With the sun glistening on waves that gently lap its clean sandy beaches and coral reefs, Hikkaduwa is the perfect tourist paradise. But there is one thing missing -tourists.

Arrivals have been poor and the first ten months of the year recorded a nine percent drop as compared to 2007.

Hotel owners and managers mainly blame the country’s tense security situation for the poor showing by an industry that brought in 300 million US dollars in 2007 and was the fourth largest foreign income generator.

The global financial meltdown and the late November terror attacks on two luxury hotels in Mumbai, India, have made an already bad situation worse.

At his beachfront small hotel along the Hikkaduwa beach Ajith Fernando stares at the empty dining tables and the deck chairs and braces himself for a really bad four months ahead.

"This is the start of the season and I have only three rooms occupied. Last year by this time we had enough guests to at least break even," the owner of the ten-room hotel told IPS.

He has already begun cutting overheads. Several of his deluxe rooms are closed, the air-conditioners covered with dust jackets. "Can’t maintain them, the only tourists who come are low spenders, they don’t want rooms at 25 dollars a day, they go for the 10 dollar or 15 dollar rooms,’’ he said. He has reduced his staff from 10 to six and expects to lay off more.

Further down the same beach D. Leelaratne, who sells traditional wood carvings, has hung up his tools and has not had a customer in days. "Look at the road and the beach... at this time the area should be teeming with tourists, but there is no one, no one."

It is not only the small timers that are feeling the pinch, even larger deluxe hotels are trying to cope with plummeting guest arrivals. "The problems created by the global financial crisis have been aggravated by the Mumbai attacks," Dayal Fernando, general manager of the luxury Amaya Resort at Hikkaduwa, said.

Economists calculate that there has been a drop of at least ten percent in income generated by tourism this year and the effects will be felt acutely by the daily wage earners who rely on the trade.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s estimates for 2008, travel and tourism together were expected to contribute 2.9 billion dollars to the economy and account for one in every 15 jobs (or 567,000 jobs). This is considered vital at a time when the country is diverting a major chunk of its resources to the civil war in the north.

This month, the government announced plans to spend a sixth of the budget for 2009 on defence in a bid to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which has been waging a war to secure the secession of the Tamil dominated north and east of the island.

After military captured the eastern province from LTTE, the government has been seeking a 1.8 billion dollar aid package aimed at bringing investment to the area and reviving tourism. But the country suffers from a lowered international credit rating and rising external debts arising from the adverse security situation and lowered global demands for its main exports -- tea, rubber and textiles.

"The global financial crisis is taking a toll on the balance of payments of Sri Lanka," economist Muttukrishna Sarvananthan at the E. Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University told IPS.

“Because tourism provides livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of people in the interior parts of Sri Lanka (particularly along the southern coast) especially in terms of providing employment in the hotels and resorts, and provides markets for locally produced vegetables, fruits and handicrafts, and an array of services such as local transport, the impact on ordinary people will be considerable,’’ Sarvananthan said.

On the southern beaches the effects are palpable. At Unawatunna, the cove famous for its calm waters and its UNESCO heritage site status, Nishan Suranga stares hopefully from behind red-framed dark glasses for ptoential custom. He works as a guide, boat hirer and guest house operator, but there seems to be little demand for any of these services.

"The locals fill the beach," he told IPS. "But, they are not our clients; they don’t buy food or rent rooms, they never want guides... we are fast going under."

At a scuba diving school in Unawatunna, two youth are lazing about on the sand, staring at the sea. The tourist season coincides with the winter in Europe, the bumper months being the quarter between December and April. Most businesses run at a loss for the rest of the year.

"That is the way it works. For four months we have more than we can handle, then there is a very little," Chaminda Ekenayake, one of the youths who works at Barracuda Diving, said.

"Last season (December 2007 - April 2008) we had some guests and we could run for the rest of the year. If this season does not pick up we will have to close our operations,’’ Ekenayake said. Where he was making at least 50 dollars per day, this season he has to look around for people who may be interested in scuba diving.

The few tourists around seem to be on budgets. "We had the Japanese here sometime back, but after the financial crisis began they stopped coming. Then the Russians came but they don’t spend much,’’ Ekenayake said. ‘’The Israelis are the same... you can’t blame them if they have tight situations back home."

Though no large scale layoffs are reported yet, the smaller establishments have closed shop. The guesthouse next to Fernando’s, on the main surf area in Hikkaduwa, is padlocked. "The guy who was running this could not deal with the rent and the utility bills, he closed up and the owner of the property says he does not want to risk his own money, trying to run it," Ekenayake said.

Unfortunately for Fernando, and many others like him, there is no such thing as a bailout package. "I invested at least 40,000 dollars on this operation after the tsunami, and if the season tanks, I will automatically close shop."

His wife and two kids look at him intently as he speaks. The wife is at the hotel to help out following the staff cuts. The kids are there because of school holidays and are the only ones eating at the tables.

"This is an industry that can cave in on its own overheads if there are no guests," Fernando said. "It is not easy to run a hotel."

International rating agency, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Sri Lanka’s credit rating to B, five levels below investment grade, citing mounting public debt and political and security concerns.

 

The announcement comes shortly after the government comfortably won a budget including raising external borrowing by 25%. Sri Lanka’s external debt amounted to $12 billion at the end of 2007, almost 40 percent of gross domestic product, according to the central bank.

 

The lower credit rating will make it more expensive and difficult for the island nation to borrow from international financial markets to fund expenses.

 

“Pressure on borrowing costs in Sri Lanka will rise,” and “Growth will suffer” said Gehan Rajapakse, general manager at Eagle NDB Co., the nation’s biggest mutual fund company.

 

Sri Lanka, weighed down by the cost of its military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), needs $2.1 billion in foreign borrowing for 2009, out of which $500 million would be on commercial terms. It also has to repay $1 billion on its external borrowings in 2009.

 

Standard & Poor’s said Sri Lanka’s debt-to-revenue ratio at an estimated 440 percent “highlights the high level of indebtedness and the relatively low fiscal resource base available to service it”.

 

“The ratings on Sri Lanka reflect high government and external indebtedness, weak revenue mobilization, political and security concerns, rising balance of payments pressures and the resultant decrease in foreign reserve cushion,”

 

“In the unfolding environment of slowing economic growth, unfavorable global economic and financial market conditions, it increases the stress on Sri Lanka’s debt service.”

 

Central Bank of Sri Lanka responded to the rating cut by declaring that Standard & Poor’s revised sovereign rating of Sri Lanka was misleading and that comments made about the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals were factually incorrect, logically untenable and grossly misleading.

 

According to Reuters, in the current scenario has limited options to pursue to raise funds. They are:

 

More Bilateral Loans

Sri Lanka can negotiate for more bilateral loans, especially from India, China and other friendly countries. But analysts expect it to get those on commercial terms instead of the current concessionary rates. Analysts also expect the government to strike a deal with Middle Eastern countries led by Iran to win postponements in payments for oil.

 

Sri Lanka could ensure maximum use of funds from donor agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for development projects. Analysts say that, in the past, Sri Lanka has not used concessionary loans allocated by the World Bank and ADB in full because of a lack of sound projects.

 

IMF Bailout

Most analysts and economists say Sri Lanka could seek conditional funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for around $2 billion. But that is viewed as a last resort. The central bank has said the government would never apply for an IMF loan unless the international lender accepts the island nation's economic plans as they are.

 

But many analysts say the central bank's decision to depreciate the rupee was a move to bring it in line with one of the IMF's requirements for funding. The bank has said it allowed depreciation to help exporters.

 

Re-attracting Foreign Investors

Foreign investors in Sri Lanka's T-bill and T-bond markets, where returns are around 20 percent, withdrew in the face of the global financial crisis and over-valued rupee. If the central bank could ensure a stable rupee and attractive returns, foreign investors could come back.

 

But analysts said the ultimate outcome of an oil hedging deal, in which the supreme court suspended payments owed by the government to the five banks involved, will be critical in giving a signal to investors.

Whilst Sri Lanka’s exports to India dropped 13%, the island’s exports to Pakistan has grown by 31%according to a Sri Lankan trade expert.

 

Last year, Sri Lanka’s exports to India have dropped to $346 million despite a seven per cent growth in the Indian economy during the period.

In the same period, Sri Lanka’s exports to Pakistan grew by 31 per cent despite the fact that Pakistan has been having a tough time, both politically and economically, Rohantha Athukorala, former chairman of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board was quoted as saying.

Whilst the Sri Lanka-Pakistan bilateral trade is still very small in comparison with Sri Lanka-India trade and Sri Lanka’s exports to Pakistan are just $50 million, Athukorale raised concerns for about exports to India have been declining steadily in the past three years.

Sri Lanka’s main exports are garments and tea, but both do not find a foothold in the Indian market.

India has increased its quota from three million garment pieces a year to seven million, but this is not reflected in trade statistics.

Sri Lanka has been named as a country where genocide and other mass atrocities are underway or risk breaking out.

                          

The New York-based Genocide Prevention Project, in a report published December 9, includes Sri Lanka as one of eight "red alert" countries.

 

The report also includes a comprehensive list of 33 countries where genocide is a possibility.

 

The report was published to mark the 60th anniversary of the United Nation's convention on the prevention of genocide, and 20th anniversary of the ratification of the treaty by the United States.

 

"Red alert" countries include Afghanistan, and Iraq alongside regions currently experiencing genocidal conflict such as Sudan's Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

These and Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka all made the list's top eight because they appear in each of the five "expert" indexes.

 

The next 25 "orange alert" countries appear in at least three of the indexes. They include China, Colombia, Philippines and Indonesia as places where ongoing or simmering violence could flare to genocidal proportions.

 

"It is possible to identify early indicators of mass atrocity crimes. But what happens now is the international community sees what's going on, gets paralyzed and, if it acts, really only acts after the fact," said Jill Savitt, project executive director.

Savitt states three factors that are likely to change the "political will" lacking in the past.

 

First, the stated determination of Susan Rice, U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to the UN, to prevent future genocides after witnessing the after-effects of the 1994 Rwanda slaughter.

 

Second, current discussion around the 60th anniversary of the genocide prevention convention, which calls on countries to prevent and punish actions of genocide.

 

And third, the public "guilt" over what occurred in Rwanda and Bosnia, and what Savitt called public "hunger for a response" to the Darfur crisis.

 

Meanwhile, a task force led by Madeleine K Albright, former Secretary of State, and an advisor to Obama and Clinton, released a report on world genocide threats which will likely be used by the Obama administration as a guide post to prevent developing genocides.

 

"Preventing genocide is an achievable goal," the Albright report, released on December 8, says.

 

"Genocide is not the inevitable result of ancient hatreds or irrational leaders. It requires planning and is carried out systematically. There are ways to recognize signs and symptoms, and viable options to prevent it at every turn if we are committed and prepared," the Washington Post said, quoting from the Albright report.

A UN official in northern Sri Lanka has said that conditions for displaced people in LTTE-held areas are "as basic as in Somalia".

 

John Campbell, from the World Food Programme (WFP), told the BBC Sinhala service that conditions were "as basic as can be" and "much less than ideal".

 

Campbell was speaking from the LTTE-held village of Tharmapuram. The area is close to recent heavy fighting between the Tamil Tiger and the Sri Lankan army.

 

Independent journalists are prevented by the government from travelling to war-hit areas of the country - the WFP is one of the few foreign agencies allowed to deliver aid to the area.

 

Campbell said that many of internally displaced people in Tharmapuram were living in flimsy shelters soaked by recent heavy rainfall.

 

"They are extremely uncomfortable in waterlogged camps and depending almost entirely on international aid for food," Campbell told the BBC.

 

Sri Lankan officials say that the rain has also brought much of the fighting in the north to a halt and that only "intermittent skirmishes" between the Tamil Tigers and the army have recently taken place.

 

Campbell insisted that displaced people were getting enough food, despite their miserable living conditions.

 

"It is basic as it can be. I haven't seen anything so basic since when I was in Somalia."

 

Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Years of fighting in the African nation between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.

 

The UN estimates that there are about 230,000 displaced people throughout LTTE-held areas in the north of Sri Lanka.

 

A UN aid convoy - comprising of 50 trucks - arrived in the area after December 9 being given clearance by the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.

 

Campbell told the BBC that the supplies included rice, flour and school equipment.

 

He said that the convoy was only the seventh to bring food to LTTE-held areas in the past two months.

 

The Sri Lankan government responded with a major outcry and a demand for an apology. WFP country director for Sri Lanka, Adnan Khan, was immediately summoned to the Defence Ministry where he made a personal apology on behalf of the errant official.

 

Khan, later said Campbell was giving a "personal opinion" and that such "statements given by staff members do not necessarily reflect the official policy of WFP".

 

He added that WFP was working in cooperation with the government and was "fully committed to continue the weekly dispatches of convoys to the Vanni" region.

 

He also told The Sunday Times that the WFP would look into every aspect of the incident, and take necessary action against the official, adding that he may even be suspended from operating in the country.

 

“However everything depends on the outcome of the ongoing internal inquiry,” Mr. Khan said.

 

The WFP later said in a statement that its mandate was to provide food and assistance to those in need and that statements made by staff members do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the organisation.

 

Following the incident the WFP has put a gag on its staff and in future only a few selected officials at the very top will be allowed to make statements to the media, Khan further said.

 

British journalist Peter Foster, in his column in UK Telegraph, said Campbell stepped unwittingly into the minefield of Sri Lankan politics.

 

"This piece of mealy-mouthism [of Khan] reflects the invidious position of all aid agencies in Sri Lanka, and particularly the UN which I know from personal contacts has a rocky relationship with the Sri Lankan government," he said.

Bruce Fein, a former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently Counsel for a US Tamil group said in an interview mid December that a 400+ page model indictment charging Sri Lanka officials for genocide against Tamils will be ready to be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department first week of January.

 

He added that the document describes the motivational context, catalogues crimes, and constructs legal arguments establishing culpability of a U.S. citizen and a US greencard holder for the crime of genocide against Tamils in Sri Lanka under the U.S. Genocide Accountability Act (18 U.S.C. 1091).

 

Fein is currently counsel for Tamils Against Genocide, a US based group.

 

TamilNet: Can you describe the legal process your group has chosen to bring Sarath Fonseka and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to justice in US courts?

 

Fein: The United States Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 (GAA) makes Fonseka and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa subject to a genocide prosecution in United States courts even though the genocidal acts against Tamils occurred in Sri Lanka.

 

The United States may constitutionally assert extra-territorial jurisdiction over a certain category of universally condemned crimes, which include genocide and torture. The United States recently brought a torture prosecution against the son of Liberia’s Charles Taylor for torture perpetrated in Liberia. They are criminally culpable under the doctrine of command responsibility for criminal acts of their subordinates which they should have known about and prevented or neglected to punish after-the-fact.

 

TAG [Tamils Against Genocide] has virtually completed a model federal grand jury indictment of Fonseka and Rajapaksa charging violations of the GAA. The facts demonstrating genocide have been compiled from TAG’s independent research and investigations. The two were selected as defendants in lieu of President Mahinda Rajapaksa because Gotabhaya Rajapakse is a US citizen and Sarath Fonseka is a permanent resident alien for whom the United States is responsible as moral, political, and legal matter.

 

The model indictment will be presented to the new United States Attorney General appointed by President Obama and the new Secretary of State. The two appointees hold the keys to a genocide prosecution, which only the government can initiate.

 

TamilNet: Do U.S. courts have jurisdiction over acts violating international law or U.S. domestic law in Sri Lanka's sovereign territory?

 

Fein: The model indictment describes the culture of genocide in Sri Lanka built on the doctrine of Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy celebrated in the Mahavamsa, the teachings of Dharmapala, and the exhortations of contemporary Buddhist monks.

 

The indictment then collects three categories of genocidal acts intended to destroy Tamil groups in whole or in part in various villages or municipalities in the northeast based on ethnicity or religion: extra-judicial killings, including disappearances; serious bodily injury; and, creating conditions of life intended to cause the physical destruction of Tamil groups, for example, starvation, malnutrition, impaired medical care or medicines, never-ending physical, economic, or physical insecurity, massive and repeated internal displacements, or Sinhalese Buddhist colonization.

 

The genocidal acts TAG has chronicled in the draft indictment surpasses by far the genocidal evidence in the charges against former Bosnian leader Radovan Karadzic.

 

TamilNet: In the U.S., criminal indictments can only be initiated by the Department of Justice. What is TAG's next step to convince the Justice Department to begin a grand jury investigation?

 

Fein: TAG will seek to enlist the support of Members of the House and Senate to champion the genocide indictment with the Attorney General and Secretary of State through letters, confirmation hearings, and otherwise. TAG will also seek congressional hearings on the ongoing Sri Lankan genocide. It will also publish articles and meet with editorial boards of newspapers to rally public United States support for the genocide indictments.

 

TamilNet: Is the international climate conducive for your legal action, and do you think Obama administration with Eric Holder as the new attorney general will be inclined to support this effort?

 

Fein: The genocide of Sri Lanka’s Tamils has now become mainstream thinking in Tamil Nadu, Malaysia, South Africa, and elsewhere. It explains in part Sri Lanka’s eviction from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also been vocal detractors of Sri Lanka’s human rights atrocities.

 

Further, the New York-based Genocide Prevention Project has included Sri Lanka as one of the eight "red alert" countries where genocide and other mass atrocities are underway or risk breaking out. Also, the Obama administration was handed a policy report on genocide with specific recommendations from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This is likely to bring Sri Lanka’s genocide into U.S. focus.

 

TamilNet: Besides the U.S.Group, who else is supporting your legal action?

 

Fein: TAG has received support from U.K. expatriates, and Australia. We welcome the support of other individuals or organizations. But TAG will not waver from its exclusive feasible goal of genocide indictments and prosecutions of Fonseka and Rajapaksa in the United States undistracted by a United Nations organized plebiscite on Tamil independence, or a prosecution before the International Criminal Court. TAG has one goal and one goal only.

 

TamilNet: Are you pursuing any other legal avenues, and if so, can you elaborate?

 

Fein: The Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) authorizes any person or their legal representatives to bring a civil suit for damages against any other person complicity in their extra-judicial killing or torture under color of foreign law wherever the wrongdoing occurs. The advantage of a civil suit is that the initiative does not require the approval or support of the U.S. government. Once adequate funding for the litigation is secure, the contemplated TVPA suits would involve representatives of the murdered Trinco five students and of the seventeen murdered Action Against Hunger workers. Damages could exceed $50 million. As with the GAA, the TPVA applies extra-territorially to wrongdoing perpetrated in Sri Lanka by Sri Lankans against Sri Lankans.

 

TamilNet: What is your response to the note on the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) website by the Sri Lankan Secretary General Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha on the model genocide indictment against Sri Lanka officials?

 

Fein:

On December 15, 2008, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, an echo chamber instrumentality of the Government of Sri Lanka, sallied forth on his website (www.peaceinsrilanka.org) with an awesome arsenal of irrelevancies and non sequiturs to confute my model genocide indictment.

 

The Professor’s sophistry builds on the casuistry taught to every first year law student: If the law is against you, argue the facts; if the facts are against you, argue the law; and, if the law and the facts are against you, confuse the issue. Accordingly, Professor Wijesinha’s delivers an indictment against the LTTE as a purported defense to the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides. The genocide prosecution sought against Sudanese President Omar Bashir has rejected such a defense theory to a charge of genocide. In addressing the model genocide indictment I have prepared, this is what Professor Wijesinha adduces to persuade the reader to return a verdict of not guilty: not a single word or fact.

 

Indeed, the Professor never denies the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides. He simply bloviates: “Fein may see himself as an expert in pressing the right buttons, but [Tamils Against Genocide] should rethink squandering its funds on such characters.”

 

I challenge Professor Wijesinha or any official in the Government of Sri Lanka to debate me over the model genocide indictment at any time and in any venue of his or their choosing, including Colombo. I promise to arrive armed only with the truth; but my opponent may choose to come protected by the Sri Lankan Army and Pillaiyan. I am eager for a reply to my debate challenge. Silence will speak volumes of guilt.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mounted their first counter-offensive against Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni battlefront killing at least 60 soldiers and wounding another 150, according LTTE officials.

 

LTTE counter-offensive units carried out a preemptive strike on SLA offensive formation in Murikandi - Iranaimadu area Saturday, December 20, pushing back the SLA 2 km and recovering the bodies of 12 soldiers.

 

The preemptive strike was carried out as the SLA was preparing for another offensive push, according to LTTE officials.

The first LTTE-claimed preemptive strike comes in the wake of SLA suffering three debacles within the last few weeks in Kilinochchi.

 

Sunday Times newspaper columnist, Iqbal Athas, reporting on the LTTE counter-offensive wrote: “heavy fighting broke out after guerrillas launched a counter attack on troop positions at a point between Terumurukandi and Iranamadu. The location is east of Adampan.”

 

"The [LTTE fighters] attacked in four waves, one after another," a high-ranking military officer speaking on grounds of anonymity told Sunday Times.

 

"There were several close quarter battles where the [LTTE fighters] used small arms and machine gun fire. In others, mortars began to rain in. It was a mortar monsoon." The officer further told the newspaper.

Warning that the LTTE's separate state ideology is a "threat" to India, the Sri Lankan Army chief says he is confident that New Delhi would not listen to "political jokers" in Tamil Nadu to force Colombo to broker a ceasefire with the LTTE.

The Indian Government would never influence Sri Lanka to restore the ceasefire with the LTTE and it would not listen to the "political jokers" of Tamil Nadu whose "survival depends on the LTTE" which killed one of the most respected Prime Ministers of India, Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan Army Chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka told the 'Sunday Observer'.

Fonseka, whose tenure was extended by another year, said that the LTTE had caused much problems in Tamil Nadu and the outfit's separate State ideology would cause damage to the sovereignty of India.

Fonseka said that Lanka had taken all efforts to maintain "zero casualties" during military offensive, but blamed "corrupt politicians" in Tamil Nadu for making "false" allegations against the island nation's security forces.

"If the LTTE is wiped out, those political jokers like Nadumaran, Vaiko and whoever who is sympathising with the LTTE will most probably lose their income from the LTTE", he was quoted as saying.

"This is the time for them to realise the truth. And they should also realise their attempts to save the LTTE would not be successful as the LTTE is on the brink of extinction. Most importantly, they should realise that LTTE is an internal problem of Sri Lanka and need to honour the sovereignty of Sri Lanka."

On November 25, 18 people were killed within 24 hours in Batticaloa District alone. Following a claymore mine attack which killed two Sri Lankan military personnel in Eruvil, three members from the same family were killed (grandmother, father and a son) in the village.

 

On the same day, in Kaluthawali, a village close to Eruvil four members from another family were shot dead (young parents with their two kids). A vegetable vendor was killed in Kurukalmadam and a young woman was shot dead in Karuwakkerny.

 

A youth from Kimpankerney (Karadiannaru) was shot and later declared as a LTTE suspect. Another youth from Selvanagar Arayampathy was shot by the road side. Later that day in Manmunai West there were three incidents reported: A youth killed in Monkeycattu (Vavunatheevu) and three youth killed in Karravetti. A farmer was shot dead in the paddy field in Maheladditheevu. This - is a day in the 'liberated east.'

 

Deepening tension

Reports of these killings and other abuses come at a time of deepening tensions and violent infighting within the TMVP, particularly between factions loyal to Karuna Amman, the founder, and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, better known as Pillayan.

 

Instead of holding the group accountable, the Rajapakse government has provided unqualified support. No independent investigations into all these serious human rights violations have been opened nor perpetrators held accountable.

 

While the government is on the one hand announcing triumphantly an end to conflict and strife, the war with its creation of zones of 'liberation' and 'occupation' has exacerbated the issue of landlessness, narrowing down opportunities for recovery and economic development in multiple ways that include drastic curtailment of cultivation, fishing, trade and infrastructural and social and cultural development programmes.

 

Changes

Of course there have been qualitative changes that have taken place since the military's capture of the east. With the defeat of the LTTE in the east, the threat of war has receded offering people the possibility of rebuilding their lives from the debris of war. Especially for communities that lived under LTTE control the sensational words of liberation and development, do have some meaning; a new road, banking facilities, and housing assistance programmes.

 

But despite these dramatic changes, violence and fear loom large, threatening to aggravate old wounds and grievances, and in many ways, producing new tensions and crises.

 

The Coalition of Muslims and Tamils for Peace and Coexistence (CMTPC) say they are deeply concerned that short term military imperatives of the central government and a disregard for the principles of coexistence and democracy are creating a situation of worsening ethnic relations; increasing the sense of insecurity felt by Tamil and Muslim communities in the region.

Why? We are compelled to ask. The government and its apologists, including people from the left and some sections of civil society to varying degrees, are largely silent on the issue of escalating violence in the east; citing it as a fall out of a time of conflict, predicting better times ahead.

 

A pyrrhic victory

For the government, a military victory over the LTTE is what matters most. Unfortunately the government has not capitalised on the moral victory it could have had over Tamil nationalist sentiments by pushing the agenda of peace and reconciliation in the east.

 

In the attempt to establish its control and command over the east in the short term, it has made politico-military alliances based purely on the need to control the Tamil people. So, we have the break-away LTTE group, TMVP in an unholy alliance with the government.

 

The TMVP, despite breaking away from the LTTE, is steeped in the violent culture of the LTTE. Even though the TMVP inducted, and even coerced, members of the general public as candidates for local government polls and to assist it in administration, the rank and file behaves with scant respect for the structures of democratic governance and are a law unto themselves. In the direct words of the people, "different name, same people."

 

Governance

At one level, there has been no fundamental change in the form of governance since the time of LTTE control, real or perceived. 'Taxation' has abated but kidnappings for ransom, crude intimidation by armed youth, and the spectre of abductions of children and adults continue. Killings in homes, paddy fields, by the road side or seaside, near check points, by temples, mosques, universities and hospitals continue.

 

Nor has there been any attempt at building upon the goodwill of the people following the elections on the part of the government. On the contrary, the government to all appearances has been actively promoting violent groups and political forces and alliances that are seeking to increase hostility among people.

 

Instead of encouraging the TMVP to embrace democratic politics and shed its LTTE practices, the government is determined to keep the TMVP as a paramilitary group.

 

It also appears the government is determined to divide the TMVP by setting up Karuna as an alternate eastern leader to Pillayan. As the two factions battle it out for control in the east, we can only expect the fratricide in the Tamil community to worsen.

 

The killing of Pillayan's Secretary Kumaraswamy Nandagopan, alias Ragu on November 14 is perhaps the most telling instance of this vicious struggle for power. The government seems to fundamentally distrust its own ally, which might end up forcing the TMVP back into the arms of the LTTE.

 

A region under siege

The LTTE in particular has been responsible for decimating rivals in other militant groups, political parties and allies of the state, and independent Tamils. This bloodbath has left a deep scar on Tamil society.

With the split in the LTTE in 2004, Eastern Tamils found themselves under attack as the two groups eliminated perceived enemies. This state sponsored fratricide may get worse as the internal struggle within the TMVP is hitting a crisis point, particularly with Karuna attempting to re-establish control. 

 

The CMTPC maintains the violence following the provincial council elections in May this year demonstrated a possible trajectory that ethnic relations could take. The killing of two TMVP cadres in Kathankudi resulted in the TMVP retaliating in a brutal manner against Muslim civilians. The violence rapidly escalated with both Tamils and Muslims becoming subject to violence and displacement.

 

Some instances included attacks on Muslim shops in Batticaloa Town; Tamils living in Saukadu displacement camps were forced to flee; a Muslim woman was shot dead in Eravur.

 

Pattern

A day before Ramazan a grenade went off near the mosque by the main road injuring 24 persons. A month later, on October 24, another grenade set off near Hussainmiyah Mosque near the Kathankudy-Manjanthoduvai border injured about six persons, one critically.

 

While the violence seems mindless, there is an insidious pattern, logic, to its ethnicised nature. The logic of violence pivots on the logic of ethnic divide, calculated to aggravate the fragile peace that exists between communities.

 

In recent months there have been targeted killings of Sinhalese in the east. On October 20 three Sinhala youth involved in construction work, part of the Negenahira Navodaya programme were shot dead in Kokkaddichcholia, Batticaloa. Why were they killed? Was it just because they happened to be Sinhalese?

 

On October 16 two Muslim and two Tamil men were killed in a paddy field in Waddamadu, Akkaraipattu. It remains unclear as to who killed them and why. Was it the LTTE, TMVP, military or another interested party? Was it because they had crossed an ethnic boundary which prevents certain ethnic communities from accessing lands which they claim?

 

Under siege

The Eastern Province is under siege from all sides. While the government is showcasing the region as one that is returning to normal, the people are still caught in a vicious cycle of violence.

 

The harthal called by Karuna to protest Indian intervention is part of the circus of intimidation and a show put on by forces allied to the government. In a throwback to the Pongu Thamil events organised by the LTTE in the north and east, the TMVP forced large numbers of people from far flung areas like Komari and Thirukovil into buses for a rally in Batticaloa on October 26 as a show of strength.

 

This time though the state is backing the intimidation of Tamil civilians - the buses are state-owned and armed forces and police watched as TMVP cadres forced people at gun point to close shops. The state's connivance in this abuse is absolute.

 

'Colonial' Development

Within this context the idea of development such as building roads, and rebuilding tanks are critical for the rehabilitation and development of the east. There are other ambitious plans of constructing factories, coal power stations and highways.

 

But where the local people fit into this programme of Negenahira Navodaya is still open to question. Concerned parties have been told construction companies are from the south, and bring their work force along with them.

 

Add to this the proposals for providing land for Sinhalese and the restoration

of Buddhist sites and the scene is set for unnecessary tension. In two previous reports the CMTPC focused on the fears of the local communities of state sponsored colonisation efforts in the militarised region.

 

The government website carries a page on its programme for the next three years for cultural and archaeological preservation which is almost wholly of Buddhist sites. The CMTPC says not a single Muslim site has been earmarked for cultural preservation or as a heritage site. Also, the omission of Koneswaram Temple in Trincomalee, parts of which ancient Pallava structure lie destroyed in the nearby sea bed is telling.

 

Boundaries marked in blood

Boundaries are being marked in blood. Individuals who have crossed ethnic borders and administrative divisions to carry out livelihoods as they have or had done for years pay the ultimate price.

 

The identity of the killers and their motives may remain unknown but it is speculated that four farmers were killed in Akkaraipattu, two Tamil and two Muslim for trying to cultivate paddy land which had been declared off bounds by one or other of the Tamil militant groups.

 

A group of 26 Muslim wood collectors from Pottuvil found themselves at the mercy of the STF. There are rumours that they were beaten up in the camp and were accused of assisting the LTTE. On September 24, one of the incarcerated Muslims died in jail.

 

Militarising education

On November 16 Palithakumara Pathmakumar, a doctor serving in Naavatkaadu Hospital in Vavunatheevu was killed within the hospital premises. As a result the GMOA went on strike demanding better protection for doctors in the north and east.

 

This killing highlighted the crisis of violence in the east. At the same time it also showed how security is understood by the various actors.

 

The Health Minister called for only Tamil doctors to serve in the north and east while the GMOA called for more security. The presence of police officers or armed military personnel or militant groups do not result in greater confidence as each community has fears and violent memories of each of the armed actors.

 

Political violence permeates and controls the actions of civil society. The Eastern Province boasts two universities; one in the Batticaloa District, located in Vantharamullai and the other, South Eastern University in Oluvil in the Ampara District.

 

Site of conflict

The Eastern University has been a site of conflict and battleground for long years now. Over the years various armed groups attempted to establish their presence in the university, with the LTTE taking extreme measures to control the expression of staff and students.

During the split in 2004 in the ranks of the LTTE, academics and others came under extreme scrutiny; academics, journalists and others suspected of being loyal to this or the other side were abducted, cautioned and on occasion murdered.

 

With the establishment of control by the army and police and TMVP, the university has come under increased surveillance from these quarters aligned to the state. In an effort to establish control of the Eastern University the TMVP abducted the Dean of the Arts Faculty in late 2006. Then the Vice Chancellor, Prof. V. Raveendranath disappeared in broad daylight from the heart of Colombo city, from an area marked for its high security check points. The TMVP is believed to be behind this abduction. The Vice Chancellor is believed to be dead.

 

The South Eastern University is also facing similar problems. The university has a 90% Muslim majority student population. During the Ramadan holiday in September, the government placed a new security system in the university, with many checkpoints and over 60 police personnel guarding the entrance alone in addition to STF and armed military patrolling the surrounding area round the clock.

 

Outside force

It is within this situation, that on August 22 of this year Sucharitha Pasan Samarasinghe, a fourth year Sinhalese student at the Eastern University was killed, purportedly by a force from outside the university.

 

A Tamil student was taken in for questioning after this incident and to date he is being detained by the CID without any charges.

 

When the University Grants Commission Chairman visited the Eastern University in August this year he talked to the Sinhala students and assured them of their safety. He did not see the need to allay the fears of the Tamils or Muslim students.

 

Hopes and fears

While we write, the war rages on in the north. But none of the political forces, none of the leading left wing activists who support the war have voiced their concern about the lack of political will on the part of the government to devolve power to the east and north.

A leading human rights group accused government backed paramilitary outfit in eastern Sri Lanka of being behind a worsening wave of killings and child abductions and urged the government to hold “open independent investigations into all serious human rights violations and hold perpetrators accountable”.

 

In a statement issued on Tuesday, November 25, Human Rights Watch accused the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) of at least 30 murders and 30 kidnappings in the east of the island in September and October.

The rights watchdog said the TMVP, an ally of the Rajapakse administration was able to function with "total impunity".

 

"The Sri Lankan government says that the liberated' east is an example of democracy in action and a model for areas recaptured from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

 

"But killings and abductions are rife and there is total impunity for horrific abuses," Adams said.

 

He called on Sri Lankan authorities to "take immediate steps to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Eastern Province, where there has been an increase in killings and abductions in recent weeks".

 

The New York-based watchdog said it had documented 30 cases of extra-judicial killings in the east in September and October.

 

Reports of these killings and other abuses come at a time of deepening tensions and violent infighting within the TMVP, particularly between factions loyal to Karuna Amman, the founder, and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as Pillayan, who was appointed the chief minister of Eastern Province in May this year.

 

Karuna returned to Sri Lanka in July, after serving a six-month sentence for immigration fraud in the United Kingdom, and has reclaimed the leadership of the group. On October 7, the government appointed Karuna to Parliament.

 

In addition to extra-judicial killings, TMVP was also accused of abducting large numbers of children and forcing them to serve as soldiers. Human Rights Watch in its statement said, that it recently documented several cases of forcible recruitment of children by the TMVP.

 

"Far from being a reformed and responsible party ready for government, the TMVP is still actively involved in serious human rights abuses," Adams said of the pro-government Tamil group.

 

"Instead of holding the group accountable, the Rajapakse government has provided unqualified support."

 

"Many in the East believe that the government has given its blessing for these abuses," said Adams. "It is important for the government to take action against perpetrators to demonstrate that this is not the case." 

In 2006, an internationally brokered ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) broke down. Since then the government has been determined to win the civil war that began 25 years ago and has cost well over 70,000 lives.

 

On the battlefield, the Sri Lankan army has been remarkably successful. The Tamil Tigers have been pushed out of their traditional strongholds in the Eastern province and are now fighting for survival in the remote north. Their goal of an independent state for the ethnic Tamil minority seems further away than ever.

 

But in the pursuit of victory and in order to exert control over the recently captured east, the government has controversially turned to former Tamil Tigers who changed sides. The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal or TMVP broke away from the rebels in 2004.

 

It has now become a political party, and in an alliance with the government, was elected to head the Eastern Provincial council.

 

Human rights groups have accused the TMVP of widespread human rights abuses, including abductions and extrajudicial killings.

 

White van syndrome

"His hands were tied up behind his back and he was beaten. I could see that he was beaten. Sometimes we believe he will come back, sometimes we believe he is no more."

 

A mother-in-law describes seeing her daughter's husband in a TMVP camp after being detained by the group in eastern Sri Lanka.

 

That was a year ago, and he has not been seen since. The family do not know if he is alive or dead.

 

Sunila Abeysekera, a prominent Sri Lankan human rights activist says abduction is now common practice. She explains that in the east, the Tamil civilian population was forced to engage with the Tigers as they were in control of the area for many years. Now that the rebels have been defeated, she says, the civilians that interacted with the LTTE are being targeted.

 

Tamil men have also disappeared in Colombo, Sri Lanka's main city. We met another woman who said her husband disappeared when he went to Colombo to get a passport, on 12 January 2007. Unidentified men came to his hotel and bundled him off in a white van.

 

According to her, during the same period around 30 to 40 other people were abducted in Colombo in a similar manner.

 

Reports of Tamil men being taken off in this way never to be seen again have become so common on the island that Sri Lankans have nicknamed the phenomenon "white van syndrome."

 

Sri Lanka's government says many of these stories are false, intended to discredit it and its allies.

 

Redemption

The man many people believe to be ultimately responsible for abductions and killings in the east is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, aka Col Karuna Amman.

 

Col Karuna tells us he was the Tamil Tigers' military commander until he broke away in 2004, taking with him a rebel army that became the TMVP political party.

 

In November 2007, Col Karuna was arrested in the UK on immigration violations and served nine months in prison.

 

While in jail, human rights groups lobbied the British government to prosecute him for human rights abuses. However, after an investigation, the British Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to try Col Karuna and he was released.

 

Today, Col Karuna has been installed as an MP by the Sri Lankan government and he is guarded by soldiers that not long ago he was trying to kill.

 

Col Karuna denies any involvement in abductions and killings and says he is willing to work with human rights groups.

 

For the government, the TMVP's journey from rebel fighters to political office is one of redemption.

 

Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella does not accept that the TMVP is responsible for the wave of abductions and killings and strongly refutes any accusations that the government has turned a blind eye to such activities or that elements of the security forces have taken part in them.

Instead he emphasises the repentance the former Tamil Tigers have shown and believes in giving them a chance.

 

He is aware that certain incidents have taken place, but feels that nonetheless Eastern Province is on the right track.

 

"Obviously for 25 years there has been terror, gun culture. And in a couple of months it will not be tickety-boo or come back to normal.

 

"We are heading for total democracy and total development and total peace. But it's not there yet. I hope that tomorrow will be a happier day minus all these things."

 

Work in progress

The offensive by government forces against the Tigers remains widely popular with the Sinhalese who make up three quarters of the island's population.

 

For years people in Sri Lanka have endured the everyday danger of suicide bombings and attacks blamed on the Tamil Tigers.

 

Such attacks are a constant threat in Sri Lanka and many see victory in the war as the only way to peace.

 

The Sri Lankan government says it will be magnanimous in victory, and democracy in areas taken from the rebels so far is a work in progress.

But the government's human rights record during the war, and TMVP's unsavoury activities in the east, will not have helped build much needed trust among the Tamil minority.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has sidelined Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a key paramilitary leader operated by the Sri Lankan government and the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, on the utilisation of funds allocated for 'development'.

 

"Pillayan is being treated almost like a political prisoner by the Rajapaksa government these days, especially after the recent protests against the killings," according to a Colombo based journalist.

The 'development' agenda is being managed, according to the priorities of Rajapksa government, under the direct supervision of Basil Rajapaksa, the brother and advisor to Mr. Manhinda Rajapaksa. Pillayan has no authority to utilise the funds allocated for the 'development'.

Karuna, who had lost his grip on the TMVP paramilitary, after leaving Sri Lanka, was brought into the political theater by the Rajapaksa brothers as they began facing difficulties with Pillayan, especially after Pillayan's alliance with influential advisers. The 'difficulties' had arisen following the restrictions by Rajapaksa's central government on Pillyan's Provinical Council.

One of the key issues was the top priority given by Mr. Basil Rajapaksa to develop the infra-structure of A5 (Badulla) Road, which links Batticaloa with Mahiyangana in the Uva Province, aiming to strengthen the transportation link between the Sinhala town of Padiyatalawa in the Uva Province with Chengkaladi of Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province. The development of Ma'nmunai Bridge has been prioritised over the other pressing needs for development, according to the journalist, who revealed details on the current stand-off.

Lately, Karuna had named two persons on behalf of TMVP to take part in the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC), attempting to sideline the representatives of the TMVP Pillayan faction. The controversy has resulted in no representation at the moment.

The recent agitation against the escalation of killings in Batticaloa was supported by TMVP Pillayan faction, which indirectly pointed its finger at the Sri Lankan forces for being increasingly dependent on Karuna associates to carry out the killings and abductions in Batticaloa.

Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians from Batticaloa expressed fear that the 'development' of A5 was being carried out with a Sinhala colonisation perspective by the Rajapaksa regime.

The Batticaloa district, with 350,000 registered voters, has a majority Tamil population with a minority Muslim and a very small Sinhala population.

Even as Sri Lanka and some members of the international community tout the 13^th amendment and the provincial council system as a viable method to devolve power to Tamils, Chief Minister of the newly formed Eastern Provincial Council and Rajapakse ally Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan has announced that the Eastern provincial Council is powerless.

 

"I don’t have any powers to implement the 13th Amendment. We have asked the central government to give us the powers vested in the 13th Amendment," Pillayan told the Sunday times newspaper in Sri lanka.

 

Pillayan added that since he took office in May this year not a single person has been recruited to the Council and lamented that only a few cabinet ministers in the district are directly involved in the ongoing development projects in the province.

 

“Only a few cabinet ministers in the district are directly involved in these projects. This is not what we need at the moment. We first need freedom of movement to travel within the district and outside.”

 

Pillayan also accused Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, the leader of his party, Tamil People's Liberation Tigers (TMVP) of convincing the government not to give powers to him.

 

“We have asked the central government to give us the powers vested in the 13th Amendment, but Karuna who is with the government is now convincing the government not to give powers to me.”