Introduction
Sri Lanka moves into 2006 with little to be optimistic about.
The first anniversary of the tsunami of 2004 was celebrated in the south
with the state media making the universalizing declaration of 9.30 a.m.
as being the ‘moment when the first tsunami wave’ hit the island. As is
often the case, the southern reality was imposed on the north and the
east, which suffered the greatest losses as a consequence of the
tsunami, and where the first waves had hit much earlier than 9.30 a.m..
The report on post-tsunami reconstruction process issued by the
government and the major the donor agencies could not brush aside the
grim reality of the situation: that the majority of people who were
displaced by the tsunami still live in sub-human conditions, that the
basic health and education infrastructure has not been reconstructed,
that there is still no clarity regarding the permanent resettlement of
many communities whose livelihoods and lifestyles are inextricably
linked to the coast. The Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit (DRMU) of the
National Human Rights Commission which had undertaken a series of public consultations on the post-tsunami process also submitted its report during the last week of December. The review of the setback zones has commenced slowly and with no transparency regarding the criteria and rationale behind the variation of the distances between permitted
construction and the high-tide waterline, despite the fact that all
reports on the process of post-tsunami reconstruction and resettlement
point to the need to engage in decision-making through involvement of
the affected communities and through consultative and participatory processes.
In the north and east of the island, a war of attrition is under way.
The LTTE attacks on members of the security forces moved into a new
terrain with the blasting of a soldier-laden vehicle in Jaffna on
December 4 using a remote-controlled claymore mine. In the 3 weeks since December 23, 2005 to January 11 2006, over 100 persons have been killed in the north and east in a series of brutal assassinations. Among them were members of the armed forces, with the Navy bearing the brunt of the losses, Batticaloa MP Joseph Pararajasingham, students, civilians and members of the LTTE as well as of paramilitary groups.
The situation has led to a heightened sense of insecurity and tension
among all sectors of the population living and working in those areas.
Reports from November and December about reports of missing persons
trigger off memories of past experiences in which large-scale
disappearances were commonplace. The National Human Rights Commission reported 25 cases had been submitted to its office in Jaffna alone. In the south, too, the rising death toll among the armed forces and the return of the culture of body bags is sending alarm signals through
entire communities. Several international NGOs temporarily withdrew
staff members from offices located within the peninsula and even the
SLMM in Jaffna called on its members to remain within their offices and
not go out on investigations, due to the insecure situation. The attack
on the SLMM office in Batticaloa on the night of the 14th January set
off a new wave of anxiety regarding the stability of the Ceasefire
Agreement.
In Colombo, several cordon and search operations, among them a series
curiously named ‘Strangers Night’ saw over a thousand men and women
taken into custody, questioned, fingerprinted and photographed on the
basis that their presence in the city was not reasonably accounted for.
Many civil society groups who accept that security considerations at the
present moment call for stringent measures have asked for consideration
of provision of basic facilities for those being held in Police Stations
prior to their status being clarified. On December 31, almost 1000
persons were taken in for questioning in 6 Police areas in Colombo:
Bambalapitiya (Colombo 4), Wellawatte (Colombo 6), Maradana (Colombo 10) Grandpass (Clombo 12), Kotahena (Colombo 14), Mutwal (Colombo 13). In each Police Station, over 200 persons had to stand for the greater part of the day in crowded spaces, with no water or toilet facilities, in
their night clothes. Those who needed regular medication had no access
to their drugs. Of this number only 53 were detained for further
investigation, and at least half of this number too were released within
a day. Although Police officials have maintained that these operations
are aimed at seeking out criminals and ‘anti-social elements’, members
of the Tamil community have affirmed that the majority of those affected
by these cordon and search operations have been Tamils. Among the
concerns have been raised have been for example, the basis on which
identities may be established if National identity Cards are not
available. In particular this situation could have negative consequences
for those coming from areas under LTTE control where the normal
procedures for verification of identity, through the Police, would not
be possible.
The increasing insecurity and constant threats of violence has led to an
exodus of families linked to the LTTE from the Jaffna peninsula to the
Vanni during the last week of December. On January 3, Sinhala and Muslim
students enrolled in the University of Jaffna (Vavuniya Campus) handed
over a petition to their supervisors stating that the security situation
made it difficult for them to remain in Vavuniya and left in the middle
of their examinations. In the last days of December, over 700 Muslim
families from Thoppur in Trincomalee abandoned their villages following
threats from the LTTE as a consequence of the assault and murder of an
LTTE cadre by the villagers in the previous week. Once they had left
their village, the barbed wire fences around their paddy fields had been
removed, enabling cattle to enter the fields and destroy the harvest
which was due to be brought in, in early January.
The peace process remained stalled, ostensibly locked in a stalemate
over the venue for the next round of talks, but in fact laying bare Sri
Lanka’s dependence on the international community to break the impasse.
The President made his first official visit outside the country to
India, affirming his elections pledges that India would play a critical
role in the political and economic scenarios of Sri Lanka. However, the
response from the Indian government has been cautious; facing state
elections in Tamilnadu in March, the central government of India cannot
afford to be seen to be anti-Tamil. In Tamilnadu, pro-LTTE groups were
able to prevail on the situation and Chief Minister Ms. Jeyalalitha had
to refuse a request by Sri Lankan President Rajapakse to travel to
Chennai and meet with her. The Indian government has urged resumption of peace talks between the government and the LTTE and affirmed the role of Norwegian facilitation.
It now seems as if we are to await the arrival of the Norwegian
facilitator, Minister Eric Solheim, in Colombo on January 23, to see
some of these problems resolved. It is likely that Mr. Solheim will
present several different options for a venue for the talks and also
officially present the credentials of his successor as the first-level
facilitator on behalf of the Norwegian government. While Mr. Solheim’s
new portfolio as Minister of International Development will not permit
him to devote as much time as he did earlier to the Sri Lankan peace
process, this will also present the JVP with a face-saving device to
accept Norwegian facilitation that will not include Mr. Solheim in the
frontline.
A critical factor that impedes the peace process at the broader level is
the lack of clarity regarding the team that will be fielded by the
government to the negotiations, or the core of their negotiating
position. Comments made by the special Defence Advisor to the President,
former DIG Kotakadeniya, that the government should act forcefully, even
going back to war, in order to take back the lands forcibly occupied by
the LTTE in the North and East, displayed a level of insensitivity and
lack of understanding of the situation on the ground that surprised many
observers. The absence of any government representative at the funeral
of Parliamentarian Pararajasingham was another indication of how poorly
the present situation is being read by those within government circles.
The political scenario in the south remained fraught with many tensions.
Despite regular rhetorical comments regarding the advantages of
bipartisan politics, both the SLFP and the UNP are locked into internal
power struggles which leave the leadership with little room for
manœuvre at the national level. Both the President and the Leader of
the Opposition, Ranil Wickremasinghe, face challenges from within their
parties and must act strategically to consolidate their hold on power
within the party structures. In the meanwhile, the business of governing
the country and on making key political decisions regarding the economy
and the peace process seem to be largely pushed into the background. The institutionalization of the RADA, or of the Tourism Authority, the
amending of local government elections laws to enable the process of
holding local government elections in March to commence, the appointment of a team of negotiators to meet with the Norwegian facilitating team and with others in the international community who are committed to the peace process or building bridges with civil society organizations working for peace in Sri Lanka have all been critical areas that have been neglected in the past month since the new President assumed office, to the detriment of the country. The spiraling violence affected the stock market negatively and tourist arrivals in the high season period from October to January have been recorded as at least 40% below
pre-tsunami levels.
Information and misinformation fueling the conflict:
Several incidents in the past two weeks point to the ways in which the
war is also being waged in the media, and through the dissemination of
misinformation or inaccurate facts regarding any particular incident.
The differences in which the same incident is reported by the Sinhala
and English press, and by the Tamil press point to the deep divisions
and polarization that have become a common feature of modern Sri Lankan
society. For example, the assassination of MP Joseph Pararajasingham was
attributed to the LTTE by one group of journalists, while the hero’s
tribute awarded to Mr. Pararajasingham by the LTTE has been viewed by
many others as undermining this argument. On December 23rd, newspapers
reported the killing of 5 LTTE cadres including one woman by the army in
the Jaffna Fort area. It later transpired that at least two of the dead
were innocent civilians caught in a crossfire. One of them, for example,
was a night watchman at Central College, Jaffna, and had been on his way
to work when he was killed. On December 24th, reports of some charred
bodies found in the gutted homes of the 100 houses resettlement project
in Nadukuda, Mannar were attributed to an LTTE death squad. Later
reports indicate that the houses were set on fire in an act of
retaliation for the claymore attack that killed 13 Navy men in Pesalai
on the previous day and that 4 members of one family who had been
reported missing had probably been burned to death inside the huts. 11
persons in this IDP settlement had to be treated in hospital for
injuries sustained during the attack by Navy personnel. On January 3,
newspapers first reported that 5 LTTErs in Trincomalee had been killed
when a grenade they were carrying exploded. The postmortems on their
bodies showed that those dead were students who had been killed by
gunshot wounds to the head; this corroborated a report that they had
been shot and killed by a group of armed men who turned up on Dutch Bay
road in Trincomalee after the grenade explosion.
Post tsunami scenario:
The disbanding of TAFREN, the institutional mechanism for post-tsunami
reconstruction, and the creation of a new Reconstruction and Development Authority (RADA) has done nothing to shore up flagging confidence in the post-tsunami reconstruction process among tsunami affected communities.
RADA was created by Presidential Decree on November 29, and is to
function under the direct purview of the President and is headed by
Tiran Alles, hand-picked by the President for the post. Thus, whether
this institution too will function, as did earlier mechanisms set up to
deal with post-tsunami relief and rehabilitation, without reference to
elected representatives of the people at the local level and to
government officials remains to be seen.
The revision of the buffer zone has begun, with some specifications
being laid out: for example, in some areas in Tissamaharama and
Hambantota in the South, as well as in Kallady in the East, people will
not be allowed to reconstruct houses within 125 meters of the high tide
waterline. In other areas, such as in Kalutara, the setback area is 35
meters. In Colombo city and in the coastal areas north of Colombo right
up to Negombo, the setback line is 55 meters. The finalizing of the
buffer zones, which will be a time consuming and complex task, will be
done at each Grama Sevaka Division (lowest local government level).
It is estimated that approximately 11,000 more people will be able to
rebuild their own homes on their own land, as a consequence of this
decision. For those who did not own the land they had lived on, if they
were squatters, they are entitled to a permanent house under the
re-housing grant supported by NGOs. If they were tenants, of renting the
premises, they are not entitled to any resettlement support. This
remains one of the most grave injustices of the policy as implemented so
far since many public servants, especially those in the health and
education sectors, live in various provincial towns on rent while they
are working in that particular area.
The tug of war between the National Child Protection Authority and the
Department of Probation and Child Care Services over tsunami orphans was
at least temporarily ceded to the DPCCS due to lack of human resources
at the NCPA. Of the 1071 children who lost both parents, 500 remain in
foster families without a Fit Persons Order having been granted. The
DPCCS is committed to expedite the issue of these Orders in order to
regularize the situation of the orphans.
There have also been some complaints regarding the disappearance of
children from tsunami camps and shelters. Child conscription in the
Eastern province, and trafficking for exploitation of labour or for work
as sex workers are cited as being possible arenas within which these
children may be located. It is unclear how this situation takes place,
but reports of two children, alleged to be tsunami orphans, found
wandering in Ambalangoda and handed over to the Balapitiya Police
suggest that the supervision and control of these sites is not satisfactory.
In a series of consultation that the Save the Children organization did
with over 250 students affected by the tsunami clearly showed children’s
concerns: they spoke of the poor facilities in their schools - no
toilets, no water supply, temporary structures with no door or walls so
stray cattle get in and eat their books. In addition, they said there
was a sever shortage of teachers in their schools. This was true in
Hambantota as much as it was in Kalmunai. This seems specially ironic in
the face of a report from the Ministry of Education that states that the
teacher-student ratio has never been as low as it has been in the past 5
years, with 21 students for every one teacher.
Democratic structures:
Civil Society observers have been disturbed by reports that the
appointment of the Police Commission would be delayed until the law
could be amended to enable the Inspector General of Police to be a
member of the Commission. In earlier discussions regarding the Police
Commission, the argument against such an amendment had been clearly
made, on the basis that the participation of the IGP would inhibit
processes within the Commission and also affect its impartiality.
Local government elections, due in March/April, also call for legal
processes for example to invalidate the lists of candidates submitted by
political parties for the local government bodies of the north and east
which are already very dated due to the regular cancellation of local
government elections in those areas. Election monitoring groups such as
PAFFREL and CMEV have called for a postponement of the elections until
accurate electoral registers can be compiled; this is in the wake of
many complaints, especially from voters in the Colombo District, that
they had been deprived of their right to vote at the Presidential
Elections of 2005 due to improper maintenance of the registers.
Violence against women:
In the south, it is claimed that complaints of intimidation made by the
woman who was raped at the Katunayake Airport by officials were not
addressed seriously by the Police. The case is due to come up on January
30. The rape of a woman in the central bus stand in Pettah on the night
December 26 is the latest in a series of attempted rapes and rape of
women in this location. The situation makes it clear that there need to
be special measures taken to provide adequate protection for women
passengers who are left stranded in the bus-stand late at night or
arrive there very early in the morning from the provinces.
The rape of .. Tharshini, in Punguduthivu, around which there was much
public agitation in Jaffna a few weeks ago has also vanished from the
radar.
There have been also some reports of sexual harassment of women in the
course of cordon and search operations in Jaffna, from the Vadamarchchi
area, and from Mannar. The National Human rights Commission has received complaints in this regard and is said to be investigating them.
Law and order:
The murder of Lalith Dharmaratna, Factory Superintendent at the
Sevanagala Sugar Factory, who was found shot and killed while in his
quarters, has led to a sense of insecurity among the senior management
of the factory. Labour unrest immediately after the Presidential
election had led to the temporary closure of the factory; the factory
had been re-opened recently. The management is now expressing its
concerns regarding the security of senior officials in the wake of this
killing.
On December 30, newspapers reported that the nude bodies of two young
men had been found in Hanguranketha. This scenario brought back memories of previous periods of terror in our society when this dumping of dead bodies in public places became a daily phenomenon.
In Vanathamulla, in Colombo 8, a group of Policemen who carried out a
raid on a group of persons said to be involved in the drug trade were
attacked with stones and had to abandon the suspects and flee. When
looked at in tandem with the report that six Police officers have been
taken into custody in December in connection with their covert support
for persons arrested and detained for drug-related offences, this
incident can be understood as a clear example of the breakdown of public
confidence in the law enforcement agencies and of the inability of law
enforcement officers to actually carry out their duties free of
intimidation and violence.