As the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers begin discussing – through the Norwegian facilitators - the preliminaries for the next round of peace talks due to take place in Geneva this month, the tension in the Northeast continues unabated with the military and paramilitary groups continuing the harassment of the population.

Amongst the most serious developments, the Sri Lankan military has slapped a total exclusion zone on the northern waters. The ban bars large fishing boats, on threat of being sunk, from entering waters up to 12miles from the shore without explicit written permission – which Tamils struggle to get from the Sinhala dominated military.

Local sea-going bans had always been in place, in violation of the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA), but the new directive is a total exclusion in the northern seas.

According to the Sri Lankan military, the ban follows the destruction of a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboat in which 8 seamen were killed when a trawler they had stopped blew up, also killing its six occupants. The military says the boat was smuggling weapons for the LTTE, but the movement has denied any involvement. The boat was Sinhala owned.

The SLN and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) collaborating with paramilitaries had violated the ceasefire agreement in the LTTE controlled Muttur east and Vakarai area said Mr. S. Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers Saturday as he lodged three separate complaints with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

Mr. Elilan told Tamilnet that Saturday afternoon around 1.45 p.m. the third violation of ceasefire agreement had taken place in Sampoor coastal area when SLN soldiers stationed in Norway island off west of Sampoor coast had fired heavy weapons at fishermen who were fishing in the sea compelling them to flee for their lives.

“I brought incident to the notice of the SLMM in Trincomalee. The response from the SLN was that they had fired towards the Sampoor coast accidentally when they were testing their weapons. I asked the SLMM whether the coastal villages where thousands of civilians reside had become the testing ground for the SLN to test their weapons. I told the SLMM that it’s a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement and to cause an inquiry into my complaint,” Mr. Elilan told TamilNet.

The SLA committed two more ceasefire violations at Thonithandamadu in Vakarai division – one on Saturday early morning and the other few hours later between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni, he said.

At Thonithandamadu, SLA troops and accompanying paramilitaries had attacked the LTTE sentry post in the area, even firing mortar shells. Residents of the village had fled from the area and several civilian houses were damaged by shells which also killed four cows.

The second attack took place around nine in the morning between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni. LTTE cadres had enegaged a group of SLA soldiers and paramilitaries waiting in ambush in no-man land to attack the LTTE sentry point. A firefight ensued between both parties before the SLA had fled from the area. One LTTE cadre was injured.

Last Tuesday, more than 150 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and around 50 paramilitary cadres belonging to three paramilitary groups rounded up five villages in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa and warned the villagers against supporting the LTTE.

The paramilitary cadres, travelling in SLA vehicles, summoned the people to Pechiyamman temple grounds and held a meeting where key operatives of Karuna Group warned the people against supporting the Liberation Tigers.

Cadres from the ENDLF paramilitary group and a key operative of the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) attached to the Sri Lanka Army camp in Valaichenai Harbour also took part in the operation, villagers told TamilNet. The EPDP is allied to the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance government and the party’s leader is a minister.

Heavily armed SLA troopers were seen patrolling Kannan Kiramam, Vinayagapuram, Kannakipuram, Pethalai, Puthukudiyiruppu and guarding the Pechiyamman temple site while four key paramilitary operatives, Pratheepan, Jeyanthan, Ajith and Ranjith were addressing the roughly 250 people summoned to the temple grounds.

Johnson Jeyakanthan, known by his nom-de-guerre Pratheepan was one of speakers who came to the site with Markkan, a key paramilitary operative, a resident said.

The Sri Lankan Police had detained Jeyakanthan in March 2005 following an assassination attempt on Kuveni, the political head of LTTE’s Batticaloa-Amparai women wing. He was a member of the LTTE and had defected in 1992 when he was facing disciplinary action for attempting to molest a girl in Valaichenai.

Jeyakanthan, who instructed the people to obey the instructions and be supportive to Karuna’s mission, said his group demanded “total support” from the villagers.

Those of the villagers who fail to yield support to Karuna’s mission, will be integrated by “military means,” the paramilitary operative told the gathering.

There were 300 cadres involved in the search operation, Jeyakanthan claimed in his address. He described himself as a political cadre of the TMVP (Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal). At the end of the meeting he asked the villagers to prepare 150 lunch packs.

Kathirkamathamby Jeyaseelan, another Karuna Group operative from Kannan Kiramam in Valaichenai, also addressed the villagers.

A paramilitary operative who identified himself as “Ranjith master” said he was under arrest in India and was sent to Sri Lanka following a personal request made by Karuna.

“If you have any inquiries, come to our office located in Kovindan street in Batticaloa town,” Ranjith told the villagers, adding the Karuna Group was also making arrangements to open a camp in Valaichenai.

The paramilitary cadres then went to the SLA camp in Valaichenai Harbour, according to the villagers. An intelligence operative of the EPDP, Siva, who operates from the site, was also seen at the site.

In other violence, the severely beaten body of Thambirajah Thankarajah, a father of two who lost his wife in 2004 tsunami, was recovered from a well Tuesday morning in the Onthachchimadam housing scheme in Kaluwanchikudy, south of Batticaloa. Police said he had been beaten and stabbed with a sharp instrument before his body was dumped into the well.

Another man, a young father of two, was also found knifed to death in Kaddapadu in Kalkuda, Valaichenai. The victim, Mr. Kulathunga Regikanth, 26, had been subjected to death threats from paramilitary operatives for some months, according to his relatives. A group of twenty armed men were waiting for him 300 meters from Valaichenai Police station.

Relatives of the victim named Kathirgamathamby Jeyaseelan, the senior cadre of the paramilitary Karuna Group, as being behind the death threats made earlier to Regikanth.

Muttur Divisional Fishermen’s Co-operative Societies Union (MDFCSU) said a statement released Sunday in Trincomalee that more than two thousand fisher families have seriously affected economically following attacks by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the coastal villages in the Muttur east.

Many Muttur families solely depend on fishing for their living livelihood. During the war situation too these families lived on their income derived from fishing on a limited scale. But with the February 2002 ceasefire agreement income from fishing improved and fisher families economic burdens eased.

But since mid-March this year many fishermen do not venture out to the sea fearing attacks by the SLN patrolling the seas in Dvora speed boats and water jets, the statement said.

On March 19 the SLN attacked a fishing boat injuring three fishermen and damaging their vessel and equipment. On March 20 a SLN Dvora boat attacked coastal villages, injuring several civilians and damaging houses. On March 21, two labourers on the shore sustaining serious injuries in another attack. Since then these fisher families have been pushed into severe economic hardship unable to fish, the statement said.

Fisher folk from Trincomalee protested last Monday demanding they be allowed to fish in Trincomalee Harbour Sea, or given relief to enable them to live without the income from fishing.

Hundreds of men, women and children held a two-hour protest in front of the Trincomalee office of the SLMM, protesting against the SLN’s complete ban on fishing in Trincomalee Harbour Sea from the beginning of this year. Since then about two hundred fisher families living around the area have lost their daily income and fighting for their survival.

“We have informed about our plight to the security establishment and political leaders. But up to now fishing ban is not lifted or relaxed nor are we provided with any relief,” said Mr. R. Pakkiarasa, Secretary of the Arasady St. Joseph’s Fishermen Co-operative Society in a memorandum handed over to Mr. Ove Jansen, head of the SLMM in Trincomalee.

On March 25 a group of SLN soldiers had severely assaulted some fishermen when they were fishing from the shore and they were not allowed to remove their fishing nets from the sea by the SLN soldiers, the memorandum stated.

Meanwhile, harassment by the SLN of members of displaced families from Ponnalai west in the western coastal area of Jaffna district has increased and the situation has deteriorated such that villagers are fearful for the safety of young girls, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S Gajendran said in a complaint he filed with the Jaffna Branch of the SLMM.

SLN has recently forced the residents of Ponnalai West out of their homes and made the village area part of the Jaffna High Security Zone (HSZ), according to civil society sources in Jaffna. The displaced families have found shelter in the temporary accomodation built by the UNHCR.

Due to lack of basic facilities the families continue to cross over into the HSZ area through the SLN check points to draw water from the wells close to their homes. The families had complained to the TNA parliamentarians of the difficulties faced by young women from the UNHCR camp.

Sri Lanka’s decision to establish a Muslim battalion in its Sinhala-dominated Army has drawn mixed reactions from the Muslim community, with many arguing the move will deepen tensions between them and the Tamils.

A government advert published in a state-owned newspaper invited Muslim youths to join a new Army battalion “dedicated to protect the Muslim community living in the east (of the island).”

Muslims are Sri Lanka ‘s second-largest ethnic minority after the Tamils. Most Muslims speak the Tamil language.

The All Ceylon Moors Association, in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, said “members of our community are disinclined for the Sri Lanka Army to recruit Muslims youths to protect the Muslim community.” It said its position was taken “after having obtained views of the cross section of our community.”

Several speakers at the Muslim Council’s Eastern Conference held Saturday said the government is launching the Muslim regiment to “widen the split between Muslims and Tamils” and the Muslim community “should not fall prey to this scheme.”

More than 300 people consisting of Members of Eastern province Muslim organisations, Ullamas, educationists and political leaders participated in the conference.

But this week Islamic clerics gave Muslim women permission to join the exclusively Muslim infantry battalion.

Currently, the 100,000-strong Sri Lankan military is almost exclusively Sinhalese and has been engaged in two decades of warfare against Tamil independence fighters. Muslim paramilitaries – ‘Home Guards’ – raised by the military have been involved in atrocity ridden fighting in the eastern provinces.

Muslim Peace Secretariat head Javid Yusuf told The Island newspaper he had “absolutely no idea” where the proposal had originated but stressed that it had serious implications.

“We don’t need an exclusive Sinhala regiment, a Tamil regiment or a Muslim regiment,” Javed, described by The Island newspaper as ‘a prominent member of the Muslim community and a strong supporter of the government,’ explained. “In principle, it is a dangerous development.”

“We must encourage communities to interact with each other, Yusuf emphasised. “We need structures that make them interdependent. By forming a Muslim regiment for the Muslim community, we are adopting the position that Muslims can only trust Muslims, Tamils can only trust Tamils and the Sinhalese can only trust Sinhalese. It is totally unacceptable.”

Sri Lanka’s refusal to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries has become the central issue in the peace process and seems increasingly likely to derail the Norwegian initiative in Sri Lanka.

The paramilitaries themselves are now brazenly parading in Army-controlled areas carrying their weapons and threatening supporters of the Liberation Tigers in a defiant response to the Sri Lankan government’s pledge during the February talks in Geneva to disarm them.

Despite its pledge during the closed door talks in February, the Sri Lanka government in public continues to deny any link between the paramilitaries and its security forces – despite both engaging in combined cordon-and-search operations and international ceasefire monitors coming across armed men in government-controlled areas who openly admitted to be members of paramilitary groups.

Sri Lanka says that anti-LTTE groups are operating in Tiger-controlled areas but not in government-controlled areas and denies military backing. The Tigers say Sri Lankan military intelligence is organizing the paramilitary attacks on its members and supporters.

The Sri Lankan government clashed last week with the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which protested Colombo’s denials that armed groups were operating in its controlled areas.

In a two-page letter addressed to the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the SLMM’s outgoing chief, Hagrup Haukland, said the monitors encountered 10-15 armed men in civilian clothes operating in Army-controlled Valachchenai, who told the SLMM that they belong to the Karuna Group, one of five paramilitaries the LTTE says are being deployed by the military.

Haukland also referred to several “sighting of armed civilians claiming to represent Karuna is often reported to SLMM.”

Asserting that the monitors have strong suspicions about armed groups also setting up in the Vavuniya, the letter added the SLMM was aware of 11 civilians being killed in government-controlled areas in the east and six in Vavuniya since Feb. 23rd, the day on which talks in Geneva concluded.

Haukland’s letter was sent in response to the Defense Secretary’s strongly worded note about the contents of a SLMM statement issued earlier.

In a single-page letter, Rajapakse accused the SLMM of “misleading,” and making “defamatory,” inferences in their statement. He was specifically referring to paragraph 5 of the SLMM statement which said;

“The Sri Lankan Army has recently dismissed claims that armed groups are operating in Government controlled areas. However, based on SLMM’s monitoring activities and experience on the ground the Mission does not share the this view and we would like to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take this matter seriously and not close their eyes to armed elements that are to our knowledge still operating in Government controlled areas.”

The Defense Secretary charged the conclusion SLMM had arrived at was “without any conclusive evidence.” He subsequently asked for a meeting with Haukland to discuss the issue.

Haukland responded the following day, March 30th (Thursday), a day before he concluded his post as head of mission. Haukland successor, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, took over the following day.

The LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, said last week that the next round of talks would also be dominated by the same issue if the government fails to disarm the armed groups.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said that there had been a heated discussion between Haukland and Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary on March 23, when he introduced Maj. Gen. Henricsson to Rajapakse.

“You have come here to do a job of work. If you want to do that efficiently, be impartial and don’t take sides,” Rajapakse had shouted at Haukland.

Thereafter, the Defense Secretary went on to give the outgoing and the new SLMM Head some advice, the Sunday Times reported - he said they should take time to learn about the culture and history of Sri Lanka.

Rajapakse accused SLMM chiefs of serving in jobs in Sri Lanka only to add such stints to their resume and not to achieve objectives. He accused the SLMM of failing to condemn recent Tiger guerrilla attacks on the armed forces field and the police.

The remarks drew a prompt reply from Haukland, whosaid the SLMM had no evidence against the LTTE. “You cannot attack a person if there is no evidence. I will deal with the person if I can catch them,” he pointed out.

Almost a month after the Sri Lankan government, concluding its first direct talks with the Liberation Tigers in three years, agreed to disarm its paramilitary units, absolutely nothing has been done. Admittedly, there are fewer killings than in the months preceding the Geneva talks. However, the anti-LTTE paramilitary groups are, if anything, expanding their operations with the undisguised assistance of Sri Lanka’s military. New camps are being established in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled parts of Jaffna and Batticaloa. The bodies of murdered youth are still turning up along the roads and coastlines of the Tamil provinces. Most importantly, despite the undertaking given in Geneva by its delegation, the Sri Lankan government is again flatly denying its security forces’ role in mobilising and training the paramilitary groups and assisting them in the ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE. There is now an undeniable doubt over Sri Lanka’s bona fides.

The stark disparity between Colombo’s words and deeds is apparent even to Sri Lanka’s international allies. The annual Human Rights Report published by the US State Department this month, for example, gives extensive details of the paramilitaries’ activities, including the killing and disappearances of dozens of LTTE cadres and supporters. Moreover, it names three organisations – the Karuna Group, the PLOTE and the EPDP – amongst the anti-LTTE forces. The LTTE is also criticised for numerous killings – but the State Department report also notes that amongst those said to have been killed by the Tigers last year are a hundred paramilitary operatives, military informants and intelligence officers. Last week Donald Camp, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, acknowledged that the Sri Lanka’s support for the paramilitaries is “a serious Tamil grievance.”

Sri Lanka’s duplicity over the paramilitaries is not the only cause for concern. The vitriolic language increasingly being used by the Rajapakse administration against the LTTE is another. Foreign Minister Mangala Smaraweera is this month following in the footsteps of his late predecessor, Lakshman Kadirgamar, travelling from one foreign capital to another, demanding a crackdown on the LTTE. Just as his predecessor did, Mr. Samaraweera is instigating a concerted smear campaign against the LTTE to pave his way. The themes are not new, nor are the modalities: unsubstantiated accusations (levelled, of course, by anonymous informants) of criminality and illegality, as well as the cooption of nominally independent foreign voices to legitimise a strategy of demonisation. This month it was the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which, with a sensational and alarmist report, provided the foil against which Mr. Samaraweera could urge the international community not to pressure Colombo for peace but instead help his government take on the LTTE. HRW of course denies Sri Lanka instigated their report, but Mr. Samaraweera was quoting it in - London in his lecture on ‘LTTE terrorism’ - even before HRW had released it in New York.

The point is this; protagonists who wish to strike peace deals seek to deescalate tensions, build mutual trust and demonstrate goodwill so as to make securing an agreement more likely. But the Rajapakse administration is doing the exact reverse of that. Whilst even its negotiators denounce the LTTE and make provocative statements, the government as a whole is engaged in a myriad of actions to stoke tensions. Restrictions on fishing – including restrictions on putting to sea, prohibitions on processing catches on the shore and even the regular seizure of catches by the military – are being increased, for example. Even actions such as the planned induction of Sinhala convicts into military occupied farms in Jaffna are meant to grate on Tamil sentiments.

In the meantime, Sinhala nationalist ideologues – including those of the JVP and JHU - are engaged in tub thumping or making crude threats against the Tamils in the south. It is also no accident that President Rajapakse’s ultra-nationalist allies are resuming their campaign against Norwegian peace facilitation at this junction. The Sinhala polity as a whole is engaged in patriotic outbidding (as ever, the supposedly liberal United National Party (UNP) is conspicuously silent on the questions of the day- peace, paramilitaries, even Norway). Some have rationalised this as electoral rhetoric aimed at wooing the Sinhala masses ahead of the March 30 local government elections. But what does that say about the prospects of a lasting solution in Sri Lanka?

The LTTE has formally raised doubts about the value of meeting again when the agreements of the last round of talks are patently being ignored by Colombo. This is not merely a question of tactical pressure on the government, as some have suggested. It is about the futility of seeking peace with the Sinhala state, indeed about the viability of a negotiated solution itself.

With less than a month before the next direct talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers, a litany of ceasefire violations ranging from paramilitary attacks and abductions to restrictions on fishermen are raising tensions.

Ten days ago, over 30 armed paramilitaries and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers attacked the LTTE’s Forward Defense Lines in the Batticaloa district before retreating to government-controlled areas.

At least nine youth were reported abducted in Batticaloa last week by Sinhala-speaking troops in military fatigue. Aged between 15 and 20, all were laborers. Five were abducted from the Tiger-controlled Murithanai, 5 km west of where two bicycling 15-year olds were abducted later in Valaichenai. Two other youth were kidnapped in Urani later Monday evening.

Batticaloa District Political Head of the LTTE, Daya Mohan, said Sri Lanka Army soldiers and paramilitary cadres took the youth to a safe house attached to a SLA 23-3 Division camp.

Another Tamil youth abducted by three armed men in Erlalai, Jaffna, was found with serious slash wounds to his body March 11. Residents saidfpr he may have been an informer to the Sri Lanka military and police, as his attackers fled when an SLA patrol approached.

A Tamil youth was shot in Kanniya, northwest of Trincomalee March 10, and international monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials are investigating.

The day before, a young father was shot and killed on a bus traveling from Eravur to Batticaloa. Eyewitnesses say he was shot by a cadre from the paramilitary Karuna Group, attached to the Palpody camp of the government’s Special Task Force (STF). Two other civilians were injured in the shooting.

Six farm laborers were abducted in Batticaloa March 12, allegedly by paramilitary cadres in the restive East. A press release from the Tamil Tigers said, “the abductions and threats are causing fear among the Tamil people and are creating conditions for breakout of an all out war. We strongly condemn the serious violations to the Cease Fire Agreement.”

Meanwhile, tensions between the Sri Lanka’s military and Tamil fishing communities have also escalated in recent weeks.

The SLA prohibited fishermen from Kudathanai, Manatkadu regions in Vadamaradchi East from drying their catch on the shore. Most report having caught nearly 500 kg of seasonal sprats, which they will unlikely be unable to sell due to the SLA ban.

They have lodged complaints with the Jaffna Fisheries Union Consortium (JFUC), who report they will likely suffer substantial financial losses due to this unexpected ban.

The latest ban comes despite assurances from the Sri Lanka Navy that it would relax restrictions on fishing off Jaffna coasts. These statements were made during a meeting between the SLMM, SLN officers and JFUC representatives last Sunday.

Despite the February 2002 CFA obligating the lifting of all restrictions on fishing, the military continues to keep severe blocks in place, badly affecting the impoverished families along the Jaffna and other Northeastern coasts.

At one stage, the SLN partially removed the ban after continuous protests by fishermen and complaints from Tamil parliamentarians.

However, fishermen’s earlier passes from the Ministry of Fisheries will no longer suffice, and will now need new passes from the SLN. Fishermen report this process has taken over two weeks for many, describing growing agitation at these threats to their livelihood. Fisheries officials also report that the SLN is refusing to grant passes to families who relocated to Northern shores after the tsunami.

Fishermen in Mannar have also been suffering due to haphazard meetings by the District Fisheries Committee (DFC). Agriculture and fishing are the major components of Mannar’s economy.

Both the DFC and the District Agricultural Committees are supposed to meet monthly to address problems faced by Mannar farmers and fishermen, but Tamil MPs have reported a lethargy and indifference to the continuing difficulties of fishermen.

Meanwhile, the SLA ordered the closure of the fish market located near Point Pedro, Jaffna. The SLA recently built new sentry points and a mini camp near the market, and claimed the market posed a security threat to their new positions. Nearby fishing families will be greatly inconvenienced by this forced closure, fisheries officials said.

The SLN harassment of Jaffna fishermen has extended to include fishermen from South India. Five fishermen from Tamil Nadu entered Munai area last Sunday and were taken to the shore by Vadamaradchi fishermen. SLN troopers demanded the local fishermen hand over the Indian fishermen, but they refused. After escalating threats, SLN soldiers took both sets of fishermen to the 52-4 Brigade quarters for investigation.

The Indian fishermen fear being detained for months without charge, as is often the case in such cases.

Meanwhile, the SLA is reconstructing previously abandoned positions in Valikkandy, at the border between Vadamarachi North and Vadamaradchi East. The rebuilding of Valikkandy is part of the SLA’s effort to strengthen its forward defense positions in the peninsula.

Many of the SLA camps and points were dismantled after the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002, and are being reinstated despite new Norwegian brokered talks.

The northern town of Vavuniya remains uneasy after several recent grenade attacks. Grenades exploded in one business and at the home of a business owner last Friday, but no one was injured. A grenade was thrown at the residence of another business owner last Wednesday, but there were no injuries.

The business community in Vavuniya has also reported increasing demands from people claiming to be from the Karuna group. The rising extortion threats have been raised with the SLMM.

Despite the Sri Lankan government’s pledge last month to disarm Army backed paramilitary groups, activities by the gunmen have continued and have, if anything, expanded, sparking angry protests and raising doubts over the second round of talks between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers scheduled for next month.

LTTE officials say that far from dismantling paramilitary operations in the Northeast as obliged under the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) and in line with the agreement struck at the first round in Geneva in February, the Sri Lanka military is assisting the paramilitaries in setting up new bases and forcibly conscripting new cadres.

Renewed pressure by the international community, including the United States, is having no effect and, LTTE officials say, is raising doubts as to the efficacy of continuing to hold talks with the recalcitrant administration of Mahinda Rajaapske.

Furthermore, the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), has embarked on an international campaign to demonise and criminalise the LTTE, rather than to engage in mutual confidence building measures, they say.

According to the joint statement issued by the LTTE and GoSL, the latter “committed to taking all necessary measures in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement to ensure that no armed group or person other than Government security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations.”

However, since the Norwegian brokered talks concluded there have been several lethal attacks on LTTE positions, often by uniformed paramilitaries who withdraw to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bases behind the frontline separating both protagonists.

There have also been a spate of abductions of young men and boys by paramilitaries – which Sri Lankan military spokesmen blame the LTTE for – in the eastern Batticaloa district. Angry, violent protests by local residents secured the release of two teenagers grabbed by paramilitaries traveling in a white van in a SLA-controlled area. However, many remain missing.

International Pressure

The Sri Lankan government is resisting strong international pressure, notably from the United States. Last week the US State Department’s annual Human Rights Watch report on events of 2005 singled out three groups – EPDP, PLOTE and the Karuna Group – as amongst the groups involved in the violence that gripped Sri Lanka last week.

The State Department criticized the LTTE for several killings, but noted that many of the victims were anti-LTTE paramilitaries, military informants and military intelligence officers.

Also last week, Donald Camp, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, also raised the issue of paramilitaries during a House Committee on International Relations.

Describing the demand for the disarming of the paramilitaries as “a serious Tamil grievance,” Mr. Camp noted that GoSL had committed to carrying this out.

Mr. Camp also addressed the issues of lack of religious freedom, flight of refugees to Tamil Nadu, the uneven distribution of relief to NorthEast and the failure of P-TOMS, the joint mechanism to share aid between LTTE and GoSL.

Denials

But the Sri Lankan government meanwhile continues to deny any connection with the paramilitaries, prompting challenges from international ceasefire monitors overseeing the February 2002 truce.

First the Sri Lankan military denied the existence of paramilitaries and lately, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, denied paramilitaries were operating in his government’s controlled areas.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) also challenged the denials, urging the military “to be truthful” and questioning the Minister’s assertions.

SLMM head Hagrup Haukland said the SLMM was monitoring the activities of the armed groups and would present a report at the next round of talks in Geneva from April 19-22.

Last week, LTTE’s Jaffna political head Illantheriyan met SLMM representatives on Monday and lodged a complaint that armed groups were seen operating in the Jaffna peninsula last week despite heavy army presence in the area.

Mr. Samaraweera also asserted in the BBC interview that his government would not disarm the Karuna Group, as it was “an internal problem of the LTTE”.

The LTTE responded said the government was obliged to take responsibility for disarming the Karuna Group because Colombo had meddled in the issue, which was at one time an internal problem of the LTTE, by providing arms and support to the renegade commander Karuna.

Warnings

With Colombo refusing to budge on the miltiary’s support for the paramilitaries, the LTTE has warned that next month’s talks may not go ahead.

“The [next] Geneva peace talks will face grave danger if the Sri Lanka government refuses to disarm Tamil paramilitary organisations and continues allowing them to launch offensive military operations against our military positions in Batticaloa district,” Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE chief negotiator and political strategist, said Monday (13).

He accused the Sri Lankan security forces of actively participating with armed Tamil paramilitaries in the recent attacks on LTTE’s sentry posts in in the Batticoloa district.

“These offensive military operations have taken place after the Geneva peace talks, where the government had pledged to uphold the obligations of the Ceasefire Agreement in disarming the Tamil paramilitaries and putting an end to their violent activities,” he said.

“The involvement of the armed forces in the operations of Tamil paramilitaries constitutes a serious breach of the spirit of the Geneva talks, and also must be considered as an act of bad faith on the part of the government”, Mr Balasingham said.

“The LTTE leadership is watching the current developments after the Geneva talks with serious concern and dismay. So far the government has failed to take any action to contain the violence of the Tamil paramilitaries operating in the Tamil areas, particularly in the eastern province,” he said.

“LTTE leadership is also losing faith in the current peace efforts when Sri Lankan political leaders and senior personnel of the security establishment issue contradictory and hostile statements against the letter and spirit of the Geneva talks,” the LTTE’s theoretician explained.

Demonising

He was referring to hardline, bellicose statements by Sri Lankan government officials, including delegates in the GoSL team for the Geneva talks.

Sri Lankan state media has meanwhile adopted a hostile stance on the LTTE and compromise with them. The hardline position is being adopted by Sinhala-owned private media in Sri Lanka too, which some LTTE officials suspect is being encouraged to do so.

In the international arena, Mr. Samaraweera has been touring several countries, condemning the LTTE to other governments, using provocative language of ‘terrorism’ and calling for punitive actions by those states against the LTTE.

This public belligerency, according to the LTTE, is proof that the Rajapakse administration is not committed to compromise in a negotiated solution to the ethnic question and not to the stabilization of the fraying ceasefire.

Notably, Mr. Samaraweera, speaking in London, referred to a Human Rights Watch report alleging extortion and intimidation of Tamil expatriates by the LTTE. Although HRW denies being instigated by Sri Lanka to publish the report, Mr. Samaraweera was referring to the report a day before it was published by the New York based group.

It has not escaped notice that amid a dispute between the GoSL and the LTTE on whether the February 2002 CFA should be amended or not, US Congressman Frank Pallone introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives on February 8 that it should be renegotiated. (The LTTE, backed by the international community, successfully argued in Geneva it should not.)

“It is necessary that the GoSL and the Tamil Tigers renegotiate a cease-fire agreement and implement the agreement in a productive and successful manner,” Mr. Palone said, adding, “is important that the US continue to reject the actions and violent tactics of the Tamil Tigers and apply international pressure to request that they begin conducting themselves in a responsible and credible manner.”

The 13th Amendment/Provincial Councils Bill which was an insignificant devolution foisted upon the Sri Lankan polity in the late 1980s did nothing to devolve power meaningfully and has, if anything, added another layer of bureaucratic inertia to the chains that run vertically from the state centre to an increasingly dependent and eviscerated local government sphere.

Aside from this, there have been attempts since 1994 to either draw up devolution proposals or implement ceasefires as a prelude to doing so. This was the logic behind the People’s Alliance (PA) devolution proposals of late 1990s to 2000 and the United National Front (UNF) Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE.

Such moves have marked a hypothetical, but not practical, consensus on the part of elements of both mainstream Sinhala parties towards implementing meaningful reform to the postcolonial legacy of the over-centralised state, which has been historically dominated by Sinhala nationalist hegemony.

However, this groping towards a common position on the need for reform emerged not out of some altruistic desire to reform the polity for the sake of minority rights, but from a myriad of pressures.

To begin with, there was the increasing realisation that federalism/devolution is no longer simply a theory but that a de facto autonomy is already in place because of the increasing stalemate that exists militarily between the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka (This very much came to the fore at the end of President Kumaratunga’s disastrous war-for-peace strategy in 2000-2001). It was dawning that the issue was no longer one of preserving a unitary state but of finding a way to preserve a united Sri Lanka through devolution.

Secondly, although it has been clear that a military-driven war economy has had many winners and has itself acted as an obstacle for peace, a realisation has emerged that a negotiated peace settlement remained the only way for Sri Lanka’s further integration into the global capitalist economy. This was especially apparent in the UNF’s initiation and implementation of the CFA between 2001 and 2004. (The Katunayake Airport bombings and insurance rises as well as drought and the decline in Foreign Investment are other factors.)

Thirdly, there are also obvious external pressures that have been brought to bear in the form of aid conditionalities tied to the peace process and diplomatic pressures from the leading donor states that have flowed from the internationalisation of the peace process.

But none of this has eradicated the tendency of Sri Lanka’s main southern parties to engage in ethnic outbidding through the undermining of each other’s attempts at peace negotiations. Ethnic outbidding occurs when the party in opposition, seeking electoral and political legitimacy, seeks to undermine and destabilize the peace efforts of the ruling party. The derailing of the PA’ s draft constitutional bill of 2000 is an example.

These dynamics continue to create serious obstacles to any constitutional reform and it is for this reason that the politics of the South has been considered key in developing a viable peace process and a central recommendation is for bipartisan and inclusive frameworks in the south that could, at the same time, also address the grievances that fuel the flames of Sinhala nationalism.

However, whilst the mainstream Sinhala parties have both been inching towards recognizing the need for constitutional change, we have also witnessed the ascendancy of parties like the JVP and the SU/JHU, who have very much taken up the baton of Sinhala nationalism in a forceful and vocal manner.

We can’t, of course, explain the rise of these parties solely through this recourse to Sinhala nationalism itself. The JVP, especially, finds its constituency and support in a myriad of molecular sites of marginalisation economically, socially, culturally and politically. There are also issues of regional disparities, caste, rural underdevelopment, the mismatch between vernacular education and the employment provision in the economy, and so on.

A key factor has been disillusionment with the mainstream parties, with clientelistic politics, with corruption and political violence, and the failure to deal with the myriad of inequalities and sources of marginalisation.

The main point in relation to the peace process is that Sinhala nationalism has become one of the key vehicles for the articulation of the force of these discontents. This Sinhala nationalism reinforces conceptions of the state as munificent, bounded, protecting and unitary. It also aims to recover sovereignty in a move towards re-establishing the state’s redistributive and centre-led welfare and developmental power.

The JVP have therefore opposed (apart from a break between 1977-83 and in the 1994-5 period, when self-determination was discussed) federalism as a solution, opting instead to propose a form of decentralization to the local level.

Nationalist dynamics have also produced and recycled profound reactions against the internationalisation of the peace process and aid distribution in the Northeast. Both the JVP and the JHU opposed a federal solution and the role of Norway as mediator in their conditions for a presidential election pact with Mahinda Rajapakse, for example. The JHU and the JVP also successfully mobilized for a Supreme Court injunction against the aid sharing mechanism, PTOMS, in 2005. PTOMS could have heralded a major breakthrough as both a much needed vehicle aid distribution to the North and East and a platform for revitalizing the peace process more generally.

Nonetheless, the JVP’s position should not be taken lightly. It has been argued that the JVP’s perspective is relevant to the broader debate about the extent to which donor states, international actors and NGOs should continue to contravene traditional notions of sovereignty and the extent to which aid should remain harnessed to conditionalities like ‘good governance’ or in the Sri Lankan context to progress in the peace process. This should alert international actors to the extent to which Aid frameworks and international pressure can produce reterritorialising cycles of nationalist reaction. But there is also little doubt that the JVP remains resistant to a federal solution and to a settlement which would be meaningful to the LTTE.

And although the JHU and the JVP have taken up the slack in the mainstream parties’ Sinhala nationalist mobilizations, this does not mean that the UNP or the SLFP have effaced Sinhala nationalist mobilization from their political agendas. Far from it, as the Presidential election of 2005 demonstrates.

Nevertheless, the JVP and the JHU have taken the lead in the regeneration of the ‘magnetic attractor’ for discontent that is Sinhala nationalist mobilization. An example is the Patriotic National Movement which was, at one time, a JVP-dominated machine that draws mainstream political activists back into vocal nationalist mobilization especially when in opposition and in the run-up to elections (2002-4).

Mobilizations such as this are capable of shifting the whole political discourse in a more overt nationalist direction. This was apparent in the run-up to the UPFA’s victory in 2004 when many SLFP stalwarts like Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Bandaranaike, Dilan Perera and Arjuna Ranatunga, for instance, took to the PNM platform. And for the JHU this is a major part of their strategy - simply to shift everything rightward – a dynamic also apparent in the 2005 presidential election as well.

These dynamics continue to recycle and reproduce Sinhala nationalism and with it the tendency for ‘ethnic outbidding’. As such, without a more profound shift in Sri lanka’s political culture, it very much remains to be seen whether the renewed negotiations can produce anything substantial towards ending Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Dave Rampton is a visiting lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. The JVP and southern politics are the focus of his doctoral research. This comment is compiled from his presentation on February 9, 2006 at SOAS as part of an academic panel on Sri Lanka’s conflict.

US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco Friday ordered release of a Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seeker detained since October 2001 in San Diego on suspicion that he once belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organization included in the US Terrorism List.

The decision by a three member panel to release Ahilan Nadarajah, 25, is among the first to challenge the Bush Administration’s assertion that it may hold suspects indefinitely on terrorism charges while seeking to remove them from the US, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

“When examined under the analysis prescribed by the Supreme Court, Nadarajah's detention is unreasonable, unjustified, and in violation of federal law,” Judge Sidney R Thomas said.

“The [US] Government does not possess the authority under the general detention statutes to hold Nadarajah or any other alien who is similarly situated indefinitely," the Washington Post quoted the judge as saying.

Ahilan Arulanantham, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said that the court’s decision might lead to the release of another asylum seeker on its client list who has been detained for years, the paper said.

Court documents said that Sri Lanka Army [SLA] soldiers swept into the Nadarajah’s family home, “beat him, blind folded him and took him into their camp.” Nadarajah was tortured but was released when his mother bribed an SLA soldier. He soon escaped to the US and arrested when he walked into US at the Mexico border, the Post said.

An immigration judge granted him asylum in 2003, saying the story was credible.

“The [US] Government got it completely wrong about my client. He is a torture victim and the government just ignored immigration court’s decisions [in 2003] and kept him locked up. You can’t just ignore that the immigration courts have found that he is not a threat to our country [US,]" the Post quoted Arulanantham as saying.

Nadarajah was arrested three times in Sri Lanka by military interrogators who burned him with cigarettes, put a gasoline-soaked sack over his head and beat him with pipes and rubber hoses while demanding he confess to membership in the LTTE.

In fact, he was picked up on three occasions by the Sri Lankan army and tortured. The first time was in 1997, when Nadarajah was a teenager, then again in 2000 and 2001.

While women all over the world are struggling to achieve their rights and to live in parity with men, the difficulties of Tamil women is incomparable to that of women in the west. The former live in fear and face enormous problems due to the conflict and due to Sri Lankan military personnel.

This was the theme of an event organised by Tamil Community Centre, a UK-based civil society group, to mark the International Women’s day on Saturday March 11. The event was held at the Council Chamber room of Harrow Council’s Civic Centre was presided over Ms. Kamalini Sivagurunathan.

Cllr. Paddy Lynn, the mayor of Harrow, inngurated the event by lighting a candle to remark the sacrifice of Tamil women. In her opening speech, the mayor condemned the atrocities committed against women and the use of rape as a weapon of war.

Dr. Shimala Suntharalingam of Centre for Health in Kilinochi, gave a detailed eye witness account of the current situation in the North East. She said the economic embargo that was imposed in the North East from 1990 to 2002 had created malnutrition, anaemia, maternal mortality and the most affected ones are the women and children.

“It was a pity that the international community could not take effective measures to remedy the situation. From my experience in working for Centre for Health, I doubt that the foreign officers who work for the INGOs understand the ground reality,” she said.

Mr. Gareth Thomas, Member of Parliament for Harrow and UK minister for International Development, explained his ministry’s commitment to addressing these issues, under the Millennium Development goals programme.

He accepted that his government could do much more and went on to describe his visit to a refugee camp in Ampara, eastern Sri Lanka last year. The minister said the camp, which is operated run by Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), receives British development assistance in supplying water and sanitation facilities.

“Although the British Tamil people are willing to help those in homeland, it is not always possible due to the ban on LTTE. Most of the areas in North and East are under the control of the Liberation Tigers. The expatriate community is hesitant to help them, as they fear that the British government may not welcome these efforts as it has listed LTTE as terrorist organisation. The UK government should lift the ban on LTTE, on humanitarian grounds” said Cllr. Eliza Mann in her speech.

Cllr. Anjana Patel, chief whip of Conservative party Harrow council, spoke about the gender inequalities in governance. She compared Rwanda to Sri Lanka. In Rwanda, a much less developed country than Sri Lanka, women have fifty percent representation in parliament whereas in the latter, which elected the first women prime minister, only six percent of MPs are women, she noted.

Parliamentarian Andrew Dismore, Councillors Alison Morre, Susan Wayne, Navin Shah, Thaya Idaikkadar, Ranjit Dheer, and academic Dr. Dagmar Helman Rajanayagam and young Tamil women Mathavi Uthayanan, Sandi Balendra and Sivanthi Vijayakumar also spoke in the event.

The well-attended event concluded after giving a 20 minutes open discussion among the audience.

The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) in its annual report said 2005 was a black year for Tamil media journalists in the country.

“We lost three Tamil media persons including Mr.D.Sivaram, a reputed journalist and military analyst,” the annual report said. Excerpts follow:

“The ceasefire agreement now holding in Sri Lanka since February 22, 2002 has not guaranteed the security of Tamil media journalists. In the last year 2005 three Tamil journalists had been brutally killed. Mr. D. Sivaram, a well- known journalist at national and international level and who played a vital role in forming the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance was brutally murdered. Other two Tamil journalists were Mr. S. Suhirtharajan, Trincomalee correspondent for Sudar Oli, Tamil daily and Mrs. Relanki Selvarajah, Tamil broadcaster.

“Jaffna offices of the two Tamil daily newspapers had been subjected to search by the government security forces. Grenade was thrown at the Colombo office of the Sudar Oli. Security forces assaulted journalists in Jaffna district when they were on duty. The attack on Tamil media by government security forces has increased last year. The security forces had taken Tamil journalists in Colombo for interrogation under the Emergency Regulations

“The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance joining with other media associations including the Free Media Movement in the country has voiced its serious concern against the suppression and oppression on the Tamil media by the government forces. International media associations have also expressed their solidarity with Sri Lanka Tamil journalists.”

If on the peace front the Liberation Tigers are demanding the Sri Lankan government disband Army-backed paramilitary groups in the one time battlefronts of the north and east it is a different story. Sceptical of the government’s sincerity, they are hurriedly stepping up preparations for the eventuality of a war.

Some villages in the north and east have become centres for military training for civilians, the Sunday Times reported this week. In the north the areas set apart include the villages of Nedunkerny, Kanakarayankulam, Puliyankulam and Puthukudiyiruppu. In the east several areas including Rugam and Sinna Pullumalai in the Batticaloa and Eechalampattu in the Trincomalee districts have been designated for this purpose.

Of particular significance, the Sunday Times’ Defence Correspondent, Iqbal Athas, argues is the expansion of the seagoing arm of the LTTE, the Sea Tigers.

“Whilst dredging of the sea was being carried out in the waters off Mullaitivu to Chalai, new units have been formed. The latest is the Sea Tiger auxiliary force incorporating able bodied members of families of fisherman. A 500 strong group of them is reported to be undergoing training near Mullaitivu,” he writes.

Four auxiliary flotillas, named Thiruvady, Navarasan, Johnson and Maravan with hundreds of volunteers, were organised under Thamileelam Coast Guard Auxiliary Force, set up recently by the Tigers.

Subsequent to this, the Sea Tigers’ Special Commander, Colonel Soosai, has launched a program of Deep-Sea Operations training for selected naval ratings from recently trained auxiliary flotillas.

“Our enemy is strengthening the naval strength with the intention to beat us in the seas. We have to expand the capability of Sea Tigers to keep stronger in the sea to defend our homeland,” Col. Soosai said at the inauguration ceremony last Friday.

“The enemy has been given a serious opportunity to opt for peace. We are yet to see a clear choice favouring peace from the enemy. If they don’t disarm the paramilitaries, they don’t desire peace,” he said further.

The Sunday Times also reported that in the Vanni, over a thousand civilians from the Jaffna peninsula who entered the Vanni following violent incidents late last year are being put through courses. They include weapons handling, treating the wounded, recovering weapons from the defeated enemy and evacuating casualties.

In some of the villages in the north that adjoin or overlook armed-forces-controlled areas, civilian committees have been formed. Their task is to identify infiltrators – likely to be Army-backed paramilitaries.

These Committees have been told that soon all civilians living in guerrilla-dominated areas would be issued with what are called National Identity Cards, the Sunday Times said. “Such cards would carry the photograph of the holder, his name, address and personal particulars. Committee members have been told it was their duty to apprehend persons who do not possess identity cards and hand them over to the LTTE Police.”

Another batch of the LTTE’s rural volunteers brigade graduated two weeks ago, having undergone three months of rigorous military training including handling heavy weapons.

Colonel Sornam, Commander Vasanthan and Deputy Commander of Batticaloa District Ramanan took the salute at a ceremony on March 7.

“From Sri Lankan President Jayawardene’s time, through R. Premadasa, D. B. Wijetunge, Chandrika Kumaratunge and the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, every Sinhala leadership has deceived us,” Colonel Sornam told the graudates.

“Currently President Mahinda Rajapakse has also started to follow the path of his predecessors. We are being pushed back by the government of President Rajapakse to the war front to achieve our independence.”

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Sri Lanka’s biggest Tamil parties wants the Sri Lankan government to postpone the local government elections in the Northeast of the country due to the prevailing insecurity there.

“The ground situation in the East, where paramilitaries continue with threats, attacks, abductions and extortions, is not conducive to holding elections,” Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA parliamentarian for Vanni district told reporters Sunday.

“Our candidates are being subjected to threats and harassments by the paramilitary elements in the Sri Lanka Army controlled areas on a daily basis in the run-up to the local elections,” he said.

Mr. Adaikalanathan was speaking after a meeting between the Liberation Tigers and the other TNA parliamentarians Sunday to discuss steps to be taken if Colombo insisted on holding the elections despite the Tamil request.

He condemned the government for delaying making a decision on holding local elections in the Northeast.

The final decision on holding the local elections in the NorthEast will be taken in a few days, said Mr Dissanayake, Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections, said Saturday.

He was speaking after a meeting with District Secretaries of the Northeast in Colombo to discuss the difficulties in holding the local elections on 30 March.

Most of the District Returning Officers in the Northeast told the Commissioner at earlier conferences that holding elections to several local authorities located in the LTTE held territory will present security issues in having to setting up cluster polling stations for three hundred thousand voters to enter Government controlled territory to vote.

However, military authorities in the NorthEast have told the Election Department recommending setting up cluster polling booths as was done in the presidential election. But the most of election officials are not in favor of the suggestion by the military.

The Commissioner also told the Government Agents (GAs) to look into the possibilities of having the elections in government controlled areas, if not LTTE controlled areas.

In the Jaffna electoral district, about 1,11,290 voters reside in LTTE held territory, in Wanni electoral district about 90,338, in Trincomalee electoral district about 6,179, and in Batticaloa electoral district about 80,443.

Meanwhile, candidates competing in the Vavuniya district local council elections under the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) ticket – the flag under which TNA is competing – met with TNA MPs to plan their strategy.

Reviving memories of how state sponsored colonisation of Tamil areas in the eastern province began in the eighties, press reports last week said Sri Lanka plans to move hundreds of Sinhala convicts to an army-held enclave in the northern Jaffna peninsula

The transfer is ostensibly to grow vegetables for the military garrison in the wholly Tamil-speaking region.

Forced to fly up to 1.5 tonnes of vegetables a day into the Jaffna peninsula to feed 40,000 troops because of patchy local supplies, the army plans to send as many as 200 prisoners serving time for minor offences to work on a farm, Reuters reported.

“We have a farm there. The farm is not maintained properly, because we don’t have (enough) people. So we can hand it over to them as an open prison and they can work there and we can get vegetables,” military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

The LTTE have imposed bans on sales of provisions to the army, cut off from the south of the country by a swathe of Tamil Tiger controlled territory.

But many Tamils suspect the move is an effort to begin colonisation of parts of the Jaffna peninsula. The military’s high security zones comprise vast areas and dozens of Tamil villages whose inhabitants have been displaced for over a decade.

Tamil areas in the east were sometimes colonised by allocating land from which Tamil residents had been driven out by the security forces, to Sinhala convicts who are denied land allocations in the south.

Sri Lanka’s prisons chief aims to have the plan operational within weeks, and wants the army to pay the prisoners around 4,000 rupees (23 pounds) each a month for their services.

The proposed site, on heavily defended army land with its gun turrets and the ruins of buildings destroyed by years of heavy shelling, is a natural open prison.

“Because they (will be) in Palaly, a high security zone, they have no escape whatsoever,” said Rumy Marzook, Commissioner General of Prisons, referring to the Palaly region where the army’s northern base is located.

“It is a good plan and I am waiting for the approval of the government,” said Rumy Marzook, whose other innovative ideas have included encouraging inmates to make and sell coffins.

Marzook wants to send 70 prisoners from the main prison in Colombo to a sprawling heavily guarded air base in the peninsula with lots of room for farming. His earlier plan to make coffins was a success.

Independent election monitors have said that there has been an unprecedented increase in election related violence in the run up to Sri Lanka’s local authority polls on March 30.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has said that there has been an increase in election related violence compared to the November 17 presidential election.

PAFFREL Chief Kingsley Rodrigo said that the number of reported incidents have increased immensely when compared with the presidential election.

“This is disastrous. The respective political parties and the government should take immediate action to curb the violence,” added Rodrigo.

Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission (EC) is reported to have again warned all political parties to adhere to the election law they seem to be ignoring the orders.

“Cut outs, banners, posters and bill boards are still coming up despite the Elections Commissioner’s appeal. The police should take immediate action to remove these and legal action should be taken against those who violate the election laws,” said Rodrigo.

Rodrigo meanwhile said that he intends to bring these to the notice of the EC and the Sri Lanka’s Police Chief when he meets them during this week.

Both PAFFREL and the Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake, are backing affidavits on the need to present some sort of identification at the polls.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) said violence committed against its candidates and supporters have increased ahead of the local council polls.

“Attacks on UNPers and their property are continuing. The house of the Negombo’s Deputy Mayor was attacked and a number of vehicles and household effects smashed. A UNP member of the Akuressa Pradheshiya Sabha was attacked and admitted to the Karapitiya Hospital with both his arms broken,” UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya told a news conference.

He said the UNPers were also being politically victimized and the government still continued to cut the Samurdhi benefits of grassroots level party supporters.The Deputy Leader said police personnel were being transferred due to political pressure in the absence of the Independent Police Commission.