by T. Sabaratnam; published January 21, 2004
Weekly Review
Sri Lanka Scene
Sinhala Chauvinism on the War Path
I delayed this week’s column to enable me to comment on Monday’s Kilinochchi meeting of representatives of donor countries and international aid agencies and Tuesday’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).
Both are significant events. They are, in my view, turning points in the history of Sri Lanka, particularly, the history of Sri Lankan Tamils. Individually, both are important. Taken together, their impact would result in the splitting of Sri Lanka into two administrative regions- northeast and the south. The people are now getting used to talking about the south and the northeast as separate entities.
The Kilinochchi meeting, as the Sihala Urumaya said in its statement, laid the basis for the international acceptability of a separate northeastern administration within a united Sri Lanka. The international community, which had hitherto insisted in channeling aid, including humanitarian aid, through the Sri Lankan government or through a body created and accountable to it, is now prepared to deal directly with the LTTE and its administrative structure.
Tuesday’s MOU, as carefully paraphrased by LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, signifies the “unified re-emergence of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic forces under the new banner of the so-called United People’s Freedom Alliance. This alliance is opposed to peace and peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict.”
At Kilinochchi, diplomats of eleven donor countries and officials of seven international aid agencies indicated their willingness, following a 3-hour meeting with the LTTE delegation headed by S. P. Thamilselvan, the head of the Tiger political wing, to deal directly with the people of the northeast through the Tigers. The countries that participated in the meeting were: Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, UK, Germany, France and European Union. The international aid agencies were: ADB, World Bank, JICA, JBIC, UNDP, UNICEF and CIDA. America and India kept away.
Thamilselvan convinced the participants that the feud among the Sinhala leaders should not make the people of the northeast wait for their basic needs. “Urgent humanitarian needs of the people cannot remain unfulfilled. Essential humanitarian needs for day-to-day life on the one hand, resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction on the other, are areas that need immediate actions,” he said.
“To make the people active participants in the peace process we need to demonstrate addressing effectively these problems. The people of the Northeast solicit your assistance in earnest to devise appropriate ways and means of achieving this,” he said and pointed out the existing global precedence.
The fact that the donor community is prepared to deal with the Tigers was convincingly expressed by the Colombo-based Dutch diplomat Harry J. J Van Diejh. He said “People in the northeast have many needs. They cannot be expected to wait until there is a solution to the (Southern) conflict.” He added that the conference had discussed means to “maximise and reactivate the development program in the northeast.” The Netherlands is currently the president of the European Countries in Sri Lanka.
To facilitate the direct involvement of the international community, the LTTE has set up a Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) in Kilinochchi. It had tasked the Secretariat with the responsibility of formulating cohesive plans for resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation. PDS will also be in charge of development strategies and policy planning relating to the Tamil homeland.
The PSD will voice the official position of the LTTE relating to development strategy. It will compile the inputs of local and international experts, coordinate with the Tamil Diaspora in obtaining professional advice and spearhead the process of infrastructure development.
The significance of this development was realized by the Sihala Urumaya which accused, in a media release, the donor community of “laying the necessary footing for a Tamil Eelam.” It added that the LTTE was strengthening its capacity with foreign funds. “No terrorist movement in the world has enjoyed this privilege so far,” the statement said.
A political analyst said, “While the Sinhalese are fighting among themselves and strengthening the chauvinistic forces among them the Tamils are consolidating their position.”
The MOU
The fight among the Sinhalese is likely to intensify with Tuesday’s signing of the MOU which had brought into being a new political alliance called the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The several incidents of violence reported from many parts of the country, which left two dead and several injured, serve as a sign of the things to come. Keeping away were the leaders of the Communist Party and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, both constituents of the opposition People’s Alliance (PA), signifying a widening cleavage.
The absence ( boycott?) of Roman Catholic and Christian clergy, which two senior Buddhist SLFP members called ‘a shame,’ to bless the birth of the new alliance signaled the growth of a new religious discord. Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic priests and dignitaries were present. The sad faces of SLFP seniors who were present during the signing ceremony and the revolt within the JVP as evidenced by the leaflet printed and distributed by one of its factions suggested ill winds.
The leaflet called Tuesday’s signing, which the JVP secretary general in his speech claimed to be “a historic event,” an “historic betrayal.” It said it was a betrayal of the JVP martyrs who died in various uprisings. “JVP comrades spilt much blood to make the party what it is today. They have been betrayed,” the leaflet said. The JVP lost a large number of cadres and its important leaders in the 1971 and 1989 armed insurrections.
Added to these ill bodings is the growing feeling that the new alliance, the UPFA, would endanger the current peace process and lead the country back to war, a prospect that is looming large on the horizon. “Our leadership is studying with grave concern the unified re-emergence of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic forces under the new banner of the so-called United People’s Freedom Alliance,” an online news service, Tamilnet, quoted Balasingham as saying.
“A careful scrutiny of the joint statement reveals that this new alliance is totally opposed to Tamil aspirations for self-rule in their homeland based on their right to self determination. Both the parties have divergent views on the resolution of the Tamil question. While the SLFP favours devolution of power to the provinces, the JVP advocates ‘administrative decentralisation to the local authority level.’ Both are opposed to the principle of sharing power with the Tamil people. This position is totally unacceptable to the our people,” the LTTE’s theoretician declared.
The MOU, which accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government of helping and strengthening the Eelamist cause, proposed a solution to the ethnic problem “on the basis of ensuring the equality of all ethnic groups and guaranteeing of all human and democratic rights, which will signify such equality, as well as by strengthening respective democracy.”
The two signatories to the alliance have propounded different models to achieve this. The MOU states:
The SLFP holds the view that these objectives could be achieved by the devolution of power to provinces within a united state.
The JVP holds the view that these objectives could be achieved by administrative decentralization to the local authority level, in order to ensure the ethnic identity and safeguard the cultural heritage of all groups within a unitary state.
The JVP’s secretive leader, Somawansa Amarasingha, who reached Colombo a few hours after the MOU was signed, said that his party is totally against the SLFP policy of sharing power despite the alliance both parties have formed. In an airport interview Amarasingha said implementation of the SLFP’s power-sharing policy would result in “twelve percent of the population of the country getting 1/3 of the whole land mass and 2/3 of the coastline creating a great inequality among the people of Sri Lanka.”
He said the LTTE had already rejected the SLFP’s power sharing formula and asked what its present arrangement is. He added that whatever solution is reached it should be approved by the people in a referendum. “At that point the JVP would canvass the support of the parliament as well as the people against the SLFP policy.”
The JVP’s position was further reiterated by Tilvin Silva on Wednesday at the UPFA’s first media conference. Asked about the position of the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE he said, “It will cease in the event of the formation of a new government. The new government will negotiate its own ceasefire.”
President Chandrika’s confidant and former Foreign Minister cut in to mitigate the damage. He said the ceasefire will be on and the new government would naturally review it. “The JVP, when it shares power, will change its position.”
Balasingham also pointed out that the LTTE would never talk to a government that fails to acknowledge it as the sole and authoritative representatives of the Tamil people. He said, “The document rejects the LTTE’s acclaimed position as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people and states that the ‘talks could be held with the LTTE and other relevant groups and communities.’ While rejecting this position as unacceptable, we wish to state emphatically that our liberation organisation will not enter into negotiations with anyone who does not recognise the LTTE as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people.”
The LTTE’s claim that it is the sole and authoritative representative of the Tamil people was buttressed by the massive Pongu Thamil rally in Batticoloa on Wednesday. Police estimated that over half a lakh of people (50,000) attended the rally.
A show of Tamil solidarity and defiance was the main outcome of the rally.
Sri Lanka’s minister for community development, P. Chandrasekeran, responding to the new surge of Sinhala chauvinism declared, “We are prepared to face a war.” He added, “The greatest challenge facing the Tamil people today is the Sinhala chauvinist JVP-PA alliance,” and urged Tamils in all parts of Sri Lanka to unite under one banner.
The LTTE’s special commander for the Batticaloa-Ampara District, T. Ramesh, declared, “If the Sinhala government thinks that our leader’s sincere efforts to find a peaceful solution is a manifestation of weakness and thrusts a war on us, the consequences would be very grave.”