Archive for the 'Leadership Challenges' Category
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Courtesy:The Nation
“Anandasangaree maintains his independence:
V. Anandasangaree, who functioned as the leader of the TULF, had called on Thamilchelvam only once. He did not want to pay such customary visits to Vanni, because he did not want to seek instructions from the LTTE. LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, who felt affronted by Anandasangaree’s refusal to dance attendance on the LTTE leadership, had reportedly said: “It was we who sent the TNA to Parliament. Therefore, they should see us whenever we send for them.” Anandasangaree publicly denounced this LTTE stand. The LTTE did not allow Anandasangaree to participate in the re-opening of the restored Jaffna public library. However, Anandasangaree could not be prevented from reopening the library. He said that the LTTE was recognised only as the representative of Tamils at peace talks, and the TNA represents the Tamil community at all other events and forums. An irate LTTE leadership, using some MPs loyal to them, succeeded in expelling Anandasangaree from the TNA. However, he managed to retain the leadership of the TULF, which is a constituent of the TNA. Even today, Anandasangaree is the leader of the TULF.”
By a Special Correspondent
The decision taken by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to support the candidacy of New Democratic Front candidate General Sarath Fonseka has become a main moot point in the political circles today. (more…)
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Monday, March 29th, 2004
Courtesy: The Island
By Bandula Jayasekara
When I interviewed the former mayor of Jaffna, the late, Sarojini Yogeswaran in 1998 for Rupavahini’s Saturday Breakfast show, I did not realise that it could be one of her last interviews. May be the last interview she gave before she was killed by the LTTE. The interview was going to be live. But, just before the interview she made a request from me not to ask certain questions. She told me that she feared for her life. She said, ” Son, if you ask me those questions, I have to give direct answers and certain elements will not like what I have to say. So please avoid them. I want to live with the people who had elected me as the Mayor of Jaffna. I am moving to Jaffna with all my pots and pans”
Though she said ” I will somehow implement my election pledge and re-build Jaffna,” the LTTE did not allow her to keep her promise. I did shed a tear for her when she was forced to leave the world.
But, I don’t want to shed tears today, instead, salute one man who had stood tall against all threats and humiliation from his own men who betrayed him and from the LTTE. He is another humble and brave Sri Lankan democrat, Veerasingham Anandasangaree, the real leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) who is contesting as an independent candidate from Jaffna under difficult circumstances and threat to his life.
It has been a hard journey for Sangaree after the LTTE and the TNA got together. But, the simple vetti clad leader has not given up yet. I doubt he would ever. When the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) became the parrots of the LTTE, Sangaree who pointed it out was labelled as a traitor. He refused to rush to Kilinochchi when the LTTE summoned the TNA members to sit on the ground like ‘podians’ (small fellows) and listen to the lectures of Thamil Chelvan. But, his colleagues did so.
Then the LTTE wanted him removed from the presidency of the TULF and from the party. But, the former LSSP comrade and teacher fought back. He did not allow those like Brutus of the TNA to stab him. He blocked the TNA from using the TULF symbol, the Rising Sun. The threats he received were so severe that the Forum for regaining democracy for Tamil speaking people appealed to all human rights activists and organisations to safeguard the life of TULF leader V. Anandasan-garee since he was receiving continuous death threats from the LTTE.
The organisation said that the TULF leader has earned the wrath of the LTTE for his unwillingness to act according to the bidding and the behest of the LTTE. The organisation even warned at the time that LTTE cadres have infiltrated the TULF posing off as drivers, bodyguards and office assistants.
Anandasangaree does not have much left with him. All he got is, courage, his pride, self respect, righteousness, and the goodwill of the innocent people who honour him. He told me once “I have lost everything. I have only my lawyers certificate and few other things which I brought from Jaffna.”
He was deeply pained when the LTTE instigated university students and blocked the opening of the Jaffna library. He questioned, “Where in the world have you heard of university students blocking the opening of a library?” He was both angry and saddened. But, expressed his views fearlessly at a time he was receiving number of death threats while his so-called democratic colleagues kept mum.
Anandasangaree has been consistent in saying that no one had the right to the claim of being the sole representative of the Tamil people. He was not scared to say it openly. He called for Tamil unity and all parties to join hands to solve the problems facing the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
All this happened when his fellow MP’s such as R. Sambandan and Joseph Pararajasingham attended Pongu Thamil celebrations organised by the LTTE and gave the Hitler salute and knelt before the LTTE boys. Today the TULF leader does not see them or even talk to them. He said, “TNA was supposed to be a moderate party. But, some people did not allowed it to be like that”.
The real TULF leader, Anandasangaree, who is contesting Jaffna as an independent along with 12 others, cannot campaign freely in Jaffna. His life is under threat from the LTTE and he cannot move about without police protection. His supporters have been attacked by the LTTE/TNA combination and the university students in Jaffna. His pamphlets are burned, his vehicles have been destroyed. He was prevented from campaigning in Karainagar, Kaithaday and other areas by the LTTE. He says that as the election is getting closer, the LTTE is intensifying its campaign against him and his people.
He questioned why the Tamil media is quiet and portraying the LTTE who are harassing him as heroes instead of highlighting his plight. He said, “We are a non-violent, harmless group. But, they are blocking all news on us and suppressing them. I am very saddened by it.” He can only campaign by placing advertisements in the local newspapers.
He told The Island that the LTTE was using 48 vehicles without number plates and continued to intimidate and threaten his candidates and it is a violation of the ceasefire agreement. Sangaree says that the vehicles without number plates must be taken over immediately. Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim did not even meet him in Jaffna when Sangaree was waiting for him to make complaints about the situation. But, he met him later in Colombo where the TULF leader complained to him about LTTE’s strong-arm tactics in Jaffna and its obstructions to his campaign activities. He told Solheim that the people of Jaffna should decide on their free will, who they want to vote for.
Some groups in Jaffna backed by the LTTE were blaming Sangaree for the split within the LTTE saying that he had a hand in influencing rebel eastern commander Karuna to break away from the LTTE. Anandasangaree denied the allegations as baseless saying he did not have even the slightest idea of Karuna’s existence before the split. Even a TNA candidate he nurtured and brought into politics has turned against him. Sangaree said laughingly, ” He is roaring and he thinks that it id he who brought me to politics”. LTTE’s fear campaign in Jaffna is led by a military/political commissar Illamparadhi. The veteran leader said that the LTTE/TNA combination is instilling fear in the people saying not to vote for him. He called on the people to get rid of that fear.
Anandasanagree also said that the European Union and other international bodies have failed to realise that those people who would come from the uncleared areas in the Wanni would vote for the persons directed by the LTTE and that they would have no other choice, which is not democratic.
I ask the simple, but outspoken leader who is under so much pressure in Jaffna, ” Sir, do you expect to win?” He said, “This dictatorship in the cover of democracy should end. People must be liberated before we do anything. I am the real TULF and if the people want to be liberated, I will win”.
Sangaree must win; he must come back to parliament. His victory would be a victory for democracy in Lanka. Because he is a man of courage and Sri Lanka needs people like him. But, it is also the duty and the responsibility of the international community, Solheims, the Norwegians, Indians, Americans, the President, the Prime Minister, government, opposition, security forces and the people of this country to protect him.
http://www.island.lk/2004/03/29/
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Monday, March 8th, 2004
Information Bulletin No. 35
Date of Release: 8th March 2004
“Had there been some little opening for the expression of the people’s will, Anandasangaree (leading independently the section of the TULF commanding a clear majority in the central committee and the TULF support base) would have shamed the LTTE’s claim to represent the Tamil people”.
5. The LTTE’s Independent Elections Commission at Work
In his piece in the Daily Mirror of 11th February, the editor of the TamilNet sounded very piqued that people spoke of the Tamil National Alliance as a creature of the LTTE. This, to him, was belittling the civil society organizations and the Tamil Media, in where he was a key figure, which stitched the quarrelsome parties together. They shepherded this bunch, described by him as more inclined ‘to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’. A few days later he was forced to swallow his words - once more demonstrating that it is unwise for those who run with the LTTE to be burdened with a heavy ego. (more…)
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Monday, March 1st, 2004
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
Anandasangari on the nominations day
(photo courtesy: Divaina)
March 01,11.00 AM:While the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) became the only party in the Provinces of the North and East to declare that the separatist terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was the sole representative of the Tamil people, a Tamil candidate who dared to give nominations outside the TNA in the Eastern province was shot dead by alleged gunmen of the LTTE. (more…)
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Saturday, January 31st, 2004
ProTEG News Letter: ISSUE 138 JANUARY 2004
LTTE CONTINUING TO PROCURE WEAPONS REVEALS GENEVA SURVEY
The Small Arms Survey published by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva titled ‘In the Shadow of a Ceasefire- Impacts Small Arms, Availability and Misuse in Sri Lanka’ says the situation is similar to that existing currently in Northern Ireland. There are indications that splits are emerging amongst the LTTE cadres. In the east, cadres are becoming rapidly criminalized and controlled by budding warlords and the incidence of kidnapping and extortion has grown significantly since the Ceasefire Agreement was signed. Often the targets are wealthy Muslim traders, many of whom have made their fortunes during the conflict by exploiting business opportunities that emerged with the Tamil traders.
The report also says that the LTTE has proved extremely adept at trawling the international black market for illegal small arms and light weapons and even more proficient at moving equipment from distant locales into the north/east of the island. The report says that the LTTE has also acquired significant supplies of weapons from stockpiles abandoned by the government forces. It adds that the LTTE has benefited from massive remittances and assistance from Tamil sympathizers across the world.
In a recent interview with The Island, terrorism expert, Dr Rohan Gunaratne also revealed that in reality the LTTE has not abandoned its historic mission of trying to rebuild its guerilla and terrorism capabilities and during the past 2 years, LTTE has continued to recruit, train, raise funds, procure arms and transport them to Ceylon. He also said Thailand remains their most important transit hub for moving arms and also the home of the head of procurement and shipping operations, Tharmalingam Shanmugam Kumaran alias Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP). Gunaratne said that the Indian government is very keen to apprehend KP whom they suspect played an important role in the logistics connected with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
A recent report revealed that the LTTE had made an attempt through the Norwegian facilitators to include KP in their delegation to give legitimacy to him, a man wanted by both India and Sri Lankan authorities and the Interpol. It is also ironical that an LTTE delegation is now in South Africa at the time the Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs is visiting South Africa and EU countries and the European Union which has allowed KP to operate accounts in their countries making a big hue and cry about the situation in Ceylon and talking of human rights. The EU even had the audacity to condemn the take over of the defence portfolio by the President.
The Small Arms Survey also says the entry points for LTTE weapons into the north and the east have varied according to the balance of power and territory. Control of Jaffna means, by and large control of the LTTE of the entry points across the Jaffna peninsula. The LTTE is also thought to have developed entry points across the Palk Bay and especially, the lagoon to the south of the peninsula. The Small Arms Survey also takes a dig at the Non Governmental Organizations in Ceylon. It says ” It is often the case that local and international NGO’s are adversely affected by continuing levels of violence and insecurity. However, this is not the case in Sri Lanka. The NGO community involved in the conflict has suffered little, psychologically or physically. Most international NGO’s are based in Colombo, an extremely agreeable city where many NGO workers and their families feel very comfortable”.
ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE ANANDASANGAREE FROM TO TULF BY MEMBERS SERVILE TO LTTE FAILS
An attempt by LTTE’s lackeys in the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) to oust their president Veerasingam Anandasangaree through a no-confidence motion has been thwarted. The fearless Tamil leader, who has consistently been refusing to play ball with the Tigers, termed the resolution illegal. Mr. Anandasangaree said that the party General Secretary had summoned the Central committee meeting chaired by him and had attempted to move a vote of no confidence. Mr. Anandasangaree had at this point put off the meeting indefinitely ruling that the Central Committee has no power to move a no confidence motion. Later the two defendants had taken steps to hold another meeting without consulting him at Amparai on December 21. The application had sought the court to order preventing the defendants holding such meeting at Amparai or at any other place and to prohibit the defendants taking any decision without his written approval. The Colombo Additional District Judge first issued an enjoining order preventing the respondents from summoning any meetings of the TULF without the written permission of the petitioner Mr.Anandasangaree on December 17 last year. When the application was taken up for second times on that date the court extended the enjoining order till January 14. When the case was taken up for further hearing on 13th January the Additional District Judge extended the enjoining order till January 26 and put off the further inquiry into the application of Mr.Anandasangaree on that date. The additional District Judge rejected the application on behalf of Mr.Sambanthan and Mr.Para-rajasingham seeking the vacation of enjoining order.
Anandasangaree had been under fire ever since he chose to move away from the pro-LTTE line and refused to be remote-controlled by the Tigers. Early in 2003, he declared that the Tigers weren’t the sole representatives of the Ceylon Tamils. He also questioned the practice of diplomats interacting with the LTTE leadership, ignoring the parliamentary parties. He had contended that when some anti-Tiger groups were also represented in parliament, it would be wrong to confine the dialogue to the Tigers. But his rivals pointed out that the December 2001 manifesto of the Tamil National Alliance _ a loose conglomeration of four Tamil parties, including TULF _ had declared that the LTTE was the sole representative of Tamils and hence any solution to the ethnic tangle could be found only through a dialogue with them. A pro-Tiger Website Tamilcanadian.com denounced him in virulent terms. It proclaimed, “We know that people like you and Douglas are ready to sell the self-respect and rights of the Tamil people to the international forces who are working against the interests of the Tamil people and peace process. Tamils have one and only one representative, and that is Prabhakaran.” Even after such widespread criticism, he wouldn’t back down. A flurry of meetings between the LTTE leadership and the other leaders of the TULF in the Vanni jungles followed, all obviously aimed at clipping his wings.
MUSLIMS FLEE AFTER SUSPECTED TIGER ATTACK KILLS FOUR
A large group of Muslims have fled their homes after four elderly Muslims were killed, , south of Manirasakulam. Initial reports said only three persons were hacked to death. However, truce monitoring mission sources said that four civilians were killed by unidentified persons.
The attack, the latest in a series on the Muslims in the area, was definitely carried out by LTTE cadres, security sources said. An authoritative SLMC source said that the killings took place about six kms away from an LTTE camp set up in May this year in violation of a cease-fire agreement between the government and the LTTE. He is convinced the LTTE was responsible for this attack as well as several others carried out in the district over the past few days. A senior security official said that the latest attack was definitely linked to simmering land disputes between Tamils and Muslims.
LTTE TRAINING PEOPLE’S WAR CADRES, SAYS DR.SWAMY
The Janata Party president, Dr.Subramanian Swamy, has suggested that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, adopt a comprehensive approach on fighting naxalism by taking into consideration the links of the People’s War (PW) with other terrorist organisations in the country. Dr. Swamy, who met Mr. Naidu urged him to prevail upon the NDA Government at the Centre to take a clear-cut stand on terrorism whether it was perpetrated by the LTTE, ULFA or Islamic organisations. The NDA had constituents such as the MDMK, PMK and the DMK, which were all sympathisers of the LTTE.
The LTTE, he said, had a presence in Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam. In fact, the Tigers were training the PW cadres in Bastar area of Chhattisgarh bordering Andhra Pradesh. He had offered to furnish details about the operations of the different terrorist organisations and their links with one another. Earlier, addressing a press conference, Dr. Swamy denounced the tendency of parties such as the Congress and the TRS to “legitimise” naxalism by describing it as a socio-economic problem. He said violence by anyone must be countered squarely and its perpetrators routed.
He asserted that he was not trying to justify encounters in which police killed innocents. But, the naxalites had weapons and police would be justified in retaliating with weapons in what was clearly a battle. Dr. Swamy also questioned the “studied silence” of the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, on the LTTE violence and her “failure” to demand the extradition of V. Prabakaran. Dr. Swamy said he was planning to revive the Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh as he had done earlier in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
LTTE ABDUCT INDIAN FISHERMEN - TAMIL NADU CHIEF MINISTER WRITES TO INDIAN PRIME MINISTER
LTTE had grabbed at least seven Indian fishing boats with 32 fishermen on board, officials monitoring the island’s ceasefire said, insisting that those captured should be freed. The fishing boats were taken by the LTTE near Mannar in the Palk Strait that separates the countries, said Agnes Bragadottir, spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. “Deputy head of Mission Hagrup Haukland has strongly advised them to release them”, she said. This is an extremely dangerous situation.
The Chief Minister, of Tamil Nadu Ms.Jayalalithaa, has urged the Indian and Sri Lankan Governments to consider taking up joint naval exercise to eliminate “unauthorised” naval operations in the international waters by the Sea Tigers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In a letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which was released to the media, Ms.Jayalalithaa said the recent abduction of 32 Ramanathapuram fishermen by the LTTE only showed that the organisation was seeking to assume the mantle of legitimacy, claiming to have naval control of the international waters off the coast of Mannar. “The abduction placed the entire matter in a totally different perspective, involving not only the fragile security of the East Coast of Tamil Nadu but also the security of the Indian nation itself, considering the overtly terrorist stance of the LTTE that has had such an explosive impact on the internal security of India in the recent past”.
She was constrained to observe that such an outrageous incident by a terrorist organisation should not be met with a lukewarm and meek response by the Indian Government, treating it as yet another routine incident of Indian fishermen allegedly crossing the international boundary line during the course of their daily fishing activity. The incident was an affront to the country’s sovereignty, she said. Given the serious national security concerns (both external and internal), which an incident of this kind involved, the Government of India should make a clear statement to the LTTE that it should not provoke India by such “renegade acts of illegal capture of innocent fishermen”. It would even be appropriate for the Indian Government to take up with the island Government the question of embarking upon joint exercises to eliminate such unauthorised naval operations in the international waters by the Sea Tigers.
The Indian Ocean, in which Indian fishermen have traditionally eked out their livelihood, should not become the breeding ground of naval forces of terrorist groups which kidnap innocent fishermen and hold them to ransom”. The Chief Minister wanted the Prime Minister to give serious thought to her views in the context of internal and external security, which must be the only consideration of the country’s policy. The Indian Government must make a clear statement that it would not in any way tolerate future incidents of this kind.
UNFORTUNATE THAT A SECTION OF TULF WANTS TO BRING THE ORGANISATION UNDER TIGER JACKBOOT SAYS MRS. AMIRTHALINGAM
Mangayarkarasi Amirthalingam, widow of slain TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam in her observations on the reported pandemoniam at the no-confidence motion meeting of the TULF against its leader V. Anandasangaree, claimed that it was unfortunate that a section of the members of her late husband’s party wanted to bring the party under the jackboot of the Tiger rebel outfit that killed her husband, a founder member of the party. Mrs. Amirthalingam has told the ‘Asian Tribune’ that it was the TULF, the independent and moderate Tamil party, that represented the aspirations of the Tamils in Ceylon and all over the world.
She had made these observations to ‘Asia Tribune’ from her residence located outside London. Leading a low profile life after the assassination of her husband, Mrs. Amirthalingam was in Ceylon last August to be present at the 76th birthday celebrations of Mr. Amirthalingam, organised by Mr. Anandasangaree at the Saraswathy Hall, Colombo. Addressing this meeting, Mrs. Amirthalingam had publicly accused the LTTE leader Prabhakaran for the murder of her husband. She had also alleged that Mavai Senadhirajah, who succeeded her late husband as Member of Parliament, had tried to destroy the Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (Federal Party) being treacherous to Mr. Amirthalingam who nursed him into politics. Anandasangaree had celebrated Amirthalingam’s Remembrance Day publicly against the orders and threats of the LTTE. The incumbent TULF leader Anandasangaree has bravely defied pressure from the LTTE to surrender the rights of his party to justify the LTTE claim internationally that Tigers represented the Tamils in Ceylon. The ‘Asian Tribune’ report dated December 01, 2003 stated that TULF Vice-President Joseph Pararajasingham, R. Sampanthan and N. Raviraj (all Members of Parliament) who now oppose Anandasangaree had been introduced into TULF politics by the late A. Amirthalingam. Anandasangaree has time and again refused to toe the LTTE line. Raviraj who succeeded Mrs. Sarojini Yogeswaran as Jaffna Mayor after the latter was killed by the LTTE refused to go to Jaffna to participate in Municipal Council meetings due to LTTE threats, the Asian Tribune reported.
Many Ceylon Tamils in the Island and abroad are grateful to leaders like Anandasangaree and several others who in the face of threats to their lives by LTTE, have bravely stood up to the ideals of democracy and freedom and have not cowed down to the dictates of the fascist LTTE. They have held aloft the banner of freedom and justice for the Tamil people of Ceylon, the struggle for which was led by respected Tamils leaders such as Chelvanayakam and Naganathan who were in the forefront of democratic and non-violent struggles to win back the fundamental rights of the Tamil people of Ceylon.
CHANDRIKA WANTS TRINCO VIOLENCE BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has directed the defence authorities and the IGP to take immediate steps to bring the situation in Trincomalee District back to normalcy, according to a press release issued by the Presidential Secretariat. Police have also been instructed to investigate into recent incidents in the area. This is in addition to the investigations being carried out by the SLMM on these incidents. The President’s Office also rejected in toto “several print media reports alleging the presence of a so-called ‘third force’ behind these incidents.” Apparently neither the President’s Office nor any other responsible source has attributed the prevailing tension to any such third force, said Janadasa Peiris, Director General (Media) of the Presidential Secretariat. He also said that it was regrettable that sections of the media continued to express news and views on such baseless reports.
6,000 TAMILS OF INDIAN ORIGIN BECOME CITIZENS OF CEYLON
More than 6,000 Tamils of Indian origin registered themselves as Sri Lankan citizens as part of a 10-day programme to enable them to gain citizenship. Supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Ceylon Workers Congress registration scheme overcomes a critical and long-running problem for an estimated 300,000 Tamils brought to Ceylon since the 1820s to work on plantations opened up by the British. In October 2003, parliament passed legislation that allowed these “stateless” people, along with their children, to receive Ceylon citizenship. The campaign will cover both those persons who applied for an Indian passport under the so-called Sirimavo-Shastri Pact in 1964 but who never left Ceylon as well as people who have lived their entire life without a passport or any other identification document. The 10-day registration programme puts the new legislation into effect. UNHCR Representative Neill Wright welcomed the Government’s initiative that provides Tamils of Indian origin with the legal protections that come with citizenship. “Persons without citizenship are denied some of the most basic rights and entitlements: they cannot open a bank account, own property or work for the government; they cannot obtain an identity card, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or a passport; if they leave the country they cannot return. For almost 200 years, this has been the predicament of a great many Tamils of Indian origin living in Sri Lanka. The new legislation corrects this injustice.” The 10-day registration programme, enables people to register for citizenship at Ceylon Workers Congress offices in more than 50 locations across the country. More than 300 volunteers have given their time to support the scheme.
LTTE’S RESPONSE NOT REASONABLE SAYS FORMER INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARY
Former Indian Foreign Secretary M.K Rasgotra has warned the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Prabhakran not to provoke India by capturing Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters. Rasagotra said, “Emergence of a third Navy, Sea Tigers, will not be accepted by India. There are only two Navies, Sri Lankan and Indian. The Sri Lankan government should do joint naval exercises with the Indian navy and eliminate unauthorized naval operations. India is concerned over Prabhakaran capturing Indian seamen. We ask them to avoid provocation of this kind”.
The former Foreign Secretary said this in the presence of the Indian High Commissioner to Colombo, Nirupam Sen and the Chairman of the Banda-raniake Center for International Studies, (BCIS) and former Foreign Minister and MP, Lakshman Kadiragamar. Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the first Sri Lanka – India Strategic Dialogue, organized by the BCIS in Colombo, Rasgotra said that the governments of Sri Lanka and India should develop the Trincomalee port together.
The former Indian foreign Secretary also said ” We have made blunders, but, Sri Lanka has forgiven us. Today both Sri Lanka and India have become victims of terrorism. We hope the Sri Lankan peace process would succeed, the result be positive but, will not take too long. India has reiterated its firm commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.” He added, ” We are watching the situation, the LTTE’s response to the government’s proposal. But, the LTTE’s response is not reasonable.” Rasgotra also said “India is not indifferent, but, watchful. It all depends on what the people of Sri Lanka want from India.”
A MONUMENT MUST BE ERECTED TO HONOUR IPKF SAYS KADIRGAMAR
Member of Parliament and former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said that Sri Lankan government must erect a monument in honour of the soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) who died in Ceylon during the IPKF operations in the country. Speaking at the closing session of the First Sri Lanka-India dialogue organised by the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies, in Colombo. Kadirgamar said, “We owe them immense debt of gratitude. We owe them for what they did and what they tried to do”.
Kadirgamar said that an Indian reporter had asked him the question during his first visit to India as the Foreign Minister of the Peoples Alliance Government and he regretted very much that nothing had been done to honour the IPKF. Kadirgamar also said whatever views people would have even many years later, we should remember that over thousand soldiers sacrificed their lives in Ceylon’s soil and it must be recognised.
SEA TIGERS, LTTE ARE TERRORISTS NOT A NAVY
Mr.S.D.Muni a former member of India’s National Security Council and professor, School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, addressing the first Sri Lanka India strategic Dialogue conducted by the Bandaranaike Centre for International studies (BCIS), said that the peace process in Ceylon had allowed the LTTE to consolidate itself, pick up arms and kill democratic politicians. He said “Sri Lanka in fact has been witnessing only peace process. The situation has helped the LTTE to make significant political as well as military - tactical gains. Expectations are that the LTTE will continue to desist from breaking peace as long as it can gain political mileage out of the rivalry between the President and the Prime Minister. But the possibility of the LTTE changing the course in the event of either the formation of a truly national Government or further sharpening of political knives in Colombo exists”. Speaking further Prof.Muni said”. There are no takers for the LTTE proposals. The Sri Lankan Government says that it is not what they expected. The PA and the JVP has rejected it and the LTTE has been out of talks for months”. Prof.Muni also added that India has always even in the worst of times never expected separation as the solution for the problems of the people of Ceylon. He also pointed out that the political stability in the Island is vital for Indian own interest and also the aspiration of the people of Ceylon.
Speaking of Defence cooperation between the two countries former commander in Chief of Indian Navy’s Eastern Naval Command and an IPKF vetaran, Vice Admiral P.S.Das said only the Sri Lankan Navy could detain the Indian Fishermen and not others. He said this in reference to the LTTE capturing Indian fishermen. Vice Admiral Das said “ Five hundred people and a dozen boats cannot be considered a Navy. Sea Tigers, LTTE they are terrorists. Not a navy. Why give them credit”. He warned “But they have capabilities and there is a threat” Vice Admiral Das pointed out that Indian maritime reconnaissance assets have also been used to carry out searches in large ocean areas suspected to be carrying arms for the LTTE and vessels located have thereafter, been intercepted and neutralised by the Sri Lankan Navy. The former IPKF veteran called for increased cooperation between the Indian and Sri Lankan navies.
CWC MISLEADING ESTATE WORKERS
K.Valayudam, Badulla district MP and General Secretary, Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union alleged the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) of misleading the estate workers by distributing bogus application forms with the connivance of United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) to obtain Sri Lanka citizenship. He told media that the Government has passed a bill in parliament to grant citizenship to 165,000 people who are of Indian origin and their descendents. They were to be repatriated under the Sirima- Shasthri Pact signed in the sixties. But due to the unsettled conditions in the country since 1983 this was postponed.
Valayudam alleged that CWC has committed this underhand act on their own with the assistance of UNHCR officials where the latter has spent around Rs. 150,000 on printing and distribution of these bogus forms without the approval of the Government. At the bottom of these forms the names of CWC and UNHCR are printed to give the impression that it is they who are responsible for obtaining the citizenship to estate workers, Velayudam pointed out. He condemned this act of the CWC as a manoeuvre to obtain votes of estate Tamils posing as their only saviour. UNHCR should have been more alert as a UN arm in dealing with such people as this kind of deal will tarnish their image. This is something that has to be implemented by the Government and not a single union. Even the President has said it’s wrong to have the name of any union on these forms. President’s office has made an announcement to the effect that the earlier issued form is invalid, Velayudam said. Velaydam observed that it is our duty to help these less privileged people irrespective of caste, creed or nationality. No one should take undue political advantage and added that those who claimed to be the saviours of the estate workers in the past are gradually losing their foothold. All those who are granted citizenship will receive a 20 perch block of land and a loan of Rs.100,000 repayable in 15 years and an outright grant of Rs. 56,000. Among the other facilities that has been planned for them are playgrounds, community centres and crematoriums. Already a crematorium has been built in Pussellawa, said Raja Seneviratne, President of LJEWU. Government has already started issuing a form in all three languages to the estate workers who are eligible for Sri Lanka citizenship and the bogus form distributed to them will become invalid, he said. Asked what will happen to those who have already filled the forms and handed over to the other parties he said, “They will have to fill the correct form for the purpose” as the Government will not accept any private forms.
MINE ACTION MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Under the leadership of the National Steering Committee for Mine Action (NSCMA), UNDP, and UNICEF have worked together to produce a new Mine Action media campaign entitled ‘Your Safety, Mine Action, Our Future’. The campaign comprises of a series of thirteen short (five minute) documentaries and six (30 second) public service announcements that aim to explain the risks and the different aspects of humanitarian mine action activities that the public should be aware of. The thirteen programmes aim to create an understanding of the issues surrounding landmines and encourage responsible and safe behaviour among people in high-risk areas. They include an overview of humanitarian mine action work, the concept and importance of mine risk education, the various aspects of mine clearance, the challenges faced by internally displaced people returning to their homes, the assistance given to survivors of landmine injury, the impact of landmines on children, the information net work that supports mine clearance and advocacy and stockpile destruction.
PLANTATION WORKERS SHOULD NOT FALL PREY
The question of Sri Lankan citizenship rights to the people of Indian origin and estate Tamils in particular have been resolved by an Act of Parliament with the consensus and support of all political parties in Parliament. This was a matter that should be appreciated by all those beneficiaries said A. P. Kanapathipillai, a senior attorney-at-law, and a human rights activist addressing a seminar organised by Lawyers for Human Rights held at Nuwara Eliya.
Mr. Kanapathipillai, who traced the history of the Ceylon Citizenship Acts, pushed through the parliament by the late D. S. Senanayake and others with the support of certain Tamil leaders said that the legislations deprived the Indian origin Tamils their citizenship rights in Ceylon. He said that when such moves were mooted even in the State Council before independence, it was the late Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe who strongly voiced against such impending moves by Sinhala chauvinists.
It may be recalled that when the legislations to deny the Indian origin Tamils of Ceylon their citizenship rights were presented in the Parliament soon after Independence, it was Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam who along with the Trotskyite and Communist parties stood up and opposed the legislation against the disenfranchisement of Indian origin Tamils in Ceylon. He rightly perceived this move as an attack directed at the entire Tamil population in Ceylon.
EELAM UPDATE IS NOW ON THE WEBSITE
Readers can now access Eelam Update on the OfERR website at www.oferr.org to download the monthly Eelam Update soon after it is released. Eelam Update will reach you much faster through the website than through hard copies sent through postal mail. You can also access the latest information regarding the Ceylon Tamil Refugees in Tamil Nadu India through the same website.
Proteg@eth.net
ProTEG, P.O.Box 782, Egmore, Chennai - 600 008. India.
http://www.eelamupdate.org/Jan2004.htm
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Saturday, January 3rd, 2004
WORLD AFFAIRS
FRONTLINE:Volume 21 - Issue 01
January 03 - 16, 2004
India’s National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
V.S. SAMBANDAN
in Colombo
Differences within the Tamil United Liberation Front, once the most authoritative voice of Tamils in Sri Lanka, threaten to destroy the party’s independent identity and give the LTTE the upper hand.
SRIYANTHA WALPOLA
TULF president Anandasangaree (centre) at an all-party solidarity meeting in Colombo in August 2001. Among others in the picture, (from right) Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
SIMMERING differences within the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) are threatening to trigger a major change in Sri Lanka’s Tamil politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, the party set the tone for the island’s minority political discourse, and its stalwarts could call the then budding Tamil militants “our boys”. But today TULF is at quarrel with itself over whether the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should be recognised as the “sole representative” of the island’s Tamils.
In view of its moorings as a political formation intended to unify the Tamils, the developments in the past one year have been depressing. Although on the face of it the internal differences seem to be around the stand to be taken on the LTTE, far more serious is the internal race for leadership. A cocktail of these two factors has driven the party to the precipice.
Party president V. Anandasangaree is emphatic that the LTTE should not be accepted as the sole representative of the Tamils and that the TULF should maintain its identity. Vice-president and senior leader Joseph Pararajasingham and general secretary R. Sampanthan differ with him strongly and passionately.
Anandasangaree maintains that TULF has historical roots and accepting the rebels as the sole representatives of the Tamils would go against the party’s “founding principles”. He is certain that a separate identity for TULF would be in the larger interests of the Tamils. “The LTTE will very soon realise that I have taken the correct stand,” the TULF president told Frontline. Recalling the positions taken by TULF representatives in parliamentary debates, Anandasangaree said that the party had always striven to safeguard Tamil interests. As for his own position on the matter, he emphasised that “even without any request from the LTTE,” he had defended the stance take by Tamils and had welcomed the LTTE’s proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), submitted on October 31. Maintaining the distinction between the LTTE and TULF, he said, was “in the larger interest of Tamil politics”.
Pararajasingham and Sampanthan argue that “current political dynamics” should direct the party’s policy. Anandasangaree, they said, was “not swimming with the tide” and hence had “lost the confidence of the party’s rank and file” - a view endorsed by a majority of the party’s Central Committee.
TULF and three other Tamil parties - the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and a faction of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) - formed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and won 15 seats in the 2001 parliamentary polls on a campaign favouring talks between the government and the LTTE.
The LTTE, according to TULF members who consider it to be the sole representative of the Tamils, is the major Tamil political player as “even the government has started talking to them”. Two attempts to move a no-confidence motion against Anandasangaree were caught in controversy. A shaken but optimistic Anandasangaree said that there was nothing to negotiate on the issue; he is confident that his view will prevail. “The rank and file will give me support,” he said.
According to informed Tamil commentators, behind this argument is the story of a leadership battle for the post of party president. “They all know that power lies with the LTTE,” said a former militant, adding that a race for leadership was on and that the rebels were being used by the contestants. According to observers, deep within, TULF continues to consider the LTTE (and the former militant groups that have taken the parliamentary route) as “boys who will ultimately be reined in”. They believe that within TULF there is reluctance to accept the Tigers as the sole representatives of the Tamils. “The only difference between Anandasangaree and the others is that he makes it public,” an informed observer said. This, according to the Tamil commentators, has strengthened the position of those aspiring for party leadership.
Yet another view is that the spat will weaken TULF and consequently strengthen the position of the LTTE. Pointing out that the LTTE had assassinated the TULF’s leadership in the past but had not been able to bring the party to an end, a former militant said: “Without firing a single shot, the LTTE has now put TULF on the path to self-destruction.” Analysts feel that a struggle within TULF could strengthen the ACTC, TULF’s old rival.
Founded as the Tamil United Front (TUF) in 1972 when the Tamil Congress and the Federal Party came together, the party took the name TULF with the entry of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) a few years later. A high-point in the political programme of TULF was the Vadukottai resolution of 1976, which spelt out the case for a separate Tamil state. Immediately after the resolution, the CWC, headed by the late S. Thondaman, left TULF and re-asserted the identity of the CWC because he saw the circumstances surrounding plantation Tamils, the party’s support base, as different from those of Sri Lankan Tamils.
In its long history, Sri Lanka’s Tamil politics has been dogged by internal differences - be it on the political front or in relation to the militant formations. However, the early days of TULF established it as a party that mattered. Spurned by the discriminatory political system and enchanted by platform speeches promising a better future, Tamil militancy sprouted.
“They encouraged us from public platforms,” said a former Tamil militant, who has since left politics. “There is no doubt about it. We were fed by their political speeches. They were inspiring and made us want to do things,” he said. However, in a reverse process, today TULF leaders are lectured to by the LTTE, one of the several groups that consist of what they once called, and continue to call “our boys”.
Political commentators say that the current argument about the LTTE is “politically convenient” and hence “is being pushed with vigour”, though the actual differences are over leadership issues.
THE jostling for political space started with the formation of the TNA. The alliance was launched on the eve of the 2001 Parliamentary elections, but its roots can be traced back to the 2000 elections, when Tamil votes, particularly in the eastern districts, were splintered, helping the People’s Alliance (P.A.) and the National Unity Front.
Tamil civil society groups, mainly teachers and students from the Eastern and Jaffna universities, formed the Tamilar Marumalarchchi Kazhagam (Tamils’ Renaissance Front). Subsequently, they started discussions with leaders of TULF, TELO and other political parties.
Even at this stage, TULF was reluctant to permit the entry of erstwhile militant parties such as TELO. Discussions with local LTTE leaders cleared the air and an alliance was formed, whose main purpose was to ensure that the Tamil vote was not split. “It was to get the Tamil polity back to the 1977 stage,” recalls one of the activists behind the TNA’s formation.
THE move proved politically advantageous as the TNA won 15 seats in the 225-member Parliament and emerged as a dominant single bloc. While there were suggestions that the TNA register itself afresh as a political party, the move was put on hold. It is not without significance that the group’s parliamentary leader Sampanthan refers to it as the “Alliance of Tamil Parties” rather than the popularly known “Tamil National Alliance”. Meanwhile, internal leadership problems were simmering. The divide deepened after Anandasangaree stayed away from a meeting with the LTTE leadership in Kilinochchi, in contrast to other leaders who were constantly in touch with the rebel leadership. “Fundamentally, and in every way, it is a leadership battle,” a former militant said.
Not ruling out the personal factor, Anandasangaree said: “Now they are enjoying power in all aspects. They want the presidency also.” But the TULF veteran, - with a political standing of over four decades and supporters in formations ranging from the Sri Lankan Left to the old Tamil Congress - is in no mood to give up. Instead of being angry with his opponents within the party, the former schoolteacher, who once represented the currently rebel-held constituency of Kilinochchi in Parliament, feels that they need sympathy. “It is foolish on the part of our people. They should have explained and convinced them (opponents) that taking an independent stand is beneficial to the Tamils”.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2101/stories/20040116001005400.htm
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Sunday, December 21st, 2003
Srilanka:The Sunday Leader
21st December, 2003 Volume 10, Issue 23
“Anandasangari earned popularity and respect among the people as the one Tamil leader who stood up to the LTTE. He accepted their role in negotiating a political settlement, but maintained that no one had the right to the claim of being the sole representatives of the people. The LTTE redoubled their efforts to remove him.”
- University Teachers for Human Rights
(J) Bulletin of December 14, 2003
By D. B. S. Jeyaraj
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and their sycophantic stooges in the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) have for long tried to project an impression that the ongoing campaign to remove Veerasingham Anandasangari from TULF party presidency is purely an intra-party matter without any input by the Tigers.
Anandasangari alleged in a recent interview to the BBC Thamil Osai that external pressure was being exerted on party members to remove him. TULF Secretary General, Rajavorathayam Sampanthan denied the allegation in the same programme and said that there was no pressure of any kind from anywhere.
Earlier, LTTE Political Wing Chief, S. P. Tamilselvan had in an interview to a Colombo English newspaper stated that the LTTE was not involved in the efforts to remove Sangari from the TULF presidency. These moves according to Tamilselvan were part of an internal power struggle. There was much opposition to Sangari within the party, he said.
Due to the long drawn out political struggle for equality in the island, the long suffering Tamil people have developed several collective traits. One of these is to remain passively silent outwardly in the face of false propaganda while inwardly ascertaining for themselves the exact state of affairs.
False details
During the warring years, propaganda organs of the state dished out false details of many issues. These were eagerly lapped up by the south and segments of the international community. The north - eastern Tamil people however with quiet knowledge of the reality never believed them.
Time’s winged chariot has covered far distances in recent times. The very same Tamil people of the north - east know the nature of things in their region. No matter what the propaganda is in the pro-Tiger Tamil media, ordinary people know what exactly is happening.
In the case of Anandasangari too the ordinary Tamil people know exactly why he is facing opposition and the causes for it. Though they would not articulate it the bulk of the people treat Tiger and pro-Tiger propaganda in this respect as mere hogwash.
The constant efforts of TULF parliamentarians to dislodge Sangari from the party presidency is attributed to the consistent efforts of the LTTE to de-throne Anandasangari it is felt. The pro-Tiger Tamil media trying to paint a different picture are hopelessly estranged from dormant public opinion in this.
The latest information bulletin (No. 33) of the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) released on December 14 spotlights the so-called TULF internal dissension in powerful language.
Some excerpts are as follows:
“Another drama in which the words flowed excruciatingly for six hours, but had no connection to the hidden menace lurking below, was the TULF Central Committee (CC) meeting on November 30. Its main purpose was to remove the President Mr. Anandasangari. A similar attempt last July failed miserably and Anandasangari’s position seemed unshakable. Anandasangari earned popularity and respect among the people as the one Tamil leader who stood up to the LTTE. He accepted their role in negotiating a political settlement, but maintained that no one had the right to the claim of being the sole representatives of the people.
“The LTTE redoubled their efforts to remove him. Other party members were regularly summoned to the LTTE HQ in Kilinochchi and browbeaten with veiled threats to get rid of Anandasangari. So the CC members came to the meeting and let fly with words, some of Anandasangari’s staunchest allies having turned his bitterest critics. Anandasangari was accused of improprieties and deemed unfit to be the party leader. The MPs should know if their electoral practices had anything to do with propriety or their conduct with honour.
Disgraceful happenings
“The affair was a matter of walking corpses who hobbled in to place the formal seal of death on their party. In a final act of suicide, these corpses showed infinitely more feeling and anger against their lately esteemed leader, than they showed for the killers of their murdered friends and colleagues.
“The LTTE began the physical destruction of the TULF by killing nearly 10 of its senior leaders. The majority of the survivors were ready to grovel. Their rancorous public utterances came to lack any feeling or content. The moment a colleague was killed by the LTTE, the more rancorous they became in attacking the ‘Sinhalese government.’ Privately they told their friends that they did not know what grim fate awaited them the next day.”
The disgraceful happenings at the last TULF Central Working Committee were recorded vividly in these columns two weeks ago. As predicted by this column the TULF intra-party struggle is now shifting to thelegal realm.
The anti-Anandasangari elements in the TULF planned to stage another meeting of the working committee in Thirukkovil in the Amparai District on December 21. Thirukkovil is the “traditional homeland” of Ariyanayagam Chandranehru, the TULF MP from the district. During the controversial meeting in Colombo Nehru’s civilian driver was seen brandishing a revolver.
It was widely felt that holding the TULF meeting in a Tiger stronghold would prevent Sangari and his supporters from attending the meet. Moreover, it was alleged that holding such a meeting without consulting the party president was unconstitutional.
After writing a letter to Sampanthan about the “constitutional impropriety” of holding such a meeting, Anandasangari also went to court seeking a restraining order. Colombo Additional District Judge Lalith Jayasuriya issued such an order preventing such a TULF meeting being held and also imposed further restraints on the first and second respondents, namely Sampanthan and Pararajasingham.
During submissions by Sangari’s lawyer Wijedasa Rajapakse, the learned President’s Counsel presented arguments about the potential danger to the life and limb of Sangari and his supporters if they went to Thirukkovil. It was made clear in court that Sangari faced avery real threat from the LTTE in view of his courageous stance. The circumstances relating to LTTE efforts to unseat him by TULF “proxy” too were explained.
Clear danger
Thus for the first time since the LTTE began its anti-Sangari campaign, it has been argued before a Sri Lankan tribunal that the Tigers were behind the moves to unseat the TULF president. Moreover, it was also stated in court that Sangari faced a clear and present danger from the LTTE.
If this was one clear instance of the Tiger involvement in the Sangari affair being exposed there were two other significant events too. The first is a seemingly jovial comment concerning Sangari made by LTTE Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham in London. The second is a dangerous life-threatening development affecting the TULF chief in Colombo.
Balasingham addressing the Maaveerar commemoration meeting in London on December 6 made some derogatory references to Anandasangari. Extolling the virtues of the LTTE in upholding the ceasefire Balasingham said that the positive conduct of the Tigers had emboldened several people to cross the LTTE.
Describing Anandasangari as a non-lethal ratsnake, Balasingham charged the TULF Leader of being brave enough now to set up people to assault others. He insinuated that despitedaring to confront the Tigers, Sangari had nothing to fear from the LTTE. “We will not come to garland you,” he quipped.
The reference of course was to Dhanu the suicide bomber who garlanded Rajiv Gandhi and then self-destructed killing 18 people including the former Indian Premier. While tacitly admitting that the LTTE was responsible for Rajiv’s assassination, Balasingham was also implicitly exposing the animus within the LTTE towards Sangari. If this was another exposure of Tiger malice and hostility towards the TULF president there was another incident of a serious nature that implicated the LTTE further.
Thequarrel between Ananda- sangari and Jaffna District TULF MP, Somasundaram Senathirajah alias “Mavai” Senathirajah is a complicated issue that even Amirthalingam’s widow Mangai- arrkkarasi has been unable to patch up.
Senathirajah had appointed a new clerk some months ago. This young man was a resident of Puthukudiyiruppu in the LTTE controlled Mullaitivu District. He was of Indian Tamil descent and originally hailed from Ratnapura District. The family affected in the July 1983 violence had migrated north in the same year.
Tiger threat
The young man shuttled between Colombo and Wanni frequently. He was supposed to work in the TULF office at 30 1/1 Alwis Place, Colpetty. It was soon discovered that the young clerk had very little clerical skills. Many TULF stalwarts became suspicious that the guy was a Tiger sent to spy on the TULF.
Despite these feelings no one dared to do anything about it as the fear of the Tiger is great. Sangari who is not on speaking terms with Senathirajah informed Sampanthan and Pararajasingham of this and asked them to address the matter. Nothing however was done and the ‘troubling presence’ continued to linger at the Colombo TULF office.
An unexpected twist occurred last week when the Ministerial Security Division sent Sangari a cautionary letter. The missive stated that Mavai Senathirajah’s clerk wasnone other than an operative of the Tiger intelligence wing, Tiger Organisation Security Intelligence Service (TOSIS), headed by the dreaded Pottu Amman.
His name was Murugan Kalaichelvan and was now staying at the residence of S. Packiyam at 129/9, Kadawatte Road, Nedimala, Dehiwela. Anandasangari was warned that the “clerk” had been assigned the task of assassinating Anandasangari at the appropriate juncture.
The essence of this letter was given wide publicity in the Colombo media. Once again, the extent of anti-Anandasangari animosity within Tiger ranks was spotlighted. This development demonstrated clearly that the Tigers were gunning for Sangari. It also reinforced the belief that the LTTE was the driving force behind the TULF ‘opposition’ to his leadership.
Reasons for animosity
The Sunday Leader learns that the ‘clerk’ Kalaichelvan was in the Wanni when details of the letter exposing him appeared in the media. He had then telephoned Senathirajah’s Secretary Bala from Vavuniya. He was told that Senathirajah wanted him to come to his Colombo residence and not go to the party office. Kalaichelvan however returned to the Wanni interior presumably to seek fresh instructions from Pottu Amman as his cover was now blown.
These three recent developments have helped expose the Tiger hand in Anandasangari’s troubles. The extent of Tiger hostility towards him and the extraordinary lengths to which they are prepared to go in pursuance of that too is now well known.
There are many reasons for LTTE animositytowards Anandasangari. Whatever the origins of this confrontation, the crux of the matter however is that the doughty politician’s refusal to ‘obey’ Tiger diktat has irked the LTTE immensely. Moreover, despite the intimidation the bulk of the TULF rank and file has stood by him. Also though unarticulated there is strong Tamil public opinion in Sangari’s favour too.
There is no doubt that the reasonableness of Anandasangari’s position on the Tiger sole representative status is obvious to any reasonable person. It is also apparent that the LTTE is interfering in the internal affairs of another party which at one time was the largest Tamil organisation in Sri Lanka. Another obvious fact is that the ‘honorable’ parliamentarians of the TULF are shamelessly grovelling before the LTTE and that the false accusations levelled against Sangari have a Kafkaesque element to it.
Under these circumstances the LTTE finds it intolerable that a mere Tamil septuagenarian mortal lacking any ‘armed division’ to protect him can defy the organisation for so long. So far Sangari has withstood attempts to remove him from the party presidency. He has also moved the issue into the court room where a greater sense of justice prevails as opposed to Tiger notions of the same concept. The Tiger plot to assassinate him too has been publicised.
Such continuous defiance is sacrilegious from the Tiger viewpoint. Sangari is becoming a symbol of courage against the LTTE that cannot be tolerated for long by the LTTE. Anandasangari could exert apositive demonstration effect on the Tamil people at large that one can defy the LTTE and get away with it. Moreover, it is he who is rallying the TULF and preserving its independence. Sangari has to be removed for the total subjugation of the TULF to happen.
Withstanding odds
If there was no ceasefire there is no doubt that a Tiger assassin would have dealt with Sangari in the traditional LTTE way. This is what Balasingham was trying to imply. The fact that Balasingham says “we won’t come to garland you” is no real assurance. It could be a diversionary tactic and in any case Pottu Amman’s agents do not abide by Bala annai’s sentiments.
The sinister stationing of a TOSIS clerk at the TULF office has ominous forebodings. The ceasefire has not prevented the LTTE from abducting and killing members of the EPDP, EPRLF or perceived informants. The LTTE going after the defiant Anandasangari who has withstood severe odds against him cannot be ruled out in the near future.
The responsibility therefore lies with Ranil Wickremesinghe who signed the ceasefire with Velupillai Pirapaharan and Chandrika Kumaratunga who took over defence to safeguard the country. It is their combined duty to ensure that the president of the unarmed TULF remains safe and secure to engage in legitimate and democratic politics in the face of neo-fascist oppression.
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20031221/issues-1.htm
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Thursday, December 18th, 2003
Coutesy: Daily Mirror
By Susitha R. Fernando
Colombo District Court yesterday issued an enjoining order preventing the TULF from holding its Central Committee Meeting to be held at Ampara on December 21.
Colombo Additional District Judge Lalith Jayasuriya issued this order on a plaint filed by TULF leader V. Anandasangari.
Mr. Anandasangari said that a few members of his party were trying to dismiss him from the party leadership because he refused to accept the LTTE organisation as the sole representative of the Tamils. (more…)
Posted in Leadership Challenges, Media, News in Brief | No Comments »
Sunday, December 14th, 2003
Courtesy: UTHR
Information Bulletin No. 33
Another drama in which the words flowed excruciatingly for six hours, but had no connection to the hidden menace lurking below, was the TULF central committee meeting on 30th November. Its main purpose was to remove the president Mr. Anandasangari. A similar attempt last July failed miserably and Anadasangari’s position seemed unshakable. Anadasangari earned popularity and respect among the people as the one Tamil leader who stood up to the LTTE. He accepted their role in negotiating a political settlement, but maintained that no one had the right to the claim of being the sole representatives of the people.
The LTTE redoubled their efforts to remove him. Other party members were regularly summoned to the LTTE HQ in Killinochchi and browbeaten with veiled threats to get rid of Anadasangari. So the CC members came to the meeting and let fly with words, some of Anadasangari’s staunchest allies having turned his bitterest critics. Anadasangari was accused of improprieties and deemed unfit to be the party leader. The MPs should know if their electoral practices had anything to do with propriety or their conduct with honour.
The affair was a matter of walking corpses who hobbled in to place the formal seal of death on their party. In a final act of suicide, these corpses showed infinitely more feeling and anger against their lately esteemed leader, than they showed for the killers of their murdered friends and colleagues. The LTTE began the physical destruction of the TULF by killing nearly 10 of its senior leaders. The majority of the survivors were ready to grovel. Their rancorous public utterances came to lack any feeling or content. The moment a colleague was killed by the LTTE, the more rancorous they became in attacking the ‘Sinhalese government’. Privately they told their friends that they did not know what grim fate awaited them the next day.
The party’s new leader designate, Mr. Sampanthan, was a known supporter of President Kumaratunge’s constitutional draft proposals of 2000. At the end of that year the LTTE murdered TULF’s new MP Nimalan Soundaranayagam. Sampanthan flipped. When the MPs answered the LTTE leader’s invitation to meet him in April 2002, Sampanthan, according to persons present, abased himself by standing up for the LTTE leader’s entrance and refused to sit down after he sat. Individual stories of other party men are hardly different. Other international efforts too are underway to make Tiger rule look a five star democracy.
The Daily News of 11th and 12th November published ‘Listening to Voices of Jaffna: results of a social survey’ organized by Dr. Yoshiko Ashiwa, Professor of Anthropology, Hitotsubashi University in Japan, with the collaboration of Dr. N. Shanmugalingam, Chair of the Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of Jaffna and Dr. Jehan Perera, Director of Media and Research, National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
Under survey topic f) Vote of Confidence, it said: For a society to hold together it needs to have confidence in persons and institutions. The response to this question, which takes real choice for granted, gave the LTTE leader the best ranking, with 78 percent saying that they had a lot of confidence in him. The organisers’ confidence in their findings was expressed in the words, ‘we believe that the responses indicate the views and mood of the residents of Jaffna town’.
We do not propose to go over old ground. But almost none of the scholars and peace activists who give their name to such exercises take actual account of the ambience of terror and the absence of freedom. The press has been strangled, political opponents of the 78% man are being hunted and killed all the time, and the society’s choice for credible leaders has been nullified by a campaign of extermination. What are the motives of foreign agencies that pump money into polls that are in effect a PR exercise to whitewash the crimes against a people?
Or was the survey another birthday present for the Leader like Chris Patten’s visit? The use made of the poll is an insult to the people of Jaffna. Unfortunately, these tendentious exercises by those who abuse their credentials have their effect. They make people and commentators comfortable with the idea that the LTTE are the sole representatives of the Tamil people. That is one of the reasons why Anandasangari who openly said otherwise had to go. We now deal with other tragic realities, which show how battered and traumatized the Tamil community is.
The cases below illustrate how insidiously repression has continued even as the LTTE was preparing and presenting its ISGA proposals promising human rights and democracy. These cases also illustrate how families had been decimated on account of one member being in a group opposed to the LTTE. It is a part of Tamil history that will never be written. We have said since the early 1990s that the number of LTTE’s victims among the ordinary people runs into several thousands. The fact of youths attaching themselves to one militant group or the other was once, it must be remembered, a mass phenomenon.
http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul33.htm#_Toc59192933
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Friday, December 12th, 2003
Jehan Perera
The largest Tamil political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), is in the throes of crisis. There is an attempt being made both within the party and by external quarters to get rid of its incumbent president, V. Anandasangari. The crisis has been brewing for several months. It came to the surface in reports some months ago of LTTE dissatisfaction at statements reportedly made by Anandasangari. The essence of the statements may seem to be a truism for people familiar with the rudiments of democratic theory, but in Sri Lankas tortured north-east, and among the larger Tamil community, it is not. The question is whether the LTTE should be regarded as the sole representative of the Tamil people.
On December 7 morning I was reading the invariably insightful newspaper column by Tamil expatriate journalist, D.B.S. Jeyaraj, who was writing on the dilemma faced by the TULF. It so happened that another expatriate Tamil, whose friendship spans the years, walked into my home. He is a man who loves Sri Lanka and its people, and left the country in 1984 to ensure the security of his family after they were attacked by a mob in that month of infamy of July, 1983. Ever curious to obtain a second opinion, I asked him what he had to say about the problem. My old friends answer was illuminating.
His initial response was that he had not given much thought to the matter of either Anandasangari or the TULF because he felt that both were not very relevant to the situation in the country at the present time. In his view, the TULF is a group of has-beens and it was the LTTE that is all-important. It is not only my friend, the expatriate, who thinks this way. I have heard this same response in Colombo and the north-east. Sometimes, by their behaviour and deference to the LTTE, even the political leaders of this country seem to be agreeing with this assessment.
With the strengthening of Tamil militancy after 1983, democratic Tamil political parties like the TULF got progressively marginalised. Their strength in terms of parliamentary representation remained high, but their strength on the ground declined in terms of their ability to move freely and their political strength to deliver resources to the people. The totally unarmed TULF, in particular, was rendered impotent, while the fully armed LTTE was very strong. It was because Sri Lanka was a society that did not truly value democracy that this tragic situation occurred. For the peace process to be successful in the long term it must be about undoing the damage caused by this grave fault in the Sri Lankan attitude towards democracy.
Sole representatives
My expatriate friend continued to give me his views. He said he was proud to be a Tamil today and walk with his head held high because of the LTTE. The LTTE, he said, had given the Tamil people a sense of dignity by their military resistance, a statement once made in 1995 by former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. But my friend went beyond Kadirgamar when he added that if he had the opportunity, he would fall at the feet of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakharan and worship him. And yet, my friend loves Sri Lanka more than his adopted country.
Today, after more than two decades of armed struggle the LTTE has achieved a superior negotiating position vis-a-vis the government, which none of the democratic Tamil political parties have. They have obtained the recognition of their equality at the negotiating table from the government that enabled the lifting of the ban once placed upon them. At the peace talks in Thailand last year the government even referred to the LTTE as partners, a clear acknowledgment of their equal status at the negotiating table and in the peace-building process.
It was undoubtedly in recognition of the LTTEs superior bargaining strength relative to the democratic Tamil political parties that most of them came together under the umbrella of the Tamil National Alliance in 2001. They also agreed to contest the general election of December, 2001 on the slogan that the LTTE would be the sole representative of the Tamils. This stemmed in part from their judicious observation that the unity of the Tamil people should not be sundered in negotiations with the government. Undoubtedly there was also a measure of LTTE coercion in these parties being prepared to relinquish their own representative status. Every single Tamil political party has lost its leaders to LTTE.
However, the position of sole representative sits uncomfortably with democracy. As the premier Tamil democratic party, steeped in the democratic tradition, TULF in particular will be aware that the notion of a sole representative who speaks on behalf of all is incompatible with democracy. If the multiplicity of voices emerging from the south of the country bespeaks the weakness of democracy, the single voice emanating from the north suggests an authoritarian regime. In this context it is pertinent to note that at the controversial meeting of the TULF that sought to sack Anandasangari from his position as president, the TULF did not agree to formally pass a resolution acknowledging the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people.
Mixed feelings:
When we discussed the situation within the TULF and the conflicting pressures on its leadership, my expatriate friend began to talk about the problematic side of the LTTE. He referred to one of his relatives who had left Jaffna during the war years but had recently returned. He had gone back to Jaffna to sell his property, but had found it occupied by the LTTE. When he asked the LTTE to give him back his property they had demanded a very large sum of money and, in addition, said that the property would not be released now but in a couple of years.
Most people, whether living in the north-east, Colombo or abroad are aware of the problems associated with living with military authorities, whether belonging to the Sri Lankan government or the LTTE. The arbitrary take-over of property is probably the least hurtful. Property can be built back, it can be earned and it can be given back. But youth or life taken away can never be returned. This was the terrible situation during the years of war that reached a peak with the former governments war for peace. In this time of ceasefire, when we are progressing towards a final political settlement, the LTTE needs to be more conscious of democratic norms, which reject forcible imposition on others.
When the LTTE made its historic decision to pursue the path of peace talks they implicitly accepted travelling towards democracy. They were listening to the voice of the war-weary people. They would also have been aware that the path of a negotiated peace with international mediation would end up in the regaining of democracy. The only viable model of governance that is acceptable to the international community at this point in time is democracy. But this did not deter the LTTE from pressing for a ceasefire and for peace talks. And there is reason to be hopeful.
We can believe that many, if not the overwhelming majority of Tamil people (including my expatriate friend), support the notion of the LTTE being the sole representative of the Tamil people at the negotiating table with the government. The reason is their belief that the LTTE is best positioned to obtain for the Tamil people the full measure of their democratic rights. However, sole representative status in governing a people (as distinct from negotiating a settlement) can ultimately only be earned at free and fair elections, and not by fiat. This is the important principle that Anandasangari, who won the largest number of votes in the north-east in the last general election, is upholding.
In presenting their proposals for an interim self-governing authority for the north-east last month, the LTTE has explicitly recognised the importance of democracy with their proposals for a human rights commission and an elections commission. This acknowledgment of these principles is a positive feature. In the LTTE proposals, all such key institutions would be under their control. This would surely need to be amended in the negotiation process. There is a need to design mechanisms that would ensure the separation and division of powers, not only within the north-east but also in the rest of the country.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/121203/inter.html
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