24^th August 2011

BBC Sinhala

36,000 families ‘resettled in HSZs’

The government of Sri Lanka has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that nearly 36,000 families earlier removed from high security zones (HSZ) in Jaffna have been recently resettled.

The Jaffna Government Agent Emelda Sukumar has submitted the details to the SC in response to a fundamental rights (FR) petition filed by a group of Jaffna farmers.

The group in their petition has requested the SC to allow them to resettle in their ancestral lands in Tellippalai, which was turned into a HSZ during the decades of conflict.

Mr Sukumar in her statement to the court states that 111,199 people from 35,968 have already been resettled in former HSZs.

The majority of them, 11,879 families, were from Tellippalai, according to the government statement.

The GA also states that measures are currently being taken to resettle further 42,505 people from 11,648 families in their ancestral lands in Jaffna district.

The Supreme Court which accepted the report is scheduled to consider the verdict on 17 October.

Daily Mirror

Int’l community demands ‘unreasonable’: Govt

The government said yesterday it was “unreasonable” for the international community to expect it to complete processes in a post-conflict situation, which have taken other countries in similar situations, many years to accomplish.

“For example Spain, Cambodia and Bangladesh took many years and in some cases almost half a century to achieve standards that are being expected of Sri Lanka in a mere two years after the war ended,” External Affairs Minister G.L. Peries said.

Addressing the diplomatic community he insisted on the importance of clarity in procedures by international bodies, the importance of exhaustion of local mechanisms in international law and unreasonableness of demands made on post-war Sri Lanka.

“There must be clarity with regards to procedures relating to international forums whether they are the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR), the General Assembly or the Security Council for there to be precision and predictability in their functions,” the minister said adding that that this would in turn ensure cohesion and stability to the global system.

He said it was wrong to allow for the procedures of these institutions to be distorted.

“This creates an unsound precedent and opens a door for a variety of abuses in the future,” the minister said and pointed out that the UNHRC had a procedure when countries were to be discussed and these matters should be taken up at the Universal Periodic Review.

The minister emphasized the importance given in International Law for the exhaustion of local remedies and mechanisms. “Therefore it is wrong to pre-judge or undermine the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and its outcome,” he said.

Daily Mirror

We don’t want to use a devil to extend emergency:Gota

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday denied that the government is using incidents involving devils to extend the emergency. He went on to state that any individual who attacks law enforcement institutions under the pretext of the "devil" would be considered terrorists.

“We don’t want to use a devil to extend emergency. The government does not want to extend the emergency. The final decision will be taken by the president,” he said at a meeting held at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with the trustees of mosques in Puttalam, Batticlaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts to discuss the incidents which took place in these areas involving devils.

“Surrounding camps of security forces is a major offence and it is taken as a terrorist act for attempting to attack law enforcement institutions. Therefore please tell your people not to engage in such things and believe rumours, most of the people are innocent but there are few behind these incidents,” he said.

“The security forces acted calmly and wisely to these situations. But do not play with them,” Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said.

“We will give maximum punishment to those who cross the limits of law and take it into their hands. Because if it happens, it will affect the stability we expect,”, he said.

“Do not take the law into your hands. Assist the police and the security forces to arrest these suspects who are mostly criminals of that particular area. As a result of this a number of unfortunate incidents were reported with three deaths including the death of an innocent police constable whose wife is pregnant with their first child,” he added.

“There is another rumour that we are trying to collect blood of women who does not eat pork. The government does not want to do a poojawa. These are absolute baseless allegations,” he said.

Mr. Rajapaksa also denied that these incidents are undertaken by the security forces. “Why do the security forces want to engage in sabotage after fighting with terrorists for 30 years and ended by defeating them,? he questioned. “They are the people who enjoy the peace and freedom after defeating the LTTE. So why do they want to engage in such things,” he said.

“If the area police has failed to take proper action I will sent the Special Task Force (STF) and the army to arrest the suspects and resolve the disputes”, Mr.Rajapaksa said.

“We all want to work together and enjoy the peace and the freedom we achieved by defeating terrorists. Therefore I want everyone to work together, assist the police and the security forces in maintaining law and order”, he noted.

“Because at present with these incidents, the police cannot go out and conduct their duty as they will be assaulted. I have told the IGP to come up with a plan on how we can resolve the problems and work together. We are refreshing the duties of the police, “he said.

Outlook India

RS Members from TN Clash with BJP Over SL Tamils

DMK, a key UPA ally, today joined AIADMK in staging a walkout in the Rajya Sabha after Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan did not allow discussion on the problems of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Members from Tamil Nadu, including from the Left parties, wanted the short duration discussion on the problems of Sri Lankan Tamils today itself, while the BJP pressed for a debate on the burning issue of corruption.

The argument was about which of the two subjects should be taken up first. While BJP Deputy Leader S S Ahluwlia wanted discussion on corruption in the wake of Hazare’s agitation, members from Tamil Nadu were unrelenting in their demand.

Hoping the issue could be resolved through a brief adjournment, Khan adjourned the House for 15 minutes at around 1210 hrs. When the House reassembled, the Chair gave the ruling that the Tamil issue would be taken up tomorrow.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla also favoured that corruption debate should take place today itself.

This led to the DMK and AIADMK members protesting and staging a walkout.

"DMK is part of the government, what is happening in the government," D Raja (CPI) said, as he also sought an assurance from all sections of the House that the problem of Sri Lankan Tamils was not limited to Tamil Nadu.

RJD and LJP also wanted discussion on Tamils issue today itself.

But, finally the issue was resolved after the BJP members said the Tamil issue could be taken up tomorrow.

South Asia Analysis Group

Sri Lanka: Getting Sri Lanka is currently rocked by reports of ‘Grease Yakka” (Grease devils) suddenly appearing in rural areas and terrorising villagers. Traditionally a grease yakka is a prowler in the dark who attacks women; he is said to wear only a loin cloth and cover his body with oil to escape capture. Already five lives have been lost in more than 30 incidents of vigilantism against grease yakkas by paranoid villagers. In two recent incidents a policeman was killed by irate villagers and a traffic-cop beaten up and four others were injured. In one incident naval sailors and the public got into a fracas over grease yakka attack. What is interesting is most of these incidents have been reported from eight Tamil and Muslim minority inhabited districts. 

Some years back there was a similar series of mysterious animal attacks in outskirts of New Delhi in areas where illegal low cost colonies had mushroomed. It was identified as mass hysteria triggered by feeling of insecurity due to fear of child snatchers and other criminal element prowling in the area. The administration tightened law enforcement in affected areas and the hysteria died a natural death.

The suspicion and violence triggered in these villagers probably have similar origins. It is probably symptomatic of the feeling of insecurity and lack of trust in the administration and law enforcement agencies among minority population. They are not yet fully recovered from the traumatic effects of war; many have lost their kith and kin, property and livelihood. While they struggle to cope with these problems, they have also to deal with criminal elements moving around with political patronage. Unfortunately, the government has failed to create climate of trust and security in its actions during two years of post war peace; there is a big gap between what it says and how it acts. This clouds their perceptions of security and trust in the rulers.

Why is the government having the Emergency in force even after two years of peace? Can a couple of defeated LTTE prisoners held in prison  overthrow the militarily powerful government? Find no answers to these questions, the continuing state of emergency and its draconian enactment is a constant reminder to the minorities that the normalcy the government talks of is yet to arrive. The larger than life presence of battle hardened troops in their immediate neighbourhoods only reinforces these fears.

And how can the government conduct free and fair elections when many of the Emergency provisions confer special powers to the executive to directly interfere with the campaign process? But the government had conducted elections in such a setting. The media continues to be wary of hostile reaction (usually from goons in white vans) to what they write or utter. And media men who do not relent continue to pay the price. Can these acts create confidence in the government among the population burnt by three decades of insurgency and terrorism?

Even on the larger issue of Tamil grievances President Rajapaksa’s government appears to be moving from prevarication to doublespeak. Otherwise it is difficult to explain the tortuous political journey of this issue in recent history. Even before the war started in 2006, President Rajapaksa had repeatedly affirmed that he wanted Tamils to join the national mainstream as equal partners. That was the avowed goal of his ‘humanitarian war’ against the Liberation Tigers. He frequently repeats these affirmations to India, talking about his contemplated actions (I have already written about this, so I do not want to repeat it) so that the Indian government, beleaguered by vociferous demand from Tamil Nadu, could buy time. However, of late the President’s two brothers – Basil and Gotabaya who hold responsible positions in government – have repeatedly stressed that the present constitution was adequate and nothing more was needed to be done for Tamils. They say so even as the President announces his plans to form a Parliamentary Select Committee to deal with the issue. And his brother and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse goes on the Indian TV and says “The existing constitution is more than enough for us to live together. I don’t think there is any issue on this more than that. I mean this was given as a solution for the whole thing with the discussion of these people. I mean now the LTTE is gone, I don’t think there is any requirement. I mean what can you do more than this? This gives power at a lower lever. Even now we had the local government elections…” If this is not doublespeak, what is it then?

Government representatives held ten rounds of talks with the Tamil National Alliance, the largest Tamil party. According to TNA, it got cheesed off with this exercise as  the government came up with no proposal. In disgust TNA withdrew itself from the talks as it considered an exercise in futility. Immediately, treasury benches accuse TNA of LTTE mindset. Few weeks later 13 ministers and five other parliamentarians give notice to parliament to enlarge the scope of the Parliamentary Select Committee and dilute its exclusive focus on Tamil grievances.

Do these actions indicate that the government is serious about attending to Tamil grievances?  Far from it; on the contrary, one has to come to the sad conclusion that the government’s focus had all along been to milk maximum political mileage by using the Tamil issue and harp on international conspiracy to destabilise the country. Is the government seeing a political grease yakka or creating one? We don’t know.

But in the bargain, ethnic divide has been given a fresh lease of life. And the Tamil minority, whittled down in numbers now, will have to continue to cope with this anomalous situation.  

The Channel 4 allegations of war crimes issue has now reached across the Palk Strait; and the U.S. has told Sri Lanka that it wants the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) discussed at the 19th sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2012. A more vociferous chief minister in Tamil Nadu is vigorously espousing the Sri Lankan Tamil grievances. All these issues provide ample scope for furthering political opportunism in Sri Lanka. These issues, coupled with the constant focus on the likely resurgence of Tamil terrorism (which the government had claimed was wiped out forever) there is a real danger of political paranoia becoming endemic, infecting the government. And it might be too late for Sri Lanka to get out of the grease yakka syndrome. 

Sri Lanka Guardian

Tcurrent

SL foreign policy 

 Rajapaksa administration is reminiscent of the tragic blunders made during the J. R. Jayewardene era. In the 1980s, President JRJ embarked on a foreign policy approach that explicitly drifted away from India and what was considered the Indian sphere of influence.

As a product of cold war politics, Jayewardene to hedge his bets with the Americans at a time when India was officially considered non-aligned but, in fact, was dependent upon a friendship agreement with the Soviet Union (USSR). President Jayewardene also called Yankee Dicky was received with the pomp and pageantry by the Regan administration during his US visit in 1984. This was followed by the USS Kitty Hawk visiting Colombo in November 1985 and negotiations on a new VOA station and restoration of the Trincomalee oil tank farm. President Jayewardene was to show brinkmanship in challenging the unwritten code of Sub-Continent geopolitics, also termed the Indira doctrine. Unlike the more explicit Monroe doctrine, the Indira doctrine is an implicit understanding that India will neither intervene in the domestic affairs of any state in the region unless requested to do so, nor tolerate such intervention by an outsider power.

The stark reality only dawned on President Jayewardene, when Indian Air Force Mirage fighter jets and cargo planes air-dropped humanitarian violating the Sri Lankan airspace and that came to be known as the Paripu Drop (on June 04, 1987), which halted Operation Liberation or the Vaddamarachchi offensive against the LTTE. It was apparent there was no strategic alliance with the West; we were duped. The truth is that no major power will jeopardise economic and commercial interests in India to support tiny Sri Lanka. It resulted in the Indo-Lanka Accord and the accompanying Annexure being imposed on Sri Lanka.

Eelam WaFour and the Kerala Trior

The Rajapaksa administration at the commencement of the war in 2006 developed an astute Indian policy for which the groundwork had been by the then Indian High Commissioner in Colombo at the time Nirupama Rao. The plan was very simple, the most influential bureaucratic troika in Colombo would meet their counterparts every three months for a debriefing and respond to Indian concerns. In India the process was guided by the National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and former High Commissioner Nirupama Rao, loosely referred to in Colombo as the "Kerala Trio".

The troika meetings worked extremely well with regular visits to New Delhi by Presidential Advisor at the time, Basil Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga; they briefed M.K. Narayanan, Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh on the ground situation. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a veteran of Operation Liberation in 1987, was well aware of possible Indian intervention and evinced a keen interest in ensuring continued Indian support for the military effort. The Sri Lankan side understood Indian concerns and worked with the Indians to overcome pressure from Tamil Nadu. The futile hunger strikes by DMK leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi was handled cleverly through quiet diplomacy. The date for the final assault on Vellamullivaikkal was postponed by a few days to 17-19 May in view of the India general election on 13 May, 2009.

After the war the focus was lost, Sri Lanka was captivated in euphoric victory celebrations and the troika meetings in New Delhi abruptly ended. However, the personal rapport between these individuals continued as a back channel for Indo-Lanka relations. In August 2009 Nirupama Roa became Foreign Secretary and in January 2010 M. K. Narayanan was replaced as National Security Advisor by Shiv Shankar Menon. In August 2011, Nirupama Rao was shipped off to Washington as Indian Ambassador to the US.

The Indian government in return for its non-interventionist policy during the war wanted President Rajapaksa to present a political package that adequately devolved power to the Northern Province. This could have been, as President Rajapaksa indicated, 13-plus-plus––the abolition of the Concurrent List of the Thirteenth amendment and the introduction of an Upper house. However, after many consultative processes such as the APRC, the Tissa Vithrna committee and now a proposed Parliamentary Select Committee, India is fast losing patience with Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu, Now a One Party State

The political leadership in Colombo has failed to understand the winds of change in Tamil Nadu. The 2G frequency spectrum scandal in which Union Telecom Minister A. Raja and Kanimozhi the daughter of DMK leader Karunanidhi were involved has dramatically changed the political landscape in Tamil Nadu.

The large scale dissatisfaction with the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) and its leader Karunanidhi was clearly demonstrated at the State elections on 13 April 2011, when the AIADMK coalition led by Jayalalithaa Jayaram won a landslide victory with 203 seats in the state assembly. The DMK was able to win a mere 31 seats.

After the LTTE assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, Indian support and particularly Tamil Nadu political support for the LTTE ceased to be. The major political parties overtly distanced themselves from the LTTE, leaving fringe politicians such as P .Nedumaran, Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy (Vaiko-MDMK) and S. Seeman (Naan Tamilar) to capitalise on the Sri Lankan Tamil cause.

A desire to see the Chola Flag hoisted somewhere is embedded in the Tamil Nadu psyche. During the period that the LTTE was politically ostracised, Tamil Nadu simply suppressed their emotions for the Eelam cause. After the elimination of the LTTE, Tamil Nadu is re-emerging as the defender of all Tamils. It uses the Eelam cause to whip up the sentiments of pan-Tamil nationalism and in the absence of a formidable countervailing force, Jayalalithaa is redefining herself as the Lady Mujib of Tamil Nadu.

Indo-Lanka Accord Two

We have returned to a period similar to that of 1977–1987, a decade when M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) was unchallenged in Tamil Nadu politics. It is clear that Jayalalithaa will dominate Tamil Nadu politics for the foreseeable future, while the DMK continues to be troubled by the Spectrum Scandal.

The Tamil Nadu vote has always been critical to forming government at the Centre. In the past, the Congress Party and the BJP coalesced with DMK and AIADMK respectively. However, after the political decimation of the DMK, both the Congress Party and the BJP will want an alliance with Jayalalithaa before the general elections in 2014.

Sri Lanka is at the top of the agenda of Jayalalithaa. Recent comments by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a meeting with Vaiko alluding to the growing influence of China over Sri Lanka, indicate a sense of insecurity on the part of India.

The Rajapaksa administration is heading in the same direction as the Jayewardene government. The same attributes that Jayewardene disregarded are slowly stacking up; Indian political leadership is concerned about the external involvement (Chinese intentions); persuasive power politics from Tamil Nadu and human rights allegations. It is apparent to anyone that India will be compelled to act and take the lead on Sri Lanka, if the current impasse continues.

The Rajapaksa administration still has an opportunity to come out with a political settlement and its failure to do so will lead to a settlement being imposed on Sri Lanka.