tw news-features

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj  

Responding to heavy international pressure , President Mahinda Rajapakse has suspended the retaliatory attacks that commenced in Trincomalee district after the assassination attempt on Lankan Army commander Lt. Gen Sarath Fonseka. Representatives of major donor nations as well as India exercised quiet yet intensive diplomacy on the Sri Lankan government to suspend all reprisal actions harming innocent civilians of the North - East.

While sympathising with Colombo and commending Rajapakse for his “patience” the international community representatives also impressed upon him the imperative need to ensure the safety and security of all civilians at all times regardless of ethnicity.The LTTE attack was condemned severely but the Government was told gently yet firmly that whatever the provocation civilian lives , limbs and property should be protected at all times.

President Rajapakse met representatives of donor nations, representatives of the four peace process co - chairs and Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Menon Rao in separate meetings in Colombo.Mahinda it is learnt was tactfully tutored at these meetings that targetting Tamil civilians in the North - East through indiscriminate bombing and shelling was not going to be condoned. Adding to Rajapakse’s woes was the opinion expressed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission after a fact - finding mission in Muthur and Sampoor.

Realising that Sri Lanka had received extremely negative publicity abroad as a result of these retaliatory attacks a crestfallen Rajapakse remarked ” The image of our country is being destroyed. They show the world that the one act that we took to ensure our security, when faced with a major attack, was much bigger than the thousands of times the LTTE had grossly and provocatively violated the ceasefire agreement”.

The President however had give in to these behind the scenes, diplomatic pressure.Rajapakse gave instructions that retaliatory activities be suspended. Earlier on April 25th when a suicide bomber attack was launched at the army headquarters premises Rajapakse had summoned a top level defence meeting. A visibly angry Mahinda urged that tough retaliatory action be taken immediately to demonstrate that the Government was not weak and that it would not take things lying down.

Thereafter all transport to and from the LTTE controlled Wanni region was stopped. A coordinated three - prong attack was launched in Muthur division areas of Trincomalee district. The Army, navy and Air Force commenced artillery shelling and aerial bombardment on the 25th and 26th of April. The attack resulted in at least 17 civilians getting killed and over 35 being wounded. Many dwellings and other buildings were reduced to rubble. Thousands of people became refugees.

A major humanitarian tragedy was averted mainly due to International pressure. While accepting the Government’s right to take action against the LTTE it was pointed out that civilian suffering should be minimised. Rajapakse accepted this “advice” and exercised wisdom by suspending the retaliatory measures. Transport was resumed to and from the Wanni at 7 am on April 27th. The shelling and bombing also ceased from the same day.

The suicide bombing operation in Colombo killed at least nine persons and injured twenty - seven. Among those seriously wounded were Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and his aide de camp Major Priyal Wickremasinghe. Several soldiers were among the dead and injured.

Though the operation had the clear stamp of a tiger attack the LTTE denied responsibility. Some tiger media charged that it was due to internal differences within the army.

With growing resentment in the South at the Government’s perceived impotence the Sinhala public mood was getting increasingly sour. President Mahinda Rajapakse was under great pressure to retaliate effectively. His political allies like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna wanted him to be tough with the tigers while the Jathika Hela Urumaya was for calling off the ceasefire and declaring open war.

The International community strongly condemned the suicide attack and expressed support to Rajapakse. Yet restraint was urged and appeals were made that Colombo should not resort to formal war.

Against this backdrop the Government decided to launch retaliatory attacks in the form of an undeclared war against the LTTE.Instead of attacking the LTTE headquarters in Kilinochchi operations were launched against tiger positions in the Eastern district of Trincomalee.

The district has been in the throes of a vicious cycle of racial violence since April 7th when Tamil political activist Vanniyasingham Vigneswaran was assassinated by Tamil paramilitaries.

Two Israeli made K - fir bomber jets and two F - 7s conducted five bombing sorties over the Muthur region of Eastern Trincomalee. The aerial bombing began at 5. 50 pm and went on till 6. 15 pm. After these K- firs had returned two Ukraine made MIG 24 planes flew out and conducted a sixth prolonged bombing spree at 6. 25 pm.

At 6. 35 pm four Israeli built Dvora gun boats and three water jet boats sailed close to the Muthur coast and began shelling coastal areas. This naval shelling went on intermittently yet intensively till 8. 10 pm.About 80 shells were fired from the sea.

The army started its own artillery fire from the Kuranguppaalam or Monkey bridge camp towards Muthur at 6. 45 pm. The shelling was consistent but sporadic with short intervals. The shelling was heavy till about 9. pm but continued with less intensity till midnight. Around 150 to 160 shells were fired. Many of the shells fired were deadly multi - barrel artillery shells obtained from Pakistan and China.Around 40 Multi barrel rockets were fired.

Areas like Kattaiparichhaan, Sampoor, Koonitheevu, Kadatkaraichenai, Senaiyoor, Iraalkuli, Ilakkanthai, Paattalipuram, Uppaaru etc were bombed initially and then pounded incessantly by artillery from gunboats and army camp. The Senaiyoor Central College was badly hit with its primary school and laboratory buildings reduced to rubble. Much of the damage was due to aerial bombardment here.

Power supply to Muthur was also affected and the region was in total darkness during and after the bombardment.

According to preliminary reports the bombing and shelling had not affected actual LTTE positions in the region much. LTTE camps, sea tiger bases and a newly constructed air strip were not damaged says the LTTE Civilian homes and public buildings had been destroyed.

At least three Tamil rehabilitation Organization (TRO) buildings were badly damaged. There are unconfirmed reports that two LTTE camps at Iraalkuli and Sungan kuli were damaged. The casualty figures if any were not known

After the first day’s attacks ,LTTE political Commissar for Trincomalee S. Elilan has inquired from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission whether the ceasefire was over and war had been declared. The Trinco SLMM had informed him that the security force officials had not responded to the telephone calls and e - mails, faxes sent by them.

Colombo also maintained that the retaliation was necessitated by the LTTE attacking Lankan naval craft in Trincomalee. The bombing and shelling was supposed to be retaliatory measures.

Just as few people believed the LTTE statement that they had nothing to do with the Colombo explosion very few granted credibility to these assertions by the Government. Though the LTTE had exploded a bomb in Colombo on April 25th and engaged in some violence in Trincomalee over the past week the tigers had not attacked the navy on Tuesday as alleged by the Government.

It was apparent that the Government launched its undeclared war by first conducting aerial bombardment and supplementing it further by artillery firing from army camp at Monkey Bridge and shelling from Naval boats

Political analysts however were concerned that Sri Lanka was backsliding to an open and fierce war. There were three concerns. Will the armed forces and defence establishment continue these reprisals to the extent of open war becoming inevitable? Will the LTTE angered by these reprisals raise the ante further by conducting more operations that would make the situation deteriorate further? Will rajapakse egged on by the hardliners around him bow down to populist pressure and declare war?These were the troubling questions.

Despite the ceasefire the Country has witnessed an escalating shadow war in the past. Both the LTTE and Tamil paramilitaries assisted by the security forces engaged in that. The suicide bomb attack against Sarath Fonseka was actually a high water mark of the escalating shadow war.Now an undeclared war in the form of action by the army, navy and air force was on. Civilans were being victimised.

Also in what seemed a knee - jerk reaction , Defence secretary Gothabhaya Rajapakse clamped down on transport through the Wanni. All transport to and from the LTTE controlled Northern mainland of the Wanni was suspended.

The entry - exit points at Omanthai In Vavuniya district and Uyilankulam in the Mannar district were shut down at 2, 30 pm. The Muhamaalai point in the Jaffna peninsula was closed down at 3. 00 pm. Hundreds of people and vehicles were stranded by the sudden move.

Expectations among the civians that the bombing was over got rudely shattered in the early hours of 26th when K- fir jets resumed aerial bombardment again shortly after midnight. The planes also launched another attack at dawn and another attack shortly before noon.

Artillery fire commenced at 2.00 am in the night and went on till noon on April 26th.

India in particular and many Western nations in general became extremely concerned about resumption of attacks on the second day. There was worry about civilian casualties.

Both the Sampoor jetty in LTTE controlled area and Muthur jetty in GOSL controlled area suffered hits. At least two uniformed personnel from the Navy were injured.

Bombs also fell on areas extending up to three kilometres from the Muthur Jetty. These are clearly demarcated Government controlled areas and are largely populated by Tamil speaking Muslims.After protests were lodged by Muslims in Muthur to the security authorities the bombing ceased.

One area affected badly was the Muslim settlement called Thakwa Nagar.. A Muslim Moulavi or Mullah Junaideen Mohammed was killed on the spot. His injured wife Akram Mulfikha (25) and sister Munira Junaideen (18) died after being admitted to Trincomalee hospital. Another seven injured persons from Muthur are receiving treatment there.Another injured Muslim civilian also died later.

While the Navy transported the injured Muslim people from GOSL controled Muthur to Trinco in their gun boats assistance to injured Tamil civilians from LTTE controlled areas in the Muthur division was denied. Though the Red Cross was reportedly engaged in negotiations to get Navy assistance in transporting three seriously injured Tamil civilians to Trinco the defence ministry authorities in Colombo adamantly refused to help.

The situation was remedied later and through Red Cross assistance two seriously injured people were warded at Batticaloa hospital.

According to informed sources at least thirteen civilians have been killed and thirty - seven injured in the artillery and aerial bombardment of Muthur areas on April 25th and 26th.. Around sixty - five people have minor injuries. With Muslim casualties the overall civilian toll has gone up to seventeen civilians killed and forty - four badly injured.

One of the biggest problems is the lack of adequate medical facilities to treat the injured. The Sampur clinic is ill - equipped to handle a tragedy of this proportion.

Wounded Tmil civilians in Sampoor suffered as the security authorities refused to transport the Tamil victims to Trincomalee hospital.Sampoor clinic does not have adequate surgical facilities.

Also some of the victims had died because of bleeding caused by the wounds. If proper medical help was available their lives may have been saved.

Five bodies have been identified as belonging to K. Meiyan and his two year old son Meiyan Kishanthan, Ms Nagiah Rukmani, Ms Pathiniyan Nagamma and Ms Veerapathiran Pagawathipillai. All were from Sampoor, Muttur east, according to civil sources.A further five bodies were identified on April 28th

Many areas in the region are virtually a sea of rubble after the intensive attack. The areas affected are Sampur. Muthur, Senaiyoor, Kadatkaraichenai, Kattaiparichhaan, Iraalkuli, Soodaikkudaa, Ilakkanthai, Santhoshapuram, Paattaalipuram, Koonitheevu and Uppaaru. These villages are in Muthur East and largely adjacent to the coast.

People have fled their homes and sought refuge in the Muthur division interior areas after the attack. Massive displacement has occurred. The official District secretariat estimate on April 26th stated that 43, 158 people from 10, 718 families were currently displaced in all parts of Trincomalee district. The bulk of these were from the Muthur - Sampoor region.. Many Sinhalese too had left their homes temporarily following the Morawewa killings of six civilians.

Much of this displacement was due to fear. Once the initial panic subsided people began returning home rapidly. The displaced people figures decreased overnight. Current estimates place the displaced persons figure at 18, 000 to 20, 000. This number too is likely to dwindle as more and more people are returning to their homes.

Embarassed at bombing Government controlled areas and killing Muslim civilians infantile attempts were made to deny that blatant fact. It was said that the Muslims of Muthir suffered because the LTTE fired shells.

SLMM chief Ulf Henricsson visited the area later and discovered the truth.“The deaths and damage were clearly caused by a misfire of the Government forces and not by LTTE firing as claimed by the Army on Wednesday. Mr. Henricsson visited the site yesterday and confirmed this,” SLMM spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir told the press.

People in Trincomalee heard the reports of shelling and bombing and were extremely worried. A curfew was also imposed in three Trinco divisions including the town and gravets.

Meanwhile the Government maintained a tough posture.”I f the LTTE continues attacking, there will be coordinated retaliation in the form of defence,” Plan Implementation Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said. “This will continue as long as the LTTE targets the security forces.”

Despite this claim reports from Muthur indicated that the brunt of the undeclared war has been borne by Tamil civilians.

The Tigers had also said that they would retaliate if the government continued the attacks; “It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action,” S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers’ peace secretariat, told Reuters.

” We are in a state of readiness and are awaiting for the instruction from our leadership to respond with a force that will be catastrophically disabling and devastating to the enemy,” said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam commenting on the current situation in Muttur east, in a “Tamilnet” report.

“The airforce and naval action is to deter and contain the LTTE from carrying out further provocative attacks,” said Palitha Kohona, the Director General of the Peace Secretariat.

Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, who heads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that oversees the truce, said if air strikes continued, peace talks would become difficult. The worst case scenario was a return to war, he said.

“We still have a valid ceasefire agreement. No party has ended it, but of course it is not a ceasefire right now,” he told Reuters

Whatever the pros and cons of differing viewpoints the actual position was that the Sri Lankan Government launched an undeclared war for the avowed purpose of teaching a lesson to the LTTE. This was done both as an act of vengeance as well as to show the South the Government was acting tough.

The ground reality was that innocent civilians suffered badly. The Government action of targetting innocent civilians under the pretext of teaching a lesson to the LTTE in a horrendous three - pronged bombing and shelling campaign deserves strong condemnation.

Even if the tigers provoked the state, the wilful targetting of civilians by the security forces cannot be condoned. It is time for the International community to give priority in an effective manner to the plight of innocent civilians above the interests of the chief players namely the GOSL and LTTE.

Pressurising the Government into suspending the reprisals deserves praise. But it is only a small beginning. Greater and faster action is required to save civilian life, limb and property.If the International community does not act fast not only would it be perceived as impotent but will also have precipitated the eruption of a full - scale war.

Recent events have shown that the Country is on the brink of an open, brutal war. Only effective International pressure could pull both sides back from the edge. Norway alone cannot do this. Greater coordinated action from the big players like USA, Japan and more importantly India is required to save the peace in Sri Lanka.

[transCurrents.com]  [This is an updated version of two (1), (2) earlier articles]

Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com

by Prof. Karthegesu Sivathamby

On April 28th last year Sivaram was eliminated from the political arena of this country in a very gruesome manner.

To a country which has been used to political assassinations and gruesome murders, the news of the death of Dharmaratnam Sivaram came as a great, rude shock.

Sivaram was no doubt an influential political commentator with special expertise in the analysis of military moves. His writings were read by all those who had an abiding interest in the ethnic war of this country. His writings were known for the stand point he took intimating to English readers the grievances and the demands of the Tamils, explaining to them the wisdom or otherwise of the moves and counter moves by the state forces and the Tamil militants. He was perhaps one of the most well travelled Sri Lankan journalists.

Silent writer

He was invited or expected in such strategic places like Delhi, Washington, London and Brussels; the centre for the European Union.

Yet, it is also true that beyond his writings he was neither discussed about nor spoken about, in any “public manner.” Within the influential circles in Sri Lanka he was closely read, and there was a diligent silence about what he wrote.

The news of his killing led to an upsurge of grief and sorrow. The greatest surprise was the praises bestowed on him by political commentators and writers who never shared his beliefs and visions. In fact, most of them held diametrically opposing views. It was this unexpected opening of the flood gates of praise and sorrow that made his friends and associates realise the national significance he had, not only as a writer, but as a great human being.

It was really an act of rediscovery. It was his death and the condolences it received from writers and diplomats, friends and foes alike that enabled us to rediscover him and locate his contributions against the background of almost 35 years of ethnic war in Sri Lanka.

It was after his death that the Tamil people in Sri Lanka realised the significance of his contributions. Through his writings, he brought out the depth and the breadth of the Sri Lankan Tamil grievances. His weekly writings and his expert comments over the BCC revealed to readers and listeners the intensity of the Sri Lankan question, especially in terms of the militancy it bred and the militant leadership it had.

With Sivaram no more around us, we see the irreplaceable contributions he made to the understanding of the Sri Lankan Tamil question. A fleeting thought of a hypothetical withdrawal of his writings in this subject would reveal to us how much the literature on this war would be poorer without his contributions.

His presentations revealed the wider perspective in which he thought and wrote. His writing in Tamil are equally important. They were very thought provoking. His friends and well-wishers have attempted to bring out piecemeal his writings. It is important that those are brought out finally well edited with introductions. The most unforgettable aftermath of his death was the outpouring of praises from fellow professionals.

They did not always agree with his views, but now, they saluted his memory for the great warmth he showed as a human being, and for the courage and genuineness of his convictions. In a way, the more he was against the political stand of fellow commentators, the more he was close to them as a friend, and more than that, a man of deep understanding.

This was something very new to the annals of Sri Lankan journalism. It is now seen how much he was respected and revered.

It would be grossly unfair to view him and treat him as just another journalist, another political commentator. Retrospectively now, we see his breadth of vision and depth of political acumen, it was this difference that made his writings sincere and profound. One should not fail to see the serious researcher within him, the ever searching student of human thought and behaviour. The range of his reading was truly fantastic.

Serious researcher

To me it was the student of history within him, the history of Tamilian society and thought that brought him close to me. Here again, the range of his readings and the areas of search were unbelievably deep and wide.

From ‘Purananuru’, the Sangam classic to the monumental work on casts and Tribes of Southern India, he saw a continuity, hitherto unexplored. He was attempting to delimitate the history of the Tamil society through the militaristic behaviour and activities of the Tamils, responding to his questions so naively put, I always thought my scholarship and were in the docks in front of him. Was he seeking explanations? Or measuring my inabilities? To this day I’m not sure.

I miss him, not merely as a friend, but as one who made me think, or to be more exact, rethink. It is a pity that none of the universities of the North-East has yet thought in terms of honouring his historical acumen.

Sivaram was a wonderful friend the hallmark of his character was that he never told any one of his friends who his other friends were. It was really shocking for me to see such a number of people at his funeral. They came to see him as their friend and as really genuine friends. They could neither hide nor wipe away their tears as they stood around his body.

Sivaram was a devoted husband and father, very proud of his family. The ‘chatty’ of curd that he took with him on his last journey was to enjoy a luxuriant vegetarian lunch with his children the next day. There is a famous line by ‘Puthumy Pittan’, the greatest fiction writer in Tamil so far - ‘Like an immortal celestial he descended on this earth and disappeared from it in the same (unexpected) manner.’

Let it be a resurrection or rebirth we, his friends are awaiting Sivaram to return. [Sunday Observer]

Realted: “Sivaram worked tirelessly for the future of his much
beloved country”

By S.Chandrasekharan

With the attack on the Sri Lankan Army Chief by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber on the 25th , followed by attack on the Naval crafts of Sri Lankan Navy and the retaliatory air strikes in the Sampoor area off Trincomalee by the Sri Lankan Air force, the question arises whether the Cease-fire agreement brokered by Norway four years ago is coming apart?

It looks to be, unless the international donor body, India and other well meaning countries urge both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government to go back to the negotiating table and resume the talks in Geneva that has been indefinitely postponed.

It is said that in any militant movement, cold logic and analysis defy some of the actions of the militants. The recent suicide attack in Colombo which had all the signatures of LTTE’s involvement in the attack on the Sri Lankan Army Commander is one such example that defies all logic. At one stroke, all efforts made by the LTTE to legitimise itself internationally have gone up in smoke and it is a question of time before others like the European Union follows Canada which not only declared the LTTE a terrorist outfit but followed it up quickly with raids by the Royal Canadian Police on some of the offices of Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates.

These developments have come at a very inconvenient time for India, where the elections to the state assembly in May in Tamil Nadu are due. Besides a call of support to President Rajapakse, the immediate response of the Indian government was to condemn the attack and a formal carefully worded statement that said “violence is not the answer to any problem and that political dialogue is the way to resolve outstanding issues.”

The Incident:

On 25th April, a female suicide bomber dressing herself as a pregnant woman managed to enter the high security area of Army Headquarters and waited at the gate of the Army Hospital where many others were also waiting to attend the clinic. When the Army commander’s convoy passed the gate of the hospital, the suicide bomber threw herself on to the convoy. Eight persons including an Army major and two army motor cycle riders died in the blast and over 27 persons including many civilians were injured.

The Army Commander who was critically injured in the attack is said to be out of danger now after being operated for many hours.

It is said that a few hours after the incident, a naval craft was attacked near Sampoor area in Trincomalee area by suspected militants. This is however being denied by the LTTE.

The same evening, Sampoor area including Mutur was bombarded by Kfir fighters of Sri Lankan Air force on suspected LTTE positions. Mutur has also been hit by artillery fire and Naval gunboats. There are no reports of LTTE casualties, but independent sources say that at least ten civilians have been killed.

While Sri Lanka has declared that the air strikes would continue as a deterrent, it is the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission which has been placed in a difficult situation. The Swedish Major. Gen. Ulf Henricsson of SLMM has said that if air strikes continued, peace talks would become difficult.

It looks that the Sri Lankan President had no choice but to go ahead with retaliatory action. What is important is that he ensures that there is no Sinhala backlash as is already happening in Trincomalee. In his nation wide broadcast, President Rajapakse said “This country belongs to all its citizens….. who live here. Today’s crisis cannot be resolved by dividing this country.” It is not only his party, but also the JVP and the JHU that need to go an extra length to prevent attacks on Tamils. In the aftermath of a blast at the market place in Trincomalee, over 100 houses and business establishments of the Tamils have been destroyed leaving 3000 persons home less. This is just the beginning but more could follow if the situation is not brought under control.

It is unclear what made the LTTE choose a high level target which they knew would jeopardize not only the peace talks but the cease fire agreement itself. On their behalf it is said that the Govt. of Sri Lanka has been engaging in activities to put a noose round the LTTE, by openly going round the capitals of the world to prosecute the LTTE and stop their fund raising and that President Rajapakse has embarked on punitive measures against the Tamil community to bolster his own political position with other extreme forces in the south.

The attack on the Army chief would have required meticulous preparations and would have taken months to prepare. It is just a chance that the Chief survived. It is also likely that the LTTE has many more such projects and it is only hoped that it desists from such acts which would not only bring international wrath, but would make other few countries that are left to declare them as a “terrorist outfit”.

The LTTE has not yet understood that reviving the hostilities will not take them anywhere. There is no doubt that they have nothing to show to the people as peace dividend after almost four years of cease-fire. There is also the potential danger of more Karunas emerging. It looks that east is lost to the LTTE and any revival of hostility would only confirm that position!

There is no military solution for the LTTE and there could be none either for the Sri Lankan government. The Cease fire has to be continued. Sooner or later both sides will have to go into substantive talks. They will have to step back from their rigid positions and help Norway continue with the cease fire process.
[Source: SAAG]

By M.S.Shah Jahan

War is like a fire- if you do not put it out , it will burn itself out “ – The Art of War.

While Mr. Geneva II is slipped into the Bay of Geneva from the boat ‘S.L.Northeast’, here the much talked about or criticized Hon. CFA, the Minister in charge of enforcing peace in the country, is admitted into the intensive care unit of ill- equipped Kilinochchi Hospital. Not surgery, but God only could save him. We pray.

The ‘New Reds’ and the ‘Holy Men’ say, his abrogation is the mandate MR received on the 17th November 2005. But the ruling alliance says it is not the mandate they received on the 30th March 2006. What is a mandate ? A mandate is an authorization given to act to a representative of the people.

Well, an election is fought on various core issues and all the parties give limitless promises, especially on the cost of living. Even bread at Rs.3.50 was jarring on the ears of some but nothing happened. Fortunately this is not Calcutta. Otherwise all the ladies would have come onto the middle of the road to ‘ghero’ the traffic.

Can you remember, the political party that promised to bring rice from the moon, but ultimately it only gave policemen the additional job of arresting the people for eating rice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If bread and rice were covered by a mandate,wasn’t the failure to do so, against the ‘mandate’ ? What punishment should have been meted out ?

Electoral victories can never be taken as affirmatives for a single cause. Therefore there is no validity in the argument that the ‘Chinthanaya’ is for war. Further, the Chinthanaya never said that it would increase the price of consumer goods. So why do the prices go up ? But what else can you do when the petrol price goes above $70 a barrel ? From whose father’s house you can bring money to run the country ? His party has no experience in robbing with masked faces banks at gun point .

But, what is a plebiscite? A plebiscite is a vote by which the people of an entire country express an opinion for or against - an yes or no, on a single issue or proposal. For example,‘ Should we ban the consumption of liquor ?. ‘Can the life of parliament be extended without an election?’ People could decide in whichever way they want to. You can call it the will of people, and it should be executed. Unfortunately today the character of a plebiscite is wrongly used for a mandate. It is like the difference between a pony and a horse.

Besides, Norway is not a decision- making field umpire, not even a third umpire, but a marriage broker whose task is to tie two together in nuptials. Therefore, the middle man has to do many gimmicksto turn around one party with opposite views . But a section of our people want Norway to be divorced for excessive or illicit courtship with the Tigers. At an angle the accusation would look right, but the argument is wrong. Who wants peace, the government or militants? When a sinner enters a church, naturally he draws attention.

After dismissing this broker, what are we to do? Do we have any other or, are there any other suitors for our girl? No, no one is there in sight. She is not only the most beautiful in town, but also she is frequently accused of insincerity. It is not one country Norway that we deal with, but also a team of donors who stands behind invincibly. We have an unpalatable situation with them too, but must bear it, because if there is no Norway, then there is no way for us for peace.

Analysts feel it is the spoils of Geneva I that caused the present impasse. First and foremost, agreeing to the mission impossible of disarming paramilitaries has turned out to be Lanka’s Waterloo. Legal interpretations and counter interpretations, have drifted the two parties instead of bringing them closer.

Big people should be magnanimous in words and deeds, not petty in attitudes and comments, to say like, ‘only one speaks English’, ‘he is of a lower caste,that of cutting and dressing hair and shaving and trimming beards’. Had they happened to deal with Losif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili , would they have remarked that his father was a cobbler and mother did laundry and house cleaning for Jews? He being a mighty Soviet leader, would have reacted in a different way. Napoleon was not a born French but he became the first French Emperor. His one time commanders also happened to serve under his orders. It is one’s present position that is counted.

The North at one time, produced the largest number of English educated people. That is why they could serve beyond Sri Lanka in various capacities. Eminent professionals who shine today in the ‘New World’ and ‘Down Under’ should think, whether they could have reached such heights if they had been taught in their mother tongue? Who took away English ? Why ? Because the Tamils were more proficient than the rest, in the Queen’s language.

Peace today looks illusive even though Norway is in the middle.

The way the situation is deteriorating in the Northeast makes people think that war is at their door .If our leaders decide that a military solution, not a tiger hunt, is the only answer to this problem, let us go ahead for a war with the LTTE within a time frame of two years or so. Because it would mean an end to the suffering of Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim people, within our period, rather than passing it to the next generation. But war and love are easy to start, hard to stop. The world has seen wars, not at the drop of a hat, but as the last resort after every thing else failed.

A war brings untold misery. A country in war will have to make a number of sacrifices. What kind of sacrifices will the people of this country undertake, as they have no war experience ?. The price of consumer goods will go up. The energy cost will escalate further and reach $100 a barrel before 2010, once Condoleezza Rice gets into the ring in Tehran to wrestle with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The treasury will be crunched and everything will be rationed except sunlight and air. Some workers will lose their jobs, others will will have salary cuts and also worklonger hours. Will they do it? Will the Comrades be able to convince the brigade?

Let me put a straight question to you. While China has only five days off, Sri Lanka tops the world with the highest number of holidays. What right or eligibility, has a Third World country like ours, to have a 5 day week ? In 1972 the price of crude oil was about $3.00 per barrel at Rs.10 a US$ but by the end of 1974 the price of oil had quadrupled to over $12.00.The Saturday half working day was scrapped by Madam Sirimao’s government to cushion the blow of ‘Oil Shoku’. Today the oil price is 6 times more. We did not give 6 more half day holidays but went on swimming against the tide with the sharks, and survived.

Recently in Japan when the government wanted to scrap Saturday as a working day, the labour unions refused to accept the holiday. Here should not we give up this Saturday off and work more days of the week ? How many of us are prepared to campaign for Saturday work without extra stipend ? Does shouting before Hilton Hotel only express one’s patriotism ? May I, through this column, ask the President to declare Saturday a full working day ?.

Further who is going to fight the war, the poor lads from villages ? What contribution will the people who opt for war offer?. How many recruits can they provide from their sources ? What war service will these leaders perform?

When Lalith Athulathmudali called for one we could see youngsters standing for a mile on the Galle Face Centre Road. Is not the situation different now ?

How about the affluent guys living or studying in the West ?

More than everything, else why can’t the groups clamouring for war introduce immediately a legislation for compulsory national service for a year or so for youths of 18 years old ? Which leader will offer his children first?

Besides, the provincial councils were created to give greater power to the Northeast only. When they do not have them, can one ask in what way are the PCs necessary for the others? Is not it too much of polity and waste of public funds?

Finally, like the Iranian Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari was quoted by Russian news agencies “One way to avert war is to be prepared for any war,” Let us too prepare for war, and avert war, as common people of the South and Northeast detest war, but love peace. [Source: Daily Mirror]

by Qadri Ismail

I remember it well and I remember it poorly - the conversation at the Arts Centre Club. It was quite remarkable, actually, in that bar where more than half the regulars were my friends, in that bar where I am sure I had my first drink - either a rum and coke or a gin and lime, certainly, but again I don’t know for sure, although I swear I remember who paid for it - that we appear to have had an uninterrupted conversation. How do I know that? Because parts of it were published a few days (maybe weeks) later in the pages of The Sunday Times. (On the 27th of September, 1987, for those bibliographically inclined.)

I called him Naresh, then, to preserve his anonymity.

He was a member of one of the Tamil militant organizations, of that fine generation of Tamil youth that refused to shirk its responsibilities. And more. He was by any standards brilliant.

He was that rare undergraduate who, when he dropped names, could back it up with a relevant quotation and an intelligently coherent argument. A first class was his for the taking. But he wasn’t a nerd. Sivaram was up to painting the town red. Then, in the second term of his first year, he dropped out.

This might have been 1982. Though 1983 is more likely. I could check. But who cares! History is for those without imagination. (I got that line from a fortune cookie.)

I next met him three years, a race riot and many deaths later. He turned up at my doorstep one evening and asked me if I remembered him. Vain question; he wasn’t easy to forget. He looked very different: shaggy hair, scraggy beard, spectacles tied together with wire, torn track-shoes. We proceeded to talk - or, rather, he did - till the early hours of the morning.

Most of the talking, no doubt, must have happened in a bar somewhere. But, surely, we’d have eaten at home first. Indeed, to this day my mother doesn’t know how many Tamil militants she fed over those years. And I’m not about to tell her.

I asked why he joined up. He replied as if he was saying something self-evident. “What else is there to do?” Then proceeded to relate story after story that gave life to the facts and statistics of Tamil grievances…The idealism came out clearly, as did the commitment, the purpose, the dedication.

That last statement reads embarrassingly now. Idealism is not something I have associated with Sivaram for a long time.

Today he looks like anybody’s favourite son. The beard was trimmed neatly enough to make a naval officer jealous; the jeans were Jordache; the t-shirt, Lacoste; the run down spectacles had given way to Daniel Ortega-style tinted glasses; he had even polished his shoes. After three weeks of the good life in Colombo, one saw the beginnings of a pot.

Maybe that’s when he changed, after the Indo-Lanka Accord. But then, again, who knows?

The conversation turned to the PLOT critique of Tamil separatism and its argument for co-operation with the radical southern left.

He had been drinking arrack all evening. Then he lit a Bristol and said: “The whole enterprise was doomed to failure from the very start.

“Our first mistake was theoretical. We called it a national liberation struggle and compared ourselves to Cuba and Vietnam and Nicaragua. We should have thought of Biafra, of Basque Spain, of Eritrea. They have been fighting for years in Eritrea against Ethiopian repression and nobody cared. You know what Harold Wilson said about Biafra? He said he didn’t care whether a million Ibos had to die, that Nigeria had to remain unified.”

Wilson, we might remind ourselves here, was supposedly a leftist.

“The postwar international system does not permit the creation of new states.”

How about Cyprus, Bangladesh?

He smiled, lit another cigarette. “Turkish Cyprus has not been recognized by any other country apart from Turkey. Bangladesh is a special case. Pakistan was the artificial creation of the British. From the start, the Bengalis had problems with the west Pakis. And it suited India’s geostrategic interests to bifurcate Pakistan.”

What would Sivaram have said today about the many recently-established states, especially Eritrea? I don’t know. I stopped reading his stuff when he became an unapologetic Tamil nationalist. The 1987 Sivaram’s explanation would have gone something like this: The new states emerging from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, like Bangladesh from Pakistan, could be explained by the artificiality of the old states argument. Eritrea, in contrast, would be the perfect example of the PLOT thesis: they got nowhere for years until they made an alliance with anti-Mengistu Ethiopian forces.

But, for our purposes, what is relevant today, what might be useful to think about, is the PLOT assessment of the specificity (or, for the more theoretically minded, singularity) of the Sri Lankan situation. For I would hold now, as a card-carrying literary critic, that analogy - making comparisons or, in this instance, arguing that merely because something happened or did not in one place, it can happen or not in another - is just a plain and simple literary device; not the truth. Those who say we can learn from history forget that history is, to use a term from Aristotle, emplotted: it is something that is made, written. Events do not narrate themselves; they are narrated, ordered, structured - indeed, made into objects we recognize as events - by the discipline and discourse of history.

As for analogy, a clever enough person can compare anything to anything else. Or not, as the case might require. Example: pineapples and oranges are both fruit. They are both sweet, and soury; therein lying their appeal. They are both juicy and are guaranteed to wet the fingers while being eaten. Their color is usually similar. On the other hand, one grows on trees, the other from the ground. One has a smooth skin, the other a prickly one. One has a navel, the other a crown. You get the point…

At a certain stage of the evening, Sivaram got really angry. “What the bloody hell, I say! All those statements against Thamileelam made by India. Couldn’t they realize? India had nothing to gain from creating a separate state here…We had no mountains, no jungles to retreat to and attack from. The Sri Lankan state was so developed that there was a police station within fifteen miles of any place in the country. We had to use India as a rear base. From that point on, we were pawns in a larger chess game, a tool that was going to be used by India to achieve its ends.”

Some of those police stations, of course, have been destroyed by the LTTE; not to mention many army camps. And the Wanni jungles have turned out to be surprisingly attack proof. But the gist of the argument is still persuasive.

“Take the border. It is more than three hundred miles long - and there are Sinhalese at every end of it. Nobody ever thought of this. Nobody in any group came up with an intelligent idea of how it could be secured and then maintained.”

The LTTE had an idea, of course: exterminate all the Sinhalese on the border. But not even an intelligent feline could call it a smart one.

He went on to examine the Tamil economy and ecological environment, as he put it. The Tamils did not have a separate economy. They were dependent on the south for a market. Separation would have caused havoc here. Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. The two eco-systems were inextricably linked. The east got its water from rivers that began in the Sinhala areas. What if something was done to the rivers?

This sounded persuasive to me then. It still does.

Electricity schemes were in the south and supply could be knocked off. And then, he said, take the nature of the state. It was all-pervading and centralized. There was no local capital that could be captured, leading automatically to separation.

Yes, the LTTE has won some remarkable military victories. But they have been unable to refute this thesis.

“And what about the Muslims. We had in our midst a large minority. We artificially tried to make them a part of us by inventing this nonsense of a Tamil-speaking people. They never wanted Thamileelam and we didn’t know what to do about them.”

As with the Sinhalese on the border, the LTTE had a plan for the Muslims: it tried what, in some parts of the world, is called ethnic cleansing.

But the more important, more general point is that, for all these reasons, PLOT rejected separatism in favor of the emancipation, or liberation, of all the people of Sri Lanka by the people of Sri Lanka.

He then defended the Accord. “We fought for our rights. We have not got everything, but all fights must end some day.” The conversation ended on this mournful note: ” As guerillas fighting for Tamil rights, our historical role is over.”

u

What changed? What transformed Sivaram from a socialist into an unalloyed nationalist - and, even worse, eventually an LTTE lobbyist? Again, we’ll never know.

Some have said it was the continued racism of the Sinhala state. That argument has some merit. But, then, not all of us opposed to the racist Sinhala state - now looking amazingly like it did then, during its Jayawardene/Premadasa incarnation, with the ultra-racist JVP in government (and I am making an analogy here, not a truth-claim) - chose the LTTE as the mode to resist it. Not all of us believe the stupid political science cliché that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend. (I mean, look what that logic has done to U.S. imperialism: the enemy - the Taliban - of its one-time enemy - the Soviet Union - is now its nemesis.)

Some will say, given D.B.S. Jeyaraj’s reporting that Sivaram was first rejected by the LTTE, by no less than Mahattaya himself, before he joined PLOT, that his political instincts were always pro-LTTE. That argument also has some merit. But it does not explain his advocacy of the PLOT position that night at the Arts Centre Club.

Others will say that he was simply an opportunist. That is, that he never really changed. Sometimes, I think so too. (After all, he wooed Vijaya Kumaratunga and his killers, the JVP; he hated India - and yet informed the High Commission about his comrades during the Maldives coup.) But it takes guts to promote the LTTE openly, in print, from the south. Opportunism cannot explain that. On the other hand, there are too many stories about Sivaram’s activities within PLOT, going back to the early 1980s, for anyone who knows them to accuse him of courage. The mystery, then, remains.

u

So what, you might ask, is this all about? Am I mourning, in some eccentric or even perverse fashion, the death - nay, the murder - of an old friend?

Yes, of course. But I’d rather, than dwell on death, take a lesson from his life. From the time we were friends. Good friends.

From the time parts of the Tamil resistance, the radical Tamil left - EPRLF and PLOT - was so incomparably superior, politically and ethically, to the genocidal brutality that was and might still be Sinhala nationalism. (After all, if the JVP controlled the government, we’d surely be at war again by now. Although the president - what on earth is she doing allied with the JVP? - could very well take us down that road, too.) Or, for that matter, the Tamil nationalism of the LTTE.

That ethical time, of the EPRLF and PLOT, need not be understood as past - because it was never really a historical time. Indeed, it is better understood as a moment of the imagination. A moment, unlike now perhaps, when anything seemed possible.

u

In his famous essay, Freud makes a distinction between mourning and melancholia: the mourner accepts the loss of the object; the melancholic desires its return.

Will we ever see a Tamil left quite like that again? EPRLF and PLOT at its best? (And, yes, I am familiar with PLOT’s atrocities.) Probably not. Though you never know. But we can fucking well insist that we must, and will, be inspired by that imagination.

Qadri Ismail was an attesting witness at the marriage of Sivaram and Yogaranjini. He remembers drinking and laughing a lot that night with some of his funnest buddies: Richard de Zoysa, Newton Gunasinghe, D.B.S. Jeyaraj.

[Qadri Ismail is Associate Professor Department of English University of Minnesota]

[This article appeared in the Lines Magazine in August 2005]

By E.M.G. Edirisinghe

It is not the sweeping victory of the UPFA that the people in general are talking about, but what happened to the JVP which boasted of taking over 25 councils finally ending up with one, and that too the only one they already had under them. The sound beating the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) got was a foregone conclusion and the current prediction is that the maximum they could get at a future election is just one seat. The outright failure of the Monk MPs was proved beyond doubt and that leaves them to display their might and influence at temple level, towards which they have contributed nothing. Buddhists want the monks in temples and not in talk-shop Parliament.

The initial error the JVP committed that triggered the present unsavoury situation at which they have to find words and figures to explain that they are not ‘losers’ but in fact the ‘winners’, was when they blasted into the campaign with the slogan “gama javipeta” (village for the JVP). That sent down a wave of rethinking among people as to how could there be a country without villages. They did not know that village could be administratively separated from the country. They questioned whether there could be a country if there are no villages. That thinking process hit hard on them to think the one who got the country should get the village, too, if there is to be an all-round progress and development.

JVP is correct when they say that the President would not have won, if not for the active support of the JVP. But it is also true that if the LTTE allowed the N-E Tamils the freedom to exercise their vote, the results might have been different; also, it is a fact that the President lost a substantial number of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala votes due to the vociferous and chained support of the JVP (and JHU). The JVP has a history of over 35 years of turbulent as well as peaceful existence. Too long a period to have not come to power. However, it is a national party today. How long will it take to take over State power. All that depends on how the thinking of the people shapes and changes and matures in the light of the election just concluded and its outcome, at which the JVP held over 12,000 meetings with very high hopes and managed to get just one council only and poll only 11% of the vote.

Why did the JVP fail (though they claim ‘victory’) at the recent elections? With the above poor slogan which initially backfired, there are several other reasons for their ‘poor’ showing. In the first instance, the JVP do not locally encourage promotion of individual leaders to whom the masses could look upon for inspiration. The people do not vote for policies or manifestoes. They do not even read the manifestoes because they know that no party will ever publish a manifesto that the people do not like.

Anyway, they may be carried away by slogans (e.g. Sinhala within 24 hours; righteous society; 8 kilos of grains; who is he, what does he do), but certainly not by policies. The primary inspiration and vitality come to the people through local and national leaders of a party. They trust leaders, good leaders because they knew nothing detrimental or harmful could flow from them. The JVP put the party above the party-men while the people put the latter above the former. For the people, men are more important than nominal entities. They know that an unreliable or unknown leadership of a party can place an excellent manifesto before the people; but do they ever vote for them. So, until the JVP decides to promote and develop national and local level leadership acceptable to the people, they would never be able to move ahead as they should. The leadership should be one which has an appeal to the people. Joint leadership is a joke for the people. Competition for preferential vote is necessary to build leadership at village level. For the people, a party is a non-entity; it’s men who lead it only matter. However strong a base of a political party is, it cannot embrace a wider spectrum of men and women without an influential and socially acceptable leadership. Otherwise, the voter-bank will be restricted to the party membership and their families. They can never have sympathisers and win over the floating vote without which no party can capture power at local or national level. JVP could get general credibility and wider popular reception only when it was in alliance with an acceptable party with accepted national leadership. That is how the JVPers in several districts were able to top the UPFA list pushing down some well- known figures at the last general election, because they established and affirmed its acceptance with the guarantors from the major party on their side. Only diehards and the direct beneficiaries will remain loyal to the party, whoever the leader or leaders are. Tissamaharama PS is an exception where the Chairman and the members were very popular among the generality of the people of the area. They are liked by the people and it was more an endorsement of the local leadership rather than the party itself. We had similar experiences in the past. CP in Point Pedro and Kalavana, LSSP in Mihintale, Bingiriya and Kolonna and BBP in Gampaha are a few examples where this phenomenon was exhibited at the elections.

The JVP is quietly getting itself identified as the force behind strikes and wild-cat protests which will gradually sink them in the well of public discontent. Even the strikers themselves will forget their masters sooner or later. No political party which engineers strikes causing disruption and disturbance in public life will enjoy the confidence of the people who, when their turn comes, will not hesitate to show their disenchantment and dissatisfaction. Three factors reduced status of the LSSP, CP and the MEP to their present nominal existence: They are the strikes, dearth of illustrious leadership and their alliance either with the SLFP or the UNP.

At the recent elections, the total polled was 66% of the number of electors. In the last general e1ection If the percentage of voting touched 80%, the total number of JVPers elected this time would have been reduced to around 190 because that 14% who did not vote were certainly either UNP or UPFA as everyone loyal or sympathetic to the JVP had voted for the party as they believed that they had to show their strength both to the country and t the SLFP. The 12% of the vote the JVP polled this year, could be the highest ever and it will not pass the 15% mark. That is the normal reading of any Marxist party in Sri Lanka which tries to contest on its own after launching strikes and letting off verbal attacks causing the maximum mental disturbance to the people.

It is interesting to note that the area in which the JVP did creditably well at the elections to local bodies was the Western coastal belt and the Colombo District, which was once support base of the LSSP which dominated in its heydays. Unfortunately, there is hardly any trace of the glory the LSSP enjoyed in the period 1956-1970. The lower middle class which formed the base of the LSSP has now switched over their support to the JVP, only to be abandoned after some time. The exceptional situation in the Hambantota District that favoured the JVP is similar to much gains the LSSP made in Kegalle District. For any party that draws strength from the working class, urban and suburban, is more affirmative than the support it gets from the rural areas.

A party which the people trust as the custodian of their rights and a fighter on their behalf will think twice before voting them into power because they know once they become master they cease to be their servant. So, most of those non-party voters who voted for JVP love to see the JVP continue to remain in the Opposition as a party of agitation. This is a certainty when a particular party remains in the Opposition for a long period. The TJNP, SLFP, MEP, PA and the UPFA captured power within a few years of their formation. The longer the party stays in the Opposition, the more the people will use it to do the spade work for them. That is to keep the Government under check and be alert on their doings. For the JVP to insist that the President should honour the Mahinda-JVP agreement shows their ignorance and immaturity in politics. Most agreements are honoured in the breach. The society and the international conditions are in constant change, the agreements become outdated with fresh situations arising, forcing the parties to adapt themselves to face such changes. “Everything that is mundane is subject to change”, the Buddha said. One cannot remain dogmatic. Once World Communism and Marxism were considered the driving force of the people and their future government. But today it is an anachronism. Capitalism here or abroad was able to survive because it has the flexibility to adapt itself to change. All agreements later become quotations and are referred to only documents.

When a party is in alliance, and once it leaves the alliance, always the party that leaves, stands to lose. The JVP was still able to harness some support because even if they contested separately on principle they never left the government and continued to stress the fact that they continued to support the President with whom victory is identified. Had they broken away from the UPFA and led a vigorous anti-government campaign, their votes would have been halved. Also, any party which helps to build the image of another and put him in power, it is very hard to damage it, because the people will continue to trust him until he himself destroys it. We know how C.P. de Silva failed. Also how Gamini-Lalith Combine and the NM-Colvin Combine failed, however powerful and popular they were among the people.

The JVP has reached a point of no return and if they leave the Mahinda Administration, the people will not accept them forcing it into a distant third force. Also the second string leadership in any Marxist party will always be intellectually and charismatically poorer in the shadow of its more vibrant leaders of the past. In 1956, the LSSP was 25 years old and the SLFP was just 5 years old. The latter swept into power in an alliance and the LSSP would have been wiped off, if not for the electoral agreement it formed with the MEP. Mistakenly, the LSSP thought that next it would be their turn and started all kinds of agitations, strikes and protests with the people finally concluding that they are a nuisance. Hope the JVP will learn from history and from their own past. [Source: Daily Mirror]