Which problem are talks expected to solve in Sri Lanka?

Amid louder international calls for negotiations and a political solution to Sri Lanka’s crisis, the Sinhala leadership insisted yet again this week that the Liberation Tigers would be crushed and ‘peace’ established within a year. The Rajapakse government’s implicit call on the Sinhala people to keep the faith comes as progress on the battlefield remains painfully slow and the cost of pursuing hegemony over the northeast begins to bite harder, compounded by rising global oil and food prices. Given that the international community has hitherto done – and continues to do - what it can to support the Sinhala state’s war efforts, Tamils are justified in being cynical about this renewed international emphasis on negotiations and a solution. We have not forgotten that from 1995 to 1999 the international community stood by while Colombo visited any horrors it pleased on the Tamils (for example, one international legal scholar who studied Sri Lanka’s embargo on the Vanni said in 1997 that it classified as a war crime), and only rushed to ‘make peace’ in Sri Lanka when the LTTE struck back after 2000, bringing the Sinhala state to its knees. Similarly, it is only when the Sinhala state struggles on the battlefield that international interest in ‘conflict resolution’ has returned.

In short, abstract international calls for negotiations and a ‘political solution’ do not represent a change of heart or strategy. Last month, for example, the United States’ Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Robert O’ Blake emphatically stated that there was no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. This is not splitting theoretical hairs. It is a wholesale rejection of Tamil grievances. Unless there is an acceptance that the Sri Lankan state is a chauvinist construct that, since independence, has systematically oppressed the Tamils, talks will achieve nothing. The Norwegian peace process was predicated on this logic: that Tamils’ grievances are essentially economic and the demand for Tamil Eelam is some sort of fragile ethnic exclusivity. These external claims were conveniently echoed by a number of self-styled liberals within Sri Lanka. Amid the cacophony about ‘constitutional reform’, ‘peace-building’, ‘conflict transformation’ and so on, the essential point was lost: Sinhala oppression must end if there is to be lasting peace. We note that, even amidst the demonstrable and strident racism in Sri Lanka today, there is little new being said in this regard.

However, much has changed now. Not only has geopolitics returned with a vengeance, two decades after the Cold War ended, the powerful liberal democracies that once sought to re-engineer Sri Lanka in their image have quietly given up on that project. It is of no surprise that defenders of the liberal space within Sri Lanka have few audiences abroad of any consequence (and none at home). The point is this: whilst there was a misguided notion amongst a great many Tamils that the international community had engaged itself in making peace in Sri Lanka because it was (finally) concerned about the suffering of the Tamils, international conduct in the recent past has shattered any basis for that claim.

It is very clear, that amid their calls for peace, the international community will not act to restrain the Sri Lankan state. This is because, eager to establish or continue long-term partnerships with Colombo, they simply will not accept Tamil claims of oppression, state-racism or slow genocide. Conversely, telling themselves – and us – that ‘there is no ethnic war’, that ‘most Tamils don’t want independence’ and so on, they will equate a political solution to their own desires of Sri Lanka – primarily economic reform with, hopefully, but not necessarily, some ‘good governance’ thrown in.

But as we have argued recently, the Sinhala state is not going to go down this route. Instead, it will strive to expand its hegemony – and primarily by violence and brutality. It is not surprising that the Rajapakse regime, which abducts, murders, tortures, terrorizes the media and other ‘traitors’ within – all whilst snarling at international criticism, is extraordinarily popular amongst the Sinhalese. Sri Lanka’s Sinhala opposition parties know full well that without wrapping themselves in the Lion flag, there is no hope of taking power away from Rajapakse or his SLFP. That is why the desperate recent efforts by some states to shore up the UNP and keep the flame alive have failed – and quite spectacularly. Sinhala nationalism is – now undeniably – mainstream. That is also why the call for Tamil Eelam is embedding itself anew across the Tamil polity. It was the false promise of the Norwegian peace process opened up the space for alternatives. Similarly it was in the false hope of a Sinhala military solution that the international community abandoned that project.

Sri Lanka Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka this week again revised his timetable for defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; to mid-2009, from an earlier estimate of June 2008.

Saying that the LTTE had lost its conventional fighting capacity, he told international correspondents Monday that, within a year, most of the remaining Tigers would be dead.

Saying that the objective of the LTTE was to capture the entire island and wipe out the majority Sinhalese community, he vowed: "we will not allow that at any cost, we will fight them."

Lt. Gen. Fonseka made his comments, which were carried in reports by AFP, Reuters, the BBC, IANS and The Hindu, amongst others, to the Colombo-based Foreign Correspondents Association on Monday.

The Tigers would be reduced to nothing more than a “rag-tag terrorist outfit” in a year’s time, the Army chief said, in response to questions on the assertion he made in December last year that the military would “wipe out” the LTTE by June 2008.

The Sri Lankan government had earlier revised that deadline to a new one of the year’s end.

The BBC said the timescale is important because President Mahinda Rajapaksa's popular support is largely based on his claim he can militarily defeat the Tamil Tigers and thereby bring peace to Sri Lanka.

Moreover, the Army chief’s comments come two months after one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated Army officers criticized the Rajapakse government’s war strategy.

Saying that the government’s self-imposed deadlines “were not realistic”, Maj Gen. (retd) Janaka Perera questioned the wisdom of waging protracted war against the LTTE and warned that battle fatigue would set in and sap the military’s will to fight.

Maj. Gen. (retd) Perera also questioned the veracity of the massive claims of LTTE casualties being made by the defence establishment.

Lt. Gen. Fonseka insisted Monday that the government was on its way to destroying the LTTE, which he said was “wilting.”

"From about the beginning of the year, the LTTE has lost its conventional capability," Fonseka told Colombo-based foreign correspondents.

"They are no longer fighting as a conventional army."

"You can see they are weakening. They don't have the same capacity and the willpower to fight now," he said.

"We have already defeated them (as a conventional army). They have lost that capability. Although they are fighting with us, it is not in the same manner."

"I'm sure in...less than one year, the LTTE will totally lose even their present territory. Then they will resort to totally different type of tactics."

"They should not be able to maintain their present control over the population, to be able to resist the army in the way they are resisting now. They would have to lose all that capability."

Lt. Gen. Fonseka said the military had killed over 9,000 Tigers since August 2006 and had gained much territory. He said 1,700 soldiers had also died, but that LTTE resistance was crumbling.

Asked about the present LTTE strength, Lt. Gen. Fonseka said: “as per the intelligence reports, the current cadre of the LTTE in the worst-case scenario is 5,000.”

“Most of the new recruits in the past two years are underage conscripts,” he said.

The Army chief’s comments contradicted the US State Department’s 2007 Human Rights report which suggested: “by year end most sources indicated that the ‘one family, one fighter’ policy targeted those 18 years or older. The UNICEF noted a significant reduction in reported child recruitment by the LTTE. … the trend indicated that the LTTE was eliminating the recruitment and use of child soldiers.”

The Army Chief admitted that previous military estimates of the Tiger strength had been too low. Lt. Gen. Fonseka was quoted by state media in December as saying there were only 3,000 Tigers left.

Claiming that government troops fighting the LTTE in the Vanni jungles over the past one year had become “one of the best jungle fighters in the world,” Fonseka said his men “are now working on the overall plan of completely defeating the LTTE militarily,” not just capturing fresh territories.

'We do not just go for terrains, but we go for the kill. This is the difference between the military operations in the past and the present,' he said.

He added that the military had got 'the right guidance and leadership' from President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government. Fonseka was named the army chief in December 2005, a month after Rajapaksa took power.

“Even if the army finished the war and captured the whole of north, the LTTE still might survive as long as there are people who believe in Tamil nationalism and with Tamil diaspora who are supporting them.”

“The LTTE might survive another even two decades with about 1,000 cadres. But we will not be fighting in the same manner. It might continue as an insurgency forever.”

The Tamil Tigers have not commented directly on Gen Fonseka's claims to have defeated them as a conventional force.

But earlier they rubbished the military's reports of battlefield successes and said the casualty figures being put out by the government were false, intended to retain support for the war in the Sinhala south, the BBC reported.

Lt. Gen. Fonseka’s upbeat reading of Sri Lanka’s war progress comes as spiraling inflation (28% up from last year) is starting to erode at hitherto very strong support amongst the majority Sinhalese for the military destruction of the LTTE.

The governor of the Central Bank, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, told the BBC the main reason for high inflation in Sri Lanka was the global rise in oil prices, combined with the government reducing fuel subsidies.

In an interview to The Sunday Leader newspaper on March 16 this year, retired Army General Janaka Perera pointed out that though military offensives against LTTE-held Vanni began in July 2007, there had been little tangible progress.

“If [the fighting] drags on and spreads over a year, the soldier suffers both mental fatigue and physical exhaustion. Both these factors combined with his home problems are going to impact on him. If he continues to remain in the battlefront, it is difficult to get the quality of a focused soldier from a fatigued and pressurised man,” Maj. Gen. Perera said.

Lt. Gen. Fonseka admitted the fighting had been intense in Mannar, which the government claimed to have captured entirely on Sunday – and which was later contradicted by the military spokesman.

“It took nine months to capture Mannar district, the so called ‘rice bowl’. The terrain was open and for two months it was flooded,” he explained.

Meanwhile, last week the Army launched a campaign to track down and arrest up to 12,000 deserters who failed to take advantage of a government amnesty – about 5,000 returned in the month long amnesty in May.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces officially number over 200,000.

In recent weeks, there have been persistent reports of low morale, especially amongst young recruits in Jaffna amongst whom several suspected suicides have been reported.

According to the Maj. Gen. Perera, the LTTE is engaged in a protracted campaign: “the LTTE’s strategy is to drag it on and play for time. Delays work in their favour.”

“Just put yourself into the soldier’s position. You don’t see a tangible goal being achieved making things really tough. Then you lose concentration and the will to fight.”

“Come September, the northeast monsoon will set in. Then, added to the physical and mental exhaustion, the weather will also conspire to keep the troops down. That means, the sick rates will go up with malaria and fever attacks,” he said.

“It is going to be a nightmare if the war drags on.”

Tamil Diaspora quarters lament the inability or unwillingness of the International Community to read the Diaspora public opinion.

They feel that Tamil Nationalism has to be differentiated from the issues between the International Community and the LTTE and no power should dictate or exert insinuating pressure on what the Tamils should aspire for and what not.

According to them, in the guise of protecting the Diaspora from intimidation of terrorism, the International Community is intimidating the Tamil national sentiments and such approaches in the name of the international system are not going to bring in any credibility to the powers involved.

This happened some years ago in a country where members from all communities of Sri Lanka were employed in considerable numbers as expatriate workers.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner, who was a Tamil, strived hard with many innovative ways to bring all communities together for programmes organized by the High Commission.

Due to his efforts, many Tamils who usually avoid visiting Sri Lankan High Commission other than official requirements thought of attending the Independence Day functions that year.

When the occasion came to sing the national anthem, along with Sinhalese who were singing the anthem in Sinhala, a Tamil lady joined singing the Tamil version of the anthem.

Almost all of the Sinhala participants were not even aware of the fact that the national anthem has an official Tamil version for the use of the Tamil people, and it was in regular use in the Tamil areas and in Tamil schools.

As early as in 1945, when the anthem was composed, there existed a parallel Tamil version. The way the country coursed through, the national anthem lost all its credibility with Tamils and the fact that the Tamil version has a statutory status became lost to the Sinhala memory.

Most of the Sinhala participants at the function thought that the lady had sung an LTTE song and she had the guts to do so because the High Commissioner was a Tamil.

It became a big issue of protest and the High Commissioner had to convene a reconciliatory meeting. The Sinhalese were not prepared to accept the parallel status of the versions and demanded apology from the lady.

One among them, ignorant of the fact that the Indian national anthem is in Bengali language, even argued why can’t the Sri Lankan Tamils sing the anthem in Sinhala when all Indians sing theirs in Hindi.

Such intolerance, which many feel was the root cause for the failure of the Sri Lankan state, and the Tamils to seek their own nationalism and symbols.

The issue of symbols seems to have now come to the streets of Europe, involving world governments.

The four-coloured flag with the tiger emblem, which has widely been adopted as the Tamil National flag by the Eelam Tamils since 1990, has become a serious irritant to Sinhala protestors carrying the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka to show their opposition to rallies organized by Tamils in Europe.

The Lion Flag of the Sri Lankan state is seen as a symbol of oppression by the Eezham Tamils. They rejected it long back for the explicit communal symbolism in it.

Even at the time of independence it had been pointed out that the lion in the flag, taken as a symbol of the Sinhala people according to their myths, holding a sword against minorities represented by the colour stripes in the flag, was a deliberately designed insult to the minorities.

The Sinhala Buddhists also have another flag for their cultural identity, known as the Buddhist flag, which was designed a century ago by a group of people in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil National Flag, described as symbolizing the political, social and cultural aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka was declared in 1990 by the LTTE, at a time when it was not banned by any government. The Tamil National Flag was also differentiated from the LTTE flag by having no legend on it. The Flag soon got into wide use with the masses and became a symbol of their nationalist aspirations.

Citing the ban on the LTTE, and encouraged by the attitude of some governments, the Sinhala protesters now demand a ban on the Tamil National Flag with the police of EU countries, seeing it an opportunity of dismembering Tamil nationalism.

What surprises the Tamil circles in Europe is the ready connivance of the police of some of the EU countries with the demand of the Sinhala protestors.

In Italy the police, citing Sinhala protestors, requested the Pongu Tamil organisers to bring down the Tamil National Flag, which had been already hoisted. The Italian police have reportedly told the Tamil activists that they are under severe pressure from some quarters to take action against them.

The arrest of around 30 Tamil activists in Italy is seen as a repercussion to defiance and to discourage Tamil Nationalist programmes in future.

In France, it is said that the Pongu Tamil organisers were asked by the authorities not to hoist the Tamil National Flag.

The timing of the ban on the World Tamil Movement (WTM) in Canada is also seen by the Tamil circles as a pre-emptive move to prevent holding Pongu Tamil rally.

The uniformity in the overreaction of certain countries has made many to suspect a single hand behind, pressurizing them.

It is not merely a flag affair.

It is said that the Sri Lankan government has become oversensitive to any demonstration of overwhelming Tamil Diaspora support to Tamil Nationalism as it may jeopardize the claims it makes to impress the International Community.

It is also said that now it has embarked upon a global programme to erase out Tamil Nationalism and cultural identity of the Tamil Diaspora by targeting their cultural institutions, symbols and media by pressurizing governments and commercial establishments.

A South Asian power is also actively involved in assisting the Sri Lanka government in this venture.

Its veteran intelligence officers, who had long connections with the Sri Lankan affairs, were seen recently in potential world capitals, trying to organize Tamil groups to dissuade them from the goals of Eelam Tamil Nationalism.

The Diaspora is viewed as the vanguard of Tamil Nationalism and it has become the target of all antagonists concerned, according to a leading Diaspora journalist.

What is lamented in the Tamil Diaspora quarters is the inability or unwillingness of the International Community to read the Diaspora public opinion. They feel that Tamil Nationalism has to be differentiated from the issues between the International Community and the LTTE and no power should dictate or exert insinuating pressure on what the Tamils should aspire for and what not.

The Pongu Tamil rallies and show of flags involve spontaneous and voluntary participation of people who are under no compulsion or intimidation to do so, said Diaspora Tamil circles.

According to them, in the guise of protecting the Diaspora from the 'intimidation of terrorism', the International Community is intimidating the Tamil national sentiments and such approaches in the name of the international system are not going to bring in any credibility to the powers involved.

Today it is not weapons or terrorism that brings down empires, but it is the loss of credibility with people that does the job.

One can already see how the money of a great power got halved in no time, said a political analyst.

Tamil youth activists addressed a packed audience, who attended 'Resistance 2008', an annual conference of Australia's largest socialist youth organisation, held at the University of Technology in Sydney this weekend. At a workshop on Saturday the Tamil presenters urged the socialist activists in Australia to voice support for the right to self determination of the Eelam Tamils.

"Demonised as terrorists across the globe, the plight of a people remains hidden from view through state propaganda," said the presenters, adding that the Tamil resistance movement was entirely based on an overwhelming public mandate obtained in a free and fair election held in 1977, in which the people of Tamil homeland voted for their right to secession based on the right to self determination.

The International actors who interact with the Sri Lankan state, should demand Colombo to allow for a referendum on the question of Tamils Right to Self Determination among the Tamil people in the traditional Tamil homeland under international supervision, the presenters who talked to media after their presentation said.

The Sri Lankan government, in 1983, outlawed and criminalised the Tamil demand for Right to Self Determination, by introducing the Sixth Amendment to its unitary constitution, forcing the elected members of the Tamil United Liberation Front to forfeit their seats in October 1983.

The theme of the Resistance 2008 conference in Australia this year was “war, racism, environmental destruction, homophobia, and sexism."

The conference also focuses on the land rights of Aboriginal communities, on the forthcoming elections in El-Salvador, social movements in Bolivia, the Palestinian issue, Nepal the newest republic, the global food crisis, homophobia, sexism and the struggle for women's liberation.

The 'Resistance' movement in Australia, established in 1967 by two organisations the Sydney University Socialist Club and the Vietnam Action Campaign, is a member of World Federation of Democratic Youth, and is head-quatered in Sydney with branches throughout Australia.

As the World Tamil Movement (WTM) announced that it would challenge its listing as an outlawed terrorist organization, opinions across Canada came out querying the decision by the Canadian government.

Claiming that the Canadian government is acting more like a police state than a democracy, the WTM announced on June 19 that it will appeal Ottawa's decision to add it to a list of terrorist groups.

"They feel they've been tried, convicted and charged without even knowing they were charged," said one of the WTM's lawyers, Marlys Edwardh.

"This is not the conduct of a democracy where people are entitled to meet a challenge in a courtroom . . . it's much more for them like the actions of a police state."

Edwardh insisted that the Toronto-based non-profit organization never received any invitation to submit evidence from the RCMP, which has aggressively been gathering documents about the WTM's funding practices.

"The process involved is entirely without any rights of the individual or the organization to examine the evidence, challenge the conclusions and to put forward their positions."

Calling the listing ‘hasty’, The Gazette in Montreal said “It's quite possible that the WTM is, as [Public Safety Minister Stockwell] Day said this week, a leading front for the Tamil Tiger insurgents back home in Sri Lanka. But so far the evidence against the group is pretty thin.”

“No WTM member has ever been prosecuted for a crime, let alone convicted. And a major raid on the movement's headquarters last spring has resulted in no charges so far,” the paper noted.

“But until they're confirmed, government suspicions alone should never be enough to shut down a voluntary organization of Canadians,” it said.

“It's one thing to ban a foreign entity as terrorists. But it's entirely another matter to ban an organization started and run by Canadians, and registered as a non-profit organization under Canadian laws, without due process or even as much as a day in court to defend the allegations,” wrote Dushy Gnanapragasam in The Globe and Mail.

“But in this climate of colour-coded fear, due process and basic rights are the furthest thing from the minds of people,” the letter to the paper said.

“The Tamil community is shaken, but it is the general populace who should take notice,” wrote Manjula Selvarajah in the National Post newspaper.

 “The Tamil Canadian community looks forward to seeing the Canadian government apply a balanced approach to both parties of this conflict and consider imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions against the government of Sri Lanka for its appalling human rights record. It is time to send a stronger message.”

 “It is unclear what the actual effect of this listing will be on the World Tamil Movement and its ability to continue to exist, as never before has a domestic group been criminalized in this manner,” wrote Harini Sivalingam in an opinion in The Star.

“In the meantime, an entire community has been tarnished and painted with the same brush. After the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by the Canadian government in April 2006, there was significant backlash against members of the Tamil Canadian community who experienced discriminatory treatment at schools, workplaces and in the general public. There is a concern among Tamil Canadians that this listing will have a more profoundly negative impact on the community at large,” she wrote.

“The listing of the WTM is a clear instance that "they have come for the Tamils." Even if one is not a Tamil, we should all speak out and voice our concerns about protecting important,” she wrote.  

Eelam Tamils in the Diaspora countries continued their rallies in support of the Tamils’ right to Self-Determination.

The rallies, titled 'Pongu Thamil,' (meaning 'Tamil Upsurge'), are intended as Tamil mobilising through cultural programmes. It resumes a major plank of Tamil political activity.

The very first Pongu Thamil was held on January 17, 2001 by university students in defiance of the Sri Lankan military occupying Jaffna and despite the ongoing fighting in the peninsula.

The Pongu Thamil movement was initiated by university students in the Tamil homeland  to serve as a demonstration of the motivation and defiant will of the Tamil people for the cause of Tamil Eelam.

After the 2002 Ceasefire began, the rally was repeated not only in Jaffna, but as a series of events to bring the Tamil people together in a common act of peaceful political agitation in support of the Eelam cause.

In 2003 and again in 2005, Pongu Thamil rallies took place in all the major Tamil population centres in Northeast Sri Lanka and across the Diaspora.

Following rallies in New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Northern Italy and France, Tamils over the past fortnight also rallied in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Southern Italy.

In South Africa Tamils gathered on June 21 for a Pongu Thamil rally at the Arena Park Regional Hall, in Chatsworth, where they pledged to support the Eelam Tamils' right to statehood, and urged the international community to voice for the Tamils’ rights.

Guest speakers at the event were Deputy Mayor of Ethekwini, Logie Naidoo, and MEC for Sports and Recreation, Mr. A Rajbansi, both of whom spoke out against what they called the “selective morality” of the international community regarding the Tamil freedom struggle.

The key speaker was Dr. Brian Seneviratne, an Australia-based Sinhala expatriate physician, who is supportive of Tamils right to self-determination.

The Program Director was, Mala Lutchmanan, a local radio personality.

A declaration was made, seeking the International Community to recognise Tamils right to self - determination and recognising the LTTE as the legitimate sole representatives also in the future negotiations.

The declaration further urged the international community to seek a just solution and to put an immediate end to the genocide of the Tamils.

On Sunday June 22 over 1,000 Tamils from across Netherlands gathered in front of the Dutch parliament at 2pm to mark Pongu Thamil.

Guests, including Jaffna Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr. S. Kajendran and poet Pulamaipithan, were treated to songs, dances and dramas, all on the Tamil upsurge theme.

On Monday last week, Tamils rallied in front of the United Nations office in Brussels. Beginning at 2pm, the event included songs and speeches by guests including TNA Jaffna MP Mr. S. Kajendran.

Last Saturday Tamils from across Sweden gathered in the capital Stockholm to rally as part of the global Pongu Thamil effort.

Those gathered participated in dramas, dances and songs, all focusing around the Tamil Upsurge theme.

Over 8,000 Tamils gathered in Dusseldorf, Germany, last Saturday to participate in the Pongu Thamil rally.

Beginning at 2pm, the rally marched through the streets shouting “Our land Tamil Eelam” and “Recognise Tamil Eelam”.

The event included Tamil Eelam songs, dramas and dances.

Special guests included the Batticaloa TNA MPs Mr. S. Jeyanandamoorthy and Mr. E Ariyanenthiran as well as Jaffna MP Mr. S. Kajendran.

On Sunday, over 1,000 Tamils in from across Italy and surrounding countries gathered at Piazza Mondello in Palermo to hold their Pongu Thamil rally. Italians also participated in the event.

The chief guest was Battiicaloa TNA parliamentarian Mr. S. Jeyananthamoorthy.

The programme ended with a drama in Tamil and Italian, which conveyed the suffering of the Tamils in the homeland to those who had gathered.

French charity Action Contra la Faim (ACF or Action Against Hunger) has began to approach international donors to Sri Lanka to establish an international inquiry into the killing of 17 of its local staffers in Muttur in August 2006.

France has allegedly already come out in support of the initiative. French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner has the non-governmental organisation that France would explore the possibility for such an inquiry, an ACF official said.

Head of ACF communications Lucile Grosjean told The Sunday Leader that coinciding with the launch of a new campaign over the Muttur murders on June 17, the organisation had first made its appeal to France.

"As the event on the 17th was the official launching of the campaign aimed at obtaining an international inquiry, ACF requests the support of France, European Union, Co-chairs of the Tokyo conference at this specific moment. We decided to go step by step asking first for the support of France," she said adding that the French government had reacted positively.

"As requested by ACF, we are going to explore with our international partners the possibility of setting up an international commission of inquiry," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris on June 17 according to transcripts made available by the French Foreign Ministry.

It is likely that a series of discussions would be held between representatives of France and other EU countries, after France takes over the European Union Presidency on July 1, reported the Daily Mirror.

“France is not going to take the aid agency’s request lightly as the organisation’s ‘Justice for Mutur’ campaign has caught the attention of the French government. Discussions will be held after July 1 and an international inquiry into the Mutur massacre is likely,” the paper quoted French sources as saying.

Grosjean however said that the organisation had only received the French response and was however not aware as to how the other countries would react to the idea of an international inquiry.

Grosjean told the Daily Mirror that while the organization was relieved at the step taken by the French government, it would continue with its international public awareness campaign in  France under the slogan – ‘Justice for Muttur’ – to dramatize and underscore the savagery of the massacre.

Kouchner was an original member of the International Independent Eminent Group of Persons (IIEGP) that was set up to assist the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry. He resigned when he was appointed as the Foreign Minister of the Nicolas Sarkozy administration.

The IIEGP pulled out of Sri Lanka in March, followed by ACF which had maintained a single member presence in the country to handle the matters relating to a commission of inquiry into the Muttur massacre.

However Commission of Inquiry Chairman N. Udulagama told the Daily Mirror that the commission would not extend support to France to conduct an international inquiry as ACF was no longer functioning in Sri Lanka.

Udulagama said that while ACF was entitled to its views and to seek support from the international community, there was nothing much the Sri Lankan government could do to be of any assistance as ACF had withdrawn from the country before the conclusion of the local investigations, the paper reported.

“ACF left the country two months after the CoI began its sittings without assisting the investigations. Now it seeks an international probe. What does it now expect us to do?” Justice Udulagama queried.

In an apparent softening of its stand, Sri Lanka has offered to hold talks with the LTTE after a two-year gap, saying the outfit does represent a ‘fair amount’ of Tamils but ruled out immediate revival of the ceasefire scrapped in January.

"The (Sri Lankan) President has already announced that he is ready to talk (with the LTTE)," Basil Rajapaksa, powerful Special Advisor to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said.

On whether the President has specified that he will not talk unless the LTTE lays down arms, Basil merely said, "Those are conditions that have to be worked out.”

"The government is always open to talks but the government needs to have a certain environment in which we can talk," Basil, an MP and brother of the Sri Lankan President, told the Daily Mirror newspaper.

On being asked whether the LTTE represented the Tamil people, the senior advisor said, "Yes, they represent the Tamil people but they are not the only ones. That has been proved.

"But this doesn't mean they don't have the strength or that they represent no Tamils," he said.

"They (the LTTE) do represent a fair amount of Tamil people. Unfortunately their way of doing it can't be approved. Otherwise the President is always willing to have negotiations and a settlement. The best scenario is where we negotiate and settle it with the LTTE," Basil said.

The two sides had six rounds of talks after the 2002 ceasefire but the LTTE pulled out in 2006 citing bias.

The peace process received a crushing blow in January this year when the government scrapped the tattered ceasefire, a move that unleashed a fresh wave of violence as the military intensified its offensive against the Tamil Tigers in the north.

On whether the government will respond positively if the Tigers offer a ceasefire on Friday, Basil said, "That's like thinking of attaining Nirvana on Friday. That takes time and effort."

"You can't just decide today and go for it tomorrow. Its too far way to think about at this stage. We have to be realistic," he added.

"We are meeting the needs of the people and crushing terrorism while inviting the LTTE for negotiations. We are willing to look into their grievances," Basil Rajapaksa said.

Torture has become endemic in Sri Lankan police stations and there seems to be no political will to stop it, an Asian human rights group said June 25.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said torture was standard procedure both in investigating ordinary crimes and as part of the civil war with the Liberation Tigers.

The government said the allegations were baseless.

Despite thousands of complaints, the commission said the attorney general's office had only launched three prosecutions against alleged official torturers.

"Torture is a way of life at all police stations in Sri Lanka, whether the alleged crimes investigated are those relating to petty criminal offences, serious crimes or offences under the emergency and anti-terrorism laws," the commission said in a statement.

Rights watchdogs have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings blamed on government security forces and Tamil Tigers since the bloody civil war resumed in 2006.

The commission also said investigations into torture were being politically prevented to protect Sri Lanka's human rights record, and that the lack of political will to eradicate torture affected the entire administration of justice.

International observers quit the island earlier this year, saying a probe into a string of high-profile killings, including the massacre of 17 local aid staff in 2006, was going nowhere.

The UN Human Rights Council has called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of the security forces.

Fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerrillas has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.

An unscheduled visit by a high-powered delegation from the Indian defence and foreign affairs ministries to Colombo last week created a stir in political and media circles in Sri Lanka with local media speculating on the purpose of the secretive visit.

The delegation headed by National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan  and comprising Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh arrived in Colombo on a special flight from New Delhi on Friday, June 20.

During their two-day visit, the Indian officials held separate discussions with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Commanders of Sri Lankan military, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan and Minister of Social Services and leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda.

None of the visiting Indian officials met the press and a brief statement was read out to the Indian journalists.

"India hopes that Sri Lanka can find peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict within the framework of united Sri Lanka, acceptable to all the communities. There are no military solutions," the statement read.

The conflicting reasons given by Sri Lankan and Indian officials as to the purpose of the visit only did not help.

“Their visit is in connection with the forthcoming SAARC summit.” an Indian diplomat told IANS referring to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit scheduled to open August 1 in Colombo.

A top official of the Presidential Secretariat played down the importance of the visit, labeling it a ‘regular one’ and said: “It is part of the regular exchange of contacts at the highest official level between the two countries. The latest Indian official visit can be termed as a return visit to a similar mission from Colombo to New Delhi in September last year.”

A three-member delegation from Sri Lanka comprising Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Gothabhaya Rajapaksa and Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa visited India in September last year.

However, retired Sri Lankan diplomat K. Nanda Godage said the 'very composition of the Indian delegation itself shows the visit is something special and not just a routine one'.

“I don't think it is just a return visit or courtesy visit. It certainly cannot be anything to do merely with the security arrangement for the SAARC summit either,” he said.

“We hope this is a visit to convey a positive message from India that it is fully behind Sri Lanka in its effort to solve the ethnic conflict,” said Godage.

Sri Lanka's opposition parties demanded the government disclose the reasons behind the 'sudden visit'.

The sudden and secretive nature of the visit raised questions within political circles also with opposition parties demanding details of the visit.

John Amaratunga, a parliamentarian from the opposition United National Party (UNP), claimed there was a 'crucial aspect' to the two-day previously unannounced visit, pointing out that it had came at a time when the country was 'at crossroads in economic and war fronts', the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

“Today, India is concerned about what is happening in Sri Lanka. The ongoing military campaign will have serious implications (for) Tamil Nadu (and) the Indian government. So we are eager to know the true position of the visit,” the paper quoted Amaratunga as saying.

Meanwhile, the radical Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) claimed that the visit by the Indian delegation was 'similar to what happened during the Vadamaradchchi operation in 1987' and demanded the government divulge the details of all discussions held.

JVP's parliamentary group leader Anurakumara Dissanayake said India intervened to halt the Vadamaradchchi military operation against the LTTE in 1987 and later forced a peace accord on the Sri Lankan government.

“It is the responsibility of the government to disclose the details of the visit as conflicting reports have appeared in the media,” said Dissanayake.

The JVP also regretted the continued Indian attitude of conducting important talks at the level of civil servants and intelligence officers, who are not answerable to the people of India, and for the meek submission of Sri Lankan politicians to such diplomacy.

In a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Vaiko, General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kalagam (MDMK), accused India of “equipping the Sri Lanka Government to help its war machine to perpetrate genocidal attacks against the Tamils...throwing to winds the farsighted foreign policy adopted by Pandit Nehru and Mrs. Indira Gandhi,” and urged the Prime Minister to not participate in the SAARC Conference.

Full text of the letter follows:

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh ji,

Vanakkam. The betrayal being committed by the UPA Government at the centre against the Tamils, with particular reference to the ethnic Tamils of the island of Sri Lanka has been thoroughly exposed by the statements of the Sri Lanka Government, its military officials and also by the condemnable activities, open and clandestine of the Government of India.

News have appeared in the print media in India and Sri Lanka that a top level Indian official team comprising Foreign Secretary Mr. Sivasankara Menon, National Security Advisor Mr. M.K. Narayanan and the Defence Secretary Mr. Vijay Singh has reached Colombo on 20th June 2008 for consultations with the Sri Lanka Government ''on matters of mutual interest''.

It is reliably understood that the Indian team has met the President of Sri Lanka Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, Defence Secretary Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga. The visit was kept a top secret. A source in the Sri Lanka Presidential secretariat told the press that over Friday and Saturday, the visiting team would discuss an array of issues, including the security in the island, the ongoing military operations against the LTTE in the North, the issue of the intruding Indian fishermen in North-West Sri Lanka, and matters relating to the SAARC summit to be held in Colombo in the first week of August.

My repeated request to you by letters and also in person to stop forthwith any sort of military assistance to the Sri Lanka racist Government which is committing the grave crime of genocide against the ethnic Tamil race in the island have been callously thrown away.

Even though the UPA Government did not sign the proposed Defence Pact with Sri Lanka in 2004; the Indian Government has been equipping the Sri Lanka Government to help its war machine to perpetrate genocidal attacks against the Tamils.

I accuse that the Government of India supplied radars to the Sri Lanka Air-force which is strafing and bombing by which innocent Tamil people are brutally killed, the glaring example is Sencholai massacre.

I accuse that the Government of India gave a red carpet welcome to the Sri Lanka President and the Ministers whose hands are stained with the blood of Tamils.

I accuse that the Government of India has sanctioned a loan of 100 million dollars at 2% interest to the Defence Ministry of Sri Lanka enabling them to purchase weapons from Pakistan and China, which would be used to decimate the Tamil race.

I accuse that the UPA Government has deliberately derelicted in its duty to prevent the dastardly attacks and killing of the Sri Lanka Navy against the Tamilnadu fishermen. Adding insult to the injury, the Indian team is discussing with the Sri Lanka Government against the safety of Tamilnadu fishermen.

I accuse that the Government of India has mortgaged her sovereign rights, permitting the Sri Lanka Government to lay seamines in the international waters adjacent to Indian water.

I accuse that the Government of India, burying fathoms deep all the norms of humanism, prevented the supply of food and medicines to the suffering Tamils in that island by not giving permission to the International Red Cross to send the materials collected in Tamilnadu.

I am pained to make the accusation that the Indian Government, particularly the abovementioned officials are assisting the Sri Lanka Government, which is making all out military offensive to liquidate the Tamil race, throwing to winds the farsighted foreign policy adopted by Pandit Nehru and Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

The UPA Government and its constituent political parties are held responsible for the loss of Tamil lives in the island of Sri Lanka and will be held accountable and answerable in the dock of the people's court of India.

In view of the abovementioned facts, I am registering my point of view that the Prime Minister of India should not go to Colombo to participate in the SAARC Conference.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

(Vaiko)

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan, told a visiting delegation of top Indian officials that "Tamils believed all these years that they were the natural allies of India, but it is not so today."

For all intents and purposes, the military - according to Defence Ministry figures and claims - has cleaned up the map, and killed the Army Commander's benchmark of 5,000 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres between January 1, and the end of June.

As of last Friday, the statistics maintained by The Sunday Leader of LTTE cadres claimed killed by the Defence Ministry's official claims, was 4,698.

Given the Rajapakse administration's war on media, we have exercised much caution in maintaining these statistics.

A copy is saved of every article referred to, as is a link to the article's unique identity number on the Defence Ministry website's archive, along with the number claimed killed. In situations where swathes of LTTE cadres are claimed "killed or wounded," we are careful to count less than half the number as killed.

The many instances referring to "ferocious" battles where the military had inflicted "massive casualties" - but no concrete numbers - were omitted entirely.

The effects of air strikes too were omitted entirely as the air force has allowed that it is extremely difficult to independently verify the number killed on the ground after an air strike.

And thus we have a number from the Defence Ministry - that cannot be independently verified - of 4,698 LTTE cadres killed in land and sea action.

Theoretically, 302 should be remaining, skulking in the Wanni jungles.

Kept track

However, we have also kept track of the number of air strikes announced by the air force this year on "identified terrorist targets."

Eighty four, separate, aerial bombing raids have been announced this year, most involving more than one aircraft.

Given that at least four bombs are dropped on each target - and they don't come cheap: the cheapest of reliable 'dumb' bombs costing in the region of Rs.100,000 each - from a value for money perspective if no other, it would be sensible to expect that at least four LTTE cadres are killed in each of these "massive" strikes on "LTTE installations."

It is not much to ask that a single military operation costing in the region of Rs.400,000 to several million rupees in their ordinance costs alone - leave alone pricey aviation fuel and aircraft maintenance costs - take out at least four LTTE cadres.

Thus with at least 5,000 LTTE cadres having been killed by the Defence Ministry's own numbers, we are back to square one wondering why the government is asking the country to brace itself for an ever more, stringent war footing.

For all practical purposes, going by Defence Ministry statistics alone the war should therefore be now over with at least 5000 Tigers killed between January 1 to date. But is it? And if not, how come?

Surely the Defence Ministry that has identified media persons who challenge their word on the war as traitors would not have been lying to the very people who are funding the war?

That after all would be treason, would it not? 

Reality

The reality is that although Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka claimed bombastically that the war would be over by August with the killing of 3000 Tigers, and then by the end of the year, the advances of the military - most likely due to tactical and strategic sensibilities - have been conservative.

The military has advanced, by its own estimates, as deep as 10 or more kilometres on the northwestern Mannar front, and has captured an area of 50 square kilometres in the road-less jungles atop northeast Weli-Oya.

The area captured is effectively less than one third that was controlled by the Tigers six months ago.

It would be almost delightful to hear the excuses of the people who believed the government when it claimed mid-last year that the LTTE strength was a mere 5,000, also believed in December 2007 (after 2,800 Tigers had been killed) that their actual strength was 3,000, and then later believed again in February that the true number was 5,000 cadres remaining and that the war would be over by August. What do they have to say now?

(edited)