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The
target of the LTTE –- fighting for an independent state -- is to
recapture the Jaffna Peninsula, considered the homeland of the
Tamils. The Peninsula was recovered from LTTE control in 1995, and
then civil administration was restored there. Those who had fled
LTTE dominance returned to resume their lives under the
government's civil administration, in presence of the armed
forces. As Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, a Tamil political analyst
says: "Jaffna is the great political prize. Prabhakaran wants
to be able to say he has won Jaffna back and dealt a mortal
psychological blow to the army."
Escalation
of War:
The civil war escalated in November 1999 with the LTTE stepping up
its armed attacks and suicide bombing in Colombo and other cities,
when the country was preparing for presidential elections. They
overran hapless villages adjacent to LTTE hideouts. On December
18, a LTTE female suicide bomber detonated explosives, as the
president of Sri Lanka was leaving an election meeting, injuring
her in one of her eyes and head.
Currently,
some 30,000 Sri Lankan troops are trying to hold back the
advancing LTTE cadres after initially retreating to the vicinity
of Jaffna town, 320 km north of Colombo. The LTTE has a
well-armed, completely dedicated fighting force of around 5,000 to
7,000 under the direct control of Veluppillai Prabhakaram, the
LTTE leader. "The LTTE has created a culture of guns and
deaths," says an army officer. "It is easy to recruit
boys who dream of being heroes and love to carry weapons. They are
literally brainwashed."
The
Sri Lankan armed forces numbering around 150,000, on the other
hand, are demoralized for fighting with second-grade arms and
ammunitions, lack of supplies including the basic foods, peace
talks in the midst of fighting, and the absence of the best men on
the battlefronts. After severe criticism of the Deputy Minister of
Defence, Anuruddha Ratwatte -- for the way the war is being
prosecuted – Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera is being given the command
of the North. But here again politics raises its ugly head. Maj.
Gen. Perera has to work directly under Gen. Rohan Daluwatte, a
former army commander, considered a blue-eyed boy of the president
of the country.
It
is feared that Palaly airport close to Jaffna town would be
captured by the LTTE, and the airlink to the government soldiers
cut off. The road link was already severed with the fall of
Elephant Pass and sea routes are not considered safe for suicide
Black Sea Tigers.
Press
Censorship:
Meanwhile, the government passed an ordinance, dubbed as
“draconian” by many in the country, for a blanket censorship
on all news, articles with comments on the war, and any other
issues considered destabilizing to or having an adverse impact on
the government. Thus a big black X is drawn across single words,
such as, beleaguered, across cartoons, paragraphs and entire
articles in Sri Lankan newspapers. The Sunday papers carried much
of its political reportage with the word censored or blinded
caricatures and gagged figures.
These
censorship measures are unprecedented in Sri Lanka's 50 years of
parliamentary democracy since independence from British rule in
1948, except for a brief period in 1998. The most outspoken of the
Sunday papers, The Sunday Leader jibed the “Competent Auhority”
by submitting two identical reports, one blaming the opposition
United National Party (UNP) and the other the ruling party, the
People’s Alliance (PA) for the Elephant Pass debacle.
Two cartoons were also submitted, both showing Prabhakaran,
the rebel leader, in a restaurant, one with the UNP leader, Ranil
Wickremasinghe, as waiter and in the other Chandrika Cumaratunge,
Sri Lanka’s president, as waitress. Those against the opposition
party were approved for publication; but those against the
government had black crosses on them. This apparent bias and blind
eye of the “Competent Authority” was reflected in the Sunday
Leader newspaper in its May 11 issue, and on May 22, in less than
two weeks, the offices of the newspaper were sealed for six
months.
Publishers
and journalists are naturally up in arms but impotent. No less a
person than the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgama,
has expressed disapproval of the strict censorship now prevailing
in the country. It is evident from this fact that the Cabinet of
Ministers themselves are divided over the latest restrictive
injunctions.
The
man on the street--politically wise and suspicious as ever--is
convinced that the repressive measures taken by the government are
self-serving for the ruling People’s Alliance party, with a
muzzling of criticism and only their voices heard, and general
elections due by August this year.
Casualty
of War:
Conflicting reports are pouring in on the casualty of war. The
Tigers claim that the Sri Lankan army has suffered a massive loss
of life and arms while the government trumpets just the opposite
– “many Tigers are dead and wounded.” The news broadcast by
the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation now only mentions of the
number of the rebellious Tamil Tigers killed. There is no
independent reporting on the war; the correspondents do not have
access to the battlefronts. Those interested to keep themselves
posted on the war in Sri Lanka thus access the Internet and surf
web sites such as those of the Tamils and others.
Tamil
Eelam, which the LTTE envisages as their separate homeland, would
stretch across the northern and eastern provinces of the Island,
covering one-third of Sri Lanka. The Eastern Province with its
major city, Batticaloe, is under army control with pockets of LTTE-held
areas. A Tamil Member of Parliament is reported to have said that
the army controls 30 percent of the Batticaloe area while the LTTE
70 percent. Though the Sinhalese constitute 76 percent of the
total population of the Island, this region is populated by 95
percent Tamil and Hindu. Previously, it was a Muslim majority
area.
Defense
Spending:
The government has increased taxes on cigarettes and liquor and
the defense levy which almost all Sri Lankans pay, in a bid to
meet the greater military expenses.
The country was placed on a notice of war, provoking the
common people to make caustic comments about the role of the
government. Many are expressing the view that this should have
been done much earlier.
The
government appealed to neighboring countries to help it in its
hour of crisis. India promised humanitarian aid and firmly drew
the line on military aid. Pakistan, however, proved itself a
friend and flew in emergency supplies of arms and ammunitions.
Diplomatic ties were renewed with Israel after President Premadasa
had severed them in the late 1980s, bowing to pressure from the
Muslim population of the country. Sri Lanka has bought eight
fighter planes from Israel for US$ 24 million.
Historical
Background:
Ethnic disharmony could be traced back to 1956-59 when S W R D
Bandaranaike –- the husband of the world’s first woman prime
minister
and father of the present Sri Lankan president -- was prime
minister. Bandaranaike abrogated an agreement he forged with the
leader of the majority Tamil party in Parliament, which stipulated
parity for the Sinhala and Tamil languages. Subsequently,
Bandaranaike declared his infamous Sinhala-only policy thereby
sowing the seeds of discontent among the Tamils.
Another
bone of contention was the area quota at the university entrance
examinations. This was instituted to rectify the imbalance of
intake to the universities between the rural and urban schools,
and more specifically the large, well-equipped city schools and
the deprived schools in the remote areas of the Island. It dealt a
blow to the Tamil students from Colombo and Jaffna. The majority
of students to the medical and engineering departments had always
been Tamil students. The spread of the intake to remote areas and
the higher marks to be gained by students of large public and
private schools kept more advantaged children, whether Sinhalese
or Tamil, out of the universities.
Thus
came into being 'The Boys': rebels in Jaffna who evolved into a
guerilla force under the tough leadership of Velupillai
Prabhakaran. In 1983, seventeen soldiers were killed in Jaffna,
and their bodies were airlifted to Colombo for cremation at the
Kanatte burial ground in Borella. Enraged by the massacre, the
Sinhalese mob went on a rampage in the area marking the beginning
of what is now a 17-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka.
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