Weekly Review
by T. Sabaratnam, 1 September 2004
This morning the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launched its campaign to split the east from the north and thus deny the Tamils their homeland. They have named their campaign in Tamil Kilakkin Uthayam, meaning, “Awakening East.”
The inaugural seminar of the new movement was held at Kalmunai Town Hall this morning. Kilakkin Uthayam is the front organization the JVP has set up to mobilize the residents of the eastern province against the Tamil homeland. Using front organizations and holding seminars to propagate their policies are the telltale marks of the JVP.
Kilakkin Uthayam is the second front organization the JVP has created to block the peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict. The first is the Patriotic National Movement (PNM), an organization of extremist Buddhist monks, which is campaigning vigorously against the Tamil demand for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA). The JVP intensified its campaign last week. JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa is the star orator at PNM seminars.
PNM is also campaigning against the peace facilitator Norway. On Thursday, it sent a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevick urging his country to withdraw from its role of facilitator in the peace process. PNM also charged Oslo’s Special Envoy Erik Solheim with taking LTTE cadres to Norway for military training. Norway has denied the charge. It has said that LTTE cadres were briefed about peacekeeping activities.
The Kalmunai launch of the Kilakkin Uthayam was preceded by a weeklong poster campaign. Thousands of posters, in Sinhala and Tamil, were plastered in Kalmunai, Sammanthurai and Colombo. The slogans on the posters read: Rise to defeat ISGA and Let’s End forced North- East Merger. North and East were merged by former President J. R. Jayewasrdene in 1987 with the provision that a referendum be held in the east to determine the merger’s permanency. The holding of the referendum has been postponed every year since then.
The inaugural seminar was preceded by a demonstration in front of the Town Hall. About 2000 Sinhalese transported from Ampara, Trincomalee and Colombo and a few Muslims took part in the demonstration. A number of young Buddhist monks, supporters of the JVP, also took part. The seminar was restricted to Buddhist monks.
Speeches delivered at the seminar focused on the need to de-merger the east from the north. An attempt was also made to work on the sentiments of the Muslims.
The name of the convener of the seminar was given as E. Weerasinghe, an unknown person. Youths from a Muslim sports club in Kalmunai, Holy Field, were made use of to organize the seminar. The movement is targeted to mobilize the Sinhalese and the Muslims in the eastern province to oppose the creation of the ISGA and for the demerger of the east from the north.
“It is a direct attack on the Tamil claim for a homeland. It is also an attack on Tamil Nationalism,” a political analyst from the east said. He added, “An attempt will also be made to win over the anti- LTTE groups to this movement.”
The analyst mourned that, while the JVP was campaigning energetically to defeat Tamil demands, the elected representatives of the Tamil people, the Tamil National Alliance MPs are lethargic. They have to be pushed at Kilinochchi to make them active, he complained.
A highly respected Jaffna academic added this to the growing chorus of dissent: “Sinhala politicians, academics, political commentators and their expatriate community portray the ISGA as an LTTE demand. They make use of miniscule Tamil groups like the EPDP to show that a section of the Tamil people oppose the ISGA. This propaganda should be defeated.
The academic said all sections of the Tamil community, including the Tamil expatriate community, should play their role in this matter. He singled out Tamil civil society in Sri Lanka and abroad for this role.
TNA MPs seemed to have been shaken from their deep slumber on Monday by Tiger political chief S. P. Thamilchelvan at Kilinochchi. “We have created four different action groups for the tasks of promoting awareness in Parliament, awareness in the South and advocacy in diplomatic circles,” TNA Secretary General R. Sampanthan told the media after the Kilinochchi meeting.
Sampanthan said the action groups would work among all sections of people: Muslims, Hill Country Tamils, Sinhalese and the international community.
The first committee, headed by Sampanthan, will interact with the members of Sri Lankan Parliament; the second, headed by Mavai Senathirajah, will promote Tamil nationalism; the third, headed by Suresh Premachandran, will interact with Sinhala politicians and people; and the fourth, headed by GG Gajendrakumar, will interact with the international community.
Thamilchelvan justified the proposed awareness-creation effort saying that there have been “baseless criticisms and malicious propaganda against the ISGA proposals andTamil nationhood” recently in the south. “The LTTE will intensify our efforts to clarify and address ISGA issues at all levels,” he told the media.
“The ISGA has the right mechanisms to address urgent humanitarian needs of a people who have faced unprecedented destruction of lives and infrastructure during the two decade-long ethnic conflict,” Thamilchelvan said.
Indian Help
The Committee on International Affairs met with the French ambassador and the French Foreign Ministry official in charge of South Asia. Committee chairman Gajendrakumar told the ambassador that the army, with the help of the Tamil paramilitary groups it had established, was the cause of the current killings of LTTE political leaders.
The committee is planning to meet the new Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao, who assumed duties last week replacing the controversial Sen.
Sampanthan said that India’s support was important and necessary. “We are eager to get India’s support. So are the Liberation Tigers,” he said.
Sampathan said that the Tamil MPs were planning to approach the Indian leaders in New Delhi using the good offices of the leaders of Tamil Nadu.
The MPs are expected to take the help of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko and the DMK leader, M Karunanidhi.
Four encouraging events that revived interest in the peace process occurred during the last three days. Foremost among them was the announcement of the new Malwatte Mahanayake thera, Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera, that he is prepared to have talks with the LTTE leadership. He said today that his decision to meet the LTTE leaders was prompted by his desire to save the country from another war.
Upcountry People’s Front leader P. Chandrasekaran travelled to Kilinochchi today to meet Thamilchelvan to make the arrangements for the historic meeting.
The second significant event was People’s Alliance (PA) general secretary Posts Minister D. M. Jayaratna’s announcement at a public meeting that the ISGA proposal could be discussed to revive the stalled peace process. The PA is the dominant partner in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
Jayaratna told a public meeting at Bulathsinhala, 40 kilometres south of Colombo, that the LTTE’s ISGA proposal is “similar to any other local authority.”
His comments are in direct contrast to the JVP’s views which maintain that the ISGA is a blueprint for a separate state. The JVP is the other main partner in the UPFA ruling coalition. .
The third favourable development was the LTTE’s decision to revive its meetings with the Army. The Tigers had suspended their meetings with the army since June 15. The Tigers and the army will meet again on Tuesday. They were to meet on Friday, but postponed the meeting to Tuesday because the Army’s eastern commander wants to lead the army delegation.
The decision to resume the LTTE – Army meetings for the Batticaloa district was made following two separate meetings Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) head Trond Furuhovde had with the army and the LTTE. Furuhovde emphasized the need to stabilize the ceasefire agreement during these discussions.
The fourth welcome event was the meeting Norway’s special peace envoy Erik Solheim had with the Tiger’s chief negotiator Anton Balasingham in London on Tuesday. Solheim is due to come to Colombo on 13 September to meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Thamilchelvan. Norway’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar, who also participated in the meeting, is returning to Colombo on Saturday.
Balasingham told Solheim that Sri Lanka should take effective steps to stop army intelligence making use of Tamil paramilitary groups to kill Tiger top political activists and disarm Tamil groups working with the army to create the necessary atmosphere for talks.
He charged that the anti-LTTE Tamil groups were killing LTTE members in the East with the tacit support of the Sri Lankan military intelligence.
Solheim told Balasingham that they would convey this to the Sri Lankan government when he visits Colombo.
“The ball is squarely in the court of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga,” Balasingham told the Norwegians.