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Full Text of Press Release

The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference (the governments of Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union) welcome the outcome of the meeting on the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held in Geneva on 22- 23 February 2006.

They welcome the renewed commitment from the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to respect and uphold the Ceasefire Agreement, as well as the reconfirmation of their commitment to cooperate fully with and respect the rulings of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The Co-Chairs welcome the parties’ commitment to ensure that there will be no violence, killings, and operations by armed groups, in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement. The Co-Chairs also note that the parties to the talks discussed issues concerning the welfare of children in the North East, including the recruitment of children.

The Co-chairs stress the importance of the parties implementing these commitments on the ground so as to build confidence and a conducive environment for progressing towards lasting peace for all peoples of Sri Lanka.

The Co-Chairs congratulate both sides on the constructive approach taken and particularly welcome the request by the two parties to the Swiss government for it to host further sessions of talks in Geneva on 19-21 April 2006. The Co-Chairs will continue to do their utmost to help the parties along the road of negotiation.

The Co-Chairs commend the invaluable assistance provided by the Government of Norway in its continued role as facilitator. We stand ready to assist Norway in its efforts to bring about a durable peace in Sri Lanka.

______________________________________

EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
TO SRI LANKA AND THE MALDIVES

26 Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7, SRI LANKA,
Telephone: (+94 -11) 267 4413/4, Fax: (+94 -11) 266 5893
e-mail: delegation-sri-lanka@cec.eu.int
website: http://www.dellka.cec.eu.int

Head of Delegation

Lord Konesar procession in Trincomalee is an annual event that brings people of all ethnic background together. This year’s three-day procession of Lord Konesar with his consort Mathumai Ambal began Monday evening around 5 p.m. after the annual observance of Maha Sivarathiri day Sunday night in the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple. Devotees after Monday evening Pooja carried the chief deity on their shoulders to the entrance of the Fort Frederick where it was kept on a decorated vehicle. Thereafter the procession began while devotees chanting religious hymns. Several Sinhalese businessmen offered flowers and broke hundreds of coconuts.

Pictures by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

Historians believe Ravanan worshipped Thirukoneswaram

The “Nanthi” flag symbolises the religion Hinduism. This “Nanthi” flag was installed on the auspicious day of “Thaipoosam” in January 2005

“The Nandhi Flag is an apt representation of the Hindus who are passive yet perceptive, hale yet humble and deep, devote and detached” – Reflections on the Nandhi Flag: by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran

Lord Nadarajar

Goddess Mathumai Ambal

Historians believe Raman worshipped Thirukoneswaram

This is where the earlier Thirukoneswaram temple was situated

The old temple was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1624 on Tamil New Year in April. And this new temple was built fifty years ago. And daily pooja is performed, where the old temple used to be. Thirukoneswaram is situated in the direction of Rameswaram, accoring to Thirukoneswaram chief priest Sivasri, Sivakugarajah Kurukkal

Devotees in the temple

View from swamy rock

“Kalvettu” Stone inscription belonging to “Pandiyan” era

Forty five years old T.A.Gunathilaka from Serunuwara says that, he has been doing business for five years.

Seventy six years old Murugaiah Velupillai, from Yatinuwara, Kandy sells coconut, camphor and incense to the devotees of Thirukoneswaram for the past eight years. He says that his daily income is rupees 100/= or more, depending on the number of devotees visit the temple.

More Pictures: Trincomalee – Thirukoneswaram

by K.T.Kumaran

The dust is still settling from last week’s Geneva meeting between the LTTE and GOSL, and predictably the ground is still shifting. The shift may widen the gaps and the second round of talks may fall through the cracks, if the gaps become deepened and drenched with all sorts of new players.

An interview to Reuters’ Simon Gardner by Karuna, about “moral right to hold onto our arms”, JVP, JHU rumblings at their coalition partner and talk of questioning legalities may hinder progress on the ground. JVP and JHU are warning that “corrections” be made at future meetings, while Colombo’s legal expert on the Geneva team saying the truce is still flawed legally. Commenting on Geneva outcome he told AFP, “this does not give validity to the original agreement but this purports to explain ambiguities and doubts created by the original agreement,” H. L. de Silva said. “The question of invalidity remains as before.”

Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), rejected outright the Sri Lanka government’s claims. “This bizarre interpretation given by the President’s counsel, Mr H.L. De Silva is ridiculous and preposterous and totally unacceptable to the LTTE”, Mr Balasingham told TamilNet.

In the meantime government of President Mahinda Rajapakse is working on to appease constituents and coalition partners by being in denial as to the outcome of the Geneva talks. State owned press and government press briefs continue to gloat about a “victory in Geneva”.

And the UPFA opposition and the LTTE press are continuing to hammer away saying that the GOSL team was unprepared and was overwhelmed by the experienced and well prepared LTTE team.

The principal claim crediting LTTE’s triumphant at the talks is the agreement to disarm the paramilitaries in government controlled areas or more specifically “The GOSL is committed to taking all necessary measures in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement to ensure that no armed group or person other than Government security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations.“

However, this being somewhat described as a “surprise outcome” from the Geneva talks is an exaggeration. Weeks and days into the meeting, there were widely circulated press reports as to LTTE will want “Karuna’s head” at the talks. Some GOSL propagandists also claimed that it will be unfair to ask the government to disarm Karuna, since they never armed him in the first place.

So why there is a euphoria of LTTE victory?

In the same manner as LTTE was allowed to do political work in government controlled areas via the 2002 CFA, talks in Geneva also seem to have paved the way for LTTE to come out of a difficult situation. Refraining from stronger military action to curb the paramilitaries under the watchful eyes of the international community, LTTE appears to be attempting at different methods to curtail their menace. The LTTE seemingly in a difficult quest to gain international recognition after the EU travel ban is well aware of the dangers of being blamed for starting the war.

However Karuna, in an interview to Reuters, has said “Our people … have entrusted us to defend them from the LTTE. Our people will not like us to become submissive and just hand over our weapons to satisfy the LTTE brutes.”.

But the LTTE would expect the GOSL to adhere to what was agreed in Geneva, while the whole world watched.

On LTTE’s part it may be relatively easier to curtail activities that were required of them in Geneva. Thus halt claymore attacks, child recruitment and other political abductions. LTTE seem to be finding a niche as much as possible, on the road they are forced to take; thus hinge on talks and globe trotting.

GOSL hawks maybe thinking a war may be the best way to come out of the current dead-lock, but it may not be as easy as it would seem to fire the first shot.

Geneva has boxed GOSL and LTTE in the international arena with regards to the 2002 CFA. The widely covered Geneva talks and its outcome will hold both parties to be accountable more than ever. The strenuous role of the Norwegians and the euphoria created in the aftermath, will keep the commitment made at the end of the talks in the limelight.

President Rajapakse’s determination to do everything to keep his coalition partners’ flak took the face to face meeting with LTTE – the first in there years, all the way to Geneva, a much internationally acclaimed location for peace negotiations.

The government may wish for the LTTE to make a “mistake” in the coming weeks.

A mere continuation of the “absence of war” while the South “enjoys” the “benefits” of the cease-fire may drag LTTE’s feet into war. And a failure to implement accord reached at the end of the two day meeting may become unacceptable to LTTE. A “mistake” along these lines is what the GOSL hawks will want, to put their “loss in Geneva” behind.

Another carefully orchestrated plan that didn’t go anywhere is the anti LTTE demonstrations that took place in Geneva. A key participant in the demonstrations, a former PLOTE cadre who is said to be working in hand with some of the paramilitaries in North-East was arrested for illegally entering Switzerland. Details about his capture were reported erroneously in some Sri Lankan press without the knowledge that the arrested man was in fact working against LTTE.

Having this sort of a demonstration also shows that the times have changed and the GOSL is continuing to be in denial. A decade ago it would have been the sympathizers of LTTE who would have rallied up calling for international attention at such gatherings. Today the LTTE team is going around town after concluding their meetings with the GOSL counterparts. LTTE is in Swiss meeting with officials, the Tamil diaspora raising funds and attending cultural feasts.

Events preceding Geneva also may raise its ugly head; such as the “disappearance of TRO workers” and “explosions in the sea” on the eve of Sri Lankan foreign Minster Mangala Samaraweera’s trip to the US that failed to provide much evidence other than the news headlines themselves and cast doubts whether these were pre-emptive blame games.

Comments made by H. L. de Silva, a legal expert in the Colombo delegation, “original weakness and legal infirmity remains,” could encourage law suits from the hard-line collation partners of President Rajapakse or the National Patriotic Movement. The Geneva talks may delve into the dreaded P-Toms agreement path, at the hands of a Sri Lankan activist court. The government may then have a sigh of relief for having the court to take the decision of not having to take the “head of Karuna”. That’s a legal remedy locally made, in lieu of a “victory” Rajapakase team couldn’t fully claim diplomatically in the international arena.

Or the UPFA opposition press would rather say, “legal remedy to overcome diplomatic comedy!”.

BBC Sandeshaya reports that there has been renewed activity in the Sri Lanka Appeals Court as well today, petitioners JVP and JHU urging to rule that the CFA is invalid.

A delay in any number of ways, in the implementation of the Geneva talks on legal grounds, or any other similar way out will allow the new Sri Lankan President to buy time to prepare for war, the only way for him to be free from the impasse he finds him self in.

by Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz, Department of Political Science, Temple University, USA

Introduction

Whether one agrees or not, in the conflict resolution process, a win-win scenario is better than a no-win one. I read the statements from the recently concluded Geneva talks on the implementation of the no-war treaty with this in mind.

As a student of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, I could not stop raising the following key questions: Will conflict-ridden Sri Lanka clinch a political solution to arrest the current political instability? Can Sri Lanka’s polity demonstrate sufficient political modernity to accommodate the aspirations of the minorities?

This article attempts to answer these basic questions to understand the obstacles to the peace process, based on the symbolic politics Sri Lanka’s political elites have employed for political benefits.

Symbolic Politics and Its Consequences

The central argument of symbolic politics is that emotional symbols, such as flag, national anthem, history of the group, myths of motherland and fatherland, can become tools in politics to influence the masses’ decisions in the elite’s quest for power. [1] Symbolic politics can win votes in divided societies.

Symbolic politics can also disrupt social progress and ethnic harmony, and thus trigger ethnic conflict. Such a hostile politics could damage the ‘modernity’ of the polity. When political elites or party leaders employ hostile emotional symbolic politics, society would likely face social instability because symbolic politics would divide the polity. [2] When the polity systematically denies justice to a particular community, it is highly likely the marginalized will lose the trust in the state and its institutions.

The elites or politicians may think they can retract their symbolic promises once they win power. However, recent political studies on Sri Lanka’s political outbidding suggest that, when politicians employ symbolism such as religion and/or ethnicity to maximize votes, those politicians or their successors find it difficult to withdraw their promises. [3] For example, in Sri Lanka, S.W.R.D. Bandaranayke, a man who introduced Sinhala chauvinism into Sri Lankan politics, found himself unable to control the emotions he had unleashed. In 1959, Bandaranayke was assassinated by a radical monk who thought Bandaranayke had made the first step to compromise with the country’s Tamil minority.

When political elites employ symbols to win the votes, once they gain power, they will have to hold to their pre-elections promises and pledges. The political elites meet opposition from their constituencies when they take step to walk beyond their symbolic pledges. If the political actors stick to their pre-election pledges, their actions run the risk of marginalized group mobilization in both forms – peaceful and non-peaceful – if the state supports these symbolic policies. The net result is social and political instability.

Rajapakshe and His Symbolic Chintanaya (Thoughts)

[4] President Mahinda Rajpakse won the election on November 17, 2005 on a symbolic Sinhala-Buddhist political agenda. To win the Presidential elections, he vigorously attempted to prove that he was the voice of the oppressed Sinhalese and that Sinhala-Buddhists could not win their legitimate place in Sri Lanka without his leadership and guidance. To pass this message, he employed some effective symbolic strategies such as praising history, declaring tough policies on the LTTE, promising to abrogate then President Kumaratunga’s Supreme Court-banned Tsunami pact with the LTTE [5] and to radically amend the Norwegian-sponsored no-war treaty of 2002, blaming the West, particularly Norway, for the country’s current peace crisis, waving lion flags, and kissing babies and school students. [6] Most importantly, Premier Rajapakse struck a symbolic hostile deal with the Sinhala nationalists, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) [7] and Jathika Hela Hurumaya (JHU), [8] both of which are strongly opposed to the LTTE and want the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state to be preserved.

The minority parties considered agreements reached by Mr. Rajapakse with the radical Sinhalese parties to protect the unitary state as a totally objectionable position harmful to minority interests. [9] As a result, major minority ethnic group parties, except the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), endorsed the United National Party (UNP) candidate Mr. Wickramasinghe, who promised an honorable political solution based on the Oslo Communique of 2002. [10]

The LTTE and the TNA boycotted the elections, citing that the Tamils would not obtain any justice from the Sinhala polity. [11] They pointed to the experience the Tamils have had over five decades, which has taught them neither to trust the leading Sinhala political parties, nor to have faith in their leadership. [12]

The elections provided a slight victory to Premier Mahinda Rajapakse: Mr. Rajapakse secured a little over 50% of the popular vote against his main opposition rival, Ranil Wickramasinghe, who secured 48.43% of the votes. [13] The voting statistics proved that Mr. Rajapakse secured the most votes of the majority Sinhalese who predominantly live in the Southern, Western and Northwestern Provinces, while Mr. Wickramasinghe won the majority of the minorities ,who concentrate in the NorthEast, Central and parts of the Western province. [14] Soon after the elections, Mr. Rajapakshe, who won on an ‘anti-federal’ platform, appointed Ratnasiri Wickramanayke as Premier of the island. Mr. Wickramanayake is well known for his pro-war and Sinhala nationalistic stand. Mr. Rajapakshe’s appointment delighted the Sinhalese hard-liners and his allies. However, the Tamil nationalists and their media viewed it as a first step towards war against the Tamils. Further, the appointment of H.M.B.G. Kotakadeniya as a Defense Ministry’s public safety adviser also raised Tamil discontent concerning Rajapaksa’s administration.

On January 3, 2006 five young Tamils Advance Level students were killed in Trincomalee at a popular family beach. The forensic reports clearly claimed that the deaths of students had been caused due to shooting. [15] A retaliation took place on January 7, 2006 in the form of a suicide attack on a Sri Lanka Navy Israeli-built Dvora patrol craft in Trincomalee. The attack killed at least 13 Navy sailors. The government pointed its finger at the LTTE for the attack.[16]

The LTTE denied the allegation in its usual form, but the media believed it was clearly connected to the earlier incident which is now being widely blamed on the Defense Ministry’s public safety adviser H.M.B.G. Kotakadeniya. [16]

What President Rajapakshe’s a moves prove is that, though he has decided to resume negotiation with the LTTE, it is unlikely he will meet key demands of the LTTE, such as disbanding what the LTTE describe as paramilitary groups, particularly the renegade Karuna and establishing political institutions that support political autonomy. These demands would be considered a hard-line Tamil demands by the government controlled by the majority Sinhalese, who think any concession to the Tamil Tigers infringes on the island’s territory integrity. Concessions would pose a dangerous challenge to the President, who won the elections on what Tamils call an anti-Tamil platform. If Rajapakse decides to compromise his pre-election pledges, it is very likely that he would face harsh challenges both from his constituencies and his own party leadership. This is a dilemma of symbolic politics-dominated democracy.

When politicians win the elections on particular symbolic agendas, they will have to demonstrate commitments to those promises to consolidate power and to meet future elections. Needless to say, elections are around the corner in Sri Lanka, so political elites, instead of softening their symbolic slogans, will likely they strengthen those strategies to please the voters.

In this background, it is hard for Mr. Rajapakshe to deliver any peace miracle. He, in the run-up to the Geneva talks, categorically stated that he will not seek a political solution beyond the limit of the unitary structure of the state, and urged the Tamils not to expect a federal solution. [18] The bottom-line is that the pre-election symbolic politics are still out there.

Further, the Sinhala extremist allies who supported Mr. Rajapakshe’s candidacy have already warned that they would withdraw their support to the government if the government walks an extra mile beyond the symbolic elections promises to meet the Tamils demands for the self-autonomy. [19] In fact, this is a real consequence of the hostile symbolic politics. When you employ hostile symbolic police, as noted above, politicos find it difficult to retreat from those symbolic promises.

What should be done?

What five decades of democracy based on symbolic politics produced was a brutal ethnic civil war which dismantled both the ethnic relations between the different ethnic groups and the country’s economic stability. Is there any way out to discourage symbolic politics and to seek moderation in the society?

The polity can deliver modernity provided that political elites demonstrate maturity to offer justice to the marginalized people. Some form of political autonomy at the regional level and power sharing in the central could win the trust of the minorities. If this happens in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka can arrest the current political instability. If the state and ruling elites act otherwise, that choice will weaken both the democracy and the trust of the marginalized minorities, including the Muslims. [20]

Furthermore, to win peace, the relevant parties will have to freeze their hostile symbolic programs and prepare to offer concessions that could swing the trust of marginalized.
In this regard, the state has more responsibility. The ruling elites should not underestimate the Tamil Tigers, who run a de-facto state in chunks of Sri Lanka’s northeast with their own flag, police, banks, courts and defense units, including a naval wing – the Sea Tigers – and four light aircraft. [21] It does not mean that the state has to agree to meet all the Tigers’ key demands, but it needs to realize that the Tamil Tigers are the revolutionary product of the kind of politics Sri Lanka elites employed to win the Sinhalese votes.

The collapse of the talks would strengthen the hands of the LTTE: In November 2005, rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran warned that, unless the government – which has already ruled out a separate homeland for minority Tamils – gives them wide autonomy, the Tamil Tigers would “intensify their struggle” in 2006. The LTTE reaffirmed its stand recently: “If the Mahinda regime adopts a political stand ruling out the Tamil homeland concept and insists on a resolution of the racial conflict within the unitary constitution, the LTTE would be left with no alternative other than to endeavor hard to respond effectively to the Tamil call for self rule.”

If the Sinhalese elites desire to preserve the one country system (not a unitary one), then they need to adopt moderation in the form of political compromise that paves the way to rewriting the constitution of the Sri Lanka. If they still refuse to accommodate the reasonable aspirations of the minorities, the island of Sri Lanka will likely end up in creating more than one state. When the state denies the political alternative in the form of internal self-determination, those ethnic mobilizers will win more sympathies to achieve their separate state agendas. This is a consequence of symbolic politics.

[1] S.J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: the Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001)

[2] S.J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: the Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001)

[3] A.R.M. Imtiyaz, 2004. “Conflict and Constitutional Solution,”Indian Journal of Asian Affairs, Vol.17, No.2, December, pp. 23-42. Neil DeVotta, Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, 2004.

[4] Prime Minister launches his Presidential manifesto

[5] On December 26, 2004 violent tidal wave hit the shore of Sri Lanka’s beautiful beaches, particularly cruelly affecting the war-torn NorthEast. The global community promised attractive financial compensation to rebuild affected regions and urged President Kumaratunga to negotiate with the LTTE to disburse the international aid to the LTTE controlled NorthEast region. To meet international pressure, the government of Sri Lanka sealed a pact with the LTTE in July 2005. The JVP and JHU went to court to ban the pact. Mrs. Kumaratunga’s attempts ended in vain when the Supreme Court crippled the Agreement on Joint Mechanism accepted by the President of Sri Lanka.

[6] Mahina Rajapakse: A man of the masses

[7] JVP- PM policy agreement

[8] Mahinda-JHU deal sealed

[9] Frontline, Vol 22 (22), Oct.22-Nov.04, 2005.

[10] SLFP: No support from Tamil parties

[11] LTTE-TNA conference concludes: “Tamil people have no interest in SL Presidential elections

[12] Ibid.

[13] Presidential Election 2005 – Final Result

[14] District Level Results

[15]Sinhalese Media Misleading South

[16] Navy fast attack craft blown up with 15 sailors

[17] Go for peace before going to pieces

[18] No homeland for Tigers – S.Lanka President

[19] No ‘unitary’, no support-Hela Urumaya

[20] The Muslims constitute roughly seven percent of the population and speak Tamil; however, they prefer to be recognized by their religion and cultural identity and claim they should be identified as separate ethnic group. Muslims identity struggle gained momentum when they met the continuous harassment and oppression both from LTTE[20]and the successive Sri Lankan governments, particularly from the former. Thus, Muslims think their must be meaningful power-sharing unit in any political solution to the ethnic conflict. And the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) the key Muslim party insists that any future agreement on the political solution between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government should address the Muslim concerns and seeks formal participation in the negotiation. The SLMC would also likely to demand the separation of the temporally merged NorthEast provinces and will argue for the devolution of certain powers to the community level. It would be an evocative move if both the LTTE and Sri Lanka government agreed to offer Muslim political administration in the merged NorthEast. It seems Muslims are not interested in the merger of the NorthEast provinces.

[21] Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers

Full Text of Statement released by Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of International Development – on behalf of the parties to the Sri Lanka conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE):

Sri Lanka Talks
22-23 February 2006, Geneva, Switzerland

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) met in Geneva 22-23 February 2006 for talks on the Ceasefire Agreement.

The parties discussed issues related to the ceasefire, including the concerns of the Muslim, Sinhalese, and Tamil civilians.

The GOSL and the LTTE are committed to respecting and upholding the Ceasefire Agreement, and reconfirmed their commitment to fully cooperate with and respect the rulings of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The GOSL and the LTTE are committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure that there will be no intimidation, acts of violence, abductions or killings.

The LTTE is committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure that there will be no acts of violence against the security forces and police. The GOSL is committed to taking all necessary measures in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement to ensure that no armed group or person other than Government security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations.

The GOSL and the LTTE discussed all issues concerning the welfare of children in the North East, including the recruitment of children.

The SLMM will report on implementation on the above agreements at the next session of talks.

The parties requested the Swiss Government to host the next round of talks in Geneva on 19-21 April 2006.

by Niro Dissanayake

I have read with great interest Dr Rajasinghams thought provoking follow ups in ‘Tamilweek’, to my original article, as appeared in the Asian Tribune, of the 21st of October 2005.

I would be grateful if I have the opportunity to endorse the views of Dr. Rajasingham, one of the few voices of reason among a babble of confusion, mindless intolerance and ‘the appalling silence of the good people’ on both sides of the great divide.

I have to pass on my sincere congratulations to the good doctor, for advancing my thesis to a greater level, a height which I originally could not have foreseen. He has achieved this displaying an eloquence, backed with perceptiveness and fairness, sound fact and reason, underlined with sorrow at the present state of our Tamil brethren and his country as a whole.

My original article merely identified the problems facing the Tamil community, and highlighted how this state of affairs came to be. This was not a particularly difficult task.

However, I pay tribute to Dr Rajasingham for having the courage to recognise how the present course of militancy has only lead to disaster (and to fearlessly state to that effect, where as most fear to do so out of possible consequences), but most of all plotting a ‘road map’ or a plan of action for the upliftment of the Tamil community (and thereby the whole country). This is, I believe, an infinitely more difficult exercise and requires due recognition.

A very insightful Tamil friend once told me this story to describe the present precarious state of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, which incidentally triggered my thinking leading to the original article. It goes like this;

There are three men on a narrow ledge barely wide enough to support all of them. We shall call them for the sake of this story, Mr Perera, Mr Rajah and Mr Cader. Now suspended on a rope from Mr Rajah is fat man with a moustache, gradually pulling him closer and closer to the edge, but making no attempt to climb up and remove the burden. To make matters worse for Mr Rajah there is a fat lady (fortunately with no moustache, but let’s call her CBK which is just as bad) throwing rocks down at him from the summit of the mountain, trying to dislodge him from the narrow ledge.

Even more unfortunately for Mr Rajah, who should have been able to seek the help from Mr Perera and Mr Cader, cannot do so for various reasons. He sees Mr Perera as his enemy and keeps shouting abuse at him, accusing him of trying to push him of the ledge. Mr Perera does not feel particularly sympathetic to Mr Rajah’s plight, as the fat man in the moustache keeps throwing rocks at him, and it appears to him that Mr Rajah is in collusion with him and is unnecessarily supporting his weight.

Mr Cader does not feel particularly sympathetic either, as not only has the fat man thrown a few rocks at him and alienated him, he’s also been told by both Messrs Perera and Rajah, that they are not particularly interested on what he has to say. He chooses to keep quiet for now and get on with his life as best as he can. But for how long, who knows. Maybe he might give Mr Rajah a small nudge or two one of these days…

So Mr Rajah has two options. One, he does nothing as he is presently doing, and eventually fall into the abyss along with the moustached fat man.

Or as second option he can do the following. Start talking to Mr Cader, listen to his views, and try to heal old wounds. He can talk to Mr Perera and try to build some bridges, and look for ties that bind, rather than the shadows which separate them.

Then with both of their help cut the rope to the fat man, dropping him to the abyss. And finally take some constructive steps together to knock the fat lady and her ilk, from the top of the mountain, to closely follow the fat man, to where they should all be.

It a nice simple story and very clear in its intent. In reality it obviously doesn’t highlight what Mr Perera’s faults have been or his responsibility to reassure Mr Rajah that he is not the enemy. But I guess the theme of these articles has been about the Tamil community and I shall stick with that for the time being.

However before we progress any further in this discussion I would like to set my Tamil brothers and sisters ten tasks (you are lucky, you have 2 less than Hercules, though even he might have difficulty in completing some of them). If you survive these labours, please come back and read on;

The 10 Labours of Ellalan

1. Approach the president Mahinda Rajapakse. Tell him you don’t agree with his political views. Or if you wish to get personal, question his parentage. Or even simpler, start your own political party, get yourself elected and go to parliament and abuse everyone there a la TNA MP fashion in front of the whole world. You have the fundamental right to do so and you will probably still make it back in time for your dinner alive and well, albeit with a feeling with low self worth for dancing like a monkey to the organ grinders tune.

2. Approach Prabakaran. Tell him you don’t like that silly moustache he has on his upper lip. Or if you wish to ask him something a bit more serious, ask him why he has no qualms about sending your children as cannon fodder to the battlefield, yet his own children are safely ensconced in Denmark, some of them attending university, which amazingly are always open! Or try to start your own political party in the Wanni. Express your own political view. Observe result.

3. Remain a Hindu. Go to anywhere in the Deep South. Open up a kovil.

4. Become a Buddhist. Move to the Wanni and open a temple. Or again remain a Hindu and try to practise you religion without any interference or seeing the head priest getting shot for some reason or other.

5. Again, I’m sorry; you have to have to make a visit to the racist South again. Open a business. Buy a bit of land. Build a house.

6. Become an entrepreneur. Move to the Wanni. Open up a new business in direct competition to one run by someone with LTTE patronage. Also refuse to bow down to extortion. However I wouldn’t advise you to go in to the sand distribution business like that industrious university student who wanted an extra bit of money to support his family and himself through university, only to be shot and burnt with his lorry.

7. Send your children to school in Colombo. Get them to study hard. They get the marks to go to University. Or if you wish as you don’t quite like the idea why some regions of Sri Lanka you need lower marks to go to University, send them there. Admittedly it is unfortunate they have to learn in Sinhalese, and this different pass mark business is not particularly fair…

8. Send them to school in the North and East. Your kids undergo all the hardships in the world in schools which are occupied by the army or bombed out, and libraries which should be opening that are still closed. But all due credit to them, they manage exactly that and educate themselves despite all the trials and tribulations, and make something out of nothing. But wait, no Jaffna University is closed. Not that it matters if you get conscripted from your class along the way, or your school principal got murdered just the other day.

9. Accompany a Sinhalese or Muslim friend on a holiday to anywhere in the country

10. Take a Sinhalese or Muslim friend to the Wanni for a holiday

Well hopefully my friend, you are still alive and reading this and have successfully completed your 10 labours. Allow me a certain degree of scepticism of you actually having completing all of them however.

Please do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to trivialise the issue or be flippant, or state life in the rest of the country is perfect. Far from it. I am merely trying to highlight that the Tamil community in the North and East do not have such basic liberties and have lost the liberties they once had, and what the rest of us take for granted, even in such an imperfect society such as in Sri Lanka.

If you go on the basis that the areas which constitute a de facto state will be the model for the future Eelam, what do you really have? No political freedom, no religious freedom, no economic freedom, no educational freedom and no personal freedoms. What else remains?

Is this not what you fought for in the first place? To have these basic liberties that every human being is entitled to from birth? Is this not what you were trying to achieve over the last 50 years, sacrificing 65,000 precious lives? How did this happen? How did your community come to this? Why did you let it happen and why do some of you still remain silent or look the other way? Do you not understand that your children will some day curse you for letting this state of affairs come to pass and if you stood by and did nothing?

What price ‘liberation’? Have you not lost your way, from a cause that was just, but is now just riddled with a cancer that is slowly but surely killing it, along with you in the process? Do you not feel any anger how you let your fight be subverted by the GOSL, and then corrupted and murdered by the LTTE?

I’ve also read the arguments presented by some who say once there is Eelam, the LTTE will be challenged. Democracy will be restored. The tiger that could not be tamed by even India will be done so by you, and everyone will live happily ever after. Until then sacrifice your liberties and follow the LTTE. Unbelievable. I hesitate to comment on such blind stupidity of these lemmings walking to their certain destruction.

Do you believe the LTTE will surrender what they fought for or let any individual or group challenge them? Do you propose a peoples uprising or an armed insurrection against a Tiger government at a later date? More deaths? More destruction? Refugees coming across the border. The Sri Lankan government getting involved to protect the people. My friends, you only talk about getting the end result for the ‘Dutu Gemunu’ Strategy, albeit it a different fashion. But the results will be the same, if not even more emphatic. Read your history and learn it. Remember we did this before, with the Portuguese, Dutch and English, getting rid of one group and replacing them with another. Except this time you will not survive.

I can stand in the middle of Colombo and distribute this article to all and sundry as can you. Could you as a Tamil do the same in the Wanni? Could I as a Sinhalese even make it into Wanni? Again I reiterate Sri Lanka is not perfect for the Tamil community (or the rest of us for that matter). But things are changing and you have your freedom to challenge present injustices when seen. To challenge historical grievances as you see fit. To work within the system to change it as Tiruchelvam or Kadirgamar or countless others tried to do and probably would have achieved given the chance.

I also point out that when our freedoms were threatened by the JVP, we stood up and fought. There were many who did not remain silent and paid the ultimate price. We did the same against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English, as did the Tamil community against the government later. Why do you not do the same now when your own liberties erode by the day thanks to the LTTE? Do you in some twisted fashion believe that this is a case of better to rule in hell than serve in heaven?

And I specially note the comment made by Dr Rajasingham ‘Every time a war is threatened by the LTTE, the Tamils in the Sinhala dominated provinces have to panic and rue their fate, as there is yet no guarantee that the change of heart is genuine’. – I agree that this is not way to live if you do live in fear in a place that is your home just as much as the next person.

If you allow me to take my Sri Lankan cap off and briefly put on my Sinhalese, Buddhist one, incidentally something I feel great pride in and make no apologies for. This is by no means making excuses for past grievous mistakes, and it is probably failure on the part of us Sinhalese, if you continue to feel such insecurities. However time marches on. People change. I certainly had my doubts till the day Dalada Maligawa was bombed and there was no ‘retaliation’ against innocents. There was a great deal of anger on that day. But there was also pride that no one gave in to their baser instincts.

My view on this matter was reinforced recently somewhat ironically the day Minister Kadirgamar was killed (to the Sinhalese, he was our one single respected and loved politician), and endless other provocations by the LTTE, and it continues on a daily basis now, every time a claymore mine explodes killing a few dozen soldiers. Stating that this is because of the fear that the LTTE will retaliate is doing us a great disservice.

Raging mobs do not sit down and calmly think of future consequences before embarking on murder and mayhem. They act. There have been no murderous mobs in 23 years. A man, who might have tried to raise a mob, would be given a swift clip around the ear and told to go home to his mother. Similarly much as I loathe them, even the JHU has not propagated violence towards ordinary Tamils.

People change. Our countrymen have changed. They have learnt to live in peace with one another and move on. It is us expatriates who are still stuck in the past and hold onto old enmities and beliefs.

I can not speak for the GOSL. They will continue with the DG strategy as they do not have the vision or wisdom to see different. But the Sinhalese people have not raised their hands in anger at the Tamil community living amongst them in a long time. We should not be complacent, but I am certain that this will never happen again.

We can distinguish between Messrs Prabakaran, Balasingham, the LTTE and the rest of the Tamil community at large. I was but a boy then, but I remember for every mindless thug that was out there on the street in July 83, there were hundred decent Sinhalese who sheltered their Tamil neighbours, although we failed the ones we could not protect. For every nut job monk in the JHU today, there are a thousand peaceful ones. Do not tar us all with the same brush. It may be asking a lot, but give us a chance. Or how will you be any different to some of those who think every Tamil is a terrorist. Not every Sinhalese is a racist. I know my enemy and recognise him well.

Continue building those strong bridges you have ably started on Sir. We will extend our hand back in friendship and with respect, and if you wish it and request it, help pull you back from the abyss. Who knows hopefully we can pull together to get the leaders that we deserve someday. Not this present pathetic visionless bunch on both sides of the divide.

As for defeating the Dutu Gemunu strategy, read the two articles (‘Independence Day Thoughts for a Tamil’ and ‘Dutugemunu Strategy and Ellalan Response’) where it is clearly explained by Dr Rajasingham. Follow the road map he has set out. I cannot present it any better than he has already done so, and unfortunately some will say ‘why trust a Sinhalese, Buddhist’? I can however strongly commend his views and propagate them among my Tamil compatriots in whatever fashion and help in whatever small way.

I will only add to his arguments in saying that, if you succeed in following this path, you will either have a stronger and more viable case for Eelam than you do now, if that is what you still wish for when you reach that stage.

Or alternatively, my own personal hope. That you will uplift your country and its entire people, by uplifting yourselves. Either way you will win.

However if you fail and continue on your present course, you will plunge into that abyss that you are inextricably being pulled towards. Open your eyes. The time for remaining silent and blind is over. Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese and Muslims will continue to survive no matter what. The question is, will you?