Tamils in eight of the nine provinces in November revealed that 87.3 percent of Sinhalese - the majority community - were 'satisfied' with the way the government was waging the war.

    The Sri Lanka Army has recently raised a new division, the 59th Division, to bolster its strength, bringing the number of such units to thirteen. According to government media the new division has already been inducted into service are providing back up the troops in the Wanni FDLs from Mannar to Kokkuthuduvai, an area that has seen intense fighting in the past few weeks.

    On Friday 14 December, the Sri Lankan parliament approved the 2008 budget which has allocated vast amounts of money for military expenditure with resounding majority.

    Parliament voted 114 to 67 in favour of the budget, which has allocated 166.44 billion rupees (1.51 billion dollars), raising the country's defence spending to just under a fifth of total government expenditure.
  • Time Line

    30 August- Sri Lanka Immigration Department issues diplomatic passport to Karuna under the false name of Dushmantha Guawadena on the orders of top authorities.

    05 September- British Embassy issues British visa on the travel document on false name on Third Party Notice (TPN) by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry: Mr Dushmantha Gunawardene's designation was Director General, Wild Life Conservation Department.

    11 September- Minister Champika Ranawaka submits application for visa to Canadian Embassy after he returns from Japan on the 10th

    15 September- Ranawaka cancels trip to Canada, after a disputed delay by the Canadian Embassy to issue visa in time: See Island editorial and Ambassador Angela J. Bogdan's response below.

    18 September- Karuna lands at Heathrow Airport and was accompanied to the aircraft at the Bandaranaike International Airport to board the London flight by Airport and Aviation Deputy Chief Shalitha Wijesundera. Minister Ranawaka refutes allegations of complicity in a Sunday Times interview.

    22 September- Ranawaka travels with President Rajapakse to New York to attend a climate change conference in New York

    02 November- British Borders and Immigration Agency arrests Karuna

  • False passports and war crimes – the Karuna saga continues
    While the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Britainb, Ms. Kshenuka Senewiratne, toils hard to extricate the Government of Sri Lanka from the diplomatic bungle it made in issuing a diplomatic passport under false name to fugitive Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, human rights organizations accused Karuna of "war crimes," and urged British Government to try him in Britain.

    Meanwhile, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet the Canadian Embassy in Colombo had earlier rejected visa application for "Karuna," before the British Embassy was misled by the Colombo government to issue a visa under the name of "Dushmantha Gunawardene, Director General, Wild Life Conservation."

    Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a radio interview in Chicago Saturday that Colombo will likely have Karuna killed if he was extradited to Sri Lanka, adding that the Government is "nervous about what he will say" if he is prosecuted in Colombo.

    On the issue of the passport, "British authorities have accumulated sufficient evidence to conclude that the Sri Lanka Government was complicit in arranging for Karuna to obtain a diplomatic passport and thus avoid the rigorous visa procedure at the British High Commission in Colombo, according to sources acquainted with the British inquiries into the case," a column in the Colombo-based Sunday Times said.

    "Sri Lanka’s official position that it was not aware of any diplomatic passport held by Karuna was conveyed to British authorities when Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne was called to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Monday to express London’s concern," the paper said, adding "Britain has dismissed Sri Lanka’s explanation that it had no hand in granting a diplomatic passport."

    Karuna applied for a British visa allegedly with the help of Mr Champika Ranawake's Environment and Natural Resources Ministry, pretending to be the "Director of Wild Life Conservation," and obtained his visa on the 5th September for his later travel to UK on the 18th September.

    The timeline indicates Mr Ranawake, member of Jathika Hela Urumaya, extremist Buddhist Monk's party, had attended an environmental conference on the 22nd September in the U.S., and has had a "well publicized" dispute with the Canadian High Commission which resulted in his cancelling a trip to Canada on the 15th September.

    Informed sources in Colombo said that the Canadian High Commission, which is known to have instituted thorough vetting visa procedures, had previously denied a visa application to Karuna submitted through Mr Ranawaka's Ministry, and this was the reason for the Minister's ire at the Canadian High Commission.

    Champika Ranawaka, extremist Buddhist monks party, JHU parliamentarian (Photo: Sunday Leader)On the issue of trying Karuna for war crimes, British courts have set a precedent in a landmark case against Faryadi Zardad, an Afghan warlord also known as Zardad Khan, who was prosecuted in Britain in 2005 for crimes committed in Afghanistan under the British Criminal Justice Act and the UN Convention Against Torture. These statutes established torture as a universal crime against humanity.

    In the U.S., a similar statute dated 1789, labeled Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), allows federal jurisdiction to any foreign national alleging a tort committed in another country in violation of international laws, including crimes against humanity.
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