News Update - 20060427
*** Topics: Deliberate disregard of ceasefire, Political attack campaigning, Beginning of intense military actions ***
The month of April has seen more attacks by paramilitaries against Tamil civilians and LTTE supporters during a period when they should be ceased in accordance with the SL government's promise at the February round of peace talks in Geneva. The Tamil civilians who are targetted are becoming more high-profile, and the attacks continue in a manner that is increasingly vicious and unrestrained. In the 2 month period between the first round of Geneva peace talks and the scheduled date for the second round, paramilitary attacks on Tamil civilians have been a daily occurrence since the beginning. In the past 2 weeks, during which the Geneva talks were to take place, retaliatory attacks against SL armed forces began. Lost in the lamenting about the peace talks, the analysis of developments, and all of the accusations, is a clear-headed look at how the situation has come about and where it is headed.
To add to the confusion is a offensive campaign that uses politics, media, and the discourse of human rights to divert attention away from the actions taking place on the ground. The military actions have stepped up in intensity on both sides, and they now resemble a hesitant full-fledged war and less of a contained, covert shadow war. It is hard to know what will happen next, but it is safe to assume that this moment in time is very decisive and will go down in the history books. Whether as passive bystanders or as active participants who influence the outcome, we are living that history right now.
** Deliberate disregard of ceasefire:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2006/03/060327_sla_slmm.shtml
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/pageview.php?ID=3948&SID=39
The SL government's use of paramilitaries is an open secret. Despite the fact that the SL Monitoring Mission (the official ceasefire observation group) has on one occasion visited a paramilitary camp and talked with the cadres, the government does not hesitate to claim that such paramiliaries do not exist.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL125145.htm
The very same paramilitaries' leaders are giving interviews to international news agencies and making threats against Tamil civilians who support the LTTE.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL159570.htm
On a few occasions in the past month, including the one mentioned here, penetration operations into LTTE area were carried out by small teams of soldiers and/or paramilitary cadres. Also mentioned was the assassination of the Tamil community leader from Trincomalee, V. Vigneswaran, who was expected to replace an MP from Batticaloa who was himself assassinated by paramilitaries in December. Although the LTTE had stopped any attacks on the SL armed forces following the Geneva talks as per their agreement, the un-condemned attack on Vigneswaran was a strong signal to the LTTE that adhering to the Geneva talks agreement was worth nothing.
** Political attack campaigning:
As said before, the effort taken by the SL government in lobbying governments and NGOs to have an anti-LTTE stance has been executed with a battle-like diligence. The proof is readily visible: soon after the Human Rights Watch report on the Tamil diaspora in Canada was released (with the SL foreign minister somehow privy to the contents before its release), the Canadian government banned the LTTE. Not soon after that, intense military attacks have begun in Sri Lanka.
Through the use of certain language, selective arguments (which may or may not manipulate the discourse of human rights), and selective reporting, people's understanding of what is cause and what is effect can easily get distorted. The following articles, some of which were under-reported and some of which were over-reported, show the extent to which dissemination of knowledge (whether it be through mass media or grossroots advocacy) can have an impact on influential observers of the conflict.
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/pageview.php?ID=3922&SID=146
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2006/04/060401_humanrights.shtml
http://sangam.org/taraki/articles/2006/03-31_HR_Commission.php?uid=1620
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2006statements/470/
These articles are all prime examples of how the lack of attention to a story, no matter how true it is, counts for little when they do not reach a concerned audience.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060331/1/3zryy.html
One story that received a lot of attention was the local election results. Even though the openly hardline anti-LTTE, pro-war party in the ruling coalition stood separate and lost badly, we are no further away from war right now.
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/pageview.php?ID=3958&SID=539
This article brings up a lot of unspoken truths regarding fairness and representation in regards to the SL peace talks. One point that stands out is, " Allegations of human rights abuse usually do the rounds when it comes to analysing the record of the Tigers. But they always peak when peace talks are about to begin." It also notes the international communities complicity in double standards before concluding, "When the government and its international backers are so glued to obduracy is there any point of the LTTE remaining in the talks?"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4884830.stm
The fact that paramilitaries were supposed to be disarmed according to the February Geneva talks, as well as the ceasefire that was signed 4 years ago, is yet another under-stressed point.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060417/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankatamilunrest_060417113628
This article is referring to a week of attacks and counter-attacks between the LTTE and the government forces. The week ended with an orchestrated mob attack against Tamil civilians and shops in Trincomalee reminiscent of the July 1983 pogram that officially sparked the war in the first place. Time sequencing and explanations are so convoluted in this article that cause and effect are not even clear.
http://www.tamilguardian.com/beta/news_details.asp?newsid=625
Canada is the latest government to ban the LTTE. This is one of the effects of this concerted political offensive launched by the SL government. The motive of the Canadian government is unclear, but the HRW report that so publicly criticized Canadian security probably contributed to bringing the ban about. The Canadian government claims that this will help coerce the LTTE to a peaceful track. What they conveniently do not mention is that the period of 1995-2001 was the bloodiest period of fighting, and even with the bans on the LTTE by the US and UK in 1997, many of the LTTE's most spectacular military successes most certainly happened in the period after they were banned.
** Beginning of intense military actions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2006/04/060417_ltte_choppers.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4733571.stm
Even in last-ditch efforts to salvage the second round of Geneva peace talks, the situation had deteriorated to the point where militaristic schemes could not be ruled out. The LTTE rejected private helicopter ride for its Eastern military commanders. This is only logical considering the similar circumstances in the unexplained death last year of the Sudanese rebel leader John Garang.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/CL240006.htm
http://au.news.yahoo.com/060425/19/ypuk.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060426/wl_asia_afp/srilankablastunrest_060426153839
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060426/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankablastunrest_060426084022
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4945112.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4946730.stm
A couple of days ago, a suicide bomb went off in the army headquarters compound in Colombo in which the hardline SL Army chief Fonseka was critically injured and 8 of his bodyguards have died. If the LTTE is responsible for this attack, then it would be more holistic to view the attack against the backdrop of paramilitary attacks that have claimed the lives of a well-renowned Batticaloa MP and another Tamil community leader expected to be his replacement. If the LTTE is not responsible, then the SL military has much more to be concerned about.
http://sangam.org/taraki/articles/2006/04-25_Self-Determination.php?uid=1682