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  • Tamils mourn 'Voice of the Nation'

    Dec 13
     
    Tamils across the world this week mourned Mr. Anton Balasingham, the Tamil Tigers’ theoretician and chief negotiator, who passed away Thursday after a brief battle with terminal cancer.
     
    Mr. Balasingham, 68, passed away at his home in south London where he has been resting since his diagnosis last month, being cared for by his wife Adele and specialist cancer medical staff.
     
    In his last public comments, he said last month of his illness: “it is an unfortunate personal tragedy. However, when compared to the vast ocean of the collective tragedy faced by my people, my illness is merely a pebble. I am deeply sad that I am crippled by this illness, unable to contribute anything substantial towards the alleviation of the immense suffering and oppression of my people.”
     
    Hailing Mr. Balasingham’s three decades of service, the LTTE conferred the title of ‘Voice of the Nation’ on the veteran negotiator who led the LTTE-delegation in five separate efforts to negotiate a solution with successive Sinhala leaderships
     
    LTTE officials in Kilinochchi announced a 3-day mourning period, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Diaspora Tamil organisations, expressing the community’s sadness, have also announced a 3-day mourning period.
     
    The funeral arrangements are yet to be finalized but are expected to be announced over the weekend.
     
    In an obituary Friday, The Times of London described Mr. Anton Balasingham, the theoretician and chief negotiator of the LTTE who passed away Thursday, as “the one man the Tigers could trust with their destiny in what looked like being a breakthrough in talks.”
     
    At one stage in the Norwegian peace process, the British broadsheet noted, Mr. Balasingham had steered the Tigers away from their demand for independence.
     
    However, it said, “everybody underestimated the determination of hardcore Sinhalese organisations like the JVP and hardline Buddhist clergy to scuttle any deal that gave the Tamils even a hint of autonomy.”
     
    In a message of condolence, the LTTE leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan, said: “a source of unwavering strength in the political and diplomatic efforts of our freedom movement, and the light of our nation is extinguished. Bala Annai, from whom I sought advice and solace, is no more with us. It is an irreplaceable loss for our entire nation and for me.”
     
    “Bala Annai’s life has been much too short. His death comes at a time when we needed him most, as our freedom struggle intensifies. I cannot find words to express my grief and loss,” Mr. Pirapaharan said.
     
    “From the beginning of our struggle, when we first met, there was a deep mutual understanding. The fondness that rose from that understanding developed into a rare friendship. We thought and acted in unison. Our friendship grew in strength through our shared day-to-day experiences. This friendship stands apart from ordinary human relationships. It matured with time and was shaped by our shared history.
     
    “I was deeply fond of Bala Annai. In the great family that is our movement he was its eldest son and its guiding star for three decades. That is how I looked up to him. During the time we lived together as one family, I came to realize that he was no ordinary human being. He was strong and unshakable even during the illness that threatened to take his life and the severe pain that illness brought him. The strength of his soul was inspirational. I grieve for him.
     
    “Bala Annai has a permanent historic place in the growth and the spread of our movement. He was its elder member, its ideologue, its philosopher and, above all, my best friend who gave me encouragement and energy. He shared my sorrows, my anxieties and my travails. He was with me from the very beginning of our movement, sharing its challenges and hardships. He was the central figure in all our diplomatic efforts.
     
    “Saluting the immeasurable service he rendered our nation in the political and diplomatic arenas and the efforts by which he put our national freedom movement on the world stage, allowing our nation to stand with dignity, I am proud to bestow the title of ‘Voice of the Nation’ on Bala Annai.
     
    “Bala Annai has not left us. He will live permanently in our thoughts."
     
    Mr. Pirapaharan concluded his statement with the rallying call of the LTTE’s struggle: “the yearning of the Tigers is Tamileelam!”
     
    LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan shares a lighter moment with LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham. Photo LTTE
  • Avoid Sri Lanka, France warns citizens
    France has warned its nationals against making non-essential visits to Sri Lanka because of an increase in violence and suicide attacks, Reuters reported.

    In an advisory published on its Web site (www.diplomatie.gouv.fr), on Thursday the Foreign Ministry strongly advised French visitors to avoid the north and east of the island and warned against non-urgent travel in the rest of the country. The move is likely to further negatively impact tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka, where violence has been rising sharply for several months.

    "Given the resumption in violence and suicide attacks ... (travellers are) advised for the moment to reconsider all non-essential travel to Sri Lanka," the French Foreign ministry said.

    The impact of the escalating violence means Sri Lanka's top hotel groups are increasingly relying on their Maldivian operations and investments into India for survival, LankaBusinessOnline reported this week.

    In October, tourists coming from Europe fell 24 percent to 16,000 whereas from key markets like UK, Germany and France it is down even further, Aitken Spence Hotels told LBO.

    Indian tourist arrivals, which have been keeping overall numbers of arrivals better than last year, has also shown a decline in October, despite being up 19 percent for the year.
  • UK takes Sri Lanka off safe return list
    The British Government has relaxed the procedure for thousands of Sri Lankan asylum seekers with immediate effect because of what it sees as a deteriorating security situation in Sri Lanka.

    A British High Commission spokesperson says Sri Lankan asylum seekers could now remain in the country and make their appeals if their applications had been rejected.

    Earlier, Sri Lanka was among 14 countries whose citizens had to leave Britain as soon as their asylum applications were rejected and make any appeal from outside Britain.

    The Sunday Times learns that some 30,000 applications by Sri Lankan seeking asylum in Britain are either pending or rejected.

    "The latest country information on Sri Lanka has been closely examined and given the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka, the British Home Secretary is of the view that the legal test for designation is no longer met,” the spokesperson explained.

    He said however as the escalation in violence in Sri Lanka had not affected all parts of the country to the same degree, the Home Office would be examining whether it was appropriate to re-introduce a partial geographic designation.

    The move would mean that only the areas directly hit by violence might be considered.
  • US: LTTE is not a threat to region or world

    Whilst the United States considered the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group, they are not a threat to the region or part of global terrorism, Washington’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert O' Blake, said last week.

    US Ambassador Blake visited Sri Lankan military forces in Jaffna earlier this month. Photo Sri Lanka Army
    Moreover, Sri Lanka should negotiate a solution to the conflict with the LTTE, who are representing the Tamil people in the negotiations, Ambassador Blake said.

    And whilst the US was supporting Sri Lanka to dissuade the LTTE from pursuing the military option to the Tamil question, that did not mean Washington wanted Colombo to prosecute its own war, he said.

    Ambassador Blake’s comments came in a lengthy interview with the state-own Daily News, published December 5.

    He began by reiterating Washington’s support for Sri Lanka saying: “the US is not neutral in this particular conflict. We have always been a strong supporter of the Government and we consider the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.”

    “So we are doing what we can to help the Government through enforcement channels, through military channels to defend itself in the war on terrorism.”

    However, Ambassador Blake said, that does not mean the US endorses a military solution.

    “All this is to help Sri Lanka defend itself. We have been very clear that our strong interest is in not seeing the military prosecute this war, but to send a signal of strength that will hopefully see the LTTE coming to the negotiating table.”

    “After more than 25 years of conflict here, the time has come for peace in Sri Lanka. The real solution for this conflict is a sustained negotiating process that hopefully leads to an agreement of some sort between the two parties.

    “We strongly believe that there cannot be a military solution to this particular conflict. [Sri Lanka] tried that for a long time and it has not worked. So we strongly believe that the time has come for a peaceful negotiated settlement to your conflict.”

    Asked if Sri Lanka should negotiate with terrorists, he replied: “We do think you can negotiate with the terrorists [and] there have been many different exchanges in the past, in fact six rounds of negotiations in 2002/3.”

    Asked if the Sri Lankan government should present its proposals “to the LTTE or the Tamil people?”, Ambassador Blake replied:

    “Well, at this point, to my knowledge, the LTTE is the one that is representing the Tamil people in the negotiations. That has been the history of the negotiations to this date, beginning in 2002 and carried to 2003.”

    “The answer to this [ethnic] question is not purely a counter-terrorism or a military solution. There also has to be a parallel political strategy where the Government advances a power-sharing proposal of some sort,” he said further.

    “We believe that the SLFP-UNP agreement is really the best opportunity to have come along in some time. We very much hope that this effort would succeed and form the basis for proposals that can be tabled at future negotiations.”

    Asked about American interests in the island, Ambassador Blake said:

    “Sri Lanka is a friendly democratic country in a region that is increasingly important to the US, and a region that is facing some challenges. When you look at places like Pakistan, Bangladesh and other parts like Afghanistan, these are all countries that are facing challenges. So, it is very important for us that there be democratic, multi-ethnic success stories in the region. Certainly India can be that, and we hope Sri Lanka can be that as well. Sri Lanka has the added importance to us of being in the major shipping links in the Indian Ocean.”

    Asked if the LTTE was a threat to the region, not only to Sri Lanka, Ambassador Blake replied:

    “I do not think so. I think the LTTE has been very careful about confining their operations to Sri Lanka because they are aware of the fact that if they should do so if they not want to antagonise particularly neighbours like India.”

    “So they have been very careful and I think they have realised that one of the greatest strategical mistakes they made in their history was targeting Rajiv Gandhi.”

    Asked, again, if the LTTE was a threat globally “because they exchange views, knowledge etc. [with other terrorist groups],” Ambassador Blake replied:

    “I do not know to what extent they operate globally. I am sure they try to derive lessons as best as they can from the experiences of other terrorist organisations around the world. But, I am not aware of them taking terrorist action in another country, other than the attack on Rajiv Gandhi.”

    Asked why US was urging Sri Lanka to talk to the LTTE whilst attacking others it considered terrorists, Ambassador Blake replied:

    “I think it is dangerous to make comparisons between one country and the next. Every single country is different. In our case, the terrorists that we are pursuing are mostly stateless organisations like Al-Qaeda that are not based in any single country. They are just out to kill as many Americans as possible, and there is really no point in trying to negotiate with them because they do not have any political objective to speak of.”

    “I think the LTTE, by contrast, though surely is pursuing terrorist objectives, has the ultimate political objective to establish some sort of framework where the rights of Tamils can be respected.”

    “So we believe that there cannot be a military solution to this, and that there has to be a negotiated settlement where the aspirations of all Sri Lankans; Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and others, can be respected.”
  • Driving Norway out
    In the wake of the Heroes Day speech by Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan, Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer flew to Sri Lanka.
     
    Amid the deepening violence in the Sri Lanka, it was merely to be another round of shuttle-diplomacy, to 'sound out' President Mahinda Rajapakse's administration and the LTTE. But something very different to routine happened this time.
     
    When he met government officials, he was given a blunt directive: he was not to go to Kilinochchi to meet the LTTE until the government granted him permission. The hapless envoy cooled his heels in Colombo and waited.
     
    He eventually went to Kilinochchi - empty handed. He returned empty handed too.
     
    But something crucial had happened. By agreeing to the government's terms for Norway's involvement in peace efforts, Mr. Hanssen-Bauer had compromised Oslo's 'third party' neutrality. More importantly, Oslo's prestige as a respected actor on the international stage had been dulled.
     
    In short, his curt order to stay put was a humiliation for an international diplomat fronting not only Norway but the collective international community involved in Sri Lanka's peace process - i.e. the Co-Chairs.
     
    The neutrality of the third party is sine quo non for peace making. At the outset, despite the international intrigue in Sri Lanka, Norway treated both parties equally in the peace process and, equally importantly, was treated with dignity and respect by the parties to the peace process.
     
    Interestingly, throughout the peace process there has never been friction - at least publicly - between the LTTE, the armed non-state actor, and Norway, frontsman for the international (state) system.
     
    There have been periodic bouts of friction between the Sri Lankan state and Norway. Apart from the embarrassing and now infamous 'salmon-eating busybodies' incident, there were (unsuccessful) demands that then Special Envoy Erik Solheim be replaced.
     
    These frictions were mainly with President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office and later administration. The market friendly - and Sinhala conservative - UNP got on famously with the Norwegians.
     
    But even the moments of friction did not involve official attacks on Norway's integrity or those of its personnel by the Sri Lankan government.
     
    But that was before President Mahinda Rajapakse came to power on a surge of Sinhala-nationalist support. As he made clear last week, their mandate, as he sees it, is to 'defend the motherland.'
     
    And not only from the 'separatist terrorism' of the LTTE, but also from "whatever forces that sought to divide it."
     
    If that wasn't clear enough, President Rajapakse declared: "What satisfies me most about the past year is the ability of our government to gradually extricate our country from the great betrayal it was facing."
     
    By that he means removing Sri Lanka from the obligations incurred during the Norwegian peace process, especially the federal solution.
     
    From the outset, President Rajapakse made it clear he did not value the Norwegian help. He claimed he would solve the problem if could talk directly with Mr. Pirapaharan.
     
    Dismissed by everyone as a political stunt or mere rhetoric, the underlying corollary was ignored: just as he had promised in the election manifesto that proudly bears his personal stamp of ownership - 'Mahinda Cinthanaya' - he intended to end Norway's involvement.
     
    Why would the President, inheriting a country riven by renewed violence drive out a key international ally in peace building? Because President Rajapakse wants 'peace with dignity' - by which he means the restoration of Sinhala hegemony and an end to upstart Tamil aspirations.
     
    In short, he wants to destroy the LTTE miltiarily.
     
    The first step to doing that is to isolate them from the international community which, in his view, has given too much emphasis to the Tigers' opinions and demands.
     
    And the first step to isolating the Tigers is, in his view, to get rid of Norway or at least replace her with a more appropriate interlocutor - i.e. one that is hostile to the LTTE.
     
    Indeed, President Rajapakse didn't even mention Norway in his inaugural address as President in November 2005 - though he went through a range of international 'alternatives' to Norway.
     
    President Rajapakse began his unstated, but discernible plan at once. In December he turned publicly and pointedly to India for help with solving the ethnic question.
     
    The move failed. Not only was India unfavourable to replacing the Norwegians, an alarmed Delhi could see what many other internationals did not: Rajapakse was not intent on a negotiated solution but was instead preparing the military option.
     
    With Delhi's involvement not forthcoming, President Rajapakse had to find an alternative way of removing the Norwegians.
     
    He did not wish to simply tell them to get out: they could take much international goodwill and not a little international aid with them.
     
    However, if he couldn't ask them to go, he could certainly make it impossible for them to stay.
     
    One thing President Rajapakse was sure of is that his efforts to eject the Norwegians would draw considerable support from the Sinhalese. (It is no accident that not once has the UNP, despite its closeness to Oslo, ever publicly defended the Norwegians' efforts).
     
    Notwithstanding claims of a 'peace constituency' in the south, the insidious campaign run by the ultra-Sinhala nationalists such as the JVP, JHU and PNM - assisted by the regular criticism by President Chandrika - had laid the groundwork for President Rajapakse.
     
    Numerous protests outside the Norwegian embassy - often accompanied by the torching of the Norwegian flag - had already muddied Oslo's standing such that even very public sponsorings of Buddhist temples in the south could not fix. (Even Norway's offers to discuss their role with the JVP only lent weight to the latter's disdain for Oslo.)
     
    Indeed, shortly after President Rajapakse came to power, the JVP et al again began agitating against the Norwegians, stoking ever present suspicions amongst the people. It was by his acts of omission that President Rajapakse helped this campaign: he never spoke publicly in praise of Norway's efforts and never gave Norwegian diplomats public accolades.
     
    When the February 2006 peace talks were agreed to, amid fast rising violence, the LTTE suggested the talks could be held in Oslo. President Rajapakse refused.
     
    His opting for Geneva (disregarding an earlier demand any more talks must be within Sri Lanka itself) was not so much about contradicting the LTTE (as was commonly understood) as snubbing Norway.
     
    The peace process stalled: the Geneva I agreement on paramilitaries became a laughing stock, violence escalated.
     
    But it was the proscription of the LTTE by Canada and the European Union that fast tracked President Rajapakse's plans. If the original plan was to eject Norway to isolate the LTTE, particularly from the EU, then the wider objectives had unexpectedly come about anyway.
     
    The urgency to eject Norway thus eased temporarily. Now it was a question of stepping up military operations (particularly in the east) and destroying the peace process by escalating the conflict.
     
    The objective of marginalizing Norway remained. In July President Rajapakse sent a personal message to the LTTE to talk directly. It was conveyed by N. Vithyatharan, the editor of the Jaffna daily, Uthayan.
     
    "If the LTTE and the government can agree to put an end to all violence for two weeks, [we] could make a fresh start and develop the rapport from there on. We don't have to do it through Norway or be dependent on them, we can deal directly," the paper quoted Mr. Rajapakse as asking Mr. Vithyatharan to tell the Tigers.
     
    But the LTTE rejected the notion, insisting Norway remains as facilitator.
     
    In July the Sri Lankan government even agreed to hold talks in Oslo. But the July 'meeting' - in which Norway unilaterally invited the government and the LTTE - turned into a fiasco.
     
    The government sent a non-delegation comprising relatively junior officials. The LTTE said it came to meet with Norway, not Sri Lanka.
     
    Piqued by the LTTE, Norway held very public meetings with top Sri Lankan officials - even the King of Norway met Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister.
     
    But whilst this did not make Colombo any more amenable to Norwegian's continued role, it boosted Sinhala nationalist haughtiness about the 'white Tigers.' Meanwhile, another Norwegian-wielded thorn in President Rajapakse's side was the international ceasefire monitors' presence on the ground.
     
    Cutting them off from the LTTE was an imperative, but harder to achieve than fending of the Norwegian diplomats. And amid an expanding military campaign, it was imperative they also be constrained.
     
    Twice now the Rajapakse administration has tried to compel the SLMM to pull out of its own accord - by firing artillery barrages at SLMM chiefs when they meet with the LTTE.
     
    The first was in July at Maavil Aru and the second time was in Pooneryn in November.
     
    With neither the Norwegian diplomats nor the ceasefire monitors they appointed showing any signs of leaving, the campaign against them has escalated.
     
    When he met Indian Premier Manmohan Singh in November, President Rajapakse didn't disguise his wish to see the Norwegians depart. His very public grumble makes it clear: 'the unwelcome Norwegians are in our house; if only they would go.'
     
    Then there were the recent lurid allegations against Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim, Olso’s former Special Envoy.
     
    It was the state-owned Daily News which published allegations of financial dealings between him and the LTTE. The shocking claims compelled the Norwegian government to issue an angry denial - and this week even the main opposition in Norway felt it had to come out and back Mr. Solheim.
     
    Sri Lanka's vice-like control of state media is well known, and particularly the mass- circulating English language Daily News would not have printed the story without either receiving official sanction or being sure it would get it.
     
    Indeed, President Rajapakse's administration is yet to apologize for making the allegations - and the Daily News is yet to distance itself from them.
     
    It is in this humiliating context that Mr. Hanssen-Bauer arrived in Sri Lanka last week, to be treated, not as a key international figure, but an interfering busybody.
     
    In the past a visit by Norwegian Envoys, even when 'routine', drew considerable interest within Sri Lankan and abroad - a quick stock take and return would sometimes invoke lurid media headlines of diplomatic 'failure.'
     
    But Mr. Hanssen-Bauer's recent visit was seen more as an oddity, a curious development at this time of deepening antagonisms.
     
    Ironically, it is Norwegian persistence with the peace process in Sri Lanka is likely to draw more and more public slaps in the face from the Rajapakse administration.
     
    And it is not simply a question of Norwegian prestige in the Sri Lankan context, but globally.
     
    In the meantime, Sri Lanka's undeclared war continues at all the intensity of the late ninties.
     
    But, as President Rajapakse intended, it is Oslo which may finally pull the plug on the Norwegian peace process.
  • Sinhala leaders' duplicity has left Tamils with no choice but independence - LTTE leader
    LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan honoured fallen fighters on Nov 27,2006, when he delivered his annual Heroes' Day address. Photo LTTE
    The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Velupillai Pirapaharan, in his annual Heroes’ Day statement, expressed extreme frustration at the unchanging attitude of successive Sinhala regimes towards resolving the burning Tamil national question and, in particular, at the deceitful handling of the current peace efforts by three successive Sinhala regimes.
     
    “Both our liberation movement and our people never preferred war to a peaceful resolution. We have always preferred a peaceful approach to win the political rights of our people. We have never hesitated to follow the peaceful path to win our political rights. That is why we held peace talks, beginning in Thimpu right through to Geneva, on several occasions, at various times, and in many countries,” he said.
     
    The LTTE leader went on to say that President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected his final call in his Heroes’ Day statement last year to find a resolution to the Tamil National question with urgency. He said that President Rajapakse had instead intensified the war on the one hand and whilst on the other hand talking about finding a peaceful resolution. The LTTE leader said that this dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed. “It is not possible to find a resolution by marginalizing and destroying the freedom movement with which talks must be held to find the resolution. This is political absurdity on the part of the Sinhala leaders.” Due to this strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the CFA has become defunct, he said.
     
    The LTTE leader said that the present regime, which is denying food and medicine to the people to the extent of starving them, cannot be expected to show compassion and give the Tamil people their political rights. He said that the Sinhala nation, eternally trapped in the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa, has failed to think afresh and has left the Tamils with only one option, political independence and statehood for the people of Tamil Eelam.
     
    The full text of the official translation of his speech follows:
     
    “We are at a cross roads in our freedom struggle. Our journey has been long and arduous, and crowded with difficult phases. We are facing challenges and unexpected turns that no other freedom movement had to face. Unprecedented in history, we are dealing with war and peace talks at the same time.
     
    Six years have passed since we dedicated ourselves to find a solution to the ethnic conflict through peace talks. In this long time span, has a solution been found to the burning Tamil national question? Was there any visible change in the mindset of the Sinhala leadership that continues to inflict unrelenting cruelty on the Tamil people? Were any of the justifiable requests of the Tamils been fulfilled? Were our people able to find relief from the daily harassment and misery at the hands of the occupying military? Were the daily basic problems of our people resolved? None of these has happened. Instead, death and destruction were heaped on the Tamils who hoped that they would receive justice.
     
    While the countries that preached peace maintain silence without conscience, a great tragedy is unfolding in the Tamil homeland. The Sinhala government has imprisoned the Tamils in their own land after closing its main supply routes. Having removed their freedom by restricting their movement and constrained their lives, it is inflicting great suffering on them. It has split the Tamil homeland, set up military camps, bound it with barbed wire, and has converted it into a site of collective torture.
     
    The Sinhala government has unleashed a two pronged war, military and economic, on our people. Our people are subjected to unprecedented assaults. Arrests, imprisonment, and torture, rape and sexual harassment, murders, disappearance, shelling, aerial bombing, and military offensives are continuing unchecked. At the same time our people are subjected to an inhuman economic embargo on essential items including food and medicine.
     
    Even after the ceasefire, negotiations and the five years of patiently keeping peace, the dividends of peace have not reached our people. Instead our people are faced with unbearable burdens in their daily lives. Thousands of our people have been forced out of their homes and are languishing with disease and hunger in refugee camps. No one should expect that this Sinhala government which is denying food and medicine to our people to the extent of starving them would show compassion and give them their political rights.
     
    The monumental growth in knowledge and the resulting global outlook is taking humanity into a new era. Ideas, views and philosophies are changing in tandem with this growth in knowledge and this is resulting in changes in society. Yet, within the Sinhala nation, there is little change in its ideas and philosophies. The Sinhala nation is refusing to broaden its thinking and take a new approach. The Sinhala nation remains mislead by the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa and remains trapped in the chauvinistic sentiments thus created. Unable to free itself from this mindset, it has adopted Sinhala Buddhist chauvinistic notions as its dominant national philosophy. This notion is spread in its schools, universities and even its media. The domination of this Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is preventing its students, intellectuals, and writers from stepping out of and thinking free from its domination. This, unfortunately, is preventing the Sinhala nation from undertaking a genuine attempt at resolving the Tamil national question in a civilized manner.
     
    Both our liberation movement and our people never preferred war to a peaceful resolution. We have always preferred a peaceful approach to win the political rights of our people. We have never hesitated to follow the peaceful path to win our political rights. That is why we have tried to hold peace talks beginning in Thimpu right through to Geneva on several occasions, at various times, and in many countries. The current peace efforts, with Norwegian facilitation and with the blessings of the international community, taking place in the capitals of various countries are unique.
     
    This peace journey began on 31st October 2000, when the then Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim visited Vanni and met us. This peace journey is taking place in a unique period, under unique historical conditions, in a unique format and on a unique path. It is moving on two fronts, peace talks, on one hand, and a war of occupation by the Sinhala government, on the other.
     
    During the six years when we kept peace, we were sincere in our efforts. Indeed, we initiated the peace efforts. We created a strong foundation for peace efforts by unilaterally declaring a ceasefire. We refrained from putting conditions or time limits for peace talks. We did not undertake these efforts from a position of weakness. We had recaptured the Vanni mainland and the Iyakkachchi-Elephant Pass military complex. We had beaten back the ‘Operation Fire’ of the Sinhala military. We carried out great military feats in the history of our struggle. It was from this position of strength that we undertook this peace effort.
     
    The situation was just the opposite in the south. The south had faced defeat after defeat and was losing its will to face war. Its military had lost its backbone. The economy was very shaky. It was only under such conditions that the Sinhala nation agreed for peace talks. In this five years since the peace efforts began, three governments have come to power, that of Wickremasinghe, Bandaranayake and Rajapakse. Each time the government changed, the dove of peace moved from one cage to another but it was never able to fly freely. Stabbed many times, the dove is now struggling for its life.
     
    We held talks with the Wickremasinghe government for six months after signing the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with him. Like all previous Sinhala regimes, the Wickremasinghe regime dragged time without implementing the clauses in the CFA and the agreements reached at the talks. Its military failed to move out of people’s homes, schools and hospitals and instead declared these vast areas of land as military security zones and permanently prevented the people from returning to their land. The sub-committee for De-escalation and Normalization became dysfunctional. The sub-committee created to solve immediate humanitarian needs of the people also become defunct due to planned sabotage by the government.
     
    The Wickremasinghe government that refused to solve the humanitarian problems facing our people, secretly worked to marginalize our movement on the world stage. Even before setting up a working administrative structure in the Tamil homeland, it conducted donor conferences to obtain aid for the south. By failing to facilitate our participation in the donor conference held in Washington, it marginalized and humiliated our movement. As a result we were forced to stay away from the Tokyo conference. The Wickremasinghe regime did not stop with this. It plotted to trap our freedom movement in an ‘international safety net’ and destroy us.
     
    When we put forward the proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), startling changes occurred in the southern politics. The Kumaratunge government took over the reins of power. While refusing to hold talks on the basis of our proposal, her government, using the paramilitary phenomenon, intensified the shadow war against us. The paramilitary factor turned the Tamil homeland into a violent blood stained theatre. Intellectuals, political leaders, journalists, LTTE members, supporters and civilians were all murdered. We were forced to halt the political work, carried out according to the CFA clauses by our members in Sri Lankan military occupied areas of the Tamil homeland. As a result, our people were left alone in the cruel grip of the occupying military. Finally the Kumaratunge regime failed to implement even the Joint Mechanism (PTOMS) agreement signed by her regime for tsunami rehabilitation. The Supreme Court, unable to step outside the Sinhala chauvinistic notions, rejected this purely humanitarian focused agreement citing the unitary constitution.
     
    It was at this time that the Sinhala nation elected Rajapakse as its new President. Like the Sinhala leaders of the past, he too is putting his hopes in a military solution. He rejected our final call in our last year’s Heroes’ Day statement, to find a resolution to the Tamil National question with urgency. Instead, he intensified the war, on the one hand, with the view to destroy our movement and, on the other hand, he is talking about finding a peaceful resolution. This dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed. It is not possible to find a resolution by marginalizing and destroying the freedom movement with which talks must be held to find the resolution. This is political absurdity on the part of the Sinhala leaders.
     
    The Rajapakse regime hopes to decide the fate of the Tamil nation using its military power. It wants to occupy the Tamil land and then force an unacceptable solution on the Tamils. Due to this strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the CFA has become defunct. The Rajapakse regime, by openly advocating attacks on our positions, has effectively buried the CFA. The Rajapakse regime’s attacks have expanded from land to sea and air. It has given a free hand to the paramilitary groups to kill at will. It has occupied Mavilaru and Sampur blatantly breaking the terms of the CFA. The Sinhala military misjudged our strategic withdrawal from Mavilaru and Sampur. It used heavy firepower and launched large scale offensives to bring Tamil lands under its control. Tamil land was soaked in blood. It is at this time we decided to give a shock to the Sinhala regime. Our forces conducted a massive counter-offensive on the Sinhala forces that attempted to move from Kilali and Muhamalai. The military sustained heavy losses and was forced to abandon its offensive temporarily. This, however, did not persuade the Sinhala regime to give up its military plans. It continues on its military path.
     
    The Rajapakse regime, while conducting genocide of the Tamils, is portraying our movement which is waging a struggle to save the Tamils from this genocide as a terrorist organization. It has launched a malicious propaganda campaign to defame our movement. Ignoring the unanimous opposition of our people and the objection of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the European Union and Canada have yielded to diplomatic pressure from the Sri Lankan government and listed our movement as a terrorist organization. They isolated us as undesirables.
     
    This hasty decision, arrived at without considering the prevailing context, has created serious repercussions. It has gravely disturbed the parity of status and balance of power we held with the Sinhala regime. It encouraged the hard line stance of the Sinhala regime. It weakened the SLMM and facilitated the war plans of the Sinhala regime. Some countries that proclaim to be helping the peace efforts, have not only failed to condemn the genocidal attacks on our people but are also giving military and financial aid to the Sinhala regime to support its war plans. These are external factors that are encouraging the Rajapakse regime to carry on with its brutal military offensives in the Tamil land with absolute impunity.
     
    The Rajapakse regime is not giving due importance to the peace talks because it has confidence in its military approach. The two Geneva talks were unproductive because of its lack of interest in the peace front. At the first Geneva talks, we placed evidence of military-paramilitary cooperation in the form of documents, statistics and incident reports. Unable to reject the solid evidence, the Sri Lankan government agreed to implement the CFA clause by removing the paramilitary groups from the Tamil homeland. After this first Geneva talks, there was only one change. State and paramilitary terror in the Tamil homeland escalated.
     
    The second Geneva talks were also a failure. At these talks, we gave priority to the humanitarian issues facing our people and requested that the A9 road be opened and the SLMM be given freedom to function. The Sri Lankan government, putting military advantage ahead of humanitarian concerns, rejected both requests.
     
    The Sinhala government that failed to show mercy to the people affected by a natural disaster is never going to budge on a humanitarian crisis that it planned and created. How could the peace talks move forward when the peace delegation is made up of people who proclaim that they will wage war and hold peace talks at the same time? How can trust be built? How can peace be arrived at like this?
     
    To improve his posturing as a peace dove, President Rajapakse staged a deceptive ‘All Party Conference’. The Sinhala leaders have practiced this infamous political tradition of initiating commissions of inquiry, parliamentary select committees, all party conferences, or round tables to procrastinate whenever it is unable to face up to a situation and wants to drag time until attention is diverted. This is exactly what he is doing now. Rejecting our call to speedily find a resolution to the Tamil national question, he is hiding behind the All Party Conference. For the last ten months, the all party committee is looking for the Tamil question, like searching for a black cat in a dark room.
     
    Once the All Party Conference lost its deceptive power, President Rajapakse has taken up his next card, the MoU between the two major parties. These two major parties that effectively have hegemonic control over the south are both essentially chauvinistic parties. Both these parties are born of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism and compete with each other to carry out genocide of the Tamils. This MoU is a temporary opportunistic move by Rajapakse regime to avoid the multiple problems of international pressure to find a peaceful solution, the declining economic situation, and the opposition of his political partner, Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP). There is no sincere motive in this MoU agreement. These two parties will never put forward a just solution to the Tamil issue. Despite this, the Rajapakse regime continues to show interest in keeping the all party conference alive simply to deceive the world.
     
    My beloved people,
     
    A long time has elapsed since we embarked on this journey for peace with Norway’s facilitation. We have tried our best to take forward this peace effort. We have practised patience. We gave innumerable opportunities for finding peaceful resolution. We postponed our plan to advance our freedom struggle twice to give even more chances to the peace efforts, once when the tsunami disaster struck and again when President Rajapakse was elected.
     
    It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question. Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path.
     
    The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam. We therefore ask the international community and the countries of the world that respect justice to recognize our freedom struggle. At this historic time when the Tamils are recommencing their journey on the path of freedom, we seek the unwavering support and assistance of the world Tamil community. We express our gratitude to the Tamil Nadu people and leaders for voicing their support and ask them to continue their efforts to help us in our freedom struggle. We express our gratitude to the Tamil Diaspora, our displaced brethren living all around the world, for their contribution to our struggle and ask them to maintain their unwavering participation and support.”
  • Lost Point
    The much anticipated annual Heroes' Day speech by LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan has triggered a storm of controversy and speculation. Inevitably, his declaration that the uncompromising Sinhala chauvunism permeating Sri Lanka's establishment leaves the Tamils no option but an independent state has been  widely interpreted as a 'declaration of war.' This analysis is flawed. Not only does it ignore the prevailing ground reality (that a devastating war is already underway), it ignores the central message: in the four years of ceasefire and peace efforts, the Tamil community has repeatedly been treated with callous disregard and contempt by successive Sri Lankan governments. The possibility of Tamil political aspirations being met by such a political establishment is practically nil, leaving the Tamils no alternative except to seek political independence.
     
    To begin with, a devastating and vicious war is already underway. That this war has largely not affected the Sinhala south does not mean it is not taking place. This year alone, thousands of Tamil civilians have been killed, along with 800 LTTE cadres and many Sri Lankan soldiers. Over two hundred thousand people have been displaced. Over 650,000 people in Jaffna and, especially, in Vaharai are suffering as blockaded food and medicine run out. Sri Lanka's air force and artillery blasts LTTE-controlled territory each day. LTTE artillery responds while there are frequent clashes at sea. Is this not war? And this war actually began in 2004, when the Kumaratunge regime escalated its murderous paramilitary campaign against the LTTE and, especially, its civilian supporters. Tamil protests were simply ignored by the international community. The confrontations are now between the uniformed armed forces of both sides.
     
    But it is the nature of the Sri Lankan state's campaign that says it all. The humanitarian crisis engulfing the Tamil people has been deliberately engineered. The mass displacements, the blockades on food and medicine, the targeting of refugee centers and other civilian sites - frequently with horrific casualties, are all premeditated steps to crush Tamil defiance. The question Mr. Pirapaharan posed on Monday is this: Is a Sinhala political establishment which is prepared to do this likely to agree to an amicable powersharing agreement with the Tamils?
     
    Just as it used the suffering of Tamil civilians against the LTTE during the times of war, the Sinhala establishment has done so in times of peace also. The 'peace dividends' which flooded the south were deliberately denied to the north. Rehabilitation and reconstruction aid was made conditional on the shortening of Tamil political goals. Even when the LTTE agreed to explore federalism, the aid did not come - whilst the south thrived. Despite the Northeast bearing the brunt of the 2004 tsunami, it had to struggle to get Colombo's attention. Despite the P-TOMS being signed in 2005, it was promptly discarded by the Kumaratunga regime - and no aid came.
     
    Despite their individual and political differences, all three Sinhala leaders - Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse - used Tamil suffering as political leverage against the LTTE. All three abrogated deals with the Tamils (SIHRN, PTOMS, Northeast merger) and all three oversaw violations of the ceasefire (from sinking LTTE ships to the 'shadow war'). And all this amid a peace process - an internationally brokered and monitored one, at that. The international community has proven unwilling to ensure Sri Lanka honours even international humanitarian law, let alone the micro-deals it has struck with the Tamils. India's impotence over the abrogation of the 1987 Northeast merger says it all. On what basis are the Tamils expected to sign a peace deal with the Sinhala establishment?
     
    This is not to say the peace process, like the truce, is beyond salvage. As the international monitors of the SLMM formally ascertained this week, the LTTE is still committed to the 2002 CFA - something the Rajapakse regime could not bring itself to say at the Geneva talks. But to be revived there have to be concrete changes in the dynamics of the peace process. In short, peace will be possible only if the Sri Lankan state can be held to its pledges. That responsibility lies with the international community, especially Sri Lanka's many donors and military allies. If the Norwegian peace process is to have any prospect of progressing, there must be a tangible reining in of the state. It should now be very clear to the international community that staunchly backing the Sri Lankan state is not going to deter a war, it is going to fuel it instead.
  • Cool reception in Delhi for Rajapakse
    Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (R) arrives at Indira Gandhi airport in New Delhi on Nov 25, 2006 as Indian Minister of Panchayati Raj Mani Shanker Aiyer (L) looks on. Photo Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images
    President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India this week was overshadowed by Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s Heroes’ Day address declaring a resumption of the struggle for independence.
     
    Sri Lankan and other media have made much of Delhi’s call for negotiations to end Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, suggesting it was a rebuff for the LTTE’s ‘call for Eelam.’
     
    But experienced political journalists saw India focusing on a different set of concerns – that of the hardline Sri Lankan government’s conduct vis-à-vis the Tamil minority.
     
    Delhi’s reassertion of the need for a negotiated solution is a direct rejoinder to President Rajapakse, whose government, expanding its defence budget by a staggering 45% and stepping up its vilification of the LTTE, has publicly taken up a military solution to the ethnic question.
     
    India is particularly frustrated by Sri Lanka’s persistant use of indiscriminate and excessive force resulting in the triggering of a massive humanitarian crisis in the Northeast and the deaths of large numbers of civilians in air and artillery strikes.
     
    Lastly, India is also frustrated at the Sri Lankan government’s uncompromising approach to reaching a political solution with the Tamils
     
    Not only is there no sign of a credible proposal from Colombo to put on the negotiating table, but the Rajapakse administration has actively begun dismantling a cornerstone of a future solution, the merged Northeast province.
     
    The Rajapakse administration’s pointed ignoring of repeated Indian entreaties to preserve the Northeast merger, also a crucial pillar of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, has also irked Delhi.
     
    India’s mounting displeasure on all these scores was conspicuously apparent in the dropping of customary diplomatic practices at the end of President Rajapakse’s three-day visit, which included a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
     
    After the leaders’ meeting there was no photo opportunity for reporters, nor were official photographs released.
     
    Even Sri Lanka’s flagship state-owned paper, the Daily News, had to settle for carrying a picture of Rajapakse’s meeting with Indian Opposition Leader L. K. Advani on its front-page on Thursday.
     
    There was, notably, also no joint statement by the two leaders after their hour-long talk.
     
    It was left to India's External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to make comments to the press and answer reporters’ questions.
     
    Notably, President Rajapakse’s much publicized demand that the Indian Navy should commence joint patrolling with the Sri Lankan Navy was firmly rejected. India was (only) prepared to assist the Rajapakse government with ‘non-lethal’ military assistance, Mr. Mukherjee said.
     
    Moreover, Delhi is impatient for a political solution.
     
    An Indian foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters: “We conveyed our long-standing position on the need for a negotiated political settlement that is acceptable to all sections of society.”
     
    The hackneyed expression – ‘a solution acceptable to all’ – has specific connotations when India reiterated it to President Rajapakse: the solution must be acceptable to the Tamils.
     
    The Sri Lankan leader has repeatedly been making much of his efforts to forge a southern consensus – a euphemism for a solution acceptable to Buddhist hardliners and Sinhala nationalists.
     
    The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between President Rajapakse’s ruling SLFP and the main opposition UNP has not spelled out the terms of a political solution with any clarity – whilst it echoes the hardliners’ rhetoric of defeating terrorism and separatism.
     
    And while the UNP says is it is prepared to support the merger of the North and East, there is no sign the SLFP is going to table the matter in Parliament to allow the proper process for merging to be followed.
     
    The Indian stand is that a referendum can be held in Sri Lanka's northeast to decide if it must remain one or split up into two when there is a conducive atmosphere.
     
    But the Rajapakse government’s position is that there must be referendum in the east before the merger can go ahead (in a reversal of the terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord which says the merger must stand till a referendum on demerging is held).
     
    Seasoned observers could have predicted that a cool reception for Rajapakse was on the cards even before he left for Delhi.
     
    Last week Prime Minister Singh made his sentiments on developments in Sri Lanka clear in a letter to Y Gopalasamy (Vaiko), leader of the MDMK.
     
    The symbolism of the Premier’s letter to the stridently pro-LTTE Tamil Nadu party was itself striking (especially since the letter was undoubtedly intended to be made public).
     
    So was its unmistakable tone and contents.
     
    “The latest incidents in Sri Lanka leading to the loss of many innocent lives, mainly Tamils including women and children, are a matter of the utmost concern and sorrow to all of us,” Mr. Singh said.
     
    “We have consistently pointed out that there is no justification for violence of this kind and that the killing of innocent people, especially of women and children, is not acceptable.”
     
    “We have taken great care not to provide Sri Lanka with lethal offensive items of military hardware, specially of the kind that could be used against the Tamil population.”
     
    “We have, at every opportunity, also impressed upon the Sri Lankan Government to respect the rights and privileges of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as citizens of the country. This is again being conveyed to Sri Lankan authorities.”
     
    “We will reiterate to the Government of Sri Lanka that they must find a political solution through negotiations that would meet the genuine and legitimate rights of the Tamils, rather than adopt tactics that lead to the death of innocent people.”
  • Anton Balasingham afflicted by rare cancer
    Mr. Anton and Mrs. Adele Balasingham pictured February 2006 while attending the peace talks in Geneva. Photo LTTE
    Mr Anton Balasingham, theoretician and political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), a rare and aggressive malignancy of the biliary system.
     
    The cancer is in an advanced stage and has spread to his liver, lungs, abdomen and bones, doctors have informed Mr. Balasingham, who is now resting at home, cared for by his wife, Adele.
     
    Mr Balasingham has had various medical investigations and is consulting oncologists about the possibility of treatment and the prognosis.
     
    Commenting on his illness to TamilNet, Mr Balasingham said that, “it is an unfortunate personal tragedy. However, when compared to the vast ocean of the collective tragedy faced by my people, my illness is merely a pebble.”
     
    “I am deeply sad that I am crippled by this illness, unable to contribute anything substantial towards the alleviation of the immense suffering and oppression of my people,” he said.
     
    Mr Balasingham is 68 years old and has been suffering from diabetes for 35 years and in the late nineties developed renal disease, for which he underwent kidney transplantation.
     
    He has been associated with the Tamil liberation struggle for more than 30 years and participated as chief negotiator on behalf of the Liberation Tigers in almost all political negotiations, beginning with the Thimpu talks in 1985.
  • We must unite and act
    The first cases of death from starvation have been reported from the Jaffna peninsula. Stark reality is staring us in the face. This is not happening in some distant land. It is on our doorstep, in our homeland.
     
    Since the closure of A9 highway, the Jaffna peninsula has been cut off from the rest of the island. And that was in August.
     
    A humanitarian catastrophe has since broken. Large numbers of people are starving. A shortage of medical supplies and doctors has worsened matters.
     
    The same thing is happening in the east. Tens of thousands are being starved in Vaharai.
     
    Food and medicine is being blocked as artillery and airstikes pound the region where 40,000 people who fled the military’s offensives in Trincomalee have sought shelter.
     
    International aid agencies are being prevented from going in, wounded civilians are not being allowed out.
     
    All this can happen because the victims are Tamils.
     
    The refusal of the Sri Lankan government to open the A9 highway and access routes to Vaharai so as to alleviate the urgent needs of the people has unmistakably demonstrated that it doesn’t care about the welfare of the Tamil people at all.
     
    The government’s preparedness to starve an entire community as a way to win the war reveals its true nature. Food is a weapon of war.
     
    Meanwhile, the military and its sponsored paramilitaries have gone on a killing spree amongst Tamils in government-controlled areas. Anyone can be arrested or shot. Abductions, executions, torture, is reported from every area.
     
    Unimaginable terror is gripping the Jaffna peninsula and Army-controlled parts of the east. Fear underlines the daily struggle for survival: “will it be starvation or a bullet that will claim my life?”
     
    Yet the atrocities by the government of Sri Lanka against those it claims as its citizens have failed to stir the hearts of the donor states, the rest of the international community or even India.
     
    The most they are prepared to do for us, as some of them already have, is to issue meek statements of ‘regret’ and declare that the LTTE and the government must find a “compromise.”
     
    This is just window dressing to pretend they have some concern for our people. They will not lift a finger to avert the human tragedy that is unfolding minute by minute in the Northeast.
     
    They know very well who is to blame for the blockades. But they are not prepared to blame the government for fear of jeopardising their own interests.
     
    We always knew the international community would always look after its own interests. Now we know this is true even when the slightest action on our behalf might risk these interests.
     
    From the outset the Tamil freedom struggle has eagerly sought the support of the international community to confront the tyranny of the Sinhala state. Without success.
     
    Now we face this tyranny again, this time in full view of the international community – and the world turns its face away.
     
    Last July, when irrigation water to the fields of a small part of the Trincomalee district was cut off, there was outrage and uproar against the LTTE.
     
    And when, in breach of the Ceasefire, the Sri Lankan government launched a military offensive to open the water supply, the world watched approvingly.
     
    Even after the LTTE had agreed to reopen the water supply, Sri Lanka escalated the offensive. Even then the international community did not restrain the government.
     
    Perhaps the international community’s logic is that military violence is justified when humanitarian needs are at stake.
     
    Now hundreds of thousands of people are being denied food and medicine by the Sri Lankan government.
     
    Yet there is international silence - or some mild protests and the usual call for ‘talks’. Colombo’s violence is being endorsed by the world.
     
    The Tamil people are, as always, very much alone.
     
    We therefore need to find our own way out of this.
     
    We must take responsibility for not only finding a way to end this humanitarian crisis, but to ensure we can never be put into this situation again.
     
    We must set our differences aside for now and unite behind this goal.
     
    When the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) swept the 2004 elections in the Northeast it was on the platform of recognising the LTTE as ‘sole representatives’ of the Tamil people and on the need for a self-governing interim authority for the Northeast.
     
    That popular mandate – and responsibility of leadership - was given to the LTTE, albeit through the TNA.
     
    The LTTE must now respond to the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast.
     
    Just as it acted decisively after the devastating tsunami of December 2004, the LTTE must take the lead in finding a way forward.
     
    Enough is enough. The well being of our people simply cannot be left in the unwilling hands of others.
  • Singh: 'Civilian deaths of utmost concern and sorrow'
    Dear Shri Vaikoji,
     
    The latest incidents in Sri Lanka leading to the loss of many innocent lives, mainly Tamils including women and children, are a matter of the utmost concern and sorrow to all of us. We have consistently pointed out that there is no justification for violence of this kind and that the killing of innocent people, especially of women and children, is not acceptable.
     
    We are taking up with the Government of Sri Lanka, at the appropriate level, the recent cases of civilian casualties, as well as the killing of innocent Tamils. We will reiterate to the Government of Sri Lanka that they must find a political soiution through negotiations that would meet the genuine and legitimate rights of the Tamils, rather than adopt tactics that lead to the death of innocent people.
     
    I am aware that the Geneva talks in October between the representatives of the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE had collapsed. This has possibly hardened attitudes on both sides. We consider this unfortunate, and it is possible that the recent violent incidents are an outcome of this.
     
    We share your concerns about the closure of Highway A-9 leading to acute scarcity of food stuff and essential supplies in Jaffna and its environs.
     
    Taking note of the acute scarcity of essential items in the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka, we have dispatched substantial quantities of rice, sugar and milk powder by way of humanitarian assistance. This may not be sufficient I agree, but I understand that the Sri Lankan authorities are meantime trying to supply Jaffna by the sea route.
     
    We are fully alive to the sensitivities prevailing in the North and East of Sri Lanka, and the plight of the Tamils as also Muslims in these areas. You are aware that we have taken great care not to provide Sri Lanka with lethal offensive items of military hardware, specially of the kind that could be used against the Tamil population.
     
    We have, at the same time and at every opportunity, also impressed upon the Sri Lankan Government to respect the rights and privileges of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as citizens of the country. This is again being conveyed to Sri Lankan authorities.
     
    You may rest assured that we would do everything that we can to ensure diplomatically, and otherwise, that the loss of innocent lives does not take place.
     
    With regards,
     
    Yours sincerely,
    Manmohan Singh
  • ‘They want to wipe us Tamils out’
    AT 2.30 last Monday morning, K Thangaraja, a 46-year-old tractor driver from eastern Sri Lanka, stood knee-deep in seawater fearing his end was near.

    Surrounding him was the murky confluence of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean – the barrier between his home in Sri Lanka and a new life in India.

    Five hours earlier, a fisherman had pushed Thangaraja and 19 relatives, including young children, from his 26ft wooden boat and on to a shallow sand bank. “Someone will be along shortly to take you to the Indian coast,” he said, before hurrying off into the darkness.

    No one came. Not until 4.30 the following afternoon, when they were nearly unconscious from exhaustion, hunger, and dehydration. An Indian fishing vessel happened to spot their improvised white flags and brought them ashore.

    “It was the worst experience of my life,” said Thangaraja. “If I had to do it all over again, I would take my chances in Sri Lanka.”

    Yet for Tamils now caught in the crossfire of an increasingly bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, staying is not an option.

    Last Wednesday, at least 23 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured when government shells slammed into a school in a LTTE-controlled area.

    Since January, more than 16,000 refugees from Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula have fled to the shores of Tamil Nadu, India’s southeastern state, where they fan out in refugee camps across the region and receive basic support from the Indian government.

    The refugees who have arrived in India constitute only a small fraction of nearly 200,000 who have been displaced since April.

    But they represent some of the most desperate cases – those who have given up hope for a quick end to hostilities and are trying to start anew.

    “It is an expensive and difficult journey to the Tamil Nadu coast,” said Meenakshi Ganguly of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. “These are people who are so terrified that they believe survival is impossible back home.”

    The number of monthly arrivals has decreased significantly since August, when over 5,700 arrived on the shores of southern India; so far this month less than 200 have arrived.

    That is partly because of the weather – rough seas and thunderstorms make the crossing far more perilous in November and December. It is also due to the hope many Sri Lankans had for the peace talks that took place but broke apart with no resolution last month.

    With the surge in recent violence, aid workers are expecting an increase in the number of arrivals in the coming weeks and months ahead.

    The cost of being smuggled to India is anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 Sri Lankan rupees. It is the equivalent of just £29 to £73 but refugees often sell property or family jewellery to pay for the smuggling and carry with them only a small satchel of clothes, often tossed overboard if the journey becomes too rough.

    It is not the first time India has hosted Tamil refugees. Tens of thousands have come in successive waves since the war began in 1983.

    Manoharan Bijayaraj, 49, arrived in late September, his third time in India.

    As a union activist for Tamil fishing cooperatives in eastern Sri Lanka he was shot seven times in an attempt on his life in early September. He still experiences a dull pain around the pink two-inch vertical scar below his left arm where a bullet lodged itself.

    “They want to wipe out us Tamils,” he said. “There is no solution through military means, nor through dialogue. UN Peacekeepers must come to Sri Lanka.”

    The official conduit for new arrivals in India is the Mandapam transit camp, a fenced-off series of dilapidated one-story cement apartment blocks with communal water taps.

    It was originally established and controlled by the British until 1964 as a transit site for thousands of poor Indians being sent to sprawling tea estates in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Today they come in the other direction.

    Mandapam has more than 5,000 residents, the majority of whom have been there for months, waiting to relocate elsewhere in Tamil Nadu state.

    Although conditions in the camp are substandard, its leaders are reticent to voice their concerns too loudly.

    “We do not complain about the conditions because just next to us there are Indian citizens who don’t get even what we get,” said SC Chandrahassan, an officer with the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation, which helps run the 130 refugee camps throughout Tamil Nadu.

    The Indian government provides the refugees with 400 Indian rupees, about £1.94, a month per head of household and a little less for every other member, as well as cooking materials, a refugee ID card, and rice subsidised to 1983 prices, which comes to less than a couple pennies a kilo, far below what Indians receive on social security.

    Work, and not just the flight from risk of arrest or attack, is another major reason refugees cite for opting for a new life in India. They can join the informal economy, taking jobs in rural areas that poor Indians don’t want as the vast country’s economy surges ahead.

    Vikram Raja, 36, a mason who arrived in early September with his wife and three young children, starts sitting by the highway every morning looking to be picked up for a day’s work. He has worked two days in two months, but doesn’t regret the move.

    “My life was in danger there,” he said. “The army will arrest anyone without any grounds.”

    His home was destroyed in the 2004 tsunami. His mother, father and sister live in displaced persons camps in Sri Lanka, but Raja wanted the opportunity to provide for his family and not sit idly in a camp, which he considers unsafe.

    Raja, like many refugees with children, was also increasingly concerned for the safety of his son.

    “If anything happened to my children we would be without any help,” he said.
  • India trains Sri Lankan jet bomber support crews
    India is training a third batch of six Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel at Chandigarh, Punjab to support Colombo’s plans to expand its jet bomber fleet, the Times of India reported this week.

    Sri Lanka plans to purchase four more jet bombers from Russia and, in preparation, SLAF personnel are being put through three months of instruction.

    The latest group began training on October 14, despite outrage in Tamil Nadu over the targeting of civilians by SLAF bombers in which over a hundred people have been killed this year.

    "We are a group of six and are undergoing electrical first line course for MiG-27s here," SLAF Sergeant Perera told the paper in at Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab.

    They started their training programme on October 14 and would end on January 5, 2007, he and another sergeant Srigunasinghe said, adding that theirs was the third batch from Sri Lanka to receive training here.
    Another Sri Lankan trainee Ariyadasa said Colombo was going to purchase four aircrafts from Russia and this course would come handy for them.

    Srigunasinghe said a batch from their country had received training in basic concepts from Pakistani Air Force in 1999-2000.

    Air Marshal A K Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of western air command, who was on an inspection visit here, also interacted with these personnel and inquired about their training programme, the Times of India said.

    About the technical type training (tettra) school in Chandigarh, Station Commander, Group Captain B K Sood said it had turned out to be a premier training base for MiG-27 and MiG-29 in the last one year.

    On August 14, SLAF jets bombed the Sencholai children’s home in Vallipunam, killing 55 people (51 schoolgirls and four staff) and wounding over 150 wounded.

    The bombing sparked condemnation by Tamil Nadu leaders. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi denounced it as an "atrocious and inhumane act" while the Legislative Assembly passed a resolution condemning it.

    In the wake of the Sencholai airstrike A former counter-terrorism chief of India’s External intelligence, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), also criticized the targeting of civilians by Sri Lanka’s Air Force.

    “The Sri Lankan Government's counter-insurgency operations are becoming increasingly ruthless,” Mr. B Raman said in a report.

    “There have been many instances of targeted killing of innocent civilians through actions on the ground as well as from the air.”

    “This will only drive more Tamils into the arms of the LTTE,” Raman, who served as additional secretary at the RAW for more than a decade, said.

    “Since President Mahinda Rajapakse took over as the President in November last year, more innocent civilians have been killed by the Sri Lankan security forces than in the [recent] past.”

  • No moral equivalency
    We, the Tamil Americans, are appalled at the killing of 65 internally displaced people (IDPs) who were seeking shelter in a school in Vakarai by the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) on November 8th. The victims include children.

    We are also shocked at the GOSL’s deliberate offensive firing in Poonahari that placed the life of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Head in grave danger.

    We are also saddened by the international community’s lack of moral courage to condemn these brutal and inhuman actions of the Sri Lankan government.

    With over 300 people injured and not given adequate care, it is feared that the death toll in Vakarai might rise to more than 100 people.

    The killing of IDPs in Vakarai in the eastern part of the island of Sri Lanka was preceded by the GOSL’s air attack within 500 meters of Kilinochi General Hospital in the northern part of the island of Sri Lanka.

    The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) ruled that the GOSL’s air attack is a serious violation of the ceasefire. We would also like to point out that the attack within the vicinity of a hospital is a gross violation of Article 18 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War.

    The GOSL’s military offensives, conducted after their pledge at the Geneva II negotiation that they will not engage in military offensives, is a demonstration of the GOSL’s male fide in the peace process.

    By any stretch of the imagination, the GOSL’s actions cannot be described as defensive measures.

    The SLMM spokeswoman, Helen Olafsdottir, stated that: “Our monitors saw there were no military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from the military regarding the nature and reason of this attack.”

    The Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim stated: "However, it is a very, very serious situation, where the Sri Lankan government soldiers have fired to kill unarmed people."

    The above pattern of violence establishes beyond any doubt that while the international community has taken great pains to differentiate between the Tamil people and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who represent the former at the negotiating table, the GOSL simply mistreats both the same.

    The GOSL’s gross, systematic persecution of Tamils is solely on account of their Tamil nationality.

    The international community’s failure to unreservedly condemn the war crimes by GOSL and issuing mere “regrets” will send the wrong signal to the GOSL, namely that the international community tacitly condones a military solution to the Tamil national question if it is possible or at least that they can continue the persecution of Tamils with impunity.

    The continued arms sale to the failed state of Sri Lanka and the military training of its armed forces by the international community give credence to the above and also render the international community as an accomplice in the war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the Tamils by the GOSL.

    Thus, we call upon the international community to impose a moratorium on military assistance to GOSL.

    Ambassador Alan Rock, the special advisor to the U.N. Office of Children in Armed Conflict, who is visiting Sri Lanka, has visited the Vakarai school where the massacre of the IDPs took place, has said that the sight was “shocking.”

    The killing of children in the armed conflict is a violation of the Security Council Resolution 1539 and thus it clearly falls within his mandate.

    We hope that when he returns, he will bring this barbaric act to the attention of the U.N. Security Council.

    We would also like to say loud and clear that there is no moral equivalency between the persecutor and the persecuted.

    Given the stagnation of the peace process and the mounting loss of innocent lives, the co-chairs of the peace process should reevaluate their position.

    The status quo is not acceptable in terms of protection of human life and stability of the South Asia region.

    We urge the co-chairs of the peace process to explore modalities that will allow the peoples on the island of Sri Lanka to live with dignity, to determine their political and economic future without interference, and to ensure regional security.

    Association of Tamil Americans, USA
    Illankai Tamil Sangam – California, USA
    Illankai Tamil Sangam – Florida, USA
    Illankai Tamil Sangam – USA
    Ilankai Tamil Sangam – Houston, Texas, USA
    Ohio Tamil Association – Ohio, USA
    Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organization - California
    Tamil Youth Organization - USA
    Tamil Welfare and Human Rights Committee – District of Columbia, USA
    World Tamil Women Organization – USA
    World Tamil Coordinating Committee – USA
  • Genocide, with a little help
    In the past week there has been another series of attacks on Tamil civilians and prominent Tamil leaders.
     
    Last Wednesday an artillery barrage by the Sri Lanka Army targeted at a refugee shelter in Vaharai that housed thousands of displaced Tamils killed over 60 people, most of them women and children, and injured a hundred more. Tens of thousand of Tamils already driven from their homes in Trincomalee are now in a panic.
     
    Two days later, gunmen assassinated Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Sasikala Raviraj, a vocal supporter of Tamil self-determination, who had recently been vociferous in challenging the Sri Lankan. The state sanctioned this killing. It is part of the wider effort to destroy the Tamil challenge to its rule.
     
    The shelling of civilians at Vaharai was followed soon after by a Sri Lankan military ground attack there. No doubt the offensive will yet again be justified by Colombo as a pre-emptive strike to prevent an offensive by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
     
    Such bouts of violence against the Tamils have been repeated time and again during Sri Lanka’s decades’ long ethnic conflict whenever the state has reverted to its favoured efforts to crush the Tamil struggle for self rule by military means.
     
    The difference on this occasion is the how more obviously assistance is being extended by the international community to Colombo’s onslaught.
     
    The Tamils had hoped that the most recent peace process would be unlike past efforts at negotiating with the Sri Lankan state. The unprecedented intense participation of the International Community, as facilitators, Co-chairs and financiers of the peace process was intended to ensure a fair settlement to the long running and bloody dispute.
     
    Instead this engagement proved to be yet another futile negotiation with an intransigent state secure of international support. Promises to resettle the third of Tamils who are displaced from their homes by military action were never kept.
     
    Even the internationally-brokered agreement to share tsunami aid was obstructed, conveniently blamed on a judicial system whose inherent bias is one of the core sources of the ethnic conflict.
     
    Instead of utilising the political, financial and military tools at their disposal to rectify the Sri Lankan state’s failings, the international community has continued to fully support and engage with it.
     
    This support has continued to be forthcoming in the face of a blatant campaign of terror targeting the foundations of Tamil society, especially those brave enough to voice their support for the Tamil cause of self-determination (an aspiration which has already been deemed illegal within Sri Lanka’s constitution).
     
    Tamil politicians, academics, human rights activists, aid workers, students and members of the judiciary have been systematically ‘disappeared’ or nurdered by the security forces or allied paramilitaries.
     
    Hundreds of individuals are ‘disappearing’ in the custody of Sri Lanka’s armed forces or the paramilitaries. The victims’ ‘crimes’ could be as dangerous as being vocal in their support of the Tamil cause (say by participating in the Pongu Thamil rallies), or even that they are a friend or relative of someone who is supportive.
     
    The onset of starvation amongst hundreds of thousand of people amid the government’s blockade in parts of the Tamil homeland has had little visible impact on foreign policy towards Colombo. Sri Lanka continues to enjoy economic, diplomatic and military ties with the rest of the world.
     
    The continuation of international political support is most clearly evident in the lack of condemnation of Colombo’s atrocities. The armed forces meanwhile continue to receive training from states far and near.
     
    The odd human rights watchdog condemns Sri Lanka’s actions but there is little by way of tangible action as a result.
     
    Sri Lanka has received no ultimatum; no deadline to cease these crimes against humanity.
     
    Last week the UN finally commented on the Sri Lankan state’s now long running policy of abducting Tamil children to fill the ranks of Army-backed paramilitary groups.
     
    This chilling operation has finally received some public rebuke by international actors, but well over a year after the incontrovertible evidence of it taking place was revealed to the world.
     
    And despite these most fundamental abuses against its own citizens, the Sri Lankan state is hailed as a democracy. Just week ago the US again lauded Sri Lanka as an ally.
     
    The Tamil community had long held the view that Sri Lanka would not hesitate to commit genocide in order to crush the Tamil struggle and turn the Sinhala mythology of an island bequeathed into reality.
     
    In fact the Tamils believe that slow genocide has long been the intent of the Sri Lankan state’s many discriminatory policies and violence.
     
    The surprise, however, has been the International Community’s complicity in this ongoing effort.
     
    Unlike Rwanda or East Timor, Sri Lanka’s genocide, whilst slower in killing rates, continues to be reported daily by Tamil and even English-language media.
     
    Almost every detail of the past efforts at subjugation of the Tamil people has been highlighted.
     
    No member of the international community in is able to claim ignorance.
     
    The only question that needs to be addressed is the reason why powerful international actors would arm and finance a chauvinist majoritarian state bent on the violent subjugation of a minority.
     
    From the Tamil perspective, the usual soul searching that may follow in Western capitals in the aftermath of this effort at destroying a people is irrelevant.
     
    The question that needs to be answered now is how the Tamil nation should proceed from this point.
     
    Any political effort to address the Tamil question has been systematically and violently closed off. Even Tamil politicians who are supposedly meant to address the issue within Sri Lanka’s ‘democratic’ framework are being silenced by the state.
     
    In any case, the state has already ruled debate on the core issues unconstitutional.
     
    The International Community, far from being a force for peace, is prepared to be fully complicit in the genocide of the Tamil people.
     
    Those within the Tamil community who have been urging the heeding the calls and sentiments of international community are now being drowned out by the anguished cries of large sections of our community .
     
    That the Tamil people need to take responsibility for defending themselves has become self-evident now.
     
    The international community has already crossed (back) over the line from tacit observer to active accomplice in the onslaught against the Tamils.
     
    The democracies of the Western world have failed to produce audible voices of opposition capable of and willing to challenge current foreign policy towards Sri Lanka.
     
    We cannot rely on the international community to restrain the Sri Lankan state.
     
    Quite the reverse – even the current unabashedly Sinhala-chauvunist government appears to be receiving increasing amounts of military and financial assistance, the more successfully it seems to prosecute a war against the Tigers.
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