Ten Steps to Safeguard the Ceasefire

by M. N., August 31, 2006

The history of the Ceasefire Agreement between the LTTE and the GoSL, signed in February 2002, presents an interesting case study of how Sri Lankan governments, past and present, have safeguarded agreements made with the Tamils.

This is a very brief historical outline of the ten main steps taken by the Sri Lankan government in its endeavour to safeguard the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement.

1. Confiscate 30% of the land and occupy it with military installations, as in Jaffna.

2. Restrict fishing activities to the extent where children of fishermen grow up without ever seeing the beach. [Fish is the NorthEast's main source of protein.]

3. Support paramilitary groups and promote the media-created Karuna group as a substantive break-away group, and blame any attacks on LTTE members on these groups.

4. Force the LTTE to withdraw its unarmed members doing political work from areas controlled by the Sri Lankan military by assassinating unarmed LTTE members death squad-style.

5. Kill more than 500 civilians death squad-style using these paramilitary groups.

6. Make people disappear, picking them out using 'Thalaiyaddi' [men wearing hoods].

7. Bomb and shell civilian settlements; attack ambulances with claymore mines.

8. Attack and kill aid workers and force them to cease humanitarian operations in the NorthEast.

9. Close border checkpoints and block essential supplies; stop seriously ill patients reaching hospital. Impose long curfews (the most recent is now three weeks long) to carry out steps 5 and 6.

10. Create large scale displacement (most recently, more than 200,000) to break the will of the people, along with steps 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Will the GoSL succeed in its unrelenting efforts to safeguard the Ceasefire Agreement?

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