Letter to the International Community

by Dr. Victor Rajakulendran; published March 2, 2004

Your Excellencies

Re: Parliamentary Elections in Sri Lanka

As you all may be aware, due to the political bickering between Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumarathunga (CBK) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe (RW), Sri Lankan voters are forced to vote in another parliamentary election, the third in the last 4 years, on April 2, 2004. Using the executive powers vested in her position, CBK undemocratically dissolved the parliament in which RW’s party had a clear majority to govern and called for this election. She has failed to give a valid reason for her actions yet.

Fortunately, the two-year old cease-fire is still holding and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have reiterated that they will abide by the cease-fire agreement during the election period and beyond. Both CBK and RW are asking the people separately, to give them fresh mandates to continue the peace process that was being carried out for the last two years under the leadership of RW. Therefore at least for the time being, people can be hopeful that whoever wins the election will pursue some sort of peace and not war.

Under the circumstances in which this election is being fought, there is very much diminished hope for a free and fair election. For a free and fair election it is mandatory that every voter in the country must be able to cast his/her votes without any interference and any candidate must be able to contest anywhere he/she wants to contest. Numerous cases of election-related political violence have been reported already from the South of the country. Going by the trend at the last election, violence is to escalate beyond the level of that during the last election, at least in the South.

In the North and East of the country, claimed by the Tamil-speaking people as their homeland, this is the first time in two decades a parliamentary election is being held while the guns are silent. This is where the Tamil-speaking people live and they have their first opportunity in two decades to express their political aspirations to the Singhalese people and the International Community (IC) in a democratic manner. An unobstructed franchise and a free and fair election in the Tamil homeland are essential for this. Seventy-eighty percent of this area is still under the control of the LTTE and declared by the Sri Lankan government as “uncleared areas.” During the 2001 parliamentary election, people living in this area were deprived of their franchise as no polling stations were provided in these areas for lack of security. Instead, these polling stations were clustered in the adjacent government-controlled areas. As a result the majority of the voters could not travel up to the polling stations and many that took the trouble to travel were deliberately prevented from reaching the polling stations by the security forces. Even many of the few who managed to reach the polling stations found to their surprise that their votes have been already cast by others fraudulently.

As you may be aware, the political impasse that lead to the parliamentary election was triggered by the proposal for the establishment of an “Interim Self Governing Authority” (ISGA) submitted to the Sri Lankan government on behalf of the Tamil-speaking people by the LTTE. Opponents of the ISGA proposal have often questioned whether the LTTE adequately represent all the Tamil-speaking people. Therefore, this parliamentary elections should be used to check the veracity of this matter. This will help the new government to make some important decisions to take forward the peace process.

Out of the approximately million voters in the North, 226,604 are living in the Vanni region and are assigned to 209 polling stations of the region. Out of this 91,864 voters are designated to 86 polling stations in the LTTE- controlled areas. During the last election most of this 91,864 people could not cast their votes as their polling stations were clustered in the government-controlled areas and they could not travel up to their polling stations. Many were deliberately prevented by the security forces, from entering the government-controlled areas. A similar situation existed in the East, too.

However, the situation is different at the moment. A cease-fire is in place and therefore polling stations could be established in the LTTE-controlled areas, too, so that most of the Tamils living in these areas could cast their votes according to their wishes. The “Tamil National Alliance” (TNA), the major Tamil group that is contesting the elections, and the LTTE have made appeals publicly to the Election Commissioner to allow polling to be conducted in the LTTE controlled areas.

According to today’s edition of the Daily News, the State-owned English Daily, the Election Commissioner, Dayanada Dissanayake has ruled out the possibility of setting up polling stations in the LTTE-controlled areas. He has given his reason for this as the inability to deploy uniformed Sri Lankan police at each polling centre. This arouses the suspicion that someone in power is behind trying to prevent the Tamils living in the LTTE-controlled areas from using their franchise.

Under the present cease-fire agreement, do we really need uniformed police officers to be on duty in these centres? LTTE has a very well organised police force on duty in these centres. Therefore, as long as local and international election monitors are made available in these areas to ensure free and fair elections, there should not be any concern about security. Even if any unfortunate incident happens in any of these centres, the commissioner could cancel all the ballots in those centres and order re-polling. I hope the election commissioner could consider all these facts and re-consider his decision and give everyone an equal opportunity to use their franchise.

Your Excellencies, I would like to request you on behalf of the Tamil community, to use your influential offices persuade the President of Sri Lanka to instruct the Election Commissioner not to curtail the freedom of a section of Tamils using their franchise, like any others enjoy in other parts of Sri Lanka.

Yours truly

Dr. Victor Rajakulendran
Sydney
AUSTRALIA
01.03.2004

CC:

Hon. Jan Peterson, State Secretary, Norway
Hon. Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London
Hon. Javier Solana, Secretary General, European Union Council
Mr. Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State, US Department of State, Washington DC
Ms. Yoriko Kavaguchi, Foreign Minister, Japan
Hon. Alexander Downer, Minister Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia
Mr. Yasusi Akashi, Japan Special Peace Envoy to Sri Lanka, Japan
Her Excellency. Chandrika Bandaranayke Kumarathunga, President of Sri Lanka
His Excellency, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Caretaker Prime Minister of Sri Lanka