Sinhalese mobs, assisted by Sri Lankan security forces attacked Tamils and Muslims and torched their properties in Trincomalee last week after the death of a soldier in a bomb attack, in a localised carbon copy of the island wide anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983

More than 19 people were killed and over 45 were wounded in communal rioting last Wednesday (April 5)that also saw the closing of over 22 Tamil and Muslim shops in the eastern port town.

This was followed by fresh violence on Friday, in which another 3 civilians were killed, including an Indian astrologer and a 60 year old woman who was knifed to death.

The violence on Wednesday was only stopped after the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who urged the Sri Lankan head of state to ensure the security and safety of Trincomalee Tamil civilians, according to press reports.

On Friday, however, Somasuntharam Maheswary, 60, was attending religious duties at Nadesar Temple when a group of thugs had dragged her from the temple premises and cut her. Her body was later found on the road and handed over to the mortuary of the Trincomalee general hospital.

Indian citizen Venkadasamy Venkatraman (30) of Ramamoorthy Nagar, Bangalore in South India was also killed that day. He was an astrologer by profession. The third person killed on Friday was Thannimalai Namasivayalingam, 28, who had been a junior employee of the Trincomalee district secretariat.

The attackers last Wednesday were Sinhalese thugs armed with incendiary devices and assisted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) troopers, charged Trincomalee district parliamentarian, Mr. K. Thurairatnasingam.

“Like the July 1983 genocidal pogrom against the Tamils, the current violence against the Tamil speaking people has been unleashed in Trincomalee with the connivance of the Sri Lanka Navy,” the parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said in a press release.

“The SL Navy had brought Sinhalese mobs by the truck loads to the heart of the Trincomalee Town, who in turn began murdering, and causing grievous hurt to Tamil speaking people, whilst setting on fire and destroying Tamil commercial centres. That the SL navy orchestrated these incidents is clear,” the press release said.

Meanwhile, transport services to and from Trincomalee had still not returned to normalcy on the weekend, with shops and the public market closed and roads in the town deserted. State and private sector bus services had been stopped since last Wednesday evening and bus stands were deserted.

“Our houses were burnt, properties were destroyed and we were attacked by thugs with knives and clubs while the State armed forces and police looked on. No one came to our rescue. We fled from our houses and sought refuge elsewhere to save our lives,” several Tamil families sheltered in Varothiayanagar Bharathi Vidiyalam following fresh violence erupted Friday afternoon told Mr. Thurairatnasingam when he visited them Saturday morning.

The attacks come in the wake of the assassination of Mr. Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, President of the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples’ Forum (TDTPF), a leading Tamil civil society activist who was about to be nominated as the national list parliamentarian to fill the position of murdered Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, Joseph Pararajasingham.

Mr. Vigneswaran was shot dead the previous Friday by a gunman from an Army-backed paramilitary group as he was about to enter his workplace at the main branch of the Bank of Ceylon located between the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police and Trincomalee Harbour Police.

Mr. Pararajasingham was also shot dead by Army-backed paramilitaries in a Batticaloa Church last Christmas Eve.

“Sri Lanka Government should urgently take steps to ensure safety of our business in Trincomalee. Thugs target our businesses whenever there is any explosion in the bazaar, and Government troops and Police rarely take any action to contain resulting violence and looting. This has been the case from 1977. Many of our shops have now been destroyed while the Police and troops looked on, this Wednesday,” said several members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Trincomalee District (CCITD) in the presence of a Sri Lanka Minister and Security Forces commanders during a conference held Saturday evening.

Mr. Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Foreign Investment and Promotion, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, North East Provincial Governor, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka, Commander of the SLA, police and army officials participated in the conference.

The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Trincomalee district Sunday commenced distributing dry ration relief to about 250 Tamil families who sought refuge in schools and public buildings in the suburbs of the port town, having fled the Friday violence.

Meanwhile hundreds of resettled Tamil families in the villages Kanniya, Managaiootu and Killikunchcumalai were trapped in their houses without transport to buy provisions following the violence. TRO has made necessary arrangement to transport dry ration and other foodstuff to these villages, Mr. C. Kumarakurubaran, Deputy Director of the TRO in Trincomalee said.

“If the genocide attacks by State armed forces with the connivance of Sinhalese hoodlums continue in the Trincomalee district we would be forced to take steps to safeguard the lives and properties of innocent Tamil people in the district and that would lead to undesirable serious consequence on the current peace process,” warned Mr. S. Elilan, LTTE district political head in a statement on the fresh violence against Tamil people in the suburbs of Trincomalee town since Friday afternoon.

“We took up arms at a time when the State armed forces unleashed violence and genocide attacks on Tamil people in the northeast. The government troops with connivance of Sinhalese thugs have again started unleashing violence against Tamils during the peacetime,” said Mr. Elilan.

“Curfew has been imposed in Trincomalee town and its suburbs after houses and properties of Tamil people have been burnt down and destroyed by thugs with the assistance of government troops. During the curfew time we receive reports that thugs with the assistance of the government troops are entering the houses of Tamils and attack them. This cannot be condoned by us any more,” said Mr. Elilan.

Citing ‘excessive interference’ by the Sri Lanka Navy in the arrangement between international truce monitors and the Liberation Tigers to move the latter’s senior Eastern commanders to the Vanni for a top level meeting, the LTTE cancelled the sea transfers.

The Tigers said the cancellation of the central committee conference, intended to define strategy for the next round of talks with the Sri Lankan government meant they could not attend the peace talks in Geneva next week.

“Unfortunately, because the Sri Lankan Navy conducted itself in a manner that threatened the safety of our commanders, and because events took place that were against the promises made by the Head of the [truce monitors], the central committee meeting of our leadership could not take place,” Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, the head of the LTTE’s political wing, informed the Norwegian Ambassador in a letter on Sunday.

Previously, the Sri Lanka military had provided air transport whenever senior LTTE commander had to travel between their controlled areas in the north and the east.

This time, when the request for transport was made, the Sri Lanka government not only refused to provide air transport, but also refused to accept the LTTE transporting the commanders in their own vessels.

To break the impasse, the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Ulf Henricson, had suggested the alternative of a civilian vessel as an “exclusive and extra-ordinary SLMM arrangement.” The parties had also agreed there would be no Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) escort or interference in the civil transportation.

However, on Friday, the Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat (SCOPP), “out of the blue”, imposed two new conditions for the sea-transport arrangement. The first was that the LTTE commanders should not reach the ferry using their own vessel but a civilian boat must be arranged to go up to the ferry. The other condition was that the ferry arranged by the SLMM was to be treated as an LTTE vessel and the Sri Lankan Navy must escort it.

The SLMM was informed of these new conditions on the Mullaitivu shore as monitors and temporary replacements for the LTTE eastern commanders were waiting to board the ferry.

“Sri Lanka Navy attempted to override the SLMM arrangement with a procedure agreed for the transportation of LTTE owned military vessels in 2003,” clarified Mr. S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE’s Peace Secretariat.

Mr Puleedevan was referring to a 2003 arrangement whereby the LTTE could transport it cadres in its own military vessels with the SLN, with SLMM facilitation, able to observe LTTE military vessels from a minimum of 3 nautical miles beyond the 5 nautical mile zone where LTTE operates.

Mr Puleedevan said the LTTE, immediately upon receiving the message Friday night, turned down the suggestion from the SCOPP.

“Insisting on new conditions through fax few hours before the transport was to take place, and overriding the previously agreed procedures is not acceptable to us. This is a matter of principle and integrity,” Mr. Puleedevan told TamiNet after returning to Kilinochchi from Mullaithivu.

“These excessive interference by the Sri Lankan Navy in the sea transport of our commanders, in total contradiction to the prior agreement with you, have made us loose faith in the promises made by SLMM,” the LTTE stated in a letter sent to the head of the SLMM immediately after the incident.

A the time of the journey being cancelled, SLMM officials, along with junior LTTE officials, were on board the ferry which was scheduled to transport the acting commanders of the LTTE to Eastern District before transporting the Eastern Commanders Col. Sornam and Col. Bhanu to Vanni.

SLMM chief Henricsson had meanwhile been waiting in Batticaloa, to accompany the Batticaloa Commander of the LTTE, Col. Bhanu.

Despite having proscribed the Liberation Tigers as a terrorist organization, Canada still wanted Sri Lanka to negotiate with it and was also prepared to host such talks, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said last Tuesday.

“Mr. MacKay said he has spoken to Norwegian officials about Canada playing a more active role in the Sri Lanka talks, including possibly holding talks here,” the Toronto Star reported.

The new Conservative government Monday officially announced that the Tigers have been formally listed as a terrorist group. The listing makes it illegal for anyone in Canada to support or participate in Tamil Tigers activities, including fundraising.

The Toronto Star reported “the implications of the [ban] are a concern for many in the Tamil community, since the majority of Canada’s more than 200,000-strong diaspora supports the political aspirations of the Tigers to create an independent Tamil homeland.”

But according to one legal expert, aside from the political and symbolic implications, the move has limited practical application.

“It’s very unfortunate window dressing,” Queen’s Faculty of Law professor Sharryn Aiken, told the Toronto Star. “As a matter of law, there is very little added benefit.”

Aiken, who worries that Canada has lost its neutral position to help in the peace process, argues the negative impact of the listing outweighs any positive outcome, the paper reported.

The former Liberal government had barred the LTTE from raising cash in Canada, under anti-terrorism legislation brought in after 9/11, but had stopped short of an outright ban.

The LTTE has not commented formally on the Canadian proscription, but Political Wing Chief S. P. Tamilselvan said the move would embolden and encourage Sinhala nationalists urging war while undermining advocates of a negotiated solution.

“The move would definitely hurt Tamil sentiments,” Mr. Tamilselvan told reporters after meeting representatives of the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka’s peace process.

Other LTTE officials pointed out that contrary to expectations, support for the movement has steadily grown in the United States and Britain, despite it being proscribed there, adding support for the organization stems from the decades of violence and oppression inflicted by the Sri Lankan state.

Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper reported in November 2004 that eighteen thousand people attended remembrance events in UK, coinciding with Heroes Day celebrations in LTTE-held Vanni. Organizers were compelled to organize two venues last year while five years earlier, before the UK banned the LTTE in 2001, eight thousand attended the London event, expatriates said.

The British ban in February 2001 came amid a unilateral ceasefire the LTTE had been observing since December 2000. The Tigers called off the truce two months later.

In the wake of the British decision, the hardline Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Sihala Urumaya (now Jeyathika Hela urumaya) claimed victory and have announced that they will extend the campaign to oppose Norwegian attempts to facilitate talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.

The LTTE’s Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Anton Balasingham warned at the time, “the British decision will encourage the repressive Sri Lankan regime to be more uncompromising, intransigent and to adopt a military path.”

Two months later, the Sri Lanka Army launched Operation ‘Agni Khiela’, an all out effort to recapture Elephant Pass, which had fallen to the Tigers a year earlier.

The offensive was defeated with staggering losses and many observers linked the extended incapacitation of the SLA’s offensive divisions as a major factor (along with the later Katunayake airport attack) in Colombo’s decision to enter into negotiations with the LTTE.

In all, 13 Tamil civilians were killed in Jaffna islets on Saturday alone, in revenge attacks by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel enraged by the sinking Thursday of two Dvora gunboats in which 18 colleagues perished.

SLN troopers from the Mandaithivu camp surrounded a civilian house in Allaipiddy in Mandaithivu islet, west of Jaffna, Saturday evening and opened fire, killing 8 civilians, including a four months baby and a four year old boy and their parents.

Three people with serious wounds were rushed to Jaffna hospital after Jaffna district magistrate ordered the Police to provide security to an ambulance from Jaffna hospital, medical sources said.

One of the wounded succumbed to his wounds at Jaffna hospital.

Palachamy Ketheeswaran, 25, his wife, Ketheeswaran Anex Ester, 23, four-years old Ketheeswaran Thanushkanth and the baby at four months, Ketheeswaran Yathursan, were the victims of a family in the massacre.

Abraham Robinson, 28, father of three, Sellathurai Amalathas, 28, father of one, Kanesh Navaratnam, 50, father of four, and Joseph Anthonymuttu, 64, father of five, were the other victims killed on the spot.

Relatives said that SLN troopers had harassed the joint-family and demanded their 2 story building, for military use, a few weeks ago. The request was politely turned down by the family.

Allaipiddy is located on the causeway from Jaffna towards islets of Velani and Kayts through Pannai bridge. After Mandaitivu, past the abandoned alluminum factory, lies the large Sri Lanka Navy garrison, 500 meters from Allaipiddy.

The SLN in Mandaithivu claimed that they were attacked with grenades and opened fire at the attackers. Only four have died according to the SLN. This claim was later denied by the SLN officials in Colombo.

Meanwhile, residents said eight persons, including the baby and the four years old child were massacred by the Sri Lanka Navy troopers. There was no grenade attack, according to them.

Separately, three civilians from the same family were massacred at their home in Puliyankoodal in Kayts by SLN-backed paramilitary gunmen, around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. A tea-shop owner was also found shot dead near Velanai junction.

The victims of this attack were identified as Murugesu Shanmugalingam, 72, his wife, Shanmugalingam Parameswari, 65, and their son S.Kantharoopan, 29. The attackers entered their house late in the night and fired indiscriminately, killing them on the spot.

Shanmugalingam owns a telephone centre close to his house which was also blasted by the attackers, TamilNet reported. A petrol station was attacked.

It is a bare problem that has not been addressed for long. The students of the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Chennai have been demanding younger female models who would pose in the nude for their art classes.

However, college authorities have not succeeded in replacing a 45-plus year old model who has become a fixture on the campus in Egmore for more than two decades.

‘‘Our problem is this. We are so used to the anatomy of the elderly model that we do not find variety, which is the lifeline of an artist. Unless we get younger models, mastering portraits and painting becomes difficult for us,’’ complained Saravanan, a third year student of painting. Students find it odd that they have to study the same anatomy year after year.

The model is old and her’s is an ‘‘out of shape’’ anatomy, which does not bring out the feminine beauty, said Sargunan, a fellow student adding that it affected creativity in art.

‘‘We need normal anatomy for our study but the college authorities are not able to pay the young models who charge a heavy fee per session. On some occasions, they managed to get amateurs who could not pose in a particular posture for a session. Mid-way through, they would change the posture affecting our concentration,’’ pointed out Saravanan.

Fresh models, who would have the patience for the job are difficult to find. A model has to pose in a particular posture at least for three hours at a stretch.

‘‘To that extent, our elderly model has been very cooperative. She knows the job well and even if she takes a tea break during a session, she would come back and sit in the same posture as was directed,’’ said Madan.

There is also so much inhibition about posing in the nude that not many were willing to come forward to present themselves as an living object of study for the arts students.

There is another model related problem at the college. Male models are equally in demand among the students of painting. ‘‘In the absence of professional models, we hire rooms and pose in the nude for our classmates to study our skull form,’’ said Saravanan.

Professors acknowledged that the problem with nudity was an old one. Funds crunch and lack of professional models were the stumbling blocks they said.

With both of Tamil Nadu’s main political parties squared off for the May 8 polls, both seemed evenly matched this week. The DMK and AIADMK have both released their manifestoes and their lists of the candidates. Both the leaders Mr. M. Karunanidhi of the DMK and his arch-rival, Ms. J. Jayalalitha will commence campaigning this week, as will Mr. Vaiko (Y. Gopalasamy) of the MDMK, who switched from the DMK coalition to AIDMK’s recently.

In the past, events closer to the polls sway voters rather than the past performance of parties in government. During the last elections, Ms. Jayalalitha converted the rejection of her nomination papers which she filed for Andipatti and other two Assembly seats into a main election issue and voters responded. This year, it remains to seen which issue would dominate what promises to be a hard-fought battle.

The DMK manifesto is promising rice at Rs. 2/- per kilo and a colour television to all households. A wild idea, but the party may be trying to repeat their mentor Mr. CN Annadurai’s first election promise during 1950s. How far voters would react positively is doubtful given the staggering funds obviously required for such a scheme.

The DMK front has got specific advantages, like the support of the Congress party and the solid vote bank of the PMK solid vote bank in certain districts and the support of the Communists in others.

While it has no frontline leaders with charismatic appeal, amongst leaders, many feel there is no match for the DMK supreme, Mr. Karunanidhi. But how much his health would permit active and aggressive field work is a question.

Congress President Sonia is likely to campaign but her time will be limited as she has to canvas in other states also going to polls, especially Kerala and Assam, where Congress is a ruling party. But with Kerala also going to the polls and completing the process before Tamil Nadu, the alliance hopes to benefit from the visits of Ms.Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.

From the AIADMK perspective, newly allied MDMK Chief, Vaiko would be touring the length and breadth of the state and is another fiery orator. Ms. Jayalalitha is also a known crowd puller and both are expected to tour throughout the state, enthusing party workers.

And it also appears that Ms. Jayalalitha is pinning her hopes on the minority votes which went solidly to DMK front during the Loksabha Elections. At that time BJP was with her and many of her measures, such as the Anti-Conversion Act, angered the minorities and they deserted the AIDMK. But by taking a calculated risk in isolating BJP she has endeared herself to the minorities and even a 50% shift of votes to her Front would be decisive factor in the next ruling party.

She has also called off a series of unpopular reforms, which led to her party’s defeat in parliamentary elections.

Obviously the level of discontentment that a ruling party would normally face during election time – the anti-incumbency vote- is missing this time, to the AIADMK’s advantage – and relief. Questions about the performance of Ministers from Tamil Nadu at the Central government, better management of tsunami and the after effects, the decision to announce cash component as aid for flood affected people throughout flood affected areas, distribution of free cycles to school going girls, announcement of so many welfare schemes and restoring the benefits which was withdrawn by her to state government employees would endeared Ms. Jayalaitha to the electorate.

Both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi are running for the office of chief minister. Whilst their strategies are not clear, both sides have reasons to think they will win the elections.

The DMK has the advantage of big parties in its Democratic Progressive Alliance. Its former enemy - the Congress party will contest in 48 constituencies on its behalf. The next biggest player on its side, the PMK of Ramadoss got 31 seats - four more than what it secured as an ally of Jayalalithaa in the last election.

Its other allies - the CPI-M will contest in 13 constituencies and the CPI in 10. A faction of the IUML will seek votes in three areas on the symbol of the DMK’s Rising Sun. Former Minister RM Veerapan is expected to secure one seat for his MGR Kazhagam and Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam is also likely to get one seat.

But speculation over leadership issues could damage the unity within the DMK. Tamil Nadu watchers say the DMK’s ageing leader Karunanidhi may prefer his less popular son M Stalin to be chief minister in the event of victory in the polls but there is no official word on the matter.

Such a leadership scenario, observers indicate, will dip its popularity with the voters as well as with party workers.

Jayalalithaa’s alliance - the Democratic People’s Front – includes, apart from MDMK, the DPI contesting in nine constituencies, a breakaway faction of the IUML with one seat, Forward Bloc - Santhanam group - one seat, INL - one seat and the splinter group of the INTUC with two seats.

The only question affecting all parties is election fatigue. Officials and voters complain the State has been going into “election mode” too often, alternating between Parliamentary and Assembly elections.

In 1998, 1999 and 2004, there were Lok Sabha elections. In 1996 and 2001, Assembly elections were held. People have got inured to election fever and rhetoric which appear every two years.

As widely expected, the BJP, which has become hard to ally with in this election, is expected fight alone and field candidates in more than 170 seats. Actor Vijayakant’s new party is also testing the water alone. In a battle which is becoming highly personalised and polarised it remains to be seen how these parties will do. Vijayakant is attracting very good crowds in all areas where he has toured but his party cadre are not experienced to convert the popularity of their leader into votes.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) contesting under Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) banner, won control of Trincomalee Urban Council and 6 other Northeastern Pradeshiya Sabhas in last week’s local government elections.

Despite the polls being postponed in most areas of the North East due to security concerns, in all the party won 35 of the 118 seats in 13 local authorities, including 2 urban councils and eleven Pradeshiya Sabhas, in the areas it contested.

The ITAK won 10 seats in Trincomalee Urban Council, 6 seats in the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Pradeshiya Sabha and was elected uncontested in the Verugal Pradeshiya Sabha. The party also won all the 9 seats in Thirukkovil and Alaiadivembu Pradeshiya Sabahs and won Karaithivu with 4 seats in Amparai district

In Trincomalee where local council polls were conducted after 12 years, the voter turn-out was high mainly in Muslim and Tamil majority areas. Assistant Elections Commissioner M.M.S.K. Bandara Mapa said people were not so enthusiastic in the Sinhala majority areas of Kantale, Gomarankadawala and Padavi-Sripura.

Mr. Mapa said two polling booths were set up at Kattaparichchan and Toppur for people from the LTTE-controlled areas to vote. A bus service was also in operation to transport voters in and out of the uncleared areas. The LTTE too operated a bus service to facilitate people to cast their vote.

“Tamils and Muslims are voting enthusiastically probably because they want to elect the parties representing their ethnic identities,” he told the Daily Mirror. In these areas, the turn-out was more than 50 percent.

All those elected to the Trincomalee Urban Council were Tamils and Muslims. The newly elected council consists of 9 Tamils and 3 Muslims.

The ITAK fielded fourteen Tamils and two Muslims for council, and of them, 9 Tamils and a Muslim were elected on preferential votes. The remaining 2 councillors were from an independent group consisted of five members from the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), four from the United National Party (UNP), 2 from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and five from the North East Sinhala Organization (NESO) and two of its Muslim members qualified to council seats.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), who had also competed for the council, were disqualified for the counting of seats when both parties failed to secure 20 percent of the total number of votes polled.

“The electoral victories of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi in the districts of Trincomalee and Amparai has inflicted a stunning defeat of the paramilitaries allied with Government of Sri Lanka,” TNA parliamentarian Mr. M Sivajilingam was quoted by TamilNet as saying.

Suresh Premachandran, TNA parliamentarian, said, “Tamil speaking people in the East are fully supporting the Tamil National struggle. By give ITAK huge electoral success, Tamil people in the East has rejected outright Colombo’s efforts to portray paramilitaries as a viable democratic force in the East.”

Prior to the polls on March 30, ITAK had made a concerted effort to campaign in Trincomalee, seeing a victory for Tamil speaking people in the district as essential to preventing the demerger of the NorthEast.

“Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi must capture the administration of the Trincomalee Urban Council in the local poll to scuttle the campaign by chauvinist elements for a de-merger of the NorthEast province. Tamil speaking people in Trincomalee district must unequivocally demonstrate that they will not allow any moves of de-merger to materialize,” said Mr. K. Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district TNA parliamentarian, told a rally on the Sunday before the polls.

“We should be prepared to take the challenge to capture more local authorities, especially the Trincomalee Urban Council which is the main target of the chauvinist elements. Every Tamil speaking person in Trincomalee should get out on the polling day to cast his or her vote for the ITAK symbol, HOUSE,” Mr. Thurairatnasingham said.

Meanwhile, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, whose paramilitary cadres operate with the Sri Lanka Army in the NorthEast, expressed dissatisfaction over the Elections Department’s decision to postpone elections in the North and East. Addressing a press conference Mr. Devananda said that it is unfortunate that the Election Department had to postpone the local government election except in Ampara and Trincomalee as it had prevented them from winning the Pudukudiyiruppu Pradeshiya Sabha in the North – the ITAK list for Pudukudiyiruppu had been declared invalid.

In the NorthEast, the Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections has postponed elections to 45 local government authorities in the 6 districts of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Killinochchi, Mannar, Vavuniya and Batticaloa till September 30.

Amid a furore over the Liberation Tigers’ demands that Sri Lankan government disarms a Muslim entity called ‘Jihad’ which is amongst five anti-LTTE paramilitary groups being sponsored by military intelligence, the Sri Lanka Army is reportedly planning to raise an exclusive Muslim unit in the island’s volatile eastern province.

The issue of Muslim militancy has been gaining focus amid renewed suggestions by the LTTE that Jihad has links to Pakistani intelligence – a charge leveled by Indian military analysts as early as in 2004.

Sri Lanka is setting up its first infantry battalion made of only Muslims. Whilst recruitment is from the Ampara district, which has a large concentration of Muslims, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse says the troops will be deployed all over island and will not be restricted to the Eastern province.

Coming in the wake of repeated protests by the LTTE that Sri Lankan military intelligence was deploying a Muslim paramilitary group in its long running and bloody covert war against LTTE members and supporters.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said mobile recruitment units were dispatched to Muslim villages in the Ampara district and interviews for news recruits to this battalion which started last Tuesday would continue up to April 5 at the army’s Combat Training School in Ampara.

He said the command structure of the battalion which would initially made up of 500 soldiers is yet to be worked out. Up to 800 soldiers may eventually be hired. After training will be entitled to a monthly salary package totaling Rs. 15,000 and other allowances. Sinhala soldiers in the Army earn a package of Rs. 17,000.

An announcement in the state-owned Sunday Observer this week in the form of an advertisement said new recruits should have a minimum qualification of having passed Grade 8 in schools and be a Muslim living in the eastern province.

The development comes amid a furore after the LTTE, supplying a dossier of evidence, asserted during the talks in Geneva last month, that ‘Jihad’ in Trincomalee is amongst five paramilitary groups being sponsored by Sri Lankan military intelligence.

Jihad’s former leader, Abdul Hakeem, was shot dead last September. His killing was reported to be linked to business rivalry and infighting within the Muslim community, but came amid a bloody cycle of violence between Army-backed paramilitary groups and the LTTE.

This week, in an interview to Australia’s Broadcasting Cooperation, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said the movement can provide evidence the Jihad group has connections to Pakistani intelligence.

The activities of Islamic militants in Sri Lanka (particularly in the strategically important Trincomalee district) and their organic links to Pakistan drew the attention of Indian military analysts as early as two years ago.

“There have been persistent reports of the beginning of a radicalisation of small sections of the Tamil-speaking Muslim youth of the Eastern Province [of Sri Lanka],” Bahukutumbi Raman, Director of the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai, wrote in mid 2004.

Mr. Raman was once head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, and has been a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board (NSAB).

“The [Pakistan-based Islamic militant group] Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) has been showing increasing interest in taking jihad to the Muslims of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka,” he wrote in 2004.

“The LET is very close to the [Pakistani intelligence] ISI” Mr. Raman said. “LET would not have taken its initial moves to explore the possibility of using Sri Lanka as a clandestine base for its activities and for creating sleeper cells there without the knowledge and prior clearance of the ISI.”

Mr. Raman cited the activities of the ‘Osama’ group amidst the communal clashes between Tamils and Muslims in the eastern province in 2002 as well as reports that Tamil Nadu police had arrested some members of a local organisation called the Muslim Defence Force who said they had planned meetings with the Pakistan-based LET in eastern Sri Lanka.

Details of the Jihad group were among those of five paramilitary groups supplied in the dossier the LTTE handed over to the Sri Lankan government during the talks in Geneva. It included names of the Sri Lankan military intelligence officers coordinating Jihad’s activities, including a Major with the SLA’s 22 Brigade in Trincomalee.

The Jihad group mostly comprises individuals who either left Sri Lanka military intelligence wing or those who ostensibly deserted it, the dossier, extracts of which were later published in The Sunday Leader newspaper, says.

“The mode of action of the Jihad group is that each area is under a [local] head. These heads operate with the policy that other Jihad heads of other areas must not interfere in their area. Thus they all work independently with the military intelligence wing,” the report said.

Training and weapons for the Jihad group are provided by military intelligence, but the weapons are brought from Colombo in vehicles belonging to cabinet ministers, the report said, although the names of the ministers were not included.

But Muslims politicians have angrily rejected the LTTE’s accusations. An all party meeting in early March condemned the LTTE’s accusations and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), once the island’s largest Muslim party, has demanded the matter be taken up at the next round of talks.

However, the SLMC was itself once urging Muslims not to be drawn into militancy. In the wake of an attack on the newly opened LTTE political office in Muttur in June 2002, the SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem, then seeking an alliance with the LTTE, “condemned the sinister elements which attempt to disturb the prevailing cordial atmosphere between the Muslims and Tamils in the east.”

“The SLMC requests all peace loving Muslims to exercise restraint and not to fall prey to these extremist groups whose agendas go against the principles of peaceful cohabitation,” Sri Lankan state media quoted Mr. Hakeem as saying.

More generally, Muslim politicians have themselves often raised the spectre of Islamic militancy emerging in Sri Lanka to bolster their demands for political concessions from Colombo governments.

Even whilst denying the LTTE’s charges last week, Muslim politicians repeated a frequently aired warning that unless Muslim demands are taken into consideration a situation may develop where Muslim youth would be “compelled to take up arms.”

The Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF) leader Mujaber Rahuman even declared Muslims “have a right to take up arms if it was necessary for their defense as neither the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE nor the international community could defend Muslim rights.”

Muslim political leaders have also rounded on the independent election monitoring group, PAFFREL (Peoples Action for Free and fair Elections) after its head, Kingsley Rodrigo, voiced support for the disarming of groups involved in electoral politics, including Muslim ones.

PAFFREL has been attacked by Muslim politicians after they interpreted Mr. Rodrigo’s comments as claims of Muslim paramilitary activity.

The SLA has meanwhile rejected LTTE accusations it is supporting Jihad. Indeed, the military – like the Sri Lankan government – flatly rejects connection with any of the paramilitary groups blamed for a series of attacks on LTTE personnel and murders of LTTE supporters.

But SLA Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe went on to suggest Muslim gunmen might indeed be operating: "There maybe underworld Muslims who roam around with arms, but we are not aware of an armed group called Jihad consisting of Muslims."

Interestingly, Sri Lanka’s former Deputy Defence Minister, Anuruddha Ratwatte, on trial last year on charges of being behind the murder of ten Muslim youth in Kandy during the 2001 election, stated in his lengthy defence testimony that he had ordered Sri Lanka’s police chief to investigate the activities of Jihad members who had come to Kandy from Trincomalee on election day, December 5.

Muslim paramilitaries, most notably – and officially – under the banner of ‘Home Guards’ have long been a feature of the volatile and bloody dynamics of the eastern province.

The home guards are an auxiliary paramilitary force armed with assault rifles which operated closely with the security forces which are short of manpower in some disputed areas in the eastern province.

A Muslim home guard formation, including ex-militants from the then active ‘Jihad’ group, was also raised by the Sri Lankan military in the late eighties in a bid to stoke and exploit tensions between the Tamil and Muslim communities in parts of the east.

The Konduwattuwan Combat Training College in Ampara where the interviews are being conducted for the Muslim regiment now was also the venue where the eastern command of the Sri Lankan Army in August 1990 gave training to some 500 Muslim youths as home guards.

In the aftermath of the local government elections, which saw an overwhelming vote for the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), many media and commentators reported the results as a boost for the government’s approach to the peace process. They saw the voting pattern as a rejection of the anti-peace stance of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which only managed to retain the council they won at the last polls, and the hardline monks, who were not able to win control of a single body.

“No doubt this augurs well for the future and the peace process,” the state-run Daily News said in an editorial. “It is quite obvious that those political parties seen as espousing the interests of specific cultural groups have been rejected.”

“Sri Lankan voters have shown they do not support hardline or extremist parties,” Jayadeva Uyangoda, head of political studies at Colombo University, told Reuters. “This is good news for President Rajapakse.” Uyangoda said he expected the government now to take a more conciliatory line with the Liberation Tigers.

However, this reading of the poll result conveniently manages to ignore some of the realities of the vote. Firstly, this reading assumes people voted on the peace process, which has not been proven. Secondly, the reported routing of the JVP ignores the gains the party made in the number of votes it polled. And thirdly, it assumes that the Marxists and monks were the constraint on President Mahinda Rajapakse and that a lessening of their control will see a shift in approach towards a more conciliatory approach – the basis of which assumption is not self-evident.

While many saw Thursday’s vote as a litmus test of the popularity of the JVP, and a statement on the stance taken by each of the parties towards the peace process, many other observers saw it as a vote purely on local matters. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem was one of many who argued that the election could not be seen as a mandate for anything other than improving utilities at the local level.

In fact, most of the observers agreed it was a vote for the President’s ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ platform, which was a vision for power sharing from the local village level. Similarly many observers agreed that Sri Lankan voters generally favour the party in power at local elections in the hope of getting more government money. On that basis, the vote was not on the peace process at all, and analysts say a true reading on the peoples’ stance towards the Norwegian-facilitated process can only be assessed at a national parliamentary or Presidential election.

Secondly the reading of the poll results as being a routing of the hardliners ignores the raw numbers polled. The JVP for instance managed to expand its voter base, increasing its number of councillors by more than 50%. The party itself saw the results as a ‘considerable victory’. The party’s general secretary Tilvin Silva said there was a 10 percent increase in the total number of votes polled by the party. “We managed to win 817,000 votes and there is an increase from 210 councillors to 366,” he said. The rise in number of votes for the JVP suggests this vote has not been a denouncement of the policies of the party. On the contrary, the party managed to gain more support for its policies and politics.

The only reason the count was seen as a blow to the hardline anti-peace process stance was due to an expectation that the JVP would have done better, with some suggestion before the election that they would sweep the polls. In reality, while the increase in support for the JVP may be read as a statement on their policies about governance at a local level – the party had a very clear policy on local government. Only the tiny support for the hardline Buddhist monks of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) can be seen as support for an anti-peace stance as the party was formed and operates purely on this basis.

The other crucial assumption in the optimistic reading of the polls results is that President Mahinda Rajapakse is not a hardliner and that his ability to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers was constrained by his hardline allies. This conveniently ignores the issue of why the President would choose to have allies with whose philosophies he fundamentally differs from. That Rajapakse chose to align himself with the JVP and the JHU – much to the chagrin of some SLFPers, including party leader Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the horror of his liberal minded supporters - in the lead up to the Presidential polls suggests that the views expressed by the two parties were not entirely at odds to those of the President himself.

The reading of President Rajapakse as having his own hardline views gains credibility, moreover, when the acceptance speeches delivered by Mr. Rajapakse after he was sworn in as President and his subsequent actions are reviewed – Sinhala hardliners were sworn in to many positions including that of Foreign Minister and head of the Army. Many other hardliners have earned trusted positions in the President’s immediate circle.

Some are arguing that this view of the President as a Sinhala hardliner is incorrect and claim Mr. Rajapakse was merely being pragmatic in his choice of bedfellows, seeking allies who would help in securing his Presidential victory. But, even if this were the case, Rajapakse cannot afford to disregard the results of last week’s poll which as many, including the President himself, have hailed as a vote for his manifesto, ‘Mahinda Chinthana’.

Given that Mahinda Chinthana is resolutely and unambiguously based on a unitary Sri Lanka, the results immediately constrains the government when it comes to negotiating power sharing arrangements with the LTTE. The possibility of the government taking a more conciliatory approach to the next round of peace talks thus seem as remote as ever. The JVP, moreover, as co-authors of Mahinda Chinthana, will act as a potent watchdog in this regard, ready to seize on the first inkling of retreat.

These poll results have undoubtedly strengthened the President’s hand, but this does not necessarily lead automatically towards a positive development for the peace process. Indeed, a stronger President may now be less willing to enter into a national government with the main parliamentary opposition United National Party (UNP), thereby making more remote the chances of having negotiators at the peace table who represent a consensus view from Sri Lanka’s southern politics. Taking all these factors together, if the local government polls are to be read as having any impact on the peace process at all, it is more likely to be a negative one.

The announcement by the Sri Lanka Army last week that it is recruiting for a battalion comprising ethnic Muslims has drawn mixed reactions from a spectrum of observers of communal politics in the island’s contentious East.

Many Muslim community organisations have slammed the move as ethnically divisive, although the two main Muslim political parties, the National Unity Alliance (NUA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) have both remained silent on the matter.

The militant Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF) welcomed the notion of a Muslim force, but was critical of its integration into the Sri Lankan armed forces. Some in the Muslim dominated Amparai district have welcomed the move, not least because it would provide the tsunami battered region with desperately needed employment opportunities.

The Sri Lanka military has been promoting the project as an effort to attract ethnic minorities into its overwhelmingly Sinhala ranks and as a ‘local’ force for the Amparai district. But the focus on only Muslim recuits, as opposed to Tamil speakers in general, or as residents of Amparai more widely have rightly raised suspicions about the military’s true motives. In either case, there is no obvious need for a specific Muslim battalion - the Sri Lankan military could expand it recruitment of members from ethnic communities and employ them within existing units.

Even the Sinhala-Buddhist monks of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have, without understanding the government’s subtle motives, criticized the move as an negation of the Sri Lankan national identity. The fiercely nationalistic party, which has a stake in the governing United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, is averse to formal recognition of non-Sinhala ethnicity in Sri Lanka.

The main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has condemned the move as another effort to create a divide between the Muslim and Tamil communities. The TNA is basing its accusations on similar efforts by previous Sri Lankan governments to create Muslim armed units in the East and pit them against Tamil militants. The creation of the Muslim ‘Home Guard’ units in the early nineties was a key causal factor in the escalation of communal animosity and hostility in the east (a legacy of that era is the significant number of Muslims amongst the military intelligence commanders).

The benefit of Tamil speaking operatives has also been starkly evident in the ongoing ‘shadow war’ between the LTTE and the paramilitary units of the Sri Lankan Army. These organizations are able to carry out operations for which the military were able to plausibly assert deniability. With the beginning of the peace process, paramilitaries have been employed more than ever before in intelligence gathering activities and now the shadow war against the Tigers. Having a Muslim battalion will greatly assist the Sri Lankan military’s efforts to recruit and train Tamil speaking covert operatives - whilst preventing non-Sinhala infiltration into its wider body.

However, the formation of a Muslim battalion has repercussions beyond the use of Muslims in paramilitary activities. A less obvious but more dangerous implication of the formation of a Muslim battalion is the formal association of the Muslim community with the Sri Lankan military’s efforts to crush Tamil aspirations for autonomy for the Northeast.

To date, there has been no formal ideological opposition within the Muslim community to Tamil self-determination per se - only demands for its own self-determination. But the introduction of a Muslim battalion, with its own Muslim name, regimental colours and with recruits drawn explicitly from Muslims in the east, will bring with it a new political position for Muslims vis-a-vis the Tamil struggle: namely, Muslims become a participating community, rather than individuals.

As P. Sahadevan, an expert on South Asia at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, put it, ‘A Muslim unit is going to add to the communalisation of the Sri Lankan military. ... It is sure to create a divide between Tamils and Muslims.’

To begin with, this brings the Muslim community to have a practical stake in the conflict - on the state’s side. A similar politicisation took place in the Sinhala regions. The lower ranks of the Sri Lanka Army hail from rural areas in the south. Apart from integrating these areas into the war economy, this involvement has no doubt contributed to support for hardline positions on the ‘Tamil problem.’

In the aftermath of the tsunami, Tamil charities such as the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) reached out to the Muslim communities in the region as part of wider efforts to build communal relations. The LTTE also subsequently deployed political cadres and senior political leaders to the area to build Tamil-Muslim links.

With the formation of the Muslim battalion, the Sinhala government is seeking to create a structural obstacle to consolidation of Tamil-Muslim relations in the east and to begin to create structural cleavages in the region. Muslim political and community leaders have succeeded in maintaining a nominally neutral position for most of the conflict between the Tamils and the Sinhala dominated state. With a single stroke the Sri Lankan government and military have ensured this is no longer the case.

The introduction of ethnically constituted paramilitary organisations - particularly Sinhala and Muslim ‘Home Guards’ - during the early nineteen nineties led to a dramatic escalation of communal violence in the east. The state succeeded in pitting Muslims and Tamils against one another and the resulting massacres and counter-massacres left profound scars.

Over a decade later the LTTE, has enjoyed some successes in rebuilding communal relations. It is in recognition of these advances that organisations like the Muslim Peace Secretariat has condemned the Sri Lankan military’s move to create a Muslim battalion.

Many of the recruits from the tsunami-ravaged Amparai district to the new Muslim unit, drawn by the Rs. 15,000 monthly package, are unlikely to be reflect long on these aspects. But the Muslim battalion is, without question, going to undermine efforts to build Tamil-Muslim links. Like many of President Rajapakse’s other efforts to bolster the Sri Lankan military, his government claims it is merely a deterrent to prevent the LTTE from returning to war.

But whatever lofty rationale is presented, the Sinhala state is, as some, bitterly recalling the bloody nineties, quite rightly put it, positioning the Muslims as a buffer against the Tamils.

The Liberation Tigers will view any further attacks by military-backed paramilitaries as an act of war and may postpone next month’s talks in Geneva unless the state fulfils the Ceasefire Agreement and disarms them, the LTTE’s Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham said last week.

In an interview to Reuters at his London home, Mr. Balasingham also said President Mahinda Rajapakse should dump his Sinhala nationalist allies and seek support from the main opposition UNP party which led a government that held six rounds of talks with the LTTE in 2002-3.

“If the paramilitaries continue to launch military offensive operations against the LTTE with the backing of the Sri Lankan armed forces, it will certainly be construed as an act of war against the LTTE,”

“It will lead to conditions of war and violence and it will block any forward movement of the peace talks and lead to the collapse of the peace process itself.”

“The LTTE leadership will consider postponing the second round (of talks), or they might even think of attending the talks and continue to insist on the same (disarmament) theme that was taken up at the first round,” Balasingham said.

“So there won’t be any forward movement of the talks if these paramilitaries are not disarmed,” he added.

But residents from the Northeast, particularly the garrison towns of Jaffna and Batticaloa reported heightened paramilitary activity. In Jaffna, gunmen of the EPDP were openly patrolling with Sri Lankan troops whilst in Batticaloa, cadres from the Karuna Group opened signposted offices.

Both developments – in which Sri Lanka’s military are involved - are being seen as a defiant response to the government’s reluctant agreement during the first round of talk in Geneva in February to implement the Ceasefire Agreement, which obligates Colombo to either disarm paramilitary units or absorb them into its regular forces for service outside the contested Northeast.

If the talks do go ahead this month, amongst the pressing matters the LTTE will raise are the Sri Lankan military’s continuing occupation of dozens of emptied Tamil villages in the high security zones (HSZs) and restrictions on Tamil fishing communities.

The Tigers want the vast HSZs in the far north vacated by the military so that thousands of displaced people can return to rebuild homes ravaged by years of incessant shelling. The Tigers also want the army to halt cordon and search operations and military harassment of civilians.

“The strategic objective of the current negotiations as far as the LTTE is concerned is to seek out a climate of de-escalation and normalisation, which is a necessary condition for resuming serious talks on the political issues,” Balasingham told Reuters.

Even if the present talks on ceasefire progress to negotiations on political issues, President Rajapakse’s ultra nationalist allies, the Marxist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Perumana) and hardline monks party, the JHU (Jeyathika Hela Urumaya) are likely to be spoilers, Mr. Balasingham said.

“Rather than bring in these crazy Marxists and mad monks under the slogan of inclusiveness, the only way out of this mess is for Rajapakse to work out some form of alliance with the UNP (United National Party),” Mr. Balasingham told Reuters.

The UNP-led coalition which governed Sri Lanka from Dec 2001 to April 2004 signed a truce with the Tigers and held several rounds of Norwegian brokered talks with them, despite being hamstrung by a hostile President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Rajapakse’s predecessor.

In the past two weeks, the JVP resumed its vehement opposition to the Norwegian facilitation of the stuttering peace process. JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa warned ‘undiplomatic’ activities by Norway would create a ‘storm’ that would jeopardize political stability of the country.

The JVP is Sri Lanka’s third largest party and is widely thought to be closing the gap on the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Rajapakse’s rejection of the concepts of Tamil homeland and nationhood – enshrined in electoral pacts he signed with the JVP and JHU before the Nov 2005 elections - presented an obstacle to a negotiated solution to the protracted conflict, Mr. Balasingham said.

“Unless Rajapakse...accepts the demand of the Tamils for regional autonomy, there won’t be any prospect for a political solution,” he said.

“If...internal self-determination is rejected, then only we will invoke the right to external self-determination - that is the right to form an independent state.”

ABC: Mr. Anton Balasingham, welcome.
Balasingham: Thank you.

ABC: Now, you claim peace talks are in jeopardy because of this “shadow war” also being fought by Tamil paramilitaries controlled by the government. What evidence do you have of this?
Balasingham: We have provided quite a lot of evidence documentary evidence, maps and other details to the Sri Lankan government with regard to their existence and functions, with regard to their leadership, their command structure, the location of their camps in the government-controlled areas. And we have submitted ample evidence to substantiate that these groups are actively functioning with the Sri Lankan troops in their offensive military campaigns against the LTTE.

ABC: What makes you think the authorities can control them? Because they sound as if they’ve got a will of their own to fight you.
Balasingham: Most of these armed paramilitaries are operating in the government military establishments, in the military camps. So, if Rajapakse government genuinely wants peace, the escalation in normalcy, they can put an end to this violence by disarming these paramilitaries.

ABC: One of these paramilitary groups is run by Karuna, your former Eastern Commander. Why did Karuna defect?
Balasingham: He has been misbehaving in the sense that there has been a lot of complaints about misappropriation of funds. He has been involved in recruiting underage cadets, and he has been committing serious crimes against the Muslim population in the east.

What is disturbing is that the Sri Lankan armed forces are helping him, harbouring him, sustaining him and helping him in this subversive role against the LTTE. That is a most alarming development.

ABC: These Tamil paramilitary groups were once your people. They’ve turned against you, so doesn’t that mean you no longer can represent the Tamil community, that it’s now Tamil against Tamil?
Balasingham: We are not asking the government to disband the political structure of these organisations. Let them function as political organisations. But their armed wings have to be curtailed, and have to be dismantled, because it’s posing a serious challenge to the peace process.

ABC: You claim that one of these paramilitary groups is a Tamil Muslim Jihad group. What can you tell us about this group? Because the Muslims in the east deny their existence.
Balasingham: We know why the Muslim political organizations are denying, is the fact that because the international community will be seriously concerned if there is a Muslim terrorist organization functioning in Sri Lanka, with connections.

I think we have evidence to prove that this Jihad organization has connections with the Pakistani Military Intelligence. Therefore, they are formally denying it. But we have ample evidence, and we can further submit evidence if the Muslim leaders contact us.

ABC: But it beggars belief that any government would allow the growth of a Muslim Jihad group, and one with links to Pakistan, in this current international climate.
Balasingham: Yes, that is a dangerous thing. But the Sri Lankan government has a very good relationship with Pakistan and China, that is our worry. Because Sri Lanka has been getting military assistance and training from Pakistan. And also they have very close relationship with China.

So, we are seriously worried whether the intervention of Pakistan in this matter, in training and providing assistance to the Jihad movement, will have serious repercussions. It may have serious repercussions in India, if India comes to know more about these Jihad groups.

ABC: Dr Balasingham, is it any wonder that you’re having difficulties with this hard-line president? Because by boycotting the elections, you prevented the sympathetic candidate from gaining power.
Balasingham: We are prepared to deal with the hard-liners, rather than with the soft-liners who promise certain things and never fulfil anything. So, let us take up this challenge and negotiate with the hard-liners and see how far they will tackle the problem.

Our concern is to impress upon the international community that the real problem, the real impediment to the resolution of the Tamil problem are the Sinhalese hard-liners.

ABC: So, how can the international community put pressure on this government?
Balasingham: I think the international community can assert tremendous influence on the Sri Lankan political system, because the Sri Lankan government is totally depending on the foreign aid that is given by the aid-giving countries.

So, these co-chairs of the aid-giving countries of the international community can exert enough pressure on Sri Lankan political leaders to offer something reasonable, something fair to the Tamil people like this, at these last stages.

ABC: Dr Anton Balasingham, thank you.
Balasingham: Thank you very much.

The text of the full interview Mr. Solheim gave to Tehelka was released by the Norwegian embassy and follows.

Tehelka: The Sri Lankan government was against holding the talks in Norway, as demanded by the Tigers. They insisted that talks be held in Sri Lanka or in some Asian country. How did the two parties agree on Geneva finally?
Solheim: The parties, the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), agreed to meet after being convinced that the CFA must be upheld to prevent further escalation of the situation. Throughout the call for such a meeting, Norway reassured the parties that Norway will be ready to facilitate talks between the parties wherever they agree to meet. The parties found compromise in Geneva with suggestion from the facilitator. Switzerland has always, in the eyes of the parties, played a constructive role in supporting the peace process and maintained an unbiased approach.

Tehelka: Have you decided on the agenda for the talks? When is it going to be held?
Solheim: As you know, the parties have agreed to meet in Geneva 22-23 February. The parties have requested Norway to facilitate talks on how to address the critical security situation and improve the living conditions for the people on the ground. The parties will discuss ways and means to strengthen the implementation of the CFA. This is by no means negotiations to end the conflict, but it is very positive that the parties have agreed to meet at high level to discuss how to improve the serious security situation. This is the first time in three years that the parties meet face-to-face at such a high level.

Tehelka: You have held talks with both the sides. What are the major complaints and grievances of the two parties?
Solheim: The main complaints are related to the high level of killings, abductions and other forms of violence which have occurred during the last month. But I trust you understand that I cannot paraphrase the parties’ positions on these matters.

Tehelka: Do you believe a negotiated solution is possible, given the history of aborted agreements, and failure of peace initiatives in the past five decades between the Sinhalese and the Tamils? If you believe so, then what is the timeframe you would like to give yourself?
Solheim: I sincerely believe in a negotiated politically solution. The Norwegian Government is at the same time committed to actively promoting peace and reconciliation internationally. I can assure you that we will continue to give priority to facilitating the peace process in Sri Lanka as long as the parties request our efforts and we see that we can play a constructive role. I hope that the parties can gain mutually confidence in each other during talks on stabilising the security situation to take the peace process forward.

Tehelka: There is clear pressure on President Mahinda Rajapakse from his allies, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), not to concede even the most basic demands of Tamils. For instance, both parties favour a solution within a unitary state structure, which is a departure from the position of former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, who was in favour of a federal solution. With the present government dependent on these two parties for its survival, how meaningful do you think the talks could get?
Solheim: I cannot in my position as third party facilitator involve myself in political issues regarding internal dynamics on either side.

Tehelka: Do you think a solution is possible within a unitary state structure?
Solheim: I take the view that the parties should not be blinded by the use of different terms. During negotiations, the parties will address the substance and find a durable solution acceptable to all Sri Lankans.

Tehelka: What in your view are the legitimate grievances of Tamils?
Solheim: There is broad agreement in the international community in support for Tamil rights to some form of self rule or power sharing within a united Sri Lanka.

Tehelka: Do you agree with the view that trouble in the Island nation started with the controversial Ceylon Citizenship Act in 1948 (which disenfranchised thousands of Tamils), the declaration of Sinhala as the official language, and the subsequent laws in education favouring the Sinhalase etc, resulting in alienation of Tamils?
Solheim: Both parties would have a different take on this issue. Norway is tasked to bring the parties to the table and assist them in finding a durable solution to the conflict. We have to be careful in our comments to historical mattes, however important they may be.

Tehelka: There is a view that the European Union (EU) will revoke its travel ban on LTTE cadres following the resumption of talks between the two parties. Do you see that happening?
Solheim: Norway is not a member of the EU, and thus not involved in EU discussions with regards to travel ban on the LTTE - and neither do we have an official stance on this issue.


Tehelka: The Sri Lankan government’s proxy war against the LTTE through the Karuna group is said to be the main cause for the escalation of violence, undermining the CFA. Has the Lankan government given any assurance of disarming the Karuna group?
Solheim: Disarmament of Tamil paramilitary groups is covered by paragraph 1.8 in The Cease Fire Agreement. Both the GOSL and the LTTE have reassured that they will do their utmost to stop violence before the Geneva-meeting. It is very positive that we see a clear reduction in the use of violence from the moment this commitment was made by both parties. I truly welcome the willingness by both parties to discuss these issues in Geneva.

Tehelka: In the absence of any action against Karuna group, the LTTE has come out with its counter strategy of creating its own ‘paramilitary’ groups. Where will this ‘proxy war’ indulged in by the two parties lead to?
Solheim: I trust that the two parties are able to agree on how to improve the security situation in Geneva. These discussions will by no means be easy for the parties – I expect the negotiations to be tough. We think more than one meeting will be needed. The parties are nonetheless taking a small but very significant step towards putting the peace process back on a positive track.

Tehelka: Article 2:1 of the CFA states that both parties should “abstain from hostile acts against the civilian population.” But the Lankan military has been harassing civilians, triggering an exodus of Tamil refugees into India. Nearly 300 refugees have crossed over to India in the last month, bringing with them tales of rapes, and harassment by army men. The SLMM too has admitted to an increase in army harassment of civilians. How do you propose to address this issue?
Solheim: The parties are committed to end the campaign of violence. The parties explicitly stated that they will do their utmost to stop violence, also against civilians.

Tehelka: What did LTTE leader Prabakaran tell you when you met him?
Solheim: Prabakaran promised to do his part to put a stop to the escalating violence. He reaffirmed his commitment to the peace process and his support for a peaceful solution. Both parties repeated their confidence in Norway as an impartial facilitator for the peace process.

Tehelka: America seems to have taken a completely pro-Sinhala stand. The recent statements of US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Jeffrey Lunstead and US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns have betrayed their bias. How will this stand of the US impact the peace talks in Geneva?
Solheim: Many governments, including the US, have expressed their support to the parties ahead of the Geneva-talks and welcomed the commitment by the parties to sit down at the table. We are encouraged by the support of India, US and other international actors for the Norwegian involvement as facilitators.

Tehelka: Both parties, even while they have agreed to hold talks, seem to be preparing for war as well. Sri Lanka has proposed to increase its defence expenditure by thirty percent this fiscal year, while the LTTE has built a new airstrip and reportedly increased the strength of its ‘Sea Tiger’ naval force. What do these developments augur for a peaceful solution?
Solheim: The aim of the Geneva talks is exactly this: To avoid Sri Lanka slipping back to war.

Tehelka: The Sri Lankan government’s failure to implement the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS) agreement that it signed with the LTTE has affected thousands of Tamils in LTTE controlled areas. They could not receive international aid. Will you take up this issue in the Geneva talks?
Solheim: The Geneva-meeting will be addressing the security situation. The parties will decide when and how to approach other issues.

Tehelka: What was the outcome of your recent Indian visit and meetings with National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran? How do you think India could help Norway in the peace process?
Solheim: The Government of India has always been supportive of the peace process and Norwegian as facilitator, and India reiterated her support during the meetings. India also welcomed the flexibility shown by both parties in agreeing to Geneva as a compromise. Norway will continue to keep India informed and consulting throughout the process.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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