Towards the end of 19th century, the renowned American writer Mark Twain visited Colombo. While he was admiring the plurality of colour in the native dresses, somewhere in Pettah, he saw native children coming out of an English school, in line, in white uniform and in the same hairdo. ‘What an ugly scene’, he wrote, being sad at the way colonial institutions depriving natives of their pluralism. More than a century later, Patrick Lawrence, another American, comes to Sri Lanka to record the net results, a failed nationalism and a failed state, as consequences of the loss of pluralism.

 

Almost unbelievably for a nation with so many advantages and so much promise, it was a legitimate question by 2006 whether Sri Lanka could be called 'a failed state,' writes Patrick Lawrence in his recent book ‘Conversations in a Failing State’, brought out by Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in March 2008.

 

"Sri Lanka is at war with itself, and I had expected as much… It suggested, even then, the notion of a nation as a kind of forced imposition, as an idea no Sri Lankan appeared to grasp—not, at least, with enthusiasm or understanding."

 

In his opinion, the failure of judiciary in Sri Lanka is the collapse of the last bastion of the state of Sri Lanka. He sees it not as the work of any single individual, but as the cumulative effect of the failure the system that started long back. This and the loss of public space in Sri Lanka are covered at length with many illustrative examples in his book.

 

Mr. Patrick Lawrence was correspondent, commentator and editor in Asia for more than twenty-five years working for the International Herald Tribune, New Yorker and the Far Eastern Economic Review. The present publication is a result of his study as Senior Rapporteur for the AHRC.

 

Excerpts from some of his interesting observations follow:

 

On average Sinhala opinion:

…You think of Sinhalese heritage. I’m Sinhalese, but I’m thinking of the heritage of this country. It so happens that ninety percent of our heritage was built by Sinhalese. The Sinhalese—they left a large amount of evidence to show that they were here for good, as it were. The others never left anything that signified their attachment to this place. What have they left? Nothing. They weren’t concerned about living here. They were just traders who went back.”

 

The others: The Tamil population.

 

Back: Back to Tamil Nadu, to southern India.

Going back is a recurring theme among some Sinhalese. In 1981, just after the burning of the Jaffna Library, a legislator from the U. N. P. said of the Tamils in a parliamentary debate, “If there is discrimination in this land, which is not their homeland, then why try to stay here? Why not go back home, where there would be no discrimination? There you have your culture, your education, universities, et cetera. There you are masters of your own fate… It would be advisable for the Tamils not to disturb the sleeping Sinhalese brother…. Everyone knows that lions, when disturbed, are not peaceful.” […]

 

What is striking about such versions of events, including Stanley’s, is how neatly the past is organized. […] The concern is simply that Tamils understand the past as they should, and so in whose country they live. […]

 

Stanley said, “I don’t think there’s an ethnic crisis, even though they call it one. It’s just a terrorist group trying to create disorder. The Sinhalese and Tamils are very friendly people. It’s just not their homeland. They’ve left no achievements.” [Chapter 4]

 

On Sri Lankan historiography

What about history, then? On this point Shanthi was wrong. Yes, there have been formidable histories of Ceylon and Sri Lanka. Notable in this respect is the work of K. M. de Silva, the historian in Kandy. But de Silva’s book, A History of Sri Lanka, is not the history Sri Lankans share. It does not define the past of public space in Sri Lanka—not as people commonly think of it. The past in Sri Lanka has been both despoiled and neglected. And it is the despoiled and neglected past, not history, that Sri Lankans carry in their minds. The paradox is plain: History matters in Sri Lanka, but there is no history.

 

Instead there is a mythical past, the past of Vijaya, the legendary voyager from northern India who, with seven hundred companions, is said to have come to Sri Lanka sometime in the fifth century B. C., whereupon the Sinhalese became Sinhalese. This is the past of great kings and great stones and great tanks. It is the past of we-were-here-first and ours-was-the-great-civilization. It is not a human narrative; it is not inhabited in the way history is by definition (and certainly not by those we now call the indigenous, who arrived at least ten millennia before Vijaya). […]

 

There is Vijaya, of course, who enters the narrative by way of a text on a plaque [in the National Museum, Colombo]:

 

The transition from Pre– and Proto–history to the historical period in Sri Lanka begins with the Indo–Aryan settlers headed by the legendary ruler Vijaya from North India around the 5th century B. C., thus commencing the Sinhalese race.

 

This is sloppy logic and very sloppy writing—sloppy and provocative. There is the problematic word “legendary.” Are we acquiring a notion of history in these galleries, or a creation myth? […]

 

Then the problem of “the Sinhalese race.” By even the most lenient of definitions, the Sinhalese are not remotely a race. And the scholars of our time are moving further and further away from any such notion: Contemporary thinking is such that the very notion of race is losing its validity. In any case, one has never heard of an heroic adventurer arriving somewhere and “commencing” a race. It is, prima facie, an impossible idea. [Chapter 11]

 

On the Sinhala-Only Act

Three years later S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike led the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a party of conservative social democrats, to power, breaking the U. N. P.’s monopoly. Riding the populist wave, Bandaranaike appealed to the basest instincts of an insecure majority. Hence the main plank in his platform was “Sinhala only” as a national language. It worked, needless to say. He then went on to push through the language law—a measure that, I would argue, stands as the most tragic mistake and betrayal of principle in all of Sri Lanka’s history as an independent nation. [Chapter 1]

 

It is difficult to date the beginning of Sri Lanka’s gradual decline toward the status of a failed state. One might say it started at independence, when the elite that took power from the colonial administration failed in the most fundamental task facing it: to bring the vast, excluded majority into the new polity and all its processes, to make citizens of the Ceylonese—to empower them, as we would say today. One could also point to Bandaranaike’s language law, which had a devastating effect on the consciousness of the Ceylonese as belonging to a modern, secular, multicultural nation at just the moment such a consciousness needed to be encouraged. [Chapter 2]

 

On political violence and militarisation:

How did violence, the threat of violence, and the fear these produce among the citizenry, become so endemic in a society that inherited so stately a thing as the Westminster model? This question, too, can be answered variously.

 

In 1956, while parliament was debating Bandaranaike’s language law, Tamil leaders began a satyagraha at Galle Face Green. Satyagraha is an Indian term meaning, roughly, “support for the truth.” The term was much used during the Indian independence movement to describe resistance movements based on Gandhi’s principle of nonviolence. Those mounting their satyagraha at Galle Face Green were attacked by Sinhalese supporters of the language law, and eighteen people were injured. It is a tiny number compared with all the casualties that have followed, but perhaps we can date the appearance of violence in Sri Lanka, at least in its contemporary guise, to this small, mostly forgotten occasion.

 

The dirty war and Argentina’s disappeared are well-known around the world. But Sri Lanka’s grim descent into violence and near-chaos is little understood outside the country. Foreigners are generally aware that there is a war between the government and the Tamil separatists, but this is usually cast in the simplistic terms of ethnic problems and a war against “terrorists,” a word often used to remove the need for any further understanding.

 

If Sri Lanka is anyone’s space, it is theirs, not the space of its citizens. Public space is now military space. It is a kind of occupation zone. [Chapter 2]

 

On Burning the Jaffna Library

The most fateful fire in Sri Lankan history occurred in the city of Jaffna, in the far north, in 1981. It was set on the first of three nights of anti-Tamil violence and destruction that resembled a pogrom, a running Kristallnacht in the center of the Tamil community. Apart from the death toll, which was six, the greatest casualty was the Jaffna Library. [...]

 

It is natural that those of Tamil extraction would mourn the loss of their library for many years, as many Tamils did. But the true loss was larger still than it was commonly understood to be. Jaffna Library was not only, or even primarily, a Tamil institution. Understood properly, it was Sri Lankan. It stood for the multicultural mosaic of the nation. As a national treasure, Sinhalese ought to have celebrated it just as much as Tamils did. In the burning of the Jaffna Library we must recognize not only an attack on an ethnic population, but the annihilation of public space. [Chapter 4]

 

On Judiciary

The judiciary was the last branch of government to give way to the corruption and politicization that have all but destroyed Sri Lankan institutions. Even as things crumbled all around it, the Sri Lankan judiciary was still considered to be among the best in the British Commonwealth. This seems to have been true until well into the 1990s, at least in the higher courts if not the lower. “First to go was customs,” Saminda once told me. “Then the police and the army. Then the civil service. And then the judiciary.” [...]

 

To put a complicated history very simply, the high regard Sri Lankans have traditionally had for law has made it the perfect instrument for the creation of public disorder in the interest of political gain. [...]

 

Had Sri Lankan judges and lawyers taken the path that their counterparts in Pakistan were to adopt, particularly in 2007, the independence of the judiciary and the larger history of Sri Lanka may have taken a different turn. The judiciary may have retained its capacity to intervene in important national issues and thereby reduce the extreme polarizations and disintegration that was to come in subsequent years. [Chapter 6]

 

On torture

In 2007 a global survey conducted by an American foundation found Sri Lanka among the world’s two or three worst offenders in the matter of official torture.(8)

 

Thangavelu said toward the end of our conversation, when the files and records had been put away, “You cannot say there is no hope. The human resources are superb. You can turn around the mentality in a couple of years if you really concentrate on it.”

 

Thangavelu described the problem in two words. “The mentality,” he said. One hears numerous other ways of expressing the thought. But what does “the mentality” actually mean? In all the reports, studies, case studies, and so on it is not visible. But what Thangavelu implied is correct: Human rights abuses in Sri Lanka are finally a reflection of the way people think, the complex of assumptions we can call the structure of their consciousness.[...]

 

Identity is the process by which the stronger culture, and the more developed society, imposes itself violently upon those who, by the same identity process, are decreed to be a lesser people. Imperialism is the export of identity. [...]

 

A psychiatrist who studied the Tamil communities affected by the war in the north and the east uses the term “existential fear,” and it is very apt. [...]

 

This is the existential fear noted by Daya Somasundaram in Scarred Minds, his study of the Tamils. I single out this condition among the long list of disorders among victims of official violence not because it is any harder for the individual to bear than other disorders. It may or may not be: Extreme suffering always has a dimension that is, for the sufferer, infinite. I single out existential fear because the disorders that comprise it are all related to a perception and experience of power, especially the use of power that is arbitrary, so that it is unknowable and in a certain sense totalized. To suffer fear engendered by displays of unpredictable, unknowable power is now part of what it means to be Sri Lankan. It is the trap, as my jurist friend put it, into which Sri Lankans have fallen. [...]

 

The police are victims. By numerous accounts they often find it necessary to intoxicate themselves before torturing a prisoner. Theirs are sordid lives. The lawyers and the colluding physicians are victims, too. So are the jailers and “henchmen” and those who collaborate in the creation of imagined crimes. [Chapter 8]

 

On the grievances of Veddahs

The discussion on the day of our visit was especially complex in this respect. It concerned another public space—the public space called “Sri Lanka.” This was the point of the long story the elders told, beginning with the promises of the first prime minister after independence. The old chief, who finally began to speak a little more, remembered them. Taken all together, they were promises of a place in Ceylon, and then in Sri Lanka, but no such place had ever been opened to them. And now they were rejecting it, as if to say, “We do not want to be part of the public space called ‘Sri Lanka.’” Hence Lokubanda, the man who spoke after the deputy chief: “We’ve decided to go back to the forest,” he had said. [...]

 

As the story the elders told drew to a close, the enormity of the moment became clearer. They had defended their rights and way of life for years—in Colombo, before various international agencies dedicated to the world’s indigenous peoples. Now it was court cases; now it was “back to the forest,” laws and conservation officers notwithstanding. [...]

 

“When we were in the forest we knew how to use it. When the Mahaweli diversion project started in the early-1980s, that’s when the destruction of things started. The younger generation is different. Look at the way they’re dressed. They wear caps and T-shirts. They don’t even know the language. When we try to teach it they’re not interested. It’s not taught in school, so the children get used to Sinhala.” [...]

 

Another lively debate erupted. Someone whose name I did not learn said, “We’re supposed to keep our community intact. It’s not only the dress, but also the language.” [Chapter 11]

 

On the Upcountry Tamils

As the founding prime minister he quickly turned government into a kind of family business. Senanayake himself was also minister of defense and foreign affairs. His son, Dudley, was agriculture minister; his nephew, John Lionel Kotalawala, was commerce minister, and his cousin J. R. Jayewardene, the future president, held the finance portfolio. One of the first important acts of this family enterprise came in a series of three bills enacted in 1948 and 1949. These laws effectively disenfranchised Tamils working on the tea estates in central Ceylon. [Chapter 1]

 

The plantation workers are still predominantly Tamil—poor, mostly unorganized, living in minimal conditions on the estates. Once you know the immense suffering that made these places what they are, it is impossible to drink tea again in the same way, or to look in the same way at the rows of tea bushes as they roll over the hilltops like the undulations of ocean swells. They are a beautiful sight, but too much pain and deprivation has been sacrificed for them to be beautiful and nothing more. [Chapter 7]

 

On Muslim fear

I had heard much of this before. I met a senior government official, a prominent jurist and a member of numerous commissions, who happened to be Muslim. Over the course of several days we discussed corruption, bribery, the penal code, the constitutional council. All of this we covered in careful detail, topic to topic, question-answer, question-answer.

 

Then I put my pen down and closed my notebook. As so often when one does this, the conversation changed.

 

“There is something else,” said the official, whom I am bound not to name. “It’s about the Muslim community. There is a climate of fear among the Muslims. You cannot see it. You will have to look to find it. But it is there. I am a Muslim. I can tell you, we are very frightened. We look at what they have done, and we ask, ‘Are we next?’ It is not a far-fetched question.”

 

They: The Sinhalese majority.

 

Have done: Done to the Tamils.

[Chapter 11]

From Sri Lanka to South Korea, from Tibet to Myanmar, Asia's Buddhist clergy are in unprecedented numbers exerting their moral authority onto politics, abandoning their detachment from worldly events and giving rise to what at least one academic has referred to as a region-wide "angry monk syndrome".

 

Agitated ascetics made global headlines last year during Myanmar's "Saffron Revolution", where in their thousands they took to the streets to protest against the military government's policies and perceived mistreatment of clergy members. At the height of the unrest, monks dropped the symbolic gauntlet by overturning their alms bowls and refused to accept donations from government officials and their family members.

 

This year, over 300 Tibetan monks marched in protest in Lhasa in commemoration of the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule and to air more modern complaints and grievances, including calls for the release of monks detained last year after the Dalai Lama was awarded a congressional medal of honor by the United States, for the withdrawal of all troops and security personnel from their monasteries and the re-instatement of monks expelled from monasteries for their failure of "patriotic education" exams that required them to denounce the Dalai Lama.

 

And over the weekend, thousands of Buddhist monks joined South Korean citizens in candlelight rallies in front of Seoul's city hall to protest the government's controversial decision in April to resume imports of beef from the United States, which protestors believe could be tainted with mad cow disease. The usually apolitical monks' involvement in the rallies exerted additional pressure on the government to review the unpopular decision.

 

While each monk protest is unique in its demands and character, Buddhist clergymen are making their political voices heard in unprecedented ways and increasing numbers across the region. In the process they are often bringing the Sangha out of detached isolation and directly into the cut-and-thrust of everyday politics. The growing images of Buddhist monks leading political protests cuts a sharp contrast to the cliched calm and serene robe-wearing ascetic meditating in the pursuit of otherworldly enlightenment.

 

John Whalen-Bridge, co-editor of a series of books on Buddhism, refers to the growing phenomenon as "angry monk syndrome", a flip way of referring to the clergy's departure from the pursuit of equanimity and raised-fist involvement in the call for political change and economic justice. Politically active monks are not an entirely new phenomenon. Western observers will likely recall the images of Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc, who, in protest against the corruption and repression of the South Vietnamese government, self-immolated himself in June 1963.

 

Lesser known is the violent role aggrieved ascetics played during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945), when Chinese monks abandoned their commitment to non-violence for reasons of patriotism. Certain monks at the time even cited Buddhist scriptures to justify killing their Japanese enemies. On the other side of the battlefield, Zen priests were similarly conspicuous as aggressive and visible defenders of imperial Japan and its nationalistic policies.

 

Monks were also in the forefront of protests in colonial Burma before the country now known as Myanmar won independence from Britain in 1948. After independence, monks were actively involved in the nationwide uprisings against the military junta-led government in 1988, which were eventually crushed by soldiers. There are accounts of monks sharpening bicycle tire spokes and launching them at soldiers during that violent melee.

 

The recent surge in monk-led political ferment, usually towards the aim of giving voice to the often silent majority, seems to signal a political reawakening of Asia's Buddhist clergy. Well-organized and in most instances peacefully executed, the protests have provided a resounding reaffirmation to the Sangha's social relevance in modern times. It is also a potentially profound political trend, in that monks tend to speak out on behalf of the politically oppressed and economically downtrodden.

 

That's the majority of the population in many authoritarian-run countries with substantial Buddhist populations. In Myanmar and Vietnam, for instance, monks have led the moral charge against their respective abusive and repressive governments. In more economically advanced Thailand and South Korea, politicized monks are highlighting the gross inequalities and rampant corruption that has accompanied rapid economic growth.

 

Middle-way protests

 

What do these scattered protests say about the Sangha's contemporary mindset? Pattana Kitiarsa, an associate professor in the department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, believes the Sangha's role has frequently been misunderstood in historical and modern context.

 

"Buddhism and Buddhist monks are often stereotyped as peace-loving, world-rejecting, calm, serene and poised," he said. "However, when monks become or choose to become worldly-engaged actors, they have put themselves in a familiar position of expressing, communicating, acting, or dealing with the mundane world."

 

To be sure, individual monks have stood out for their political and social postures. Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh has long promoted so-called "socially engaged Buddhism", which advocates the application of Buddhist principles towards resolving social, environmental and political problems. His grassroots relief organization helped to rebuild bombed villages, re-establish schools and medical centers, resettle homeless villagers, and organize agricultural co-operatives during the Vietnam War, but he was later exiled due to his non-violent anti-war activities.

 

The jet-setting Dalai Lama, head of Tibet's government-in-exile and winner of the Nobel Peace prize for his non-violent approach to political struggle, is an individual monk of that same socially-engaged mold. As is Taiwan's Buddhist nun, teacher and philanthropist, Cheng Yen, whose Tzu-Chi Foundation is one of the island-state's largest charity organizations with offices in over 30 countries around the world, undertaking activities as wide-ranging as disaster relief, environmental protection and bone marrow donations

 

While globally recognized Buddhist leaders have helped to spawn a worldwide movement of engaged Buddhism, recent developments show that the movement is transcending mere individuals and taking on mass proportions. Internationalized and well-informed monks are joining forces in ever larger numbers to launch mass protests against their respective governments and perceived unjust economic actors.

 

But does this growing, often political, mass movement contradict the Buddha's teaching to eschew worldly matters and abide in equanimity?

 

Geshe Jangchup Choeden, a Tibetan Buddhist monk-teacher from the Gaden Shartse monastery in India, says that according to ancient scriptures the "ideal" monk is disciplined and refrains from all actions which might bring him into conflict with the clergy's devotees. But, he asks, "Is it possible to have an ideal monk in the modern world? How essential is the ideal monk in times or at places when and where they are needed to take actions against injustice or for the well-being of the people?"

 

Whether Myanmar's protesting monks, who mobilized en masse last year against a military regime notorious for its human rights abuses and entrenched corruption, lived up to this ideal is definitely debatable. The government accused many of the robed demonstration leaders as "fake" monks and assaulted and jailed many of them and their followers. Other monks were confined by security forces to their monasteries.

 

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist monks are clearly taking sides amid the country's deeply polarized and increasingly violent ethnic- and religion-based politics. There they have their own political parties, sit in parliament, and are the strongest supporter of the Sinhalese Buddhist government's campaign to militarily obliterate the mostly Hindu Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group.

 

Academic Kitiarsa points to the diverse upbringings, educational backgrounds and monastic practices for varied monk responses. "In reality, there has never been one singular monk. Only Buddha himself is considered a model monk," he said. "Monks in the 21st century could be militants, activists, magicians, forest-dwelling world renouncers. All these monks wish to have their voices heard in their own ways."

 

That was clearly the case when Tibetan monks wept and cried out "Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!" when Western media members visited Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's holiest shrines, during a government-managed press tour in March. These extraordinary scenes helped to keep the government's recent security crackdown and continued occupation of Tibet in international headlines ahead of Beijing's hosting of the Summer Olympic Games in August.

 

There are concurrent worldly risks that the socially engaged movement is in certain instances being manipulated for narrow political purposes. In South Korea, for instance, where monks have been on the vanguard of the street protests against US beef imports, the demonstrations are now increasingly being driven by liberal opponents of President Lee Myung-bak's new conservative government.

 

But in countries like Myanmar or places like Tibet, where the moral argument against the prevailing political order is more obvious, monks are in increasing numbers straying from the past middle path of loving kindness towards what some see as a more socially-engaged path towards enlightenment. "There is nothing wrong or undesirable with the Sangha protesting out of their compassion for humanity," said Choeden. "But once their aims are achieved, they should get back as soon as possible to their purpose and avoid drifting into the ways of the world."

Cairn India, a subsidiary of Cairn UK Holdings Limited, signed a Petroleum Resources agreement to explore for oil and natural gas in the Mannar Basin on Monday, July 7.

 

The signing took place in front of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees between the Sri Lankan Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Development Resources A.H.M Fowzie and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director of the Cairn India, Indrajit Banerjee.

 

Commenting on the deal Fowzie said, “Today we signed an agreement with Cairn India, formally offering them the rights to explore oil and gas deposits at block one in the Gulf of Mannar.”

 

According to the minister Cairn handed over a cheque for $1 million to the government. Eight blocks have been identified for oil exploration in the Mannar Gulf, with Cairn India getting block-one.

 

Observers say that the pact, which was originally scheduled to be signed on the 10th, was rushed through, fearing reprisals from the JVP, which has already announced a trade union protest against Rajapaksa government.

 

"This is a pact for blood in land and oil in sea," a Colombo based observer told TamilNet.

 

Announcing the signing of the agreement, Mr. Bnerjee said: “Cairn India is delighted to be awarded the exploration licence by the Government of Sri Lanka. The Mannar basin has not been explored in Sri Lankan waters and as such represents a frontier petroleum province.”

 

"I hasten to add that along with the success we have experienced, oil and gas exploration is a risk business and success is not always guaranteed."

 

According to a press statement by the Cairn, the exploration block (Block SL 2007-01-001), which is offshore North West Sri Lanka and covers approximately 3,000 km² in water depths of 200 metres to 1800 metres was awarded to Cairn India in the recent Sri Lanka bid round.

 

However, the agreement has been landed without tenders, press reports quoted sources close to the deal as saying.

 

The work programme includes proposals to acquire 5,000 kilometres of 2D, 1,000 km2 of 3D seismic and drill three wells in the initial three years of the eight year exploration period, according to Cairn.

 

The exploration would begin within 6 months, according to informed they said.

 

Cairn Lanka (Private) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India, has been formed and will hold a 100% participating interest in the block.

 

Expressing gratitude for the support he received from the Sri Lankan president, Mr. Banerjee said that Cairn India was delighted to be the first company to be awarded an exploration license by the GoSL.

 

Cairn along with its joint venture partners has invested billions of dollars in a variety of projects and developments in South Asia.

 

Cairn India Limited, a subsidiary of Carin UK Holdings Ltd, engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of oil and gas in India.

 

According to Business Week, the company, as of May 13, 2008, had exploration and appraisal interests in 14 blocks. Its oil and gas fields are located in Barmer, Ravva, and Cambay Basin, India.

 

The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Gurgaon, India with additional offices in Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

 

It was listed on 9 January 2007 on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges.

 

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Cairn India was the largest IPO to date in the Indian primary equity markets and Cairn India currently has a market capitalisation in excess of $5 billion, ranking as the fourth largest oil and gas company in India.

 

Indrajit Banerjee joined the board of directors of Cairn India on 26 Feb 2007 and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from 1 March 2007.

Gripped by civil war for over two decades, Sri Lanka is fast becoming a battleground for the two Asian giants - India and China. The looming struggle for influence has Delhi worried as the stage is on India's southern doorstep.

 

Separated by a narrow stretch of water, the Palk Straits, India and Sri Lanka have generally had good relations, although India has wielded significant influence on the island for decades.

 

That influence is now being steadily eroded by China, Pakistan and a host of other countries. China's military ties with Sri Lanka have strengthened, as has its role in the Sri Lankan economy.

 

Last year, Sri Lanka and China signed a US$37.6 million arms deal for the supply of ammunition and ordnance to the Sri Lankan army and navy.

 

According to the Times of India, China is also supplying Sri Lanka with Jian-7 fighters, JY-11 3D air surveillance radars, armored personnel carriers, T-56 assault rifles, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and missiles.

 

Chinese economic assistance to Sri Lanka grew five-fold last year to touch $1 billion, thus displacing Japan as Sri Lanka's largest donor.

 

There is also a visible increase in China's presence across the island. In the capital Colombo, China is funding the construction of a performing arts theater.

 

At Norochcholai in Puttalam district, north of Colombo, it is constructing a coal power plant and in the Mannar area China has been awarded a block for exploration of oil and gas.

 

And at Hambantota, 230 kilometers south of Colombo, the Chinese are building a port at an estimated cost of $1 billion - over 85% of the project is being funded by the Chinese. The four-phase project is scheduled to be completed in 15 years and work on the first phase began last year. The second phase envisages construction of an industrial port with a 1,000-meter jetty and an oil refinery.

 

The entire project will include construction of a gas-fired power plant, a ship repair unit, a bunkering terminal, an oil refinery and storage facilities for aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas, reports the Daily News, a state-run English daily from Colombo, adding that although Hambantota port has been planned as a service and industrial facility, "it could be developed as a transshipment port in the next two stages to handle 20 million containers per year".

 

China's rising profile and presence in Sri Lanka has India worried.

 

For one, China's proximity to Indian shores has implications for India's security. "The semi-permanent presence, which the Chinese are now getting in Sri Lanka, will bring them within monitoring distance of India's fast-breeder reactor complex at Kalpakam near Chennai, the Russian-aided Koodankulam nuclear power reactor complex in southern Tamil Nadu and India's space establishments in Kerala," writes B Raman, retired chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.

 

Besides, there is the impact that Chinese (and Pakistani) arms supplies are having on the Sri Lankan government's approach to the ethnic conflict in the country.

 

Unlike India, which is in favor of a negotiated political settlement to the conflict, neither Pakistan nor China is averse to the Sri Lankan government persisting with the military option in tackling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

 

And while India - due to domestic political compulsions as well as its commitment to a political solution - has been reluctant to provide the Sri Lankan armed forces with offensive weapons, Pakistan and China have had no such inhibitions. They have met Colombo's wish-list for weapons and this has in turn emboldened the government to persist with military operations, including aerial bombing of Tamil areas.

 

Indian analysts have often pointed out that it is India's reluctance to supply offensive military hardware to the Sri Lankan government that has prompted Sri Lanka to turn to the Chinese and the Pakistanis. The two have been more than willing to meet Sri Lanka's demands with regard to military hardware. It is not surprising therefore that a grateful Colombo has warmed to Beijing.

 

Indian officials are drawing parallels between Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

 

It was India's refusal to do business with Myanmar's generals for years that laid the space open wide for the Chinese to fill. While India and the world ignored the junta, China quickly expanded its economic and defense ties with Myanmar, cementing its influence over the generals.

 

Similarly, in Sri Lanka, with India reluctant to supply the weaponry that the Sri Lankan armed forces want, it has created a vacuum that China and Pakistan are happily filling.

 

Unlike India and the European Union, which tick off the Sri Lankan government about abductions and aerial bombing of Tamil areas, China and others are willing to meet its military needs, without asking any questions.

 

Like Myanmar, Sri Lanka today can ignore calls for a negotiated settlement to the conflict thanks to the economic and military support it receives from countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

 

If China's naval cooperation with Myanmar - the reported lease of Coco Island near India's Andaman Islands and its work in modernizing several Myanmar ports - has given the Chinese access to the Bay of Bengal and a presence near the vital Malacca Strait, the massive Hambantota port project on Sri Lanka's southern tip will give Beijing a significant presence in the Indian Ocean.

 

This is a critical waterway for global trade and commerce, with half the world's containerized freight, a third of its bulk cargo and two-thirds of its oil shipments traversing it.

 

Indian analysts have often drawn attention to China's encirclement of India, its deepening engagement with all of India's neighbors.

 

This encirclement has now increased with huge Chinese involvement in Gwadar port in Pakistan, ports in Myanmar and now Hambantota in Sri Lanka.

 

China's "string of pearls" is tightening around India, says a former Indian intelligence official, referring to the string of bases in Asia in which China has a presence.

 

India is understandably worried. Last month, a high-level delegation visited Colombo. Among other issues, India is said to have discussed its concern over the growing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka.

 

Reports in the media say India is stepping up its military support to the Sri Lankan armed forces.

 

The Times of India reports that India is "virtually throwing open the doors of its different military institutions to train Sri Lankan armed forces in counter-insurgency operations" and is offering them "specialized naval courses in gunnery, navigation, communication and anti-submarine warfare".

 

The "twin strategy of arms supplies and military training, coupled with intelligence-sharing and coordinated naval patrolling is primarily aimed to counter China's ever-growing strategic inroads into Sri Lanka," it says.

 

As in Myanmar, where India has dramatically toned down its criticism of the junta over the past decade and prefers to call for reconciliation rather than harping on restoration of democracy, in Sri Lanka, too, Delhi seems to be slowly looking the other way - at least in public - with regard to Colombo's human-rights violations.

 

At a recent United Nations human rights review in Geneva, India - unlike several Western countries which attacked Sri Lanka on its rights record, citing arbitrary arrests, abductions, involuntary disappearances, etc - focused on the positive aspects of the Sri Lankan situation.

 

India fully backed Colombo by drawing attention to the "active role" it is playing in the UN Human Rights Council.

 

Clearly, the Sri Lankan government has - like the Myanmar junta - learned to exploit the China-India battle for influence to its advantage.

 

But it is not just the government that's playing the field. China appears to be flirting with both the government and the LTTE. A recent report in Jane's Intelligence Review says the LTTE has not only purchased small arms and ammunition from the Chinese but also heavier weapons such as mortars and artillery.

 

While it is likely the LTTE purchased the Chinese-origin weapons from the black market, the possibility of Beijing playing the field cannot be ruled out. In which case, it is not India alone that should be worrying about the growing Chinese presence in the island. The Sri Lankan government has reason for concern.

The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Pirapaharan congratulated the Tamil Diaspora across the world for rallying together with Pongu Thamil events to strengthen the Tamils struggle for freedom.

 

B Nadesan, the political head of LTTE conveyed Pirapaharan’s greetings when commenting on the Pongu Thamil events organized by Eelam Tamils in the Diaspora in cities across North America, Europe, Africa and Australia in which over 150,000 Tamils have taken part so far to express their solidarity with their brethren back home.

 

“Even as the Sri Lankan state intensifies its oppressive actions, killing and terrorising Tamils daily, it is engaged in a global campaign of misinformation to portray the Tamil struggle as terrorism,” said Nadesan.

 

“The Pongu Thamil events attended by tens of thousands of Tamils have exposed the lies spread by the Sri Lankan state to the international community and declared the aspirations of Tamils to the world loud and clear.”

 

The show of solidarity expressed by the Diaspora Tamils have strengthened and encouraged all Tamils in the Northeast of Sri Lanka, he added.

 

Passing on Pirapaharan’s greeting, Nadean added that the LTTE leader was pleased with the overwhelming response of Diaspora Eelam Tamils to the call of Pongu Thamil and requested the Diaspora to continue their activities to strengthen the liberation struggle.

In a spectacular show at short notice, more than 75,000 Canadian Tamils spontaneously gathered at Downsview Park in Toronto, Canada, for the Pongu Thamil event, forging solidarity for the cause of Eelam, on Saturday, July 5.

 

It was in fact a response to the oppressive policies of the International Community against Eelam Tamil nationalism, observers said.

 

The Pongu Thamil declaration at the gathering included seeking International Community recognising Tamil nationalism, Tamil homeland and self determination of Tamils; Canada to reverse the decision on the ban of LTTE and the World Tamil Movement and urging the IC, including Canada, to put an immediate end to the genocide of the Tamils by applying military, economic and diplomatic sanctions against Sri Lanka.

 

The key speaker for the event was Australia based Sri Lankan physician Dr. Brian Seneviratne, a member of the Bandaranaike family, who said international lobbying, strengthening the military might of the Tamils and influencing the Sinhala people to pressurise Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to come to his senses are the three ways to end the sufferings of the Tamils.

 

The event started at 3:00 p.m. by ceremonious lighting of lamps by Paramu Visaaladchi, the mother of the late S.P. Thamilchelvan, former political head of the LTTE and Sukunam Pararajasingham, the wife of the late Joseph Pararajasingam, TNA parliamentarian from Batticaloa.

 

The venue was turned into a sea of red and yellow flags and balloons, while motorists trying to reach the site of the rally clogged many of the main roads.

 

The time and venue of the event was announced only by 6:00 p.m. on the previous day, to prevent sabotage by the agents of the Government of Sri Lanka, according to the organisers.

 

The rough estimate of Eelam Tamil population in Canada is around 300,000.

 

"It was compelling realities that made every fourth person to think it as his or her duty to attend the rally. There is enough message for the International Community to read," said the organisers.

Tamils in Australia gathered at Pongu Thamil (Tamil upsurge)events in Melbourne and Sydney over the weekend of 5 and 6 July to lend their voices to the global show of Tamil solidarity.

 

“Let the International Community hold a referendum to get the will of Eelam Tamils for an independent homeland if it is not convinced of their sentiments shown explicitly through the events of Pongu Thamil all over the world. Australia supported such a referendum in East Timor,” said Tamil National Alliance MP, M. K. Shivajilingam, when he came to address the Pongu Thamil event held at Sydney on Sunday July 6.

 

Speaking at the event, Mr. Gnanam Sivathamby, a former principal said that the International community is ignorant of the fact who are the terrorists and who are the terrorized in Sri Lanka.

 

"We do not want war. The Tamils are a peace-loving people. We want a peaceful solution. But, we want peace with justice and freedom", said a young member who spoke at the event.

 

"We have witnessed too much discrimination, too much blood shed and too little justice. It is too late and we have come too far to compromise on Tamil Eelam" spoke another young member.

 

Over 3000 Tamil Australians gathered at Mason Park in Sydney Sunday afternoon for the event, which was largely organized and addressed by the Tamil youth of Australia.

 

Many of those who attended were clad in red and yellow and carried pictures of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan.

 

A similar event was held in Melbourne on Saturday at which over a thousand Tamils gathered in Federation Square. The event included traditional Tamil dancing, music and speeches on the Tamil people’s struggle for self-determination in Sri Lanka.

 

Mahenda Rajah, president of the Eelam Tamil Association of Victoria, outlined the oppression of the Tamil’s in Sri Lanka. He described the state-sponsored “colonisation” schemes, where Sinhalese settlers were placed in traditionally Tamil areas with the aim of making Tamils a minority, told of the decision to make Sinhala the sole official language of Sri Lanka, and described other state measures that discriminate against Tamils in “employment, economy, education and every other area of life”.

 

Peaceful protests have been met by violent repression. Rajah said: “Tamils have been subjected to intimidation, torture, rape, unlawful imprisonment … There have also been cases of targeted killings of Tamil members of parliament, journalists, human rights activists, religious and community leaders, and civilians who speak out against the human rights violations of the Sri Lankan government and armed forces.”

 

Referring to the formation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Rajah said, “Tamils were forced to defend themselves” against the violence. The LTTE had been willing to negotiate with the Sri Lankan government and a peace agreement was signed in February 2002, but the government later withdrew from it.

 

Rajah urged people to “support us to achieve a lasting negotiated political solution” that would “establish a recognised homeland for the Tamils with full autonomy”.

 

Other speakers at the Pongu Thamil event included Bishop Hilton Deakin, retired Uniting Church minister Richard Wootton, Tamil radio broadcaster Anthony Gration, aid worker Jason Thomas, Margarita Windisch from the Socialist Alliance and Green Left Weekly, and visiting TNA MP M. K. Shivajilingam.

LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan participated in the Black Tigers commemoration day events held in Vanni on July 5.

 

356 Black Tigers have laid down their lives, 254 of them in sea operations, during the last 21 years since 05 July 1987, when the first Black Tiger Captain Miller, drove an explosive laden truck on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops garrisoned at Nelliyadi Central College in Vadamaraadchi in Jaffna, the LTTE said.

 

Last year, Black Tiger commandos stormed the Sri Lankan airbase in Anudradhapura in LTTE's first combined Black Tiger and Tamil Eelam Air Force attack, destroying more than 10 aircraft.

 

LTTE's media unit released edited photos of LTTE leader paying homage to Black Tigers who died in their missions.

 

Senior Commanders of the LTTE and other Black Tigers were present with Pirapaharan at an undisclosed location in Vanni.

 

76 of the 254 Black Sea Tigers who have died were female commandos. 81 male and 71 female Black Tiger commandos have died in ground operations.

 

Six music albums were published by the head of the LTTE Intelligence Wing S. Poddu, Special Commander of the Sea Tigers Col. Soosai, Head of LTTE's Military Intelligence Ratnam, Political Head B. Nadesan, Head of LTTE's military academies Col. Aathavan and a commander of the Sea Tigers Naren in the event, Tiger officials told media in Vanni.

SETTING aside domestic Tamil sensitivities, the Indian government appears to have involved itself in a full-fledged proxy war in Sri Lanka.

 

While claiming to have adopted a hands-off policy with regard to its neighbour’s continuing ethnic conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the forces of the Sinhalese government, India is extending the latter its covert support.

 

This was revealed by Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, last week during an interaction with members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association in Colombo.

 

“Eight hundred of our officers are trained (in India) every year; free of cost,” Fonseka is reported to have said. “India gives them an allowance for the duration of their courses there. The support from India is huge.”

 

Fonseka’s remarks came on the heels of a high-level Indian delegation’s visit to Colombo at a time when the government troops and the LTTE are locked in a fierce battle in northern Sri Lanka.

 

The Indian officials’ trip was kept a close secret. According to media reports, even the Lankan foreign ministry came to know about the visit of India’s national security adviser, MK Narayanan, defence secretary Vijay Singh, and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon only hours after they landed in Colombo on an Indian Air Force plane.

 

Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt last year, has vowed to achieve a military victory against the LTTE. His confidence stems from his military success against the Tigers in the Eastern provinces last year and covert Indian support to his war efforts.

 

Fonseka, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse together form the powerful Colombo triumvirate that advocates a military solution to the ethnic strife that has claimed over 70,000 lives in the last three decades. In March, Fonseka made a six-day state visit to India, during which he met with top defence officials.

 

Military relations between India and Sri Lanka have developed over recent years even though the two countries have not entered any formal cooperation agreement. While many in Delhi support such an agreement, it has not seen the light of day due to stiff opposition from political parties in Tamil Nadu.

 

At present, however, India appears to have cast aside all neutrality in the Tamil-Sinhala conflict, and adopted a policy best encapsulated by an unnamed military officer to a news agency on the eve of Fonseka’s Delhi visit: “India wants to ensure that the Sri Lankan army maintains its upper hand over the LTTE.”

 

India’s training of Sri Lankan army personnel has never been officially confirmed by either country, until Fonseka’s boast last week. More details of the military cooperation are, however, emerging.

 

According to a July 1 report in The Times of India, in 2008-2009 alone, over 500 Lankan army personnel are to be trained in Indian institutions like the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram and the School of Artillery at Devlali in Maharashtra.

 

According to the report, about 100 gentlemen cadets will receive training at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, 39 officers at the College of Military Engineering at Pune, 15 in the School of Artillery at Devlali, 29 in the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre at Ahmednagar, 25 in the College of Materials Management at Jabalpur, 30 in the Electronics and Mechanical Engineering School at Vadodara, and 14 at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering at Mhow.

 

Support does not stop at training alone. India has been supplying ‘defensive’ military equipment to Sri Lanka, including the indigenouslymanufactured Indra radars.

 

Officially, India claims it does not supply offensive weapons to Sri Lanka, but there are strong possibilities of a secret arrangement being in place already.

 

However, in June last year, when MK Narayanan publicly cautioned Sri Lanka against purchasing arms from China and Pakistan, he also said it could approach India for any help it required. Narayanan’s statement could have meant only one thing, that India was ready to meet Sri Lanka’s arms demands.

 

India’s relations with Sri Lanka is seen by many from the perspective of the Chinese geopolitical strategy in the region. Sri Lanka has moved closer to China in recent years, and Rajapakse, who came to power in 2005, has been particularly adept at playing the China card against India.

 

Sri Lanka figures prominently in Chinese naval strategy, being part of China’s “string of pearls” (or strategic bases) starting from the South China Sea and extending through the Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean and on to the Arabian and Persian Gulfs.

 

Security experts like B. Raman, a former additional secretary of the Government of India, have been expressing concern about the Chinese threat. In a recent column, Raman noted: “The semi-permanent presence, which the Chinese are getting in Sri Lanka, will bring them within monitoring distance of India’s fast-breeder reactor complex at Kalpakkam near Chennai, the Russian aided Koodankulam nuclear power reactor complex in southern Tamil Nadu and India’s space establishments in Kerala.”

 

While India’s need to counter this threat is beyond doubt, sections of those sympathetic to the Lankan Tamil cause see striking similarities in the present developments to the situation in the 1980s, in the run-up to the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in 1987.

 

In that period, the then Sri Lankan president, JR Jayawardene, got India embroiled into fighting the LTTE. The consequences of that flawed intervention, and the immense suffering it caused Tamils at the hands of the Indian army, are yet to be erased from the bruised memories of Tamils all over the world.

 

Discontent over the Centre’s policies in Sri Lanka continues to simmer in Tamil Nadu, with various parties urging the Indian government to stop military aid to the country.

 

The LTTE has also made appeals. Following Fonseka’s visit to Delhi in March, the outfit issued a statement against India’s growing military aid to Sri Lanka, saying: “While proclaiming that a solution to the Tamil problem must be found through peaceful means, India is giving encouragement to the military approach of the Sinhala State. This can only lead to the intensification of the genocide against the Tamils.”

 

A pro-LTTE Sri Lankan Tamil MP said recently, “We are optimistic even during this darkest hour. The Sri Lankan government will ditch India in favour of the Chinese in due course. Then India will have to change its policy and support the Tamils as Indira Gandhi did during her time.”

 

Whatever may be the future twists and turns in South Asia’s highly unpredictable diplomatic world, as of now India cannot disown responsibility for its part in the Eelam tragedy.

Around 30,000 people attended the Pongu Thamil (Tamil Upsurge) rally in London at the Roehampton Vale sports ground on Saturday, choking traffic in one of the highways, said the organisers.

 

A number of British parliamentarians cutting across party lines, international representatives of liberation movements, rights activists, and politicians from Tamil and Sinhala communities addressed the event, and sent messages in support of the event.

 

Even by conservative estimates, nearly 150,000 Tamils of North America, Europe, Africa and Australia have so far demonstrated their support to the cause of Eelam during the last one-month through Pongu Thamil 2008.

 

The overwhelming response of Diaspora Eelam Tamils to the call of Pongu Thamil was not only impelled by the stepped up sufferings in Sri Lanka, but also was due to suppressed anger over the attitude of the International Community, opined an independent observer reading the mood of the people who attended the London rally.

 

Dr Bajram Rexhepi, the former Prime Minister of Kosovo and current Mayor of Mitrovica, spoke of the similar history between the Tamils and the Kosovans. He mentioned that though they had international support, the intransigence of the Milosevic government meant that Kosovo remained oppressed until they fought for their freedom.

 

Mentioning that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was identified as a terrorist organisation by a number of countries, he said his country was finally freed in 1999, but even then they had to prove that they would not abuse their people’s human rights, which they finally succeeded in doing in February this year.

 

“It was not easy,” said the first elected and internationally recognised post-war Prime Minister of Kosovo, adding that “we will show solidarity and support for your struggle.”

 

Professor Thiyagaraj Dasaratha Chetty, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Qwazulu Natal and a member of the African National Congress restated his government’s position that there can be no solution without the involvement of the two principle parties and that no solution can be imposed from outside.

 

The Liberation Tigers are engaged in an armed struggle as a response to structural failures and though two states may be the answer, that too has problems that need to be addressed, he said. The South African government is willing to help with all efforts that lead to reconciliation and peace, he said.

 

Liam MacUaid, editor of Socialist Resistance and a member of Respect, spoke of his family’s experience of being forced to leave their home (in Belfast) at the end of the guns of an occupying army. He expressed the solidarity of the workers with all oppressed people, such as the Tamils.

 

A message of support from Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne of the Nava Sama Samaga Party (NSSP) was read out by local party member Sashie Peiris, in which he expressed his regret at being unable to attend, and his support for the Tamil cause.

 

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats Foreign Affairs spokesman expressed the need to ‘get the message’ to the Sri Lankan government that they need to get back to the peace negotiating table. He also called for an end to the human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

 

Andrew Pelling MP (Conservatives) said the problem in Sri Lankan can only be resolved by negotiation and called on the parties to come back to the table.

 

Welcoming the efforts by Britain that resulted in Sri Lankan being removed from the UN Human Rights Council, Virendra Sharma MP (Labour) stressed that there was no quick fix.

 

"Sri Lanka is not just a failed state", said the Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils. "There is more."

 

Mr Sharma said he understood that the crowd felt Tamil Eelam was the only solution and promised to work with the British government to force the Sri Lankan government to take steps towards solving the conflict.

 

Mike Griffiths, the General Secretary of the Trade Union UNITE said while he understood the Tamil suffering, there was great ignorance of it among the British populace. Stating that many peoples cry for self-determination, he said Tamil voice are raised in the same cry at events like the Pongu Thamil gathering.

 

Pledging to re-double his efforts to restore peace in Sri Lanka, Mr. Griffiths called on all those gathered to do the same.

 

Comparing her experiences as a migrant to Britain, Siobhan McDonnagh, Labour MP, spoke of understanding Tamil experiences and thanked the Tamils for their contributions in Britain.

 

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP (Liberal Democrats) called for there to be many more opportunities to hear Tamil voices expressing their opinion. “It is deeply important to anyone concerned with human rights and justice that we get a political solution that recognises the cultural and linguistic identity,” she said. She urged all parties to return to the negotiating table and called for an end to human rights abuses.

 

Dawn Butler MP (Labour) spoke of seeing the Tamils “walking with purpose for a purpose” to attend the event. Stressing that governments must listen to the sound of so many Tamil voices, she stated her belief that change was possible. “We will make a change together,” she pledged.

 

Messages of support were also received from Tony Benn MP (Labour), Robert Evans MEP (Labour), Stephen Hammond MP (Conservatives), Simon Hughes MP (Liberal Democrats), Susan Kramer MP (Liberal Democrats), Joan Ryan MP (Labour) and Roy Padayachie (South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Communications).

 

Independent sources said that more than 25,000 people attended the event and the estimation by the Metropolitan Police was between 20,000 and 30,000. A small number of police were present, as were security officials organised by the event organisers to ensure the event was peaceful and crowd control was maintained.

 

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Jeyananthamoorthy said that Tamils have historically ruled themselves, and that this has been denied them since the colonial times. “Tamils are fighting now to reclaim what is ours,” he said.

 

S Kajendren, TNA MP for Jaffna, spoke of the war currently being fought on Tamil soil. “The Tamils are not terrorist,” he said, expressing the hope that the freedom of the Tamil people would be achieved soon.

 

Thaya Iddaikarar, British Tamil Councillor, compared the Tamil struggle to the sacrifices the British people were prepared to make in their defence of the Falkland Islands.

 

Solicitor Matt Foot expressed his shame at being a British citizen when the government, elected on an ethical foreign policy, banned liberation struggles like the LTTE and the PKK. “Seeing you gives me hope that we can fight,” he said.

 

Other speakers included Suresh Krishna, of the Tamil Councillors Association, former Kingston Mayor Yogan Yogananthan, Merton Mayor Martin Whelton,

 

The event began with the lighting of the common flame of sacrifice by the parliamentarian for Batticaloa, S. Jeyananthamoorthy, followed by the traditional moment of silent respect.

 

The folk dance drama that followed was an interactive event, with full participation. Expression of support for Tamil Eelam were greeted with overwhelming applause from the audience, and chants of “We want” roused the crowd to its feet with responses of “Tamil Eelam”.

 

The programme also included traditional Nathaswaram music, the broadcasting of a poem by poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, and dancing by local youth to Pongu Thamil songs. David Pararajasingham of the British Tamil Forum delivered the welcome address, before the politicians took to the stage to express their support.

 

Arriving from across the British capital, with some making the journey from outside London, Tamils gathered to reinforce the global call for “motherland, nation, self-rule”. The traffic congestion attendees blocked the main A3 road leading to the event, with the traffic backed up for over a mile even after the event had begun.

 

As a balloon flew overhead expressing the sentiment that “Tamil Eelam must be free”, mini stages set amongst where the Tamils were gathered commemorated the great rulers of the Tamil kingdoms in Jaffna, including Sangkiliyan, Ellalan, Pandara Vanniyan and Princes Kuruvichchi Nachchiyar.

 

As is now common at all Tamil events in London, a food stall provided traditional foods and soft drinks, while children were entertained with face painting, balloons and flags. Shops around the grounds also sold Tamil Eelam t-shirts and umbrellas.

 

The large crowd, waving the red and yellow flag in the Tamil colours, braved the weather to turn out in force, with most staying through to the end despite periodic bouts of rain. The red, black and yellow Tamil Eelam umbrellas were not only colourful, but also useful in the British weather.

Striking a sharp contrast to Colombo's portrayal of Eelam struggle as a terrorist issue, Frances Stewart, the director of the Oxford based Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), looks at the crisis as a case of inequalities in political power between the Tamils and Sinhalese.

 

In an interview that appeared in Human Rights Tribune, on Thursday, she said: "Horizontal inequalities have political, economic, social and cultural dimensions… Inequalities in political power, which are very important, where one group may have total dominance of the political system, and another group does not have any access, which is the situation more or less in Sri Lanka."

 

Ms. Stewart said it while answering to a question posed by IPS correspondent Michael Deibert, who interviewed her in relation to a publication of CRISE, 'Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multi-Ethnic Societies', which is going to be released shortly.

 

CRISE, directed by Ms. Stewart is a Development Research Centre within Oxford University, supported by the British Government Department for International Development (DFID).

Answering another question on steps that should be taken by governments and international institutions to address these inequalities and prevent conflict in the future, she said:

 

"This issue has been surpassingly neglected by the international community. If you look at the normal policies that we advocate, such as democracy, saying that countries have to be democratic and they have to have many parties, we don’t think about the implications between groups."

 

"Democracy can lead to quite a dangerous situation in a multi-ethnic society unless you accompany it with policies to protect groups. If you have one group that is in a majority, they can really suppress the freedoms of a minority group," she said.

 

"On the political side, what it requires is recognition of the importance of distributing power across groups and not having exclusive power."

 

A CRISE working paper by Ms. Stewart, titled "Horizontal Inequalities: A Neglected Dimension of Development," available at the Centre's website, reveals that the research was based on nine case studies, ranging from Africa and Asia to Latin America.

 

The paper says that Horizontal Inequality has provoked a spectrum of political reaction, including severe and long-lasting violent conflict (Uganda, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Northern Ireland), less severe rebellion (Chiapas), coups (Fiji), periodic riots and criminality (the US), occasional racial riots (Malaysia) and a high level of criminality (Brazil).

 

"Where ethnic identities coincide with economic/social ones, social instability of one sort of another is likely –ethnicity does become a mobilising agent, and as this happens the ethnic divisions are enhanced. Sri Lanka is a powerful example; Chiapas another," is one of the conclusions found in the working paper.

 

However, the main problem in the development analysis of the CRISE research is its basis that Tamils were better placed in development than the Sinhalese under the British rule, said a Sri Lankan development analyst in Colombo when contacted by TamilNet.

 

The CRISE paper places Sri Lanka along with Malaysia, South Africa, and Uganda and says these are situations where the politically powerful represent the relatively deprived.

 

The paper argues that the government policies to bridge the gap in Sri Lanka provoked serious violence because the policies were culturally (language policy) and economically invasive and because of the geographic concentration of Tamils in the Northeast, facilitating a demand for independence unlike the case of the Indians in Fiji.

 

The paper also compares and contrasts Sri Lanka and Malaysia:

 

"Both apparently started in a similar situation, with the political majority at an economic disadvantage, but while attempts to correct this situation in Malaysia were successful, they actually provoked war in Sri Lanka."

 

The paper continues with statistics in education and government employment in Sri Lanka and argues that government policies to bring in horizontal equality by reverting the better position held by Tamils earlier, were successful, but provoked crisis.

 

But, according to the Colombo analyst, the better position held earlier by Tamils in education and government service, doesn't mean that they were better developed. This is again falling a prey to the sophisticated propaganda of the Sri Lankan state to justify its genocidal programme. Not only the international study groups, but even some Colombo-centric Tamil intellectuals have taken the bait, he said.

 

"Education and government service never meant an economy for Tamils in their own land and never helped the accumulation of capital in the Tamil areas."

 

"Economic autonomy last prevailed in the Tamil areas only under the Dutch. At that time, there were Eelam Tamils who were able to compete with officials of the Dutch East India Company in getting the pearl-diving contracts."

 

The British period marked a decline and eventual disappearance of the foreign trade of Tamils. "The plantation based economy of the British helped only the accumulation of capital in Colombo and made Tamils to depend on it," he observed.

 

The ports and communication infrastructure of the Tamil regions, which were vital for development, were neglected under the British.

 

"For instance, while railway was introduced to southern Sri Lanka in 1864, it came to Jaffna only in 1905. The coastal highways linking the Tamil areas were never developed. Even the Jaffna - Colombo coastal route was abandoned in British times."

 

Observing further, he said that there was no urbanisation in Tamil areas under the British.

 

The last population influx to Tamil areas was only under the Dutch, if the Sinhala colonisation schemes are not counted. "The fact that people were moving out from Tamil areas and urban centres since British times only indicate that there was no development."

 

Talking on education as an index of development, he said that education in Tamil areas were actually developed by the American Mission, whom the British wanted to downplay at that time by sending them off to a region, which was not in their priority.

 

The kind of education that was developed first by the missionaries and later by the native schools, helped a middle-class formation, produced professionals and was the only option for livelihood, but this was never translated into a sound basis for the development of the Eelam Tamil region, he opined.

 

"It is a myth that the Tamils were the favourites of the rulers and received advantages under the British. Anyone, who doubts it should read the British government assessment of Ceylon communities in the Donoughmore report of 1928. The coastal Sinhalese were assessed as the most progressive community and not surprisingly independent Ceylon was transferred to them in 1948."

 

"Had the Tamils been 'the developed' and the 'favourites,' they would have seen Eelam in British time itself," said the Colombo based analyst, who doesn't wish to be named due to the naive ban on TamilNet and the prevailing security situation for journalists and academics in Sri Lanka.

The ever increasing military expenses from the long dragging war combined with poor economic policies and record commodity prices has hit the already teetering Sri Lankan economy hard.

 

Recently released figures show the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falling whilst inflation continuing to rise to record levels. Government budget deficit widened as the cost of defence, oil and food rose sharply whilst share holders pulled out of the fledgling stock market and tourists cancelled trips to the island.

 

Record inflation

 

Consumer prices in Sri Lanka hit 26.2% in May from a year earlier, after increasing 25 percent in April, on higher food and energy costs. According to HSBC Global Research, Sri Lanka has the highest annual inflation in Asia

 

“Even by its own history, inflation in Sri Lanka is on the high side.” the international bank said in a report titled ‘Sri Lanka Inflation: How high will it go?’ published on May 15.

 

Whilst the report said a large part of the increase in inflation can be explained by surging global commodity prices as Sri Lanka is a net importer of food and oil, it also blamed poor economic management the island’s economic woes.

 

Pointing to a history of high inflation, averaging around 11% year-on-year since 1990 the report suggested that policy management has not been consistently successful in controlling price pressures in the economy.

 

The report further added that “inflation is going to remain elevated for some time,” and any fall will only materialize in the second half of 2009, provided international commodity prices level off and “the Central Bank of Sri Lanka achieves its aggressive reserve money growth targets for 2008.”

 

Budget deficit

 

The record inflation is driven by food and energy costs.

Sri Lanka has been struggling to pay high global oil prices, which have hit levels above $145 this month compared with the island's 2008 budget estimate of $85 per barrel.

 

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) this week said the oil price alone would increase the country's trade deficit by $500 million to $4.47 billion this year.

 

"The overall deficit increased to 93.4 billion rupees ($867.4 million) from 74.3 billion rupees due to increased public investments," the treasury said in the report.

 

The treasury report further added the deficit from its operating activities in the first five months had surged to 23.4 billion rupees ($217.3 million) from last year's 11.62 billion rupees.

 

"The main reason for the deviation was the shortfall of revenue receipts," it said

 

In addition to the sky high commodity prices, the spiraling defence expenses have also taken a toll on the Sri Lankan economy.  The government allocated around 18 percent of its 925.1 billion rupees budget this year to defence spending, after quitting an internationally brokered ceasefire and pledging to destroy the LTTE.

 

Sri Lanka's economic outlook ``depends critically'' on an end to the island's 25-year civil war, according to the International Monetary Fund.

 

GDP growth slows

 

The growth in Gross Domestic Product also dropped by 1.4% to 6.2% in the first quarter compared with 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter, less than the median forecast of 6.4 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of 10 economists.

 

``Growth is slowing due to the impacts of the worsening security situation on business confidence and high inflation increasing costs for companies,'' said Vajira Premawardhana, head of research at Lanka Orix Securities Pvt. in Colombo.

 

Poor Rating

 

There was further bad news for Sri Lanka from credit rating agencies as Standard and Poor's warned last month it was at risk of a downgrade from its current B+ rating, while Fitch Ratings said it was concerned over Sri Lanka's increasing foreign commercial borrowings.

 

The government's external debt totaled $15.3 billion at the end of May, a $180 million increase from end 2007, the report showed, while its total debt rose to 3,328.8 billion rupees by the end of April, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier.

 

"The government should curtail its spending," said Chirantha Caldera, a currency dealer at Commercial Bank of Ceylon.

 

"If your revenue is coming down, and your defence expenditure is escalating, then curtailing spending on capital expenditure like infrastructure should be there," Caldera said, adding the government risked further stoking inflation which was running at an annual 28.2 percent in June.

 

Shares fall

 

Sri Lankan shares saw their a ninth consecutive fall last week as worries about the economy and a long-running civil war with Tamil Tigers kept investors out of the market.

 

The Colombo All-Share index fell 3.37 points to 2,401.17, its lowest close since January 21. The market has fallen 10.8 percent from an 11-month high on April 23.

 

"Economic and war worries are the main reason for the fall," said Hussain Ghani, assistant director at Asia Securities.

 

"Investors are waiting for a market-pushing news, but unfortunately nothing has happened. If this situation continues, even better corporate results for the last quarter will also not boost the market."

 

Sentiment on the corporate sector has been hit by poor economic data.

 

Fall in tourism

 

Sri Lanka attracted fewer holidaymakers in June, the island's main tourism promotion authority said Friday, blaming the drop in the number of visitors on the country's ongoing ethnic conflict

Arrivals in June fell 9.3 percent to 27,960 from 30,810 reported a year earlier and totalled 224,363 in the first half of 2008, down 0.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, Sri Lanka Tourism said.

 

The number of visitors from Britain and Germany -- both key markets -- fell five percent each in June to 5,304 and 1,317 respectively over the same period a year earlier.

 

The number of leisure travellers from neighbouring India declined 28.8 percent in June to 5,664, as against the same period last year.

 

"It's the conflict that is keeping tourists away. There are frequent bomb attacks and it is natural they would be cautious to travel here," an official from the tourism authority said.

 

Many countries in the west have cautioned their nationals against travelling to Sri Lanka, where fighting between government troops and Tamil Tigers has escalated since the start of the year.

 

Tourism is the fourth biggest revenue generator for Sri Lanka's 27-billion-dollar economy, behind remittances from expatriate workers, clothing and tea exports.

Popular South Indian magazine ‘Kumudam’ in its editorial urged the Central government in India to act cautiously in decisions relating to Sri Lanka and not to unwittingly assist the enemy.

The planned attendance of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the SAARC summit and the deployment of Indian military personnel for his security has become a controversial issue.

 

The agreement of Sri Lankan government to the presence of 3000 Indian soldiers in Colombo has further raised suspicions.

 

We have forgotten neither the attack on late premier Rajeev Gandhi by a Sri Lankan soldier nor the atrocities committed due to the counter productive decision to send Indian Peace Keeping Forces to Sri Lanka.

 

Therefore we cannot be complacent in matters of security for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

 

However, there has been no response from the government to questions posed by the opposition as to whether the Indian troopers sent to provide security to the premier will stay back to support the racist Sri Lankan state.

 

At a time when the Sri Lanka’s war against Tamils escalates, who will benefit from the Indian weapons? Who will bear the brunt of these weapons?

 

As Sri Lanka turns to other countries including China and Pakistan for assistance, any decision taken by India will have international significance.

 

The painful lessons India learnt in the past by intervening in the Sri Lankan conflict should not be forgotten.

 

At this crucial point in time, India should act carefully to ensure no harm befalls the Tamils in Sri Lanka whilst protecting her sovereignty.

 

Our assistance should not result in strengthening the enemy.

 

(Translated)