Archive for the 'Election 2004' Category
Thursday, July 21st, 2005
5. The Sooriyamoorthy Assassination
The LTTE takes great pains to paint all its victims as paramilitaries of some sort. Take the case of Mr.P. Sooriyamoorthy, the highly respected former mayor of Trincomalee and father of five children, who contested the parliamentary elections in Jaffna in April 2004 on Mr. Anandasangary’s party list. As mayor, the Government gave into Sinhalese extremist sentiment in preventing him from opening the new market he built for Trincomalee. He also earned the appreciation of Tamil passengers who had to travel by ship to Jaffna in the latter 1990s by arranging rest facilities for them.
Until he died Sooriyamoorthy was a frequent caller at Mr. Anandasangary’s home in Colombo where he used to help with office work. Though warned by friends, he did not take the LTTE threat seriously enough as it had no pretext for branding him a traitor. The controversy over the overnight erection of a new Buddha statue led to tension and a shutdown of Trincomalee on Tuesday 17th May. In the evening of the very next day, Sooriyamoorthy was shot at his home and injured. He was airlifted to Colombo for emergency surgery and died a week later as the shooting had damaged his liver.
On the very day Sooriyamoorthy was shot, “Nitharsanam” with close links to LTTE intelligence announced that he had been attacked by government, majoritarian Buddhist fanatics. This was initially believed even by persons close to Sooriyamoorthy. But there were witnesses who could testify to the contrary – relatives and neighbors who saw and heard the assault. It soon got out that
four young men on motor cycles had arrived at his house on the night of the attack, and asked him to come with them to discuss a business deal. Sooriyamoorthy was reportedly suspicious and refused. When his assailants tried to physically force him outside, there was a struggle.. The killers panicked, shot him in the abdomen and thigh and ran away, leaving him injured. The hero supposedly killed by Sinhalese fanatics became an embarrassment to the LTTE. When he died there were tell-tale virtual admissions by the killers. The Tamil Sakthy TV where his daughter Sooriyaprabha worked failed to announce his death. The London-based LTTE-run IBC Radio described Sooriyamoorthy as a man castaway (thrown) and rejected by the people, in reference to the elections mercilessly rigged by the LTTE.
The climax came in a statement claiming responsibility for Sooriyamoorthy’s murder, dated 27th May, printed in the Uthayan and other LTTE-controlled media and supposedly faxed to them, claiming to have come from a Seralathan, writing as spokesman for the Tamil National Army associated with Karuna. The statement claimed that Sooriyamoorthy was killed because he was a spy for the LTTE Vanni group. The allegedly Karuna statement was publicised exclusively in the media of his enemy. Even more curiously, the statement gave its address as Pandivirichchan, Vavuniya, a solidly LTTE-controlled area in the Vanni! That is also a statement of affairs within the LTTE.
It is dishonest to pretend that these are killings between the LTTE and paramilitaries that one can do nothing about. Every murder gives out its secrets under scrutiny. Even Sooriyamoorthy had been reduced in death to a paramilitary, this time a paramilitary of the LTTE, as if that made his murder less of an issue. It was a calculated and resounding attack on democracy, aided by the hullabaloo created over the statue by friends in need - Buddhist extremists.
Iqbal Athas reported (Sunday Times 10 Jul.05): “Rear Admiral Weerasekera, according to a report from a state intelligence agency, had addressed a gathering of three wheeler scooter taxi drivers who are known to be responsible for placing the statue.” The Rear Admiral who was moved out of Trincomalee by the President later denied the charge, but the intense security in the eastern town would not have permitted the erection of the statue without the connivance of the security forces. In Trincomalee, the minorities have felt the heavy hand of discrimination enforced by local security commanders in favour of the Sinhalese. In January 1997 Brigadier P.S.B. Kulatunge prevented Mayor Sooriyamoorthy from opening the new market he had built, as the city father, obscurely citing “the deterioriating situation in the area, and the general interest of the public in Trincomalee” (Special Report No.8). Now it would appear that another security top brass erected a Buddha statue thus creating a ‘deteriorating security situation’ to give the Tigers the cover to kill the former city father. The Buddha statue that signalled his death promises to remain the monument to the city father’s memory, rather than the new market he built and was not allowed to open.
http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul38.htm#_Toc135544187
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Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004
Courtesy:The Island
by Shamindra Ferdinando
TULF leader V. Anandasangaree said the European Union has identified the LTTE as the ‘primary source of the violence’ at the April 2 parliamentary election. The EU’s Election Observation Mission Chief (in Sri Lanka) John Cushnahan has said that the LTTE’s primary aim was to garner a huge majority for their proxy the TNA to project it (the LTTE) as the sole representatives of the Tamils.
“Didn’t I tell this repeatedly,” he asked. “The EU also confirmed my claim that the LTTE engaged in violence in support of the TNA,” the veteran politician said. In the run-up to the poll, Anandasangaree had repeatedly urged the then government, Elections Department and the international community to pressurise the LTTE to cease its terror directed against rival political parties.
The EU’s final report on the election was evidence that the powerful grouping did not accept LTTE’s ridiculous claim that they were the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking people. Quoting the report released in Colombo on June 17, the former Jaffna district MP said: “Firstly, the LTTE intended that no other rival Tamil party (or Tamil candidate from the mainstream political alliances) to the TNA would be able to claim to represent Tamil interests. A chilling message to this effect was sent early in the campaign when a UNP candidate and an EPDP activist were murdered. Incidents such as this seriously restricted the right of parties other than the TNA to campaign freely in the North and East. During the 2004 elections the major incidence of violence originated with the LTTE, whereas in the earlier elections, the primary source of the violence (although not all) were the two largest political alliances.”
Anandasangaree applauded the EU for saying the truth. “Cushnahan didn’t mince his words,” the TULF veteran said, while urging the government and the UNP-led opposition to reject what he called the LTTE’s ridiculous sole representative claim.
Anandasangaree believes the 22-member TNA parliamentary group has no moral right to be in Parliament. The EU has unmasked them, he said, challenging the TNA to contradict the EU. “I am sure the LTTE, the TNA and their supporters never expected the EU to be so blunt. They never thought the report was going to undermine their efforts to gain international recognition,” he said.
Replying to questions, he pointed out that there were sharp differences between the EU report and that of the others who monitored the poll. “Wouldn’t it be absurd to have different reports on the April election. But the unprecedented EU report had unmasked all phoney poll monitors,” he said, while urging foreign governments which funded polls monitoring groups to assess their performances.
Anandasangaree said the UPFA government and the UNF should be grateful to the EU for unmasking the LTTE and the TNA. It would be interesting to note what the EU had to say about the split in the LTTE. “There is a general perception that three of the five election-related murders were backed by the LTTE in an attempt to intimidate other Tamil contestants. For example on March 30, a TNA candidate who supported Karuna’s split was killed together with his brother-in-law in Batticaloa. On the same day, the deputy Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Northeast University who supported interests of Eastern Tamils, was seriously injured in Batticaloa.”
The EU also reported cases of multiple voting and impersonation in most cluster polling stations, Anandasangaree said. The Elections Commissioner must take notice of the EU report, he said, expressing the belief the UPFA and the UNF would not be misled by the devious TNA MPs.
http://www.island.lk/2004/06/23/
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Saturday, June 5th, 2004
Opinion - Leader Page Articles
Courtesy: The Hindu; India
By Nirupama Subramanian
Behind the apparent triumph of ITAK, a proxy of the LTTE, in the Sri Lankan elections is a tale of massive subversion of the democratic process.
SRI LANKA’s recent elections gave the Tamil National Alliance (ITAK) 22 seats in Parliament. ITAK, an alliance of five Tamil parties, is a proxy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Eight of its parliamentarians were elected from Jaffna and the rest from other parts of the North-East. The LTTE projected ITAK’s performance in the election as its triumph.
But behind the apparent triumph is a tale of subversion of the democratic process on a scale so massive, especially in Jaffna, that in a similar situation in an Indian constituency, the Election Commission would have countermanded the election. At the very least, the evidence would have warranted re-polling in scores of polling booths. For the LTTE to claim a mandate from the Tamil people on the basis of this flawed election is an exercise in deception.
From the start of the election process, it was clear that the LTTE — which wanted ITAK to win the maximum number of seats — would not permit a free and fair election in the North-East. In the East, it killed three non-ITAK candidates, two of them early in the campaign. In Jaffna, it did not permit any party other than ITAK to canvass for votes.
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) led by Douglas Devananda, and a breakaway group of ITAK, led by V. Anandasangaree, who quit the alliance refusing to kowtow to the LTTE, formed the main opposition to ITAK. But they and their candidates found themselves under virtual house arrest. They had no access to voters and the voters had no access to them.
Mr. Devananda wrote 16 letters to the Elections Commissioner from the day the nominations were accepted to the date of the elections, bringing to his attention the serious threat the LTTE posed to the holding of a free and fair election, to no avail. His supporters could not hire vehicles or loudspeakers to run their campaign. When they did venture out to canvass votes, bands of youth on motorcycles rode up menacingly, telling people to disperse and not accept any EPDP campaign material.
In a fundamental rights petition now before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Thambithurai Sivakumaran, an EPDP candidate, has said the atmosphere was marred by “numerous acts of political intimidation and violence” making it impossible for his party and the Anandasangaree group to campaign freely. Their supporters were “threatened and physically assaulted, prevented from using loudspeakers and holding rallies, were being harassed when circulating leaflets and canvassing door to door,” the petition says.
The situation had deteriorated to such an extent that Mr. Anandasangaree did not step out of his office even for a single day’s campaigning. “No meetings were held by me. No canvassing was allowed. Paper advertisements were either censored or prevented from being published,” he said in a recent statement.
The Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said in its interim report that “the election campaign in the North and East has turned out to be fraught with violence and flagrant disregard for the democratic rights of the citizens of these areas.”
The group said there was not adequate focus on the rights of voters to receive information regarding the different political parties and groups contesting the elections in order to enable them to make an informed choice.
“Given a situation where no group other than the [ITAK] has been able to enter and canvass for votes in these areas, once again the issue of whether an election held under such circumstances could be considered to be free and fair remains an issue,” the CMEV report said.
In spite of the adverse reports, the Election Commission decided to go ahead and hold the election in Jaffna as scheduled. If the campaign flouted every democratic norm, the election was farcical. Independently of one another, four groups, two Sri Lankan — PAFFREL and CMEV — and two international — the Commonwealth Observer Group and the European Union Election Observation Mission — witnessed the polls in Jaffna.
All four came up with near-identical findings: large-scale voter impersonation; multiple voting; ITAK supporters intimidating EPDP polling agents; ITAK supporters ejecting agents of other parties from polling stations; ITAK transporting voters to polling stations; polling officials aiding and abetting ITAK; polling officials not fastidious about checking for identification ink to ensure that people who had voted once did not vote again; people washing off the identification ink from their fingers; and ballot boxes bearing the ITAK symbol.
This is what the Commonwealth Observer Group report had to say:
“In the North, there was also considerable evidence of multiple voting, impersonation, underage voting and intimidation of party workers and voters. A voter in the North claimed she had voted five times and boasted `my work is done for the day.’ Another voter, also in the North, boasted that he had voted 25 times. In the North groups of young men were seen outside polling stations and political party offices with many poll cards in their hands. Observers saw one man soliciting polling cards and heard him claim `they’re not checking.’ Many ballot boxes in the North were seen by our Team to bear the symbol and name of the [ITAK]. Officials `nodded through’ voters even though their names were not on the list. Attempts to remove the indelible ink were organised on a large scale… At many polling stations agents were present from only one party… ”
The CMEV had a detailed report of the polling centres where the malpractices took place. In Manipai, for instance, only ITAK polling agents were present in 33 polling centres. In Point Pedro, the CMEV monitors noted “large-scale impersonation” by the TNA. In Kopai, they saw “a large group” of young and old people removing ink from their fingers and handing out polling cards. And so on.
In spite of the rigging, the EPDP managed to win one of the nine seats in the peninsula, a tiny hint of the disaffection among people with the LTTE over its conduct — in particular its extortionary ways — in the months since the ceasefire.
The CMEV urged the Election Commissioner to annul the election in the entire Jaffna district and order a re-poll. In the Indian election, the Election Commission took the extreme step of countermanding the election in Chapra, Bihar, after considering the overwhelming evidence of rigging and intimidation of voters in that constituency.
In Sri Lanka, the Election Commissioner is admittedly not as powerful as his Indian counterpart but he has the power to order re-polling where he deems it necessary. Inexplicably, he chose not to exercise this power in respect of Jaffna. This even after the powers of his office have been augmented by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution under which he is vested with the duty and responsibility of acting independently to ensure a free and fair election.
As in India, Sri Lankan courts are barred by the Constitution (17th Amendment) from interfering with the electoral process once the election has been notified and this is to ensure that the democratic process is not disrupted by frivolous legislation. Therefore, it rests entirely on the Election Commissioner to act as the umpire, provide a level-playing field, and blow the whistle where warranted. Otherwise, those with legitimate complaints must necessarily wait until after the election to approach the courts. Again, as in India, courts can take years to settle election petitions. The Sri Lankan Election Commissioner clearly abdicated his role as the umpire insofar as the elections in Jaffna were concerned.
There are other issues that the fiasco has raised that Sri Lanka needs to address in order to prevent it from happening again.
Of these, a key issue is that of the outdated electoral rolls in the Jaffna peninsula, which carry the names of 650,000 people. Unlike in the rest of Sri Lanka, the Jaffna voters’ list has not been updated since 1981. Over half the voters on the list are dead, have gone abroad or have been displaced internally by the two decade-long conflict. This flawed list has been misused in successive elections.
Sri Lankan election law does not require voters to carry any identity document to the polling booth except their polling cards. The polling card is not a photo I-D. With the outdated voters’ list and the evidently easy access to the polling cards of the missing voters on that list, elections in Jaffna are tailor-made for impersonation.
A parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms set up in 2003 considered the Election Commissioner’s representation that it should be made mandatory for voters to produce the National Identity Card (NIC), a photo I-D, to prove their identity. But until all Sri Lankans, especially the Indian Tamils in the tea estates of central Sri Lanka, have access to the NIC, introducing such a rule may cut many eligible voters out of exercising their franchise altogether.
The select committee also witnessed a demonstration of two Indian brands of electronic voting machines that India has used successfully. The EVM would certainly help to eliminate multiple voting and the mass impersonation that Jaffna witnessed in this election but it would have to be greatly modified for Sri Lanka’s complex mix of proportional representation and preferential voting.
In any case, these measures must go hand-in-hand with the updating of the voters’ list in Jaffna. So far, all Tamil political parties, including the EPDP, have resisted attempts to revise the rolls. The reason: a reduction in the number of registered voters implies a parallel reduction in the number of parliamentary seats allotted to the Jaffna electoral division. But ultimately there can be no escape from such revision. A clean electoral list is a fundamental requirement for a free and fair election.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004060500671000.htm&date=2004/06/05/&prd=th&
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Saturday, May 29th, 2004
Part III: The Elections and their aftermath
Date of Release: 29th May 2004
A triumph of fascist diplomacy?
While the nature of the LTTE(P)’s military gains against the Karuna are dubious, it is to the LTTE(P)’s diplomacy and Colombo’s incompetence that one needs to look to understand the events. Our examination is admittedly speculative, but the pattern of developments raises questions that cry for answers.
The LTTE(P) appears to have assessed the outcome of the April 2nd elections, which brought in a minority government led by the President’s party, and ordered its surrogate party, the TNA, to fish in troubled waters. The main subject of any deal the LTTE(P) sought to make with the Government would inevitably have been Karuna – nothing overt, just a few more clarifications to the Government’s ‘neutrality’.
The LTTE(P) attacked and the Navy did nothing – remained ‘neutral’ – and supposedly saw nothing and reported nothing. Is the Navy so redundant or was it just convenient? Karuna’s spokesman Varathan charged in an interview with the Asian Tribune (21 Apr.04) that President Kumaratunge ditched Karuna in return for an offer of the TNA’s good offices in peace talks and conditional support in Parliament. Having seemingly dispensed with Karuna, the TNA voted against the Government’s nominee for speaker – D.E.W.Gunasekera – a man who had long spoken up for the Tamils.
The TNA’s lethal democracy
Having fashioned a parliamentary group – the TNA – to tamely promote the LTTE(P)’s claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamils, the LTTE was determined to extract every strategic use from it. It was important enough that intelligence chief Pottu was placed directly in charge. The blatant rigging of the last elections and the failure of the Government to check the abuse despite repeated complaints have been amply documented in the reports of independent election monitors.
The LTTE(P)’s political wing leaders in Jaffna, Illamparuthy (Aanjaneyar) and Paapaa were given the job of fixing the election for the district. We deal with one aspect. According to information from a member of the fixing party, which is fairly indicative, the ballots to be cast by the fixers were to be divided in the following ratio: For every three ballots, one for Gajendran, president of the so-called International Students’ Organisation, one for Mrs. Padmini Sithamparanathan and one for the candidate from the electorate. That aside there would have been internal manoeuvring of the fixers by the candidates themselves and senior LTTE persons. It was Gajendran who organised Jaffna University students in mass impersonation at the 2001 elections.
The preference votes tell their own story:
Gajendran: 112 077, Padmini Sithamparanathan: 68 239, G.G. Ponnamablam: 60 768, Suresh Premachandran: 45 783. TULF’ s Mavai Senathirajah scraped through with
38 779. A popular figure such as Sivamaharajah lost with 24 964.
The electoral list was the same one used in 2001 when the TNA obtained a total of 102 214 (less than Gajendran’s preference vote. But this time a section from Vanni also voted!). In 2001, Anandasangaree and Mavai Senathiraja led with more than 33,000 preference votes – about a third the number obtained by the party, and 20 000 to 30 000 of the TNA’s votes were fraudulent. In 2004, the TNA increased its vote from 102 324 (or 55.8% of votes counted) to 257 320 (or 90.6%). The EPDP’s share dropped from 58 000 (or 30.6%) in 2001 to 18 612 (or 6.55%) in 2004.
These figures are the result of extensive fraud and violent attacks, threats and harassment of the opposition and the voters themselves. One could say without hesitation that at least 100 000 of the 112 077 preference votes supposedly obtained by Gajendran in 2004 were fraudulent, as with about 170 000 of the 257 320 votes credited to the TNA in Jaffna. Thus even the last vestiges of democratic choice among the Tamils were utterly bankrupted. That was not the most sinister aspect of the whole exercise.
Suresh Premachandran performed the marvelous feat of increasing his preferential vote to 45 783 from 13 302 in 2001, which too was notoriously fraudulent. Also on the TNA list, long time LTTE ally C.V.K. Sivagnanam obtained 25 954 and failed to get elected. Sivagnanam was, in 1987, LTTE’s nominee to the aborted North-East Interim Council, when Premachandran, as General Secretary of the EPRLF, was its arch-enemy. Sivagnanam was deeply offended, since the votes were a measure, not of the people’s regard for him, but rather the LTTE’s. This was an election in which the LTTE assigned the votes!
The score was even more remarkable because it is well known that the chief fixers, Illamparithy and Paapaa, hated Premachandran. Obviously Illamparithy and Paapaa had been given firm orders from the top that Premachandran must enter Parliament. We pointed out in Bulletin No.35 that Suresh P. is a leading asset of intelligence chief Pottu Amman, and his men are now constituted into a special intelligence unit under Pottu.
While in the South and in neighbouring India, people have used their vote to protest against the economic and political order of neo-colonialism, those rulers imposed on the Tamils, whether through a rigged electoral process or through simple military might, are in fact the keepers of a prison. The people undergo all manner of torments there, from murder and torture to child conscription.
Among those to whom the people of the North-East owe the robbery of their democracy and the legitimisation of their ‘sole representatives’, are sadly, the European Union.
On 5th April 2004 John Cushnahan MEP, who headed the EU election observers issued a statement, which said of elections in the North-East: “It was encouraging that the people of the North and East were able to exercise their franchise through cluster arrangements. However, it is a matter of deep concern that the electoral process in the North an East was tainted by intimidation and violence”.
But the stark reality was that the election in Jaffna was not just tainted. It was completely polluted. The violence, intimidation and murder were systematic, unchecked and the election was the culmination of that process. All these crimes since 2002 were exclusively the work of one party, which Cushnahan did not name. Cushnahan is evidently pleased with the cluster arrangements he pushed for – done in such a way that people from the LTTE-controlled area were in practice free to vote just for the one party he was reluctant to name.
The monitoring group Paffrel observed in its interim report the fact that those contesting the elections independent of the LTTE doing so only on the pain of being deemed traitors, exerted a ‘chilling influence’ on both contestants from the opposition and those who would vote for them. Indeed the observations of foreign monitors contained in the report suggest that many voters were spared the painful dilemma by having their polling cards taken from them beforehand and even on their way to the polls:
“…the voter turn out [in Jaffna town] appeared to be low and large numbers of youth were also observed with polling cards, particularly in the vicinity of Jaffna campus (University)…
[The following refers to the exercise of democracy by voters form the LTTE-controlled Killinochchi, which Cushnahan found ‘encouraging’:] “Two international observers at the Muhamalai cluster polling station independently witnessed large-scale vote rigging originating from the LTTE-controlled ‘uncleared area’. Between 11 AM and noon international observers saw young men collecting polling cards from persons crowded into open-air vehicles. In other instances, young men were handing out polling cards to persons in vehicles, seemingly checking them (perhaps for sex) before handing them over. At least three persons were seen holding two-inch wads of voter cards…”
The foreign monitors also interviewed and recorded testimonies of opposition party workers and polling agents who had received dire threats from the LTTE, both personally and impersonally: “They [came home the night before the elections and] grabbed me by the throat and pushed me into a coconut tree. I felt something [cold] stick in my ears…One of the men hit me in the stomach with a flashlight…”
The result was duly hailed by the LTTE publicity apparatus as an affirmation of its sole representative status. This was the liberation of a people who had since 1931 known and valued the free exercise of universal adult franchise. The Commissioner for Elections who had earlier pledged to be strict and vigilant, tamely accepted the results for the North-East with some words to the effect that they were a special case beyond him.
The MPs were soon put to good use. The Daily Mirror of 6th May carried a curious item ‘Oslo warns it might pull out’. The contents of the story, concerning the TNA MPs meeting Erik Solheim at the Norwegian Embassy, indicated that the source was Suresh Premachandran. Solheim was quoted laying down conditions for the Sri Lankan President, who according to Solheim is to negotiate on the LTTE’s convoluted terms – negotiations only with the LTTE starting with its ISGA proposals, not to be a piece of deception to obtain aid and within a time frame. Solheim was further quoted as warning that Norway would pull out form facilitation should criticism continue to be levelled against them.
In comparison with the evil machinations and organised hyperactivity of the LTTE lobbies, which were ably using Norway and the EU to advance their agenda, the Government and the Sinhalese polity were hopelessly inert. The latter are unable grasp issues in time and identify priorities. One putting together the sequence of events since last November would be left with the impression that MEP John Cushnahan and peace envoy Solheim have been far more active in deciding trends in the North-East, and the country’s destiny, than the President of Sri Lanka.
The Return of the Ellalan Force
In the wake of the election, the LTTE’s death squad the Ellalan Force (Ellalan Padai) is up to its old tricks in Jaffna. Its role: to reassert the LTTE’s control over the local population through terror. The Ellalan Force functions as the LTTE’s morals police – violently eliminating persons it deems “anti-social” elements. It also functions as a political hit squad, blamed for the murders of many of the LTTE’s political opponents, among them, the Jaffna Mayors Sarojini Yogeswaran and Sivapalan who belonged to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF).
On 16th May Subramaniam Chandralalith,(age 22) was found stabbed to death in a Jaffna neighborhood. A note near his body signed by the Ellalan Force claimed responsibility for the killing, accusing Chandralalith and five others abducted with him of “anti-social activities,” including robbery, rape, abduction, extortion, fraud and child molestation.
Chadralalith’s mother-in-law told the Police that LTTE cadre Easwaran (the LTTE’s area leader for Nallur) abducted the men at gunpoint while they were playing cards and took them away in a van. The other victims were found blindfolded, bound and beaten. They told police they had been tortured. Tamilnet on May 16 reported that the police said they had not arrested anyone in connection with the murder and abductions and did “not know anything about the Ellalan Army,” a claim that is exceedingly hard to believe.
Easwaran’s brutality (and that of the Ellalan Force) is well-known in Jaffna. Eeswaran was also implicated in the June 2003 murder of Thambirajah Subathiran (Robert), respected deputy leader of the Varatharajaperumal wing of the EPRLF. In April 2004, police officials told James Ross of Human Rights Watch that “no progress had been made in the case, despite leads implicating a local Tiger leader”. To our knowledge Easwaran has never even been questioned.[7] The freedom and impunity enjoyed by well-known serial killers is a unique aspect of the Sri Lankan peace process.
http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/Bul36.htm
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Sunday, May 23rd, 2004
Courtesy: The Island
by V Anandasangaree
PRESIDENT - TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT
The Tamil United Liberation Front is a Political Party founded by Tamil Leaders who were very strongly committed to democratic principles and was led by one of them, the late Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, QC a highly respected Gandhian fondly referred to by the Tamil People as “Thanthai Chelva” and “Eelathu Gandhi”. He founded the Federal Party, called the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi in Tamil, in 1949 and wound it up, after forming the TULF. He never intended to revive it and he must now be turning in his grave seeing what and what strange things are taking place in his name.
History had recorded the TULF as a Great Democratic Party when all its Parliamentarians vacated office, protesting against the infringement of the democratic rights of the people in electing their representatives to Parliament, when the Government in 1983 extended the term of Parliament for a further period of six years, by holding a referendum.
The whole world saluted not only these Parliamentarians who vacated office but also the Tamil people who kept these Parliamentary seats vacant, when nominations were called repeatedly between 1983 and 1989 to fill these vacancies. The 6th Amendment to the Constitution was deliberately passed to disable the out going members from entering Parliament. The T.U.L.F. Members remained out of Parliament refusing to subscribe the oath under the 6th Amendment to the Constitution. It is for this renowned tradition of the party that the people who believe in democratic principles, still respect the Tamil United Liberation Front. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
Daily News
by Wasantha Ramanayake
The Tamil United Liberation Front Leader V. Ananda Sangaree filed a Fundamental Rights application in the Supreme Court seeking a court declaration that the recently concluded General Election for the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts were not free and fair.
Petitioner Ananda Sangaree stated that he contested for the Jaffna Electoral District at the recently concluded election. He stated that the LTTE had intimidated and blocked the campaigns of the other parties for the Election: on the other hand, fully supported the campaign of the ITAK, a party that was connected to the LTTE.
The petitioner alleged that the LTTE illegally forced the people of the two districts to vote for the ITAK. The LTTE engaged in this exercise months prior to the General Election that was held on April 2.
He alleged that the LTTE provided the transport facilities, food and lodging for the voters on election day in violation of the Election rules.
The Petitioner cited Returning Officers, the Election Commissioner, Army Commander and the General Secretaries of the Parties contested for the Jaffna District. The petitioner sought a sum of Rs. one million as compensation.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/05/12/pol03.html
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Wednesday, April 28th, 2004
JAFFNA DISPATCH
by James Ross
Post date 04.28.04 | Issue date 05.03.04
Veerasingham Anandasangaree’s campaign headquarters is a bunker. Heavily armed soldiers and coils of concertina wire surround the one-story compound on a side street in Jaffna, the largest town on the peninsula of the same name in northern Sri Lanka. The unused metal detector and bullet-riddled, sheet-iron doors give visitors pause. But Sangaree, as Anandasangaree is known, at 71 years old and a member of Sri Lanka’s parliament since 1971, remains determined. A Tamil politician of the old school, he has bulldog jowls, a dapper moustache, and a smoldering fire in the belly. The two telephones in his windowless office ring incessantly.
This is not a scene of power, however, but of powerlessness. On the wall behind him are large photos of party leaders. The ornate Tamil script is beautiful, but the dates tell the real story: All these men are dead, assassination victims. And Sangaree doesn’t want to join them. “I have not left the compound to do any campaigning,” Sangaree told me two days before the April 2 elections. “I have not met with a single voter.” He described threats and violence against his supporters that made it impossible for them to canvass voters or hold public rallies. He held up a badly dented, large, white megaphone. “I won’t have any party agents at the polling stations. It’s too dangerous for them.” He sighed dejectedly. “They are animals, if you ask me.”
The “animals” preventing him and other politicians from campaigning in Jaffna are the Tamil Tigers, officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ltte). For two decades, the Tigers waged a brutal war for independence from Sri Lanka, which is majority ethnic Sinhalese–a war that resulted in numerous atrocities and cost some 65,000 lives. In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers signed a cease-fire that has brought a welcome respite from the fighting. Young soldiers stopped dying, land mines started being cleared, and humanitarian assistance began to reach the worst of the island nation’s war-torn areas.
For two years, finalizing the peace has been the main issue in Sri Lankan politics. Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made the peace agreement the centerpiece of his government. And Norway, as primary peace mediator and leader of the five-nation Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (slmm), which oversees compliance with the cease-fire, has devoted considerable political capital toward reaching a final settlement. Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan government, and foreign donor states, have made no real effort to hold the Tigers accountable for grave human rights abuses and the absence of democracy in Tamil areas. So, for people like Sangaree, “peace” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Under the cease-fire, the Tigers retain formal control of most of the northern and eastern third of the country, which is inhabited predominantly by the largely Hindu Tamils. Excluded from these areas is much of the Jaffna peninsula, including Jaffna town. Although it’s been eight years since the Sri Lankan army recaptured Jaffna from the Tigers in bitter fighting, the pockmarked remains of bombed buildings belie the town’s return to normality. The restoration of government control is just as illusory: Real power lies with the Tigers. In classic Mafia style, the Tigers maintain a system of extortion, known as the “Tiger Tax,” against local businesses, travelers heading south, and truckers. Since the cease-fire, the Tigers have killed more than two dozen opposition Tamil politicians and party workers, as well as other critics. And they’ve made sure local government officials do nothing to stop them. When asked about the highly publicized assassination of respected Jaffna politician Thambirajah Subathiran ten months earlier, a senior police official conceded no progress had been made in the case–despite leads implicating a local Tiger leader. Indeed, not a single person has been prosecuted for any of these killings. Police are well aware that after the Tigers broke a 13-month cease-fire in 1990, their forces attacked and overran dozens of police stations, and killed some 600 officers.
Buoyed by the cease-fire, the Tigers this year plunged headfirst into the electoral process to obtain seats in the national parliament. And their intimidation tactics have proved effective. The Tigers endorsed a proxy party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an amalgam of Tamil parties. Sangaree himself ran successfully on the TNA party list in 2001. But, a year ago, he openly rejected the Tigers’ claim that they are the “sole representatives” of Sri Lankan Tamils. The Tigers forced him out of his own party, and he soon found himself the target of death threats. When elections were called in February, he bravely decided to run as an independent. The Tigers responded similarly after their eastern commander, known as Karuna, split off with some 6,000 fighters in early March. Karuna rallied some support among eastern Tamils and sought (unsuccessfully) an independent cease-fire with the government. But days later a university professor close to Karuna was ambushed and wounded. Three days before the elections, the one eastern TNA candidate who had openly pledged support for Karuna was shot and killed.
In the war-devastated Vanni, the Tiger-run region south of the Jaffna peninsula, there is considerable support for the TNA. But, because the Tigers do not permit Sangaree or other non-TNA parties to campaign there, there is little opportunity to change minds. In Jaffna, many Tamils who oppose the Tigers’ brutal methods nonetheless accept that they are the only game in town. The bishop of Jaffna, the influential leader of the area’s significant Catholic minority, recently told a group of visitors, “People want to send a message that the Tamils are united vis-à-vis the [Sinhalese majority] south. So the opposition [non-TNA parties] are viewed as traitors and have little support.” Indeed, the only news most Tamils receive about the opposition comes from a local Tamil press that routinely runs blatantly false news stories maligning the non-TNA parties. In March, when an independent Tamil radio station began broadcasting from London, the Tigers denounced its reporters as “traitors” and its journalists received death threats.
But the reality of Tiger terror really hits home when you leave the politicians and speak with its everyday victims. A rural couple from one of Jaffna’s islands, parents of four, was visibly nervous but willing to tell their story to me. At eleven the previous night, ten men had appeared at their home and demanded they step outside. The husband described how they questioned him about his volunteer work for an opposition party: “They grabbed me by the throat and pushed me into a coconut tree. I felt something stick in my ears. Maybe it was gun barrels, but I couldn’t see for sure. One of the men hit me hard in the stomach with a flashlight and said that, if they saw me at the polling station acting as a party agent, the next day I’d be shot.” His wife finished the account: “They said, ‘We are ltte, so be careful.’” Her fear seemed overcome by a sense of helplessness: “If something happens to my husband and me when we go home, what will happen to our children?”
Then, on polling day in the north and east, the Tigers resorted to large-scale vote manipulation. At a polling station on the Jaffna peninsula, I watched as some 40,000 enthusiastic voters scampered three miles past minefields under a blazing sun to cast their ballots. Random conversations left little doubt they were voting en masse for the TNA. So it was all the more astonishing to witness in the Tiger zone a systematic effort to rig the vote, complete with young men distributing thick stacks of unused polling cards.
The election fiasco in the north and east is the culmination of a failed effort at appeasing the Tigers. According to longtime Tamil human rights activist Rajan Hoole, former Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s “whole [peace] program was based on avoiding war and using foreign donor funds to firmly establish his control in the south. Never in his career did he show any regard for human rights.” The Norwegian-led cease-fire-monitoring mission has been ineffectual in addressing Tiger atrocities, failing to put the necessary resources, expertise, or political will into seriously investigating the killings. After a spate of reputed Tiger killings last year, slmm spokeswoman Agnes Bragadottir said it was beyond their mandate to investigate them: “The slmm should not be drawn into internal politics. This is not a monitoring issue for us, this is a criminal case.” And slmm Deputy Head Hagrup Haukland told Reuters in February, “In 2003 alone we have seen the killing of 30 to 40 local leaders and Tamil politicians who are against the ltte. But that is a case for the police. We have approached the Tigers about this, but they deny that they are behind the killings.”
By downplaying Tiger atrocities, the slmm has abrogated protecting the human rights of the Tamil population. Hoole believes the slmm has been “mainly interested in preventing war in the short term and has constantly veered toward exonerating the Tamil Tigers for accusations of violations. The slmm sees it as the surest way of maintaining the status quo.” When Karuna broke off from the Tigers in March, the slmm pulled out its monitors from the east, claiming they no longer had a role since Karuna’s forces were not bound by the cease-fire agreement. But, as the Tigers maneuvered their forces against Karuna in clear violation of the ceasefire, the international monitors were conspicuously silent.
Overall, in the Sri Lankan election, President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s opposition alliance grabbed nearly half the parliamentary seats and quickly formed a coalition government. This was bad news for the Tigers, who hoped to play kingmaker by keeping Wickremesinghe’s party in power. Instead, they unleashed their full fury against Karuna: A week after the elections, the northern Tigers launched a multi-pronged assault against Karuna’s forces, quickly routing them. While rumors surfaced of massacres of Karuna’s surrendered soldiers, the slmm met with the Tigers once more and announced, “We are back on track again.”
Throughout the long civil war, the military and political strategy of the Tamil Tigers remained constant: eliminate anyone deemed an obstacle to complete victory. Many in Sri Lanka hoped the demands of making peace would change that. But, instead of permitting pluralistic elements to emerge during the electoral campaign, the Tigers have sent the message that the same rules still apply.
Back on the Jaffna peninsula, the TNA took eight of the nine parliamentary seats. Sangaree fared poorly in the polls. He is filing protests against Tiger vote-rigging, but there is little chance he’ll succeed in overturning the outcome. Perhaps the waning of Sangaree’s political life will add years to his biological one. But, in the unyielding and unforgiving world of the Tamil Tigers, he shouldn’t let his guard down. Not for a moment.
James Ross is the senior legal adviser for Human Rights Watch, and has followed human rights issues in Sri Lanka since 1994.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040503&s=ross050304
Posted in Election 2004, Intimidations/Murders, Media | No Comments »
Thursday, April 22nd, 2004
- By Mathota Abeyratne, Hatton -
Anandasangari is no doubt a great leader who fights bravely against terrorism. He is hailed by the Tamils, Sinhalese and the Muslims. Even if most of the Jaffna voters were forced to vote for other parties, they had the highest regard for Anandasangari. But due to the most undemocratic circumstances that prevailed in the North during the elections, he was unable to win his seat. The Jathika Hela Urumaya has correctly identified the brave character in Anandasangari and offered him a seat although he has refused to accept it due to his principles in politics. However the JHU has taken a very far sight decision in offering him a seat. There are threats to Anandasangari’s life. The threats are no less sinister than the threats faced by Sinhala leaders. Therefore it is the duty of the government to give maximum security to this brave leader, who is fighting for ordinary Tamil people in the North who are severely burdened by the fascist activities of the LTTE. Anandasangari who could not win a seat in Jaffna will go to history as a great leader who fought fearlessly for the rights of the Tamil people. (full report in Island).
http://iaintthem.blogspot.com/2004_04_22_iaintthem_archive.html
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Friday, April 9th, 2004
Press Release : 09 April 2004
The World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS) calls for the annulment of poll results from 02 April 2004 elections announced by the Election Commissioner, Mr Dayananda Dissanayaka, for Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka as being fundamentally un-democratic, ‘irregular’ and in violation of the Constitution. (more…)
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Sunday, April 4th, 2004
COLOMBO: A key Tamil politician in Sri Lanka has charged Tamil Tiger rebels with rigging the polls in the embattled northern Jaffna Peninsula. He has accused the election commissioner of “legalising terrorism.”
Independent candidate V Anandasangari alleged that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had organised widespread impersonation of voters in Friday’s parliamentary election.
Sri Lanka’s Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake was criticised for not annulling the election result and calling for a re-poll in areas controlled by LTTE.
“The next generation will curse you for legalising terrorism,” said Anandasangari, former member of the Tamil National Alliance.
Meanwhile, as manoeuvering began to cobble together a majority government, the Buddhist monks who contested for the first-time as an all-clergy group turned down the overtures of the leading parties.
“People have voted for us do not want us to align ourselves with any of the two main parties,” said Athuraliya Ratana, a spokesman for the monks.
He has been elected to the new Parliament. The monks’ National Heritage Party confounded expectations by pulling in an impressive win of nine seats.
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