Immediate And Ultimate!

While maintaining that the concept of a separate Tamil Eelam is still there, DMK President and TESO Chairman Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi has said the immediate priority was to discuss and take stress to ensure right to life and improve livelihood of Tamils in Sri Lanka to mitigate their sufferings.

What are the conditions under which the remaining Tamils in Sri Lanka are living now?

A journalist of Washington Post has confirmed that a state of emergency like situation is prevailing in north of Sri Lanka.

In a feature published on July 6 in the Washington Post, Simon Denyer has reported from Jaffna: "Today, without any fighting to do, soldiers attend meetings at Hindu temples and functions at primary schools. The military has inserted itself into almost every aspect of economic life in the north of the country - farming and selling vegetables, running hotels, restaurants and even barbershops."

In the report, he painted a picture of how Sri Lankan military is interfering in every spheres of life in north-Tamils' homeland, where land grabbing by Sinhala military, harassing Tamil civilians, curbing the right to assembly and even forcibly intervening in public functions have become order of the day.

The full article titled "Abuse by Sri Lanka's army rubs salt in wounds of war, Tamil women say" follows:

In the final days of Sri Lanka's civil war, as the army closed in for the kill against Tamil Tiger rebels, tens of thousands of civilians cowered in the crossfire.

"The children were crying because they were so hungry, so when we heard congee in coconut soup was being given out, we let them leave the bunker where we were sheltering," a 35-year-old woman from the northern district of Thunukkai recalled recently. "Then the army bombed the place. Most of the kids were killed on the spot, including my son."

Three years have passed since the end of the war. But for members of the Tamil minority of northern Sri Lanka - who suffered a heavy civilian death toll during the three-decade conflict, and years of fear and oppression when the Tigers controlled the area - the peace has been a painful disappointment.

Gathering in a spot that they judged safe enough to speak freely, a group of Tamil women recounted the daily humiliation of life under the victorious Sri Lankan army - almost exclusively made up of ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists.

Twice a month, the women said, soldiers enter their homes to photograph everyone. Permission from the military is required for even the smallest gathering or just to collect firewood in the nearby forest.

"I even have to go and ask someone for permission to have a birthday party for my daughter in my own home," said a 46-year-old mother of six from the Kandavalai area. Like the others, she spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearful that revealing their names could endanger their lives. "And if they say no, I am not going to have a party for my 8-year-old daughter in my own house."

The women described how they were forced or tricked to attend demonstrations in support of the government and against its foreign critics. One said villagers were not allowed to light a single prayer candle in their local church, because the army suspected them of trying to honor dead Tamil Tiger fighters buried nearby.

Another woman complained about soldiers turning up in her kitchen and demanding a cup of coffee. "We are scared," said the mother of six. "More than that, I am frustrated, I am angry. It is a feeling you cannot describe."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were ostensibly established in 1976 to defend the rights of Sri Lanka's Hindu and Christian Tamils. But the group ended up ruling huge swaths of northern and eastern Sri Lanka for more than two decades through violence and fear, forcibly recruiting children as soldiers, executing opponents and using suicide bombers as part of their campaign of terrorism.

The United Nations has called for an investigation into the final stages of the civil war, accusing the Tigers of using civilians as human shields but also accusing the army of indiscriminate shelling and of denying civilians access to humanitarian aid. It estimates that 40,000 innocent people may have died.

Today, without any fighting to do, soldiers attend meetings at Hindu temples and functions at primary schools. The military has inserted itself into almost every aspect of economic life in the north of the country - farming and selling vegetables, running hotels, restaurants and even barbershops.

Tamils feel as if they are living under an army of occupation, said Father S.M. Praveen, who runs the Center for Peace and Reconciliation in the northern town of Jaffna. "It is like an open prison," he said. "The military decides everything."

Praveen said intimidation has increased since March, when the United States sponsored a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling on the Sri Lankans to promote postwar reconciliation.

Four of his workers, who were documenting alleged human rights abuses and land grabs by the army, received death threats or were attacked by thugs who threw oil on them, the latest method of intimidating those who criticize the government or army. All four have been forced into hiding, he said.

The government says it is pouring money into northern Sri Lanka, building roads, hotels and schools, and even promoting tourism there. Time and money, it says, will heal the wounds of war.

"We have not neglected development," said Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. "In fact, we get so many complaints from the south that all the funds are going to the north."

It is not an argument that impresses many Tamils, who complain that they are excluded from decision making as well as from the profits that flow from development projects. Better roads, they say, are only being built so the army can move around more quickly, while reconciliation among the island's communities will be built not by roads and hotels but by promoting justice and accountability.

The army has grabbed vast expanses in the north, either to set up military bases, farm for profit or, many Tamils fear, resettle Sinhalese from the south and change the demographics. The construction of Buddhist monuments where no Buddhists live reinforces those fears.

Late last month, the Sri Lankan government announced that it would hold provincial elections around the country except in the Tamil-dominated north. It says electoral rolls are not ready there after the extensive disruption of the war, even though presidential, parliamentary and local government elections have taken place since then.

But Tamil politicians from the north say the government is unwilling to hand over political rights to areas where Tamils are in the majority."As far as reconciliation is concerned," said Suresh Premachandran, a member of parliament for the Tamil National Alliance, "the war is over, but still the conflict is alive."

 While certain loudmouthed ‘liberators’ here accuse the UPA government of doing nothing for Lankan Tamils, what is the perspective of the Rajapaksa regime and Sinhalese about New Delhi’s moves had been brought out by Bibhu Prasad Routray, former Deputy Director in the National Security Council Secretariat in an article in ‘The New Indian Express’ on July 15 in an article under the heading ‘Growing Hostility in Colombo: New Delhi’s New Challenge which is as follows:

In recent times, Sri Lanka has radiated unnerving resentment at India’s attempts to secure the rights of the Tamil civilian population, victims of the Eelam war that vanquished the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

At one level, New Delhi is building pressure on Colombo not to take the bilateral relations for granted. National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon reportedly conveyed this during his June 29 trip to the country. Apart from being an influential neighbour, India is also the member of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) troika, which is scheduled to take up Colombo’s human rights compliance record in November. So Colombo is obligated not to displease New Delhi, which has already voted against it in the UNHRC in March 2012.

At the other level, India’s pressure diplomacy is on a weak footing. For the Mahinda Rajpaksa government, victory in the Eelam war that ended three years ago remains its only achievement. Even as the economic condition of the country has worsened and governance capacities weakened, official effort at projecting the President as a saviour of Sinhalas has continued.

Apparently, such a project runs counter to India’s push for the implementation of the 13th Amendment  and the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and elections for the provincial councils. Not surprisingly, the Rajapaksa government has not moved beyond its ‘commitment’ to the above demands. Issues like the resettlement of the internally displaced population and a genuine reconciliation programme have progressed at an unacceptable pace.

Add to this, India’s own aid programmes in the past two years in Sri Lanka— $50 million under lines of credit and another $350 million under grants-in-aid — has not impressed the Tamils as well. They allege that whereas Colombo has vigorously pursued a programme of land grabbing and settling Sinhala civilians and the army in what used to be Tamil territories, the Indian projects such as building houses for displaced Tamils have progressed lethargically.

Quite apparently, the Indian ‘pressure tactic’ is loathed by the Sinhalas, if the July 9 editorial of the Sunday Times newspaper is any indication. “The Government seems to have got trapped in a comment the President made to India that he would implement the 13th Amendment and even go further (13 plus). He said this initially to get Indian support to defeat the LTTE on the battlefield. Now, the Indians, like the dog with the bone, will not let go,” the editorial read. It went on to allege that “India would like to have an elected” Northern Provincial Council as “an ideal satellite province on Sri Lankan soil—‘an unsinkable aircraft carrier’ on India’s southern border.”

New Delhi has obvious reasons to worry. There has not been an opinion poll reflecting India’s image in Sri Lanka. But the reaction one gathers from the letters written to the editors of different newspapers and websites, the image isn’t much different from what the people of Pakistan think of the Americans—both among the Sinhalas and the Tamils.

In Sri Lanka, India’s problem is unique in terms of finding an effective vehicle for implementation of its projects for the Tamils. While the ruling regime’s negative approach to the reconciliation and rehabilitation process is quite clear, the mainstream opposition too does not provide an alternative. Take the case of former army chief Sarath Fonseka. After being released from prison, he has assumed the role of an opposition figurehead and has called for an Arab Spring in Sri Lanka to oust the Rajapaksa regime. Fonseka’s denial of human rights violations during the Eelam war is more virulent than the Rajpakasa regime. He, in fact, accuses the government of not having forcefully conveyed this to the international community.

Within days of Menon’s return from Colombo, President Rajapaksa gathered the Sri Lankan diplomats in a workshop. Referring to the “changing functions of diplomacy” in view of the campaign by Tamil diaspora in the West, the President called upon the diplomats to have a “readiness, willingness and capability” to “persuade others about the needs of Sri Lanka”. The message of “no change” Colombo is trying to deliver to the world is obvious.

For New Delhi, there can be no alternative to a policy of sustained engagement with the Rajapaksa regime. Appointment of a special envoy on Sri Lanka is not a bad idea for the Prime Minister’s Office to consider.

Even ‘The Hindu’ in an editorial on 13^th July under headline ‘Distant Thunder’ stated:

“In remarks to this newspaper, President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka has said the elections to the country’s Northern provincial council will be held only in September 2013 because the government needs time to update 30-year-old electoral rolls. The explanation for the delay is intriguing. Three other elections have been held since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009 — presidential elections in January 2010; parliamentary elections in April 2010; and elections to local bodies in 2011. Northern province voters participated in all three. The old voters’ list was apparently not a problem then; nor was the rehabilitation and resettlement process, the other reason Mr. Rajapaksa has given for putting off elections. The Tamil National Alliance, which roundly won the local bodies elections, suspects the delay has to do with fears that it might sweep the provincial council elections too. There is no question about the need for a political process in the Northern province, comprising five districts that bore the maximum impact of the conflict — Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Mannar. A provincial government headed by a chief minister has some powers devolved to it under the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution. Irrespective of who wins, the arrangement could assist in restoring normality to the region by giving it a civilian, democratic political face.

In fact, the Northern provincial council elections should have been held soon after the war ended to signal the government’s seriousness about finding a political solution to secure the peace. Instead, more than three years later, the North is still in the grip of the military, and going by Mr. Rajapaksa’s statement, another 14 months must pass before it can elect its provincial government. Meanwhile, three other councils, including in the Eastern province, whose terms were to end only in 2013, have been dissolved ahead of time, and fresh elections scheduled for September this year. If, as President Rajapaksa has said, elections in the Northern province are to be held next year, he must start thinking about scaling down troops in the region in the interests of a free and fair election. Every nation has a right to decide its security needs. Even assuming Sri Lanka is right in its perception of an ominous comeback plan by the LTTE, the troops to people ratio in Tamil areas is high, compared to say, in Jammu & Kashmir, where a majority of the security forces are deployed against an external threat. Given its numbers in northern Sri Lanka, it is no surprise that the military is seen as overly intrusive in daily life. In order to be taken seriously, the Sri Lankan President also needs to make a formal announcement soon about his intended schedule for the election.”

In Sri Lanka, while the ruling regime’s negative approach to the reconciliation and rehabilitation process is clear, the mainstream opposition too does not provide an alternative. One the one side Tamils are slowly decimated on the other side there are concerted moves to redistribute demographic pattern, so as to make a Malaysia of Sri Lanka, by doing away with Tamil concentrations. Already the regime has achieved it in the Eastern province and now attempt the design in the Northern province.

So the immediate task is to safeguard the remaining Tamils and their traditional areas of living from encroachment of Sinhalese, without accomplishing which the ultimate goal of Tamil Eelam will remain only as a mirage. Hence the agenda of the August 12 TESO conference!