Sri Lanka

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  • Clientilism: an entrenched obstacle

    Feb 23
    Over the years Sri Lanka has come under increasing criticism from donor representatives and members of the aid profession in general over the clear lack of progress that successive governments have made in development and poverty alleviation programmes.

    Mieko Nishimizu, Vice President for the World Bank's operations in South Asia Region when summing up the Paris Aid forum in late 2001 spoke of the increasing, "sense of frustration among donors," at the "disconnect," or "gap between official policy and commitment on the one hand and, on the other, the voices on the ground in Sri Lanka."

    The People's Alliance (PA) government at the time was urged to act with "an utmost sense of urgency," and reminded both of the "rising cost of war," and of the other challenges facing Sri Lanka: "to build efficient institutions that have legitimacy for all citizens, and to pursue quality growth with equity and social harmony."

    The sense of disquiet amongst donors that in addition to the strains caused by the war, Sri Lanka's economy was hampered by inefficient and unaccountable institutions was also voiced at a 2003 aid conference at the Sri Lanka Economists' Association.

    The Sri Lanka representative of the Asian Development Bank was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying, "because of an inefficient bureaucracy, the people are not getting services (in the north) even if allocations have been made."

    His views were echoed by the country representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund who located the cause of Sri Lanka's development difficulties in, "political interference, massive government bureaucracy, weak decision-making processes and a lack of commitment."

    The sense of frustration expressed by the donors stems from the fact that while Sri Lanka receives a significant amount of aid every year, it does not get translated to concrete projects on the ground that yield visible and sustained improvements in the lives of Sri Lanka's most vulnerable and improvised people.

    The diagnosis that the institutions are inefficient and susceptible to political interference suggests that administrative work is not being completed at a rapid enough pace and that projects are often chosen on political considerations rather than objective economic analysis.

    Although both these criticisms are applicable to the Sri Lankan bureaucracy they do not capture the most important mechanism that blocks the efficient and equitable distribution of development aid.

    The real obstacle that prevents aid from reaching the people who need it most is the rampant clientilism that has become a pervasive feature of Sri Lankan political life.

    Important parts of the Sri Lankan state are now the domain of patron client networks that distribute everything from public sector appointments, licenses for export and import and contracts from public sector co-operations to private enterprises.

    The pervasiveness of these networks and their ability to capture such large parts of the state's resources is a consequence of their implication in the very logic of political competition.

    In large areas of the Sri Lankan political mainstream, the mobilisation of political support and the basis of political loyalty depends on the ability of the political patron to capture and distribute goods such as teaching appointments, jobs in the state cooperations, development funds and investment projects.

    The unapologetic spending spree of public sector appointments and subsidies that Sri Lankan governments initiate before elections is just the most visible and sensationalist edge of a myriad of clientilist networks that lie beneath the Sri Lankan mainstream political class.

    Given that patron client networks are the most important mechanism through which the state's normal resources are distributed, it is not surprising that they also capture and divert development aid.

    Perhaps the clearest example of the capture and consumption of development funds by cleintilist networks was the ill fated Northern Development Ministry headed by the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda.

    A close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and a key supporter of her 'war for peace' strategy, Devananda was rewarded for his loyalty with the portfolio.

    The funds and resources allocated for the ministry were then used by Devananda and the EPDP in an attempt to build a political support base both for himself and, by extension, for the President's strategy of politically marginalizing the LTTE amongst the Jaffna populace.

    Devananda used the ministry pay for his cadres by putting them on the ministry's payroll, and to recruit fresh cadres for his party by offering well paid jobs in his ministry.

    Whilst this diversion of funds was common knowledge amongst the Tamil residents, it was only brought to the attention of the donor community when the then country representative of the World Bank, Dr. Mariana Todorova visited the Jaffna peninsula in September 2001.

    Dr. Todorova noted that although the payroll had significantly expanded, no clear development projects or project beneficiaries could be identified.

    "About 1,500 youths have been recruited as development assistants by the Ministry of Northern Development at a monthly allowance of Rs 3,000 per person. They are said to have been given skills training, but their roles and responsibilities were not clear…It is not clear what they are doing. Really no focused development work [has taken place]," she was quoted by the Sunday Leader newspaper as saying.

    In addition to the development funding that was allocated to the Ministry of Northern Development, other development aid going to the conflict areas was also being diverted and consumed by patron client networks.

    The island wide Samurdhi poverty reduction programme, a much coveted ministry in Sri Lanka's cabinet, also came in for criticism by Dr. Todorova.

    "The government programme for poverty reduction needs to improve its targeting and effectiveness in Jaffna. Despite the presence of 440 odd Samurdhi officials, Samurdhi recipients were not identified while meeting so many communities in the district."

    The wholesale capture of state institutions by patron client networks has meant that Sri Lanka's generous aid budgets have simply provided greater spoils for clientilist competition rather than providing the basis for sustained poverty alleviation programmes.

    The mushrooming projects and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have prospered from development funding indicates that 'development jobs' are now even more lucrative than the once sought after public sector jobs.

    The disjunction between the proliferation of lucrative projects and the actual delivery of services was noted by Mr. Peter Harold, then the country representative of the World Bank, when speaking at the Sri Lanka Economists Association: "a vast amount of the funds to the south hasn't been utilised for the people's benefits. The money is spent on bureaucracy and project offices."

    Mr. Harold urged the government to concentrate on the most important projects arguing, "if this happens probably half the project portfolio would have to be cancelled … (such is the waste)," he said, adding however that these are hard decisions because "comfortable" (project) jobs would have to be axed.

    Although the international donor community is finally turning its attention to the problem of Sri Lanka's institutional weakness, their diagnosis of inefficiency and political interference passes over the real source of the problem, clientilism and the subsequent politicisation of the state's institutions.

    The inefficiency and indifference to development objectives are easily explained once it is understood that many of the relatively well paid employees see their salaries as the rewards of being well placed within a particular patron's network rather than the result of merit and commitment.

    Given this reality it is clear that if development funding is channelled through existing bureaucratic structures, it will inevitably be consumed by established clientilistic networks.

    The wholesale politicisation and capture of Sri Lanka's public institutions by such networks, means that aid has to be channelled through new administrative structures, outside the control of Sri Lanka's bureaucracy if it is to be effective.

    Unless this reality is acknowledged by both donors and the Sri Lankan government, the can be little doubt that the future aid conferences will also be foreshadowed by criticisms of 'disconnect,' 'inefficiency' and 'political interference.'

    (Edited)

    The unedited original article was published in Tamil Guardian on June 18, 2003
  • World should not ignore Rajapakse
    The roadblock was unexpected. Driving to Colombo along Sri Lanka's south-west coast, we were forced on to a sidestreet by police in Hikkaduwa, one of the island's main tourist centres. There must have been a multiple crash, we assumed, as the detour along narrow village lanes took us past rice paddies shimmering in the afternoon sun. Back on the coast road, fleets of ambulances racing south seemed to confirm our suspicions.

    Later we discovered the problem was a bomb. Eleven people had died when a rucksack detonated in a crowded long-distance bus. Although not targeted at foreigners, the site chosen for the atrocity was in part a blow at the country's weakened tourist economy which has not yet recovered from the 2004 tsunami. Buses have never been hit in tourist areas before. Along with a bomb on a bus going east out of Colombo the previous day, the explosion was also designed to strike fear into every Sri Lankan traveller.

    Like terrorist attacks on civilians anywhere in the world, this one was "mindless", to use the epithet that politicians and editorial writers always employ on these occasions. Killing people who have no connection to political decision-making is never right.

    But the bus bombs did not happen in a vacuum, according to analysts in Colombo. They were a predictable stage in the cycle of violence involving the Sri Lankan government and its guerrilla opponents that is making a mockery of Sri Lanka's so-called peace process.

    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate homeland for decades. As usual, they denied responsibility for the bombs, but it is assumed this was their answer to an escalating military campaign by the most hardline government since independence.

    Sri Lanka has long been a test case for the complexity of dealing with political movements that turn to terrorist methods, almost always as a last resort.

    Condemning their choice of targets while ignoring their complaints and the degree of support they command leads only to political stalemate and more bloodshed.

    Northern Ireland, the Basque country and the Palestinian issue show it is better to talk to terror users who have significant popular backing than to isolate them.

    Sri Lanka's Sinhalese elite seemed to know this. Under Norwegian mediation the then government made an interim peace deal with the LTTE four years ago.

    Although the EU listed the Tigers as a terrorist organisation last year (a badly timed and stupid move), it still urges the new government to go on talking.

    So does the US, in spite of its war on terror. The Tigers are not Muslim. They have a local, not global, agenda, so any attempt to link them with an anti-western jihad is laughable.

    It is equally absurd to use war to disarm them.

    Yet this is what President Mahinda Rajapakse is attempting, perhaps motivated by revenge after his brother, the defence secretary, and his army commander survived assassination attempts.

    Rajapakse's picture bedecks hoardings around Sri Lanka in an unprecedented cult of personality. He has taken to visiting Buddhist shrines on state occasions in a chauvinistic sop to the most dominant of Sri Lanka's four religious communities.

    Worst of all, he is destroying the peace deal by trying to reoccupy the areas recognised as under Tiger control. Almost 4,000 people have died since fighting resumed last year; tens of thousands are homeless after government artillery and air attacks in the east of the island.

    The government has succeeded in capturing most of the Tiger areas there, and now appears to want to hold provincial elections and install a puppet ruler.

    Rajapakse's chosen candidate would be Colonel Karuna, a commander who broke from the LTTE three years ago and was quickly recruited by the Sri Lankan army to work with them. The government initially denied this, and because of heavy censorship local media had difficulty reporting it.

    But visitors to Batticaloa in the east now say no attempt is made to hide it. Karuna's camps are close to army bases and police checkpoints, and his ground attacks coincide with government offensives.

    According to Unicef, the UN children's agency, the government is complicit in Karuna's abductions of hundreds of children to become soldiers. A UN security council working group will take up the issue of Sri Lanka (and Nepal) in New York today (Feb 9).

    Sri Lanka is one of several countries under the UN spotlight, and Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary general, has warned of "targeted measures" (ie sanctions) if the practice is not stopped.

    Ironically, Sri Lanka chose to be on the list that was drawn up when only the Tigers were seizing children.

    The government promised to investigate the charges, but abductions continue, says Unicef.

    The security council must not let Sri Lanka off the hook until proof emerges that it has stopped the practice and got Karuna to release all the children he has seized.

    The LTTE's use of child soldiers is on a far greater scale than the army's (Karuna was notorious for it when he was still with the Tigers), but elected governments have a duty to show they are not adopting the crimes and brutalities of their opponents.

    Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, was brave enough to make that point last month. Rajapakse promptly took his job away.

    Sri Lanka's humanitarian crisis is dire.

    Kidnappings and disappearances, apparently by the police and allied forces, have resumed in Colombo. The civil war has made more than 200,000 people homeless in the past year, almost as many in the same period as in Darfur, which gets 10 times the international attention.

    Like the Sudanese authorities, the government is using its monopoly of air power to conduct a vicious counter-insurgency in the face of lesser rebel provocations.

    The outside world can have a role and India may be the most important player.

    Floods of Tamil refugees are forcing it to take a renewed interest in its neighbour. It has warned Rajapakse against trying to split the east from the north, a device to foreclose a viable homeland for Tamils and reject a federal solution that most independent experts see as the only compromise likely to end the war.

    Above all, India is refusing to sell arms that can be used for counter-insurgency. That is the best signal.

    If he believes he can defeat an enemy as widely supported by Tamils as the Tigers are, Sri Lanka's president is as "mindless" as any bus bomber.

    Published in The Guardian February 9, 2007
  • India, Sri Lanka step up naval patrols
    India and Sri Lanka are boosting efforts to stop the Liberation Tigers smuggling supplies from India's Tamil Nadu state across the Palk Straits, the government in Colombo said this week.

    The authorities in Tamil Nadu are creating new coastal checkpoints and police posts and two days ago seized aluminum bars being smuggled to northern Sri Lanka as raw material for weapons, Sri Lanka’s Defense spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, said.

    The Indian moves are in response to renewed requests by the government of hardline President Mahinda Rajapakse which has vowed to destroy the LTTE militarily.

    The Sri Lankan request came as Indian Defence Minister A.K.Anthony pledged to make surveillance of India’s coast topmost priority of the coast guard and navy.

    It also comes after a string of seizures of materials which could be used for weapons manufacture by the Indian authorities in coastal areas of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, home to 65 million Tamils.

    Minister Rambukwella, citing the recent visit to India in early February by Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse, brother of the President, has described the relations between the two countries as ‘a new beginning.’

    Hailing the intercepting of a boat loaded with arm making material in the Palk Stait by Indian Coast Guards on February 14, he said: “Please, I request India to do more.”

    Minister Anthony, taking part in a fleet review on February 19, described the suspected LTTE boat traffic in the Palk Strait as a threat.

    Citing this as an example, he promised 15 new ships, 23 aircraft and modern equipment for the Indian Coast Guard to combat drug trafficking, piracy and smuggling along the extensive Indian coast.

    The Sri Lankan government has long been lobbying New Delhi for naval cooperation to crackdown on alleged LTTE gun running in the Indian Ocean.

    President Rajapakse during his visit to India in November 2006 personally sought joint patrolling of the common waters.

    However Indian premier Manmohan Singh denied this request from Sri Lanka’s Sinhala hardline government amid opposition from major political parties from Tamil Nadu.

    Earlier this month Sri Lanka’s new foreign minister Rohita Bogollogama visited India to repeat his predecessor, Mangala Samraweera’s, request for increased patrolling of the waters between the two countries.

    The recent captures of boats carrying supplies for the LTTE suggest that, whilst not publicly agreeing to Sri Lanka’s request, India has stepped up naval patrolling as requested.

    The seizures began in early November last year with the Tamil Nadu police recovering a lathe machine used for making bomb shells from a fishing boat in Rameswaram.

    Shortly afterwards, on November 29, Tamil Nadu police recovered 30 boxes of Gelex boosters used to increase the velocity of bomb shrapnel from a vehicle involved in a traffic accident near Madhurai on the highway connecting Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

    On December 5 and 11 fishermen from Rameswaram found three live rockets in their fishing nets and handed them in to the authorities.

    Again, on January 24 Tamil Nadu police took into custody two tons of ball bearings used in bombs and mines on route from Chennai to the coastal city of Thoothukudi.

    Following this haul eight people were arrested including five Sri Lankan Tamils and further three tons of ball bearings were seized.

    The arrested men have been charged with trading in illegal explosives and for violating the Foreigners’ Act, press reports said.

    “Several seizures of contraband along the Tamil Nadu coast as also from inland have stamps of the LTTE,” a senior police officer told Indian media after the raid.

    “But in the absence of mid sea-sea seizures or landing-point seizures in Sri Lanka we have not been able to link the Tigers with the smuggling,” he added.

    Indian intelligence agency sources believe that the recent hauls may be only the tip of the iceberg.

    With over 1000km of coastline and over 400 landing points the long and porous Tamil Nadu coast is considered an ideal route for taking supplies to Sri Lanka’s north.
  • Independence: a sham without human rights protection
    Two days before Sri Lanka’s independence tamasha, an event with deep significance and bearing for the independence, integrity and unity of this country took place. It is unfortunately a part of a series of connected incidents.

    On Friday, February 2, Attorney-at-Law and Legal Advisor, National Human Rights Commission, (HRC) Jaffna office, Mudiyapu Remedias lodged a complaint with the Commanding Officer, Jaffna that he was badly assaulted by a group of Sri Lankan Army soldiers that morning.

    The Coordinating Officer, National Human Rights Commission, Jaffna office, Surenthirajah had already complained to the Jaffna police of death threats.

    In the Remedias case, the assault took place after Remedias presented his HRC credentials to the soldiers and in the Surenthirajah case, Surenthirajah states in his complaint that a member of a "political party" made armed threats against him.

    Two other coordinating officers of the Jaffna HRC office have sought asylum in Canada on account of being physically assaulted by the police when they tried to lodge a complaint regarding threats to their lives.

    A Sinhala coordinating officer at the Jaffna HRC office is also reported to have vacated his post on account of death threats.

    These dire and shameful incidents exemplify the challenge to national unity and human rights protection in this country.

    The shrill patriotism, nationalist vitriol and hosannas cannot obscure this stark and simple fact.

    The President’s appeal to the TNA MPs, "frightened" individuals as he may call them, is clearly an accurate description of the officers of the HRC in Jaffna and for good and indisputable reason.

    Furthermore, the source of their fear and the danger to them are members of the armed forces of Sri Lanka. In the Surenthirajah case, in all probability, the perpetrators of violence and merchants of intimidation are allies of the government, if not members of the government.

    These incidents amply highlight a fundamental point with regard to the pressing issue of human rights protection in Sri Lanka.

    Those of us who have argued for a sustained presence in this country of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, complementing local monitoring are vindicated in our stand.

    There is no way in which effective human rights monitoring can be conducted by national institutions.

    The National Human Rights Commission is undermined at the top by the intentional violation of the 17th Amendment and the non-constitution of the Constitutional Council as well as by a lack of resources.

    Compounding this, the above information points not to the inability and/or unwillingness of the state to provide human rights protection to the officers of its HRC but to the actions of officers of the state who should be working in partnership with the HRC, of gravely obstructing the performance of a fundamental responsibility of the state through assaults and threats against HRC staff.

    Is there a definition of fascism or any approximation thereof, which these violations do not even come remotely close to?

    Is the government so consumed with majoritarian triumphalism or just so inept, that it does not realise that it is precisely incidents such as these, which decisively puncture its pretensions of winning the hearts and minds of Tamil citizens and of providing for their human rights protection against terrorism?

    Such violations puncture government pretensions just as effectively or more than its claims to have punctured the homeland concept and LTTE pretensions in the north and east through military operations.

    The government’s objective of buying time against international censure on its woeful record of human rights protection succeeded with the announcement of the Presidential Commission and the Independent International Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which met on February 12.

    The announcement and establishment of the commission, skepticism about the efficacy of commissions in Sri Lanka based on past experience notwithstanding, and the appointment of the IIGEP, was surely intended to demonstrate the government’s commitment and seriousness thereof to human rights protection.

    Clearly this has not filtered through the chain of command, control and communication raising questions of as to whether it was ever intended to.

    The announcement and establishment of the hybrid arrangement of the commission and the IIGEP has not in any way constituted a deterrent to further human rights abuse by officers of the state.

    Abuses mount. They occur on a daily basis.

    Were the case of the TRO abductees and Pastor Gnanaseelan to name just two amongst a host of others, to be added to the list of cases to be investigated by the commission, the commission could sit indefinitely.

    Accordingly, the government can claim that the strengthening of human rights protection must wait upon the findings of the commission and the IIGEP.

    In the meantime the culture of impunity, already institutionalised, will be consolidated.

    So convinced about the righteousness of its war against terror and of the political benefits, the government is alienating the Tamil citizenry further.

    Recent developments confirm its lack of sensitivity and awareness in this respect.

    The Pan Sinhala Nation Building Ministry with six ministers in the farcical cabinet re-shuffle is one such example, the absence of Tamil cultural items in national cultural events is another and the lack of demonstrable movement on the language issue is yet another.

    The President proclaims that he will "gift" water to the Tamil people in the east and liberate them and their northern counterparts from terrorism.

    They no doubt ask the question as to whether water is and should be a gift and as to whose terrorism he is referring to.

    Now that he and his brothers have resolved the question of regime security for the short term at least, perhaps they will garner their considerable talents towards human security and national unity through peaceful means – demonstrable and effective human rights protection, stamping out the culture of impunity and coming out with a set of proposals for a negotiated political settlement which will establish a just, democratic and durable peace for all the peoples of Sri Lanka.

    Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is director of the Colombo based think tank, Centre for Policy Alternatives.
  • One woman's plight is a reflection of life in Jaffna
    Sutharshini Jasuthan has been waiting for her husband for the last four months. She has taken every possible step to find out the whereabouts of her husband, Kandaiyah Jasuthan, who was taken away by armed men last October.

    Sutharshini's case is an individual representation of the suffering and agony the families and loved ones of those who were abducted undergo in the Jaffna peninsula.

    Speaking to The Sunday Leader of her experience on that fateful day, Sutharshini said that about four armed men, whose faces were covered with black cloth had come to their house in Neerveli, Jaffna on October 19 around 12.15 a.m.

    "They asked the door to be opened. My mother asked them to come in the morning. However, she was forced to open the door as they began to break open the door by kicking it," she said.

    According to Sutharshini, nearly 30 armed persons had surrounded the house at the time. Their faces were also covered with black cloth.

    "They spoke fluent Sinhala and they did not speak proper Tamil. That is why I suspect the army of having taken my husband," she said.

    The armed men had come into the house and searched all the rooms before taking her husband away with them.

    "He held on to the door and shouted that he cannot go. But, they dragged him away. I have not heard of him since that day," she said.

    A mother of two children aged seven and five, Sutharshini with little hope could only go to every possible place she could and complain.

    "I complained to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna, the SLMM (Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission), the police and the army.”

    “Our house was near the army camp. Therefore, I never dreamt that my husband would be taken away like this as he was friendly with the army personnel," she added.

    According to the wife, Jasuthan was not connected with the LTTE or any other organisation connected to it.

    "We married seven years ago. Both of us are of the same age. He is a three-wheel driver. I know my husband. All he knew was his job and his family," she said.

    Even after four months, she had not given up hope and still continues her mission to find her husband.

    "I have complained to the HRC head office and the SLMM head office in Colombo. I will never give up until I find my husband.”

    “But, I need help. I cannot do this alone with my two children and my mother. I cannot live without my husband. Our family depended on the income brought home by him and now we do not know what is going to happen to us."

    The abduction of Jasuthan had also affected the studies of the two children. "How can they study when their father was taken away like this in front of their eyes? They are still scared and everyday they cry for him to come back," she said.

    Now, the whole family is depending on the money sent to them by Sutharshini's sister, who is living abroad.

    "My sister who is abroad is supporting me and the rest of my family. I don't know how long this will be going on," she added.

    There are many families and loved ones crying in agony and living in anxiety and fear as to what had befallen the loved ones who were abducted in the peninsula.

    Sutharshini is just one of them.

    One of Sutharshini's cousins, Atchuthan Vaikunthan (24), was also abducted on the same day. "He lived near our house in Neerveli. He was not married," she said.

    She said that he had also not received threats before and was not connected to any armed organisation.
  • Jaffna terror thwarts rights probes
    The Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna says the deteriorating security situation in the peninsula is preventing it from investigating complaints of killings and other rights abuses.

    Jaffna, SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan Army soldiers keep watch 20 September 2006 in the town of Jaffna, which has been cut off by road following heavy fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. Security forces beat back a rebel offensive at the Muhamalai defences in Jaffna last month, but sporadic mortar bomb and artillery attacks continued in the area. The fighting is part of a surge in attacks since December 2005, that have claimed more than 1,500 lives despite a 2002 ceasefire in the decades-old ethnic conflict. Photo: LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/Getty Images).
    The 600,000 Tamils who live in region controlled by 40,000 Sri Lankan troops are being terrorised by the gruesome killings, abductions and death threats that have been daily occurrences.

    According to the Jaffna HRC, more than 60 persons had been abducted or arrested in the peninsula during this year alone.

    Many more have been murdered, their bodies dumped by roadsides, in wells or in shallow graves.

    Army-backed paramilitaries and military death squads are suspected.

    Death threats are being levelled at media workers, human rights and civil society activists and student activists – virtually anyone who has expressed Tamil nationalist sentiments.

    Regional HRC Coordinator in Jaffna, T. Suvendrarajah told The Morning Leader that the environment in the peninsula had become too dangerous for the HRC to look into the complaints on abductions and disappearances.

    “The security situation is very bad in the peninsula these days. We have received many complaints on abductions during recent times. People do not leave their homes at night, as they are not sure of getting back home safe,” he said.

    He added the present situation had affected many of the HRC’s inquiries into the abductions and disappearances of several civilians in the peninsula.

    They were getting nowhere with the investigations, he told The Morning Leader.

    “All the workers in the HRC, including myself are under threat,” Suvendrarajah said.

    “These threats have resulted in many of our workers leaving the organisation. It is the same case with other humanitarian organisations in the peninsula.”

    He added that the HRC head office in Colombo was notified of the situation and that he was expecting a response from the head office within the next few days.

    “I came to Colombo to update the HRC head office on the present security situation in the peninsula as well as the problems faced by the humanitarian workers. They have not responded yet. I am expecting a response within the next few days,” he said.

    The Jaffna HRC said that it had recorded over 60 complaints regarding persons who had been abducted or arrested in the peninsula during this year alone.

    “These are the statistics based on the complaints we have received. There are many instances where disappearances are not reported to the HRC. They fear that something might happen to them or to their loved ones if they complain,” he said.

    According to the HRC, the number of abductions has been on the increase, especially after the Sri Lankan government closed of the A9 highway last August.

    The government’s action has trapped residents many of whom are desperate to leave the peninsula. Even those able to afford tickets for the limited flights or sailings to the south are unable to find seats.

    “Many people have reported that their lives are in danger. They have been continuously receiving threats. We have handed them over to the police for more protection. But now, even we are under severe threat,” he added.
  • Annihilate traitors by any means - Champika
    Asked to respond to a poster campaign by the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) calling for the “annihilation” of “white Tigers, media Tigers, leftist Tigers,” Champika Ranawaka, Minister Environment and Natural resources, endorsed the hardline Sinhala organisation’s message, saying if the law can’t crush such traitors, it must be done another way.

    The poster in question, plastered in several parts of Colombo and the Sinhala south, exhorts the people to identify and annihilate those opposed to the government’s military drive.

    President Rajapakse (r) and Champika Ranawaka, one of his closes advisors. Photo Daily Mirror.
    Ranawaka, known to be a close associate and advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse, emphatically endorsed its message.

    “I am not a member of the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT). However, I am totally in agreement with the poster.”

    “Who the hell are these so called journalists in Sri Lanka? Who are these ‘Tamil Youth’? There are no such people. They are all NGO scum who depend on foreign money.”

    “What these newspapermen are doing is the selling this country to Tigers under the guise of peace and anti-war.”

    “We know about Ravaya and we know what Ravaya is up to. We know that Ravaya sheds tears when Tamils get killed,” he said, using a derogatory term for Tamils.

    “This is the same thing done by the bunch of so called Leftists.”

    “Nothing can be done because of the wild ass freedom in this country. If these treacherous bastards cannot be crushed by the law of the country, whatever possible method should be employed. Yes!”

    “If those can't be dealt with existing laws we know how to do it. If we can't suppress those bastards with the law we need to use any other ways and means, Yes”.

    “Of course, people will die. What can we do about it? Are you asking us to leave them alive? These are traitors to the nation!”

    “Here, this is what I am saying. If not by poster, we should use other methods to annihilate them. That is why I say that I agree to this poster politically.”

    Patali Champika Ranawaka belongs to the ultra-nationalist monk’s party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU).

    In January, the JHU joined President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government, adding its nine MPs to the ruling coalition giving the latter a majority in the 225 seat Parliament.

    In the past, Ranawaka has also expressed anti-Semitic statements comparing Tamils to the Jews and ahs been advocate of ‘Aryan Sinhalese supremacy’.

    Minister Ranawaka’s comments were condemned by a group of prominent Sri Lankan media associations saying it “violates basic and inviolable principles of public office and grossly irresponsible for a member of parliament.”

    The Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU), Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF), Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance (SLTJA) and Free Media Movement (FMM) signed a statement demanding a clarification.

    The media groups condemned the minister for backing the elimination of “those the JHU and NMAT perceive to be aiding and abetting the cause of the LTTE, including all pro-peace civil society activists and media activists.”

    “Champika Ranawaka has himself as well through his political party named dozens of prominent human rights and media rights activists, journalists and civil society leaders as terrorists on many occasions in the past,” they said.

    “We request all local and international rights and media organisations, as well as the democratic forces within the Government, to be vigilant in a context of heightened threats towards human rights and media freedom activists.”


  • Sinhala nationalists want truce torn up
    Sri Lanka’s frayed ceasefire agreement between the Tamil Tigers and the government, which is five years old, may soon go the way of previous abortive agreements in the island’s conflict, amid emerging protests by Sinhalese nationalists and criticism by the President himself.

    Until a cycle of killing began escalating in 2005, the 2002 truce, underpinning Norwegian mediated peace process, and had ushered in the longest period of peace since the conflict began.

    Buddhist monks protested in Colombo on February 22, demanding the government scrap the 2002 truce with Tamil Tigers. The government launched fresh attacks on the anniversary of the truce. Photo: LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/Getty Images
    However, on the February 9, Sri Lanka’s hardline President Rajapakse told the BBC, that the truce was a mistake because it had legitimised the LTTE’s control of territory.

    “Today we realise we have made a mistake,” President Rajapakse said of the CFA. “Through the peace pact, we have demarcated areas called LTTE-controlled areas.”

    Since President Rajapakse came to power in November 2005, the Sri Lankan armed forces have launched major offensives to clear the LTTE out of the east and are now threatening to take the war to the north.

    The CFA has all but collapsed after several months of bloody fighting in which government offensives capturing large swathes of LTTE territory.

    In the context of President Rajapakse’s dismissal of the truce, Sinhala nationalist agitation has escalated sharply in the past few days, as the fifth anniversary approaches.

    Hardline monks of the National Bikku Front started a fast-unto-death on February 11 demanding the government to withdraw from the CFA and began a prayer campaign on February 17 at the island’s main Buddhist temple, the Dalada Maligawa (or Temple of the Tooth) in Kandy.

    The ultra-nationalist JVP, Sri Lanka’s third largest part, held a public meeting in Colombo on February 22 demanding an end to the truce.

    They were joined by nationalist Buddhist monks in saffron robes.

    "This cease-fire is a serious threat to the country's unitary status," a spokesman for the monks, told The Island newspaper.

    The JVP, whose grassroots support was crucial to Rajapakse;s victory at the November 2005 Presidential elections, has condemned the CFA since its signing 2002.

    The party, along with the monks’ party, the JHU, endorse President Rajapakse’s efforts to militarily destroy the LTTE.

    The JVP has consistently opposed any agreement with the LTTE and has been instrumental in launching legal challenges to past agreements between Colombo and the Tigers resulting in past agreements being abandoned.

    Last year the JVP filed a case for the annulment of the 1987 merger of the Northeast province.

    Under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of that year,the two provinces were merged, recognising these were “areas of historical habitation of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking peoples.”

    However last year, in response to the JVP petition, the Supreme Court declared the merger null and void.

    Despite international disquiet, President Rajapakse moved swiftly to trifurcate the Northeast province, a move Tamils argue is intended to dilute their claim to a homeland in the island.

    In 2005 the JVP successfully filed a case against the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), an internationally-backed aid sharing mechanism between Colombo and the Tigers.

    In the aftermath of the Boxing day tsunami which devastated the coastal areas of the island leaving tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, the international community pressured Sri Lanka to enter into an agreement with the LTTE on sharing aid.

    Then President Chandrika Kumaratunga succumbed to pressure and signed the PTOMS, however the JVP quit her government in disgust at the deal and then challenged it in court.

    For its part, LTTE has repeatedly stated its commitment to the CFA and insists only if the truce holds and is implemented can the peace process advance.

    However, just as it did with the PTOMS and the NE merger, the JVP has filed another petition against the CFA in the Supreme Court.

    That comes up for consideration on March 6.

    Analysts say President Rajapakse’s government, under international pressure over widespread human rights violations by the security forces, will avoid incurring further international ire and not abrogate the pact formally.

    Instead, the government will step up its military offensives against the LTTE.
  • Britain mulls bigger role in Sri Lanka
    Underlining Britain’s intent to play a bigger role in Sri Lanka’s ethnic question, visiting junior foreign minister Kim Howells announced London’s readiness to facilitate peace talks with the LTTE, which is proscribed in the UK as a terrorist group.

    Mr. Howells also declared that his country would be cracking down on the LTTE’s ability to raise funds abroad and accused the LTTE of extorting money.

    Dr. Howells met with President Rajapakse to discuss a British role. Photo FCO
    Wrapping up a three-day visit mid-February to assess the impact of renewed war on thousands of displaced families in the island's restive east, Mr. Howells said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse had given the green light to the idea of talks with Tigers.

    “We'd be delighted to become more involved in helping to facilitate the peace process,” Mr. Howells told reporters.

    “We asked the president a very specific question. We said how do you feel about a situation where we might talk to the LTTE and he said: 'As long as it's part of the peace-building process, we have no objections to that.’”

    Asked about Britain’s possible role as facilitator, a role hitherto performed by Norway, Mr. Howells said “we have no objections to doing it. It is important for us as well, since Britain only talks to terrorist groups if they are part of the peace process.”

    “We certainly are prepared to engage in conversation with representatives of the LTTE if those conversations are part of the peace process, which we believe will lead to peace,” he said.

    Saying that Britain, which banned the LTTE in 2001 and pushed hard for the EU-wide ban in 2006, was determined to cut off the Tigers’ access to funding and weapons, he accused the LTTE of extorting money from Tamils in Britain.

    “We certainly want to squeeze their [Tigers’] ability to buy guns and explosives to murder Sri Lankans,” Howells said.

    “There are about 200,000 Tamils living in Britain and we take a very serious view to the way the LTTE extorts money. It's not part of British life,” he said.

    The British offer comes as Norway, which has been facilitating peace in the embattled island since 1999, is adopting a low profile following years of criticism by Sinhala nationalists, including those now in government in Sri Lanka.

    Sri Lanka’s hardline President Rajapakse was elected in November 2005 on a platform denouncing the Norwegians as baised towards the LTTE.

    The international community, which has long backed Norway’s initiative in Sri Lanka, has in recent months also avoided explicit endorsement of Oslo’s efforts.

    Before his visit, Howells said Britain's experience in Northern Ireland was proof that violence is not the way to achieve peace.

    He warned Sri Lanka's international reputation would be tarnished if the war continued, referring to widespread human rights abuses and humanitarian crises in the Northeast.

    “There are similarities with the conflict here and what we had in Northern Ireland. But the important thing to keep in mind is that war is not the answer,” Howells said.

    In a written commentary released before his visit, Mr. Howells also called for a ceasefire to pave the way for talks.

    “[In Northern Ireland] we learned that there had to be a working cease-fire in force in order for meaningful peace talks to be possible. Politicians cannot be expected to make the compromises necessary for peace against a backdrop of violence and the public outrage this causes.”

    “If adhered to, Norwegian-facilitated cease-fire of 2002 would offer a good base from which to launch a new peace initiative,” he said.

    Urging all parties to build trust and remain committed to resolving the conflict, Mr. Howells called for sustained peace talks, in an implicit criticism of recent Norwegian efforts.

    “It's not good taking people to Geneva for two or three days every six months. You really need to have a go at it, ensure people trust each other and that there is an urgency for an eventual outcome.”

    “You can't do peace talks on a part-time basis.”

    In a his written commentary, Mr. Howells hailed the UK’s friendship with Sri Lanka, a former colony which gained independence in 1947, but since then has been ruled by Sinhala dominated governments which have discriminated against the Tamils.

    “Britain has long been a friend of Sri Lanka. That friendship is built on a wide range of shared interests and contacts, not least the large number of people of Sri Lankan origin who have made Britain their home,” he wrote.

    Since the early eighties, large numbers of Tamils fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka have sought refuge in Britain, joining earlier waves of Tamil immigrants.

    Before the UK’s 2001 ban, the LTTE maintained offices, including its International Secretariat, in London.

    London was also home to the LTTE’s late chief negotiator and theoretician, Mr. Anton Balasingham, who passed away after a brief illness last December.


  • World shares blame for truce collapse'
    The international community shares the blame for Sri Lanka's renewed war, the Tamil Tigers charged this week, accusing international actors of bias and inaction which they say has left the 2002 ceasefire agreement meaningless.

    “The international community's unhelpful engagement in the peace effort has had the effect of encouraging the Sri Lankan state to pursue a military solution,” the LTTE said in a statement issued overnight to mark the fifth anniversary of a now tattered Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).

    “The international community's failure to take concrete action against the Sri Lankan state to stop serious breaches of the ceasefire agreement or its widespread and systematic human rights violations has contributed to war-like conditions.”

    The LTTE’s comments were echoed by Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

    “Although the Ceasefire Agreement came into effect with the strong support of the international community, the latter's selective engagement in the peace effort has had the effect of encouraging the Sri Lankan state in its pursuit of a military solution to the Tamil National question,” the TNA said.

    “The international community's unreflective insistence on 'a united Sri Lanka' and its unwillingness or failure to take concrete measures to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan state to abandon its aggression in its pursuit of the military option has contributed to rendering the CFA meaningless,” the TNA said.

    “The simultaneous international proscriptions of LTTE, imposed at the behest of the Sri Lankan Government, has also contributed to the resumption of the conflict.”

    A simmering shadow war between the LTTE and paramilitary groups backed by Sri Lankan military intelligence exploded into open confrontations between both sides early last year.

    Canada and the European Union banned the LTTE early last year and in July the government launched the first of a string of offensives against the Tigers in the east.

    The government, emboldened by the capture of territory recognised as controlled by the Tigers under the terms of the truce, have since vowed to wipe them out.

    The Tigers hailed the truce which they have described in the past as the ‘foundation of any peace process.’

    “Even though today it exists only on paper, it remains a unique document in the search for an end to the national conflict,” the Tigers said.

    However, Sri Lankan military aggression has rendered the CFA defunct and meaningless, they said.

    Moreover, international bias against the LTTE had undermined the foundations of the peace process, they said.

    “[Despite Sri Lankan offensives into our controlled areas] The international community chose to unfairly take punitive measures against the LTTE, seriously undermining the LTTE’s status as an equal party in the negotiation process and thereby weakening the peace process itself.”

    “This international bias against the LTTE further strengthened the government’s intransigence and encouraged it to adopt even more hard line positions [at the talks],” they said, referring to the abortive meeting in Geneva last October.

    The LTTE also condemned the international community’s failure to pressure the hardline Colombo government to rein in the state’s armed forces despite the widespread humanitarian and human rights abuses many observers are criticising the military for.

    “The continued failure of the international community, despite the volume of independently gathered evidence, to take effective steps to curb the state's abuses, is turning the Tamil homeland into an Asian Darfur,” the Tigers said.

    “The situation in the Tamil homeland is deteriorating rapidly and the humanitarian and human rights crises are deepening. People in the Tamil homeland are living in traumatic conditions,” the Tigers said.

    Repeating its calls for the implementation of the CFA, the LTTE pointed out it had been extremely patient in the face of the state’s occupation of LTTE territory and human rights violations against Tamil civilians.

    The Tigers warned Sri Lankan aggression and international inaction portended greater bloodshed in the coming period.

    “The Sri Lankan military has conducted unprovoked offensives against our forces and occupied our areas in violation of …of the CFA.”

    “Even under such grave circumstances we refrained from launching offensive operations and kept ourselves in defensive positions.”

    “The Sri Lankan government's ongoing war of aggression, aimed at the subjugation of the Tamil people under the guise of 'war on terrorism' will add to the bloodstained pages of the island's history,” it added.

    “It has also compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle.”
  • Why not Tamil self-rule also?
    Citing international support for self-rule of peoples elsewhere in the world, the Liberation Tigers this week again called on the international community to support the Tamil people’s demand for self-determination.

    Citing the Sri Lankan state’s resumption of brutal military offensives and its intransigence on genuinely sharing power with the Tamils, the island’s largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, also appealed for international recognition of the Tamils’ demand for self-rule.

    Both comments came in statements marking the fifth anniversary of the now frayed 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).

    “The failure of the [Norwegian] peace process despite the international participation [has] deeply frustrated the Tamil people. To their bitter disappointment, the CFA and the internationally facilitated peace process have, as in all previous peace efforts, failed again,” the LTTE said.

    The Sri Lankan government’s pursuit of the military option and the widespread human rights violation by its armed forces have “compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self - determination and to achieve statehood,” the Tigers said.

    Against this backdrop, the LTTE calling for an impartial and constructive role by the international community and criticised their unquestioning support for Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

    “In contrast to current international practice with respect to national conflicts in other parts of the world, the international community’s insistence on a solution that does not infringe on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka is deeply frustrating for the Tamil people.”

    “The denial of the Tamil people’s will is itself a breach of the law of self-determination.”

    “The international community has not rejected, for example, the South Sudan Machkos Protocol facilitated by US, UK, Norway and Italy on the basis it is affecting the sovereignty of Sudan.”

    “Nor has the international community questioned the Serbia-Montenegro agreement and the recent proposal on the future of Kosovo on the basis these contravene Serbian sovereignty. The Papua New Guinea- Bougainville Agreement that was not opposed by the international community on the basis of safeguarding territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

    “In all these cases the peoples concerned have exercised their right to self-determination and sovereignty,” the LTTE said.

    Indeed, respect for Sri Lankan sovereignty had not prevented the international community from backing the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement, the LTTE pointed out.

    “Unprecedented in peace efforts in the island, the CFA was formulated with the full support of the international community, transcended the parameters of Sri Lanka’s majoritarian constitution.”

    The LTTE’s call for international support for the Tamil people was this week echoed by the TNA, which also cited the suffering inflicted by the state armed forces on the Tamils.

    “Today, humanitarian and human rights conditions in the Northeast are deteriorating rapidly as the Sri Lankan government puts its trust on a military solution to this political conflict,” the TNA said.

    “The Sri Lankan state justifies these atrocities committed by its armed forces in the name of protecting its sovereignty.

    “The international community's unreflective insistence on 'a united Sri Lanka' and its unwillingness or failure to take concrete measures to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan state to abandon its aggression in its pursuit of the military option has contributed to rendering the CFA meaningless,” the TNA said.

    “In these [past] five years, the Sri Lankan government has utterly failed to alleviate the sufferings of the Tamil people. Neither has it contributed meaningfully to a lasting solution to the national conflict.”

    “In the face of the Sri Lankan state’s insistence on pursuing a military solution to the Tamil National question, the Tamil people are appealing to the international community to recognize their struggle for self determination and self-rule.”
  • Tacit international support for war as truce turns 5
    The fifth anniversary of Sri Lanka’s tattered ceasefire was marked with contrasting reactions from the parties to the agreement, the government and the LTTE, peace facilitator Norway and Sri Lankan political parties.

    The LTTE and the Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party said the international community must share the blame for the resumption of the island’s protracted ethnic conflict.

    The international monitors of the SLMM (Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission) and the Norwegian government issued statements lamenting the breakdown of the truce.

    However, the Sri Lankan government maintained an official silence and instead launched fresh attacks against the LTTE.

    Meanwhile Sinhala nationalists, including hardline parties allied to President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government stepped up street protests demanding the abrogation of the agreement.

    Citing the intransigence and hardline stance of the Sri Lankan state in relation to the ceasefire agreement and the peace process the LTTE called for international support for the Tamil people’s right determine their own political future.

    “The failure of the peace process despite the international participation [has] deeply frustrated the Tamil people. To their bitter disappointment, the CFA and the internationally facilitated peace process have, as in all previous peace efforts, failed again.”

    “It has also compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self - determination and to achieve statehood.”

    Citing the state’s resumption of its military campaign against the Tigers, the TNA also called for international support for the Tamil people’s right to self determination,

    “In the face of the Sri Lankan state’s insistence on pursuing a military solution to the Tamil National question, the Tamil people are appealing to the international community to recognize their struggle for self determination and self-rule.”

    Following a public declaration by hardline Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse that the ceasefire agreement was “a mistake,” Sinhala nationalists have been escalating their campaigns against the truce.

    Thousands of supporters of the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi peramuna (JVP) took to the streets Thursday Feb 22, the fifth anniversary of the signing of the CFA, demanding the government tear it up.

    The JVP is supporting a fast unto death launched by several monks.

    Wimal Weerawansa, the JVP’s parliamentary group leader told Parliament this week: “The President, Parliament, judiciary and the people were cheated when the Ceasefire Agreement was signed.”

    However the JHU, a coalition partner of the UPFA government, responding to the JVP protests by saying the pact had already been destroyed.

    "Holding agitation and fasting campaigns to force the government nullify the CFA is meaningless at a time when the military has successfully ousted LTTE from the east and have launched aerial attacks on LTTE targets in Killinochchi and Mullaitivu in the north," Venerable Omalpe Sobitha Thera of the JHU said.

    However, the JHU echoed the JVP’s charge the truce was unconstitutional.

    “A Prime Minister who had no powers under the Executive Presidential System of the government signed the CFA with the LTTE five years ago contrary to the constitution,” Sobitha Thera said.

    He was referring to the controversial signing by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the CFA, rather than the President at the time, Chandrika Kumaratunga.

    Sri Lanka’s powerful presidency is the overarching authority in the country. The President is head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces.

    Kumaratunga denounced Wickremesinghe for signing the pact, but did not abrogate the pact due to overt international support for the truce.

    Norwegian reactions came from Development Minister Eric Solheim, who was for many years Oslo’s peace envoy to Sri Lanka, and Norway’s Ambassador in Colombo, Hans Brattskar.

    The Norwegian government pointed out the CFA had put an immediate stop to 20 years of fighting in which tens of thousands of people lost their lives but non adherence to the agreement resulted in return of violence and massive human rights abuses, grave humanitarian suffering and the displacement of over 200,000 people.

    “Norway is willing to go the extra mile to assist their peace endeavours at their request. As soon as the parties renew their peace efforts, we will be ready to do all we can to help. It is my sincere opinion that the vast majority of Sri Lankans have a strong yearning for peace,” Mr. Brattskar said.

    The SLMM acknowledged that the ceasefire now exists only on paper and offered its continued services in monitoring the ceasefire implementation as per its mandate.

    “Following the CFA, a considerable reduction of violence was reached, particularly welcomed by the families in the North and the East who had lived for two decades in areas ravaged by war,” the SLMM said.

    “At the five-year milestone, however; abductions, harassments, killings, shelling and air strikes are taking place at a war like level.”

    “In spite of the ongoing conflict, the SLMM remains committed to the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, as a neutral party, seeking continuously to develop a deep understanding of the conflict situation, with the sincere aim of finding ways to continue its contribution according to the mandate.”

    Notably, the Co-Chairs of the peace process – the United States, European Union, Japan and Norway – did not make a comment on the anniversary of the truce’s signing.

    The powerful quartet have, since 2003, when they formed themselves, dominated international management of the Norwegian peace process.

    Recent statements by individual countries suggest the Co-chairs are split on the future of the CFA, with Norway backing the truce and the US leading support for Colombo’s hardline approach.

    United States Ambassador Robert Blake, for example, explicitly avoided reference to the ceasefire in his speech at the Galle donor conference at the end of January.

    Japan, which provide 80% of Sri Lanka’s aid, also has not referred to the ceasefire in recent times.

    Analysts say the silence stems from tacit support for the Sri Lankan government’s military campaign against the LTTE.

    Although British junior foreign minister Kim Howells, who visited Sri Lanka this month, urged a ceasefire to pave the way for talks he did not take up the matter with President Mahinda Rajapakse.

  • A ceasefire is needed for meaningful peace talks
    Britain has long been a friend of Sri Lanka. That friendship is built on a wide range of shared interests and contacts, not least the large number of people of Sri Lankan origin who have made Britain their home.
     
    Today's British government has no greater wish for Sri Lanka than that it should find a peaceful solution to its conflict.
     
    This should be a solution with which all the people and communities in Sri Lanka feel comfortable and which enables them to develop their full potential, becoming a more prosperous, healthier and more highly skilled society.
     
    On the other hand, if things continue as they are the current escalation of the conflict and its impact will hold back Sri Lanka's development, corrode the quality of its democracy and tarnish its image in the international arena.
     
    Only Sri Lankans can ultimately resolve the conflict in their country. But Britain and others in the international community can help.
     
    Many countries, international agencies and non-governmental organisations are already working with Sri Lankans to help create the conditions needed for peace and long-term development. I believe their work is invaluable to the people of Sri Lanka. 
     
    As part of this, the British government's political and development efforts in Sri Lanka have a single aim. To help create the conditions in which a lasting peace can be achieved.
     
    We in Britain have some experience of resolving conflict, in Northern Ireland. That province is now at peace. It took about 30 years to get to that point.
     
    We learned the hard way that security measures will only get you so far and eventually you must – if you wish to move towards a lasting peace – be willing to address the underlying causes of the conflict.
     
    Last year the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, offered to share this experience with President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government.
     
    Accordingly, the Rt Hon Paul Murphy, a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, visited Sri Lanka in November.
     
    One of the most important things we learned in Northern Ireland is that peace won't happen until the parties to the conflict understand that nothing can be gained by continuing violence.
     
    It is worth stating the obvious: a military victory for one side is very unlikely to produce a lasting political solution. Our experience tells us that a 'war for peace' approach inevitably means more war, rather than peace.
     
    And violence comes with too high a price. It is the people who suffer, as human rights are eroded, the humanitarian situation deteriorates and mistrust between communities increases. This, in turn, damages Sri Lanka’s image in the eyes of the world.
     
    Similarly, we learned that there had to be a working cease-fire in force in order for meaningful peace talks to be possible. Politicians cannot be expected to make the compromises necessary for peace against a backdrop of violence and the public outrage this causes.
     
    The Norwegian-facilitated cease-fire of 2002 offered breathing space from the effects of the conflict. If adhered to, it would offer a good base from which to launch a new peace initiative.
     
    The parties to the conflict need to develop a degree of confidence in one another in order to be able to move forward to reach a common understanding of their shared future. That confidence can't be built in an atmosphere where violence and fear flourishes.
     
    A broad political consensus for peace is essential. We hope that the new coalition government will be able to enable the parties to work together for the common good of the country.
     
    I am looking forward to my time in Sri Lanka. It will be my second visit to this country. My fervent wish is that my visit may contribute to bringing the island's tragic conflict to an end.
     
    Dr Kim Howells MP is the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. This leading article was distributed by his office prior to his official visit to Sri Lanka in February 2007.
  • Rajapakse challenges LTTE
    President Rajapakse with Sri Lankan troops in Vaharai  on Feb 3, 2007. Photo TamilNet.

    Buoyed by the Sri Lankan military’s capture, over the past six months, of large tracts of territory from the Tamil Tigers, President Mahinda Rajapakse said the LTTE could come for talks with his government – if it laid down its arms first.

    Destroying the LTTE – “fighting terrorism” – is the centre piece of President Rajapakse’s policy on the ethnic question.

    He made it clear that the military campaign would continue in his address at Sri Lanka’s 59th Independence Day anniversary celebrations and in comments a day earlier, made when he toured the Vaharai region, recently captured from the LTTE.

    Calling on the LTTE to disarm and come for talks, President Rajapakse told reporters in Vaharai: "this is a big opportunity for the Tigers to return to the negotiating table."

    Accompanied by army, navy and air force commanders and top defense officials, he was touring the hamlet captured from the Tigers last month after a three month siege.

    "What we have done is to liberate the people from terrorists," Rajapakse said of the siege which saw tens of thousands starving amid a total blockade on the LTTE-held enclave.

    "I am here to thank the troops for their action without causing a single civilian casualty," he said.

    Hundreds of Tamil civilians were killed and wounded in indiscriminate bombardments, drawing criticism from international humanitarian agencies.

    The fighting ended on January 19 when the defending Tigers melted away from the area, prompting the remaining 30,000 people to flee to the safety of neighbouring government-held towns.

    "But there are two ways of liberating (civilians in Tiger areas). We have offered a political solution. We don't want a military solution,” he said.

    "I will offer them (Tigers) a political solution and they should come for talks," he said.

    "They must begin surrendering weapons and come for talks," Rajapakse told AFP.

    When asked what the government would do if the Tigers refuse, Rajapakse said his government "will have to tame the Tigers."

    The Tigers have already laughed off his demands.

    During his Independence Day address, President Rajapakse expressed his pride at having taken the war to the LTTE during his first year in office.

    “I stand before you as the Head of State with a great feeling of contentment. I derive this contentment through the belief that I have given you leadership for over a period of one year, to safeguard our national dignity, from a time it had reached the lowest ebb.”

    He called on the country to join him, saying: “it is only by joining with us that the innocent Tamil people of the North can be liberated from terrorist intimidation.”

    “We are not ready to give into the blood-thirsty demands of the LTTE,” he said. “The uncompromising stand of our government is a firm commitment to a policy to safeguard national dignity.”

    Instead, he said, his government will work out a solution with anti-LTTE Tamil politicians who are prepared with the Sinhala-dominated state.

    He singled out Mr. Anandasangaree, who split from the TULF, and Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary EPDP.

    Mr. Anandasangaree, who left the TULF and contests use of the party’s name, recently defended the Rajapakse’s government’s human rights record, saying there was no genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

    Mr. Devananda’s EPDP is a long standing paramilitary ally of the Sri Lankan Army in its operations against the Tigers. It has long been blamed for a murderous campaign against Tamils with pro-LTTE or nationalist sentiments in governement controlled areas.

    “We decided to adopt a policy of development that will safeguard the future of our children, while responding to terrorist power in the only language that they best understand,” President Rajapakse further said.

    “On the one hand, at a time when we are engaged in an unconditional struggle against venomous terrorism, and on the other, when we are implementing the biggest schemes in history to take the country towards successful development; and when we are taking unwavering decisions to protect our cultural values, we have to understand that the familiar opportunist political tendencies will be seeking to raise their head.”

    “Therefore, I call on you with the greatest responsibility not to resort to any cause of action likely to challenge the stability of the country.”

    “Therefore, I believe this the most suitable platform to make a particular appeal to the working people of this country not to supply oxygen, consciously or not, to terrorism that is gasping for life.”

    “I also call on the media to also act with responsibility in this regard.”

    “I emphatically state before you of my total commitment to ensure the honour and prosperity of this blessed land, by decisively defeating separatism,” he said.

    He thanked the international community for backing his efforts. A week earlier donors pledged US$ 4.5 billion in aid to the Sri Lankan government.

    “I am happy to express my gratitude to our foreign friends and governments for the fraternal assistance extended to us against separatism, and for peace and development of the motherland. We pay them the highest honour and appreciate their kindness and friendship.”

  • Media and violence in Sri Lanka
    Lalith Seneviratne, Sisira Priyankara and Nihal Serasinghe, all activists of the Railway Union Federation’s bi-monthly publication ‘Akuna’, were abducted on the night of February 5, 2007.
     
    Abductions are plainly a violation of the law in a democratic society. We condemned all such abductions. We demanded that they be presented in courts, if any state institute had in fact taken them under custody.
     
    LTTE connection
     
    Next day, the government announced that all three of them accepted they were a part of a movement which accepted armed struggle against neo-colonialism to capture state power.
     
    Moreover, the government announced that they have accepted working with the LTTE and have admitted they have carried out armed violence in the South.
     
    Do these news reports nullify the statements we made at the time of their abductions? Do we become indirect associates of their armed movement?
     
    The first phone call on the abduction of Lalith Seneviratne was received on 05th night, at about 11.30 pm.
     
    At that time, his wife and two other media colleagues were at the Athurugiriya police station to make a complaint. When they were contacted over the phone, it was revealed the Athurugiriya police was totally unaware of this incident.
     
    CID?
     
    Thereafter Vasudeva Nanayakara, a member of the Civil Monitoring Committee on abductions, was contacted. He in turn contacted the Athurugiriya police and had been told that the CID had not taken Lalith into custody.
     
    Those who took Lalith away had told his wife Kanthi they were from the CID.
     
    But now Vasudeva was told the CID knew nothing about this.
     
    We then decided to go public about this abduction, as all such efforts in finding some source of information on his whereabouts, became futile.
     
    Ours was an effort to safeguard a basic human right.
     
    Mahinda Rajapaksa’s past
     
    We felt this incident should be brought to the notice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as he was also active against similar abductions and disappearances in 1988 – 90.
     
    During that period, when Rajapaksa was working closely with Human Rights organisations against violations of rights in the South, abductions and disappearances were carried out under the pretext of wiping out terrorism.
     
    Rajapaksa’s popular image, which paved the way for him to ascend the presidency, was partly etched by his campaigns, through movements like the Mothers’ Front, against the then government on abductions and disappearances.
     
    There is a tradition in this country to protest against any abduction, whether carried out by the state or by any armed group, irrespective of the politics of the victim.
     
    Every political party in this country, some time in their history at least, had played such roles in opposing abductions.
     
    But only a few in the Human Rights movement campaigned for a sustainable approach in enforcing law and order in protesting against abductions and disappearances.
     
    We of the Free Media Movement, based on such past experience, upheld this principle in protesting against the abduction of the three Trade Union media activists this week.
     
    Real challenge
     
    The real challenge in safeguarding social values in a democratic society is not during peaceful times. It comes when facing brutal forces.
     
    Therefore every democratic movement and organization has a right to protest against torture, abductions and extra judicial killings.
     
    Unfortunately, such forces are depleted now.
     
    While the likes of Charles Abeysekera (1926-1998) are not found in civil society movements today, the likes of Mahinda Rajapaksa are not there in the opposition.
     
    In the past, during the post 1983 period, there were those who tried to form revolutionary political movements in the South, in collaboration with armed groups in the North.
     
    Some had arms training in the North. Armed robberies were carried out to raise funds.
     
    A few of them did hold ministerial portfolios later in their life and some are, even today, influential personalities in the government.
     
    They were similarly arrested or abducted around 1985.
     
    Charles Abeysekera then assisted in strengthening the Human Rights movement which even went to the extent of providing legal aid through the launch of the broad platform, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CROPP).
     
    It is good if those who feel or oppose the stand taken by the Free Media Movement in protesting against these abductions, could reflect on that past. We honour that tradition.
     
    The military itself
     
    There are those who scheme to take into custody the media personnel who stand for media freedom, on the pretext that some journalists are LTTE collaborators.
     
    They should not forget that the military itself admits that there are collaborators in the armed forces too.
     
    The media later reported that some of those accused were subsequently found innocent of the charges made against them.
     
    In a democratic society, every citizen has a right to live under the protection of the law.
     
    The law should prevail and the judiciary should deliver verdicts at all times. All others can only accuse.
     
    Every individual has the right to prove his innocence in courts and will be considered innocent, until proven guilty.
     
    We stand for that right.
     
    We oppose those who drive fear into society or destroy the society through terror and violence. We are uncompromisingly against any terror and violence, who ever resorts to such means.
     
    (Edited)
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