The taking of Jaffna is not the end of the problem
Sri Lanka's New Socialist Party (NSSP) wrote to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, just after government troops re-conquered the "Tamil Tiger" stronghold of Jaffna.
* Sri Lanka Your Excellency recently made an appeal to the people of the North, exhorting them to come forward to work for the sake of the future generations. You have also said that, as a mother with two children, you are quite concerned with the sufferings undergone by the people in the North. The said appeal was reportedly air-dropped in the North. Unfortunately, the appeal has been addressed [to the people of the North] after inflicting upon them the worst sufferings ever undergone during the 12-year war. This, in fact, is the sum total of military operations, commencing with "Operation Leapforward" in July [1995], through operations "Dragonfire", "Handshake I", "Handshake I|", "Thunderstrike", to the present "Operation Riviresa", which began on 17 October. The Government keeps propagandising that it is sincere in its approach to the Tamil national question, asserting that the devolution package presented in August 1995] is a confirmation of the Government's earnestness. The package in question clearly aims at no more than devolution of power uniformly on an Island-wide basis. In other words, this exercise is not confined to the North and East, the real seat of the whole problem, which led to the ongoing war. So, one cannot see any particular significance in the package, in so far as the Tamils are concerned. Quite apart from that, the package was put out after launching "Operation Leapforward", which served to traumatise the people as never before, with aerial bombings and shells raining on them, forcing them to keep fleeing for their lives from place to place, in their mortal fear that they are not safe anywhere, even in places of worship. It cannot be gainsaid [contradicted] that "Operation Leapforward" in July followed by, rather than preceded by, the devolution package in August, was a clear case of putting the cart before the horse. We must reiterate, Excellency, that the Tamil National Liberation Struggle adopted nonviolent methods for three decades, until frustrated Tamil youth took up arms in the late 1970s in their perception of the futility of nonviolent methods in the face of mounting State repression and repeated rots let loose against the Tamils, and occasionally against the Muslims. Today, the war is being prosecuted by the People's Alliance (PA) Government without, so far, addressing the root cause of the problem created by the diabolical policies pursued by all opportunist Governments. The people gave your Excellency and unprecedented 62.9% presidential mandate, a remarkable component of which was the 22 International Viewpoint February 1996 overwhelming support from the Tamils, who sincerely believed that the PA Government would "concede to their demands/rights, and honourably withdraw the armed forces", as you yourself indicated in public shortly before the August 1994 Parliamentary election. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Whereas you had stated, as far back as May 1994, that the outline of a political package was already being drawn up, it took over one year after the PA Goverment assumed office before they came out with the package as such. This package, finally revealed in August this year, contains nothing by way of a merged
COME COME! ORER IT 1 WANT TO WHAT'S INSIDE SEE The 'common man' interrogates Minister G. L. Peris North-East Province, which is the rightful and consistent demand of the Tamil parties. What is more, even such a package is being whittled down in substantive terms, succumbing to the Sinhala chauvinist forces. The package seeks indeed to divide into two, or rather three parts the North-East province (which today stands merged, albeit temporarily, under the 13th amendment to the Constitution). Excellency, isn't a merged North East Province, with its plurality and diversity, in perfect consonance with the plural character of the Sri Lankan polity? Isn't it a healthy arrangement, rather than a demarcation on purely ethnic lines? It need hardly be said that this problem can never be resolved if one succumbs to Sinhala chauvinists, who have hardly played a positive role for uplifting, say, The government asserts... that the purpose of the ongoing war is to bring peace, liberating the Tamils from the clutches of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE). This can never be the road to peace in the country, or the liberation of the Tamils. At a time when the people of Jaffna are suffering extreme privation and hardship, with food shortages and fear of death as their constant companions, with hundreds of thousands displaced, Colombo authorities have kept maintaining that there have been no shortages of food and medicine. They always come out with some foggy figures, so as to confuse and to mislead. As your Excellency has rightly said, the taking of Jaffna is not the end of the problem. But you have exhorted the people to celebrate it, without harming the Tamils in the South. There is little doubt that Tamils in the South already live in fear and panic, with indiscriminate arrests and detention of Tamils, in addition to the so-called Defence Committees, [which, for the Tamils, represent] the sword of Damocles. Those in the North, of course, live in conditions, with well over 450,000 displaced, going through the worst of misery and hardship. Side by side with such a scenario, there is to a celebration of the victory! V. Prabhakaran [LTTE leader has said that the recapture of Jaffna by the Government is only a temporary military setback for the LTTE. In any case, there is little doubt that the war will continue, notwithstanding the Government's victory in the battle for Jaffna. How long it will take to work out a political solution, and how successful it will be in practice, remains to be seen. With Rs. 38 billion in 1996, the biggest ever budget provision for the war effort, it is apparent that a political solution is not on the horizon in the near future, especially if both sides insist on mutually unacceptable conditions for negotiations. Let me state in conclusion, Excellency, that so long as the ongoing war, purportedly a war to bring peace, continues, then peace will be elusive. And elusive it will remain until and unless a political solution that is reasonable and acceptable to the minorities is put in place and properly implemented.* yours truly, V. Thirunavukkarasu Member of the Political Bureau Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) 29 November 1995