Archive for April, 2005
Sunday, April 24th, 2005
Courtesy:The Island
TULF leader V. Anandasangaree asked Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim a pointed question last week: “Even you, can you go into the LTTE areas without their permission? Can you breach their iron curtain?”
Anandasangaree, who completed a short visit to India last week, confided this information to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) in New Delhi.
In some off-the-shoulder remarks he made, the veteran Tamil politician, who is known to be a prime LTTE target, called upon New Delhi to play a proactive role to end what he said was “the growing stranglehold” of the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
Urging that it was time that the Indian Government stop being indifferent to the Tigers, Anandasangaree said: “The kind of international mediation that is going on in Sri Lanka is strengthening the LTTE. The international players are only helping the LTTE to get a foothold even in the government-held areas.”
Warning that attempts to equate the Tigers with the Sri Lanka Government even in matters of tsunami relief were fraught with great dangers, Anandasangaree warned, “This is the time for India to say ‘No’ to the ISGA and ‘No’ to any joint mechanism in tsunami relief. Once such a joint mechanism comes up, then the Government of Sri Lanka will be caught in a trap from which it will not be able to withdraw.
“India has a moral duty to tell the Sri Lanka government that it is opposed to the ISGA. After all, India can never accept an independent Tamil Eelam state,” he said.
“We believe this is the best time to seek the support of the Indian Government to solve our problems. What we need is an Indian type devolution. We don’t need anything more.”
Anandasangaree had hinted to IANS that although his visit last week was a personal one, he had used it to meet senior members of the Indian Government.
The report said that Anandasangaree made clear that he favoured any Indian military intervention, like that of the IPKF of 1987, and he has said this to Western diplomats, too.
The TULF leader expressed the view that Norway, in particular, and the Western countries, in general, are underestimating the dangers posed by the LTTE and did not realise that ordinary Tamil people were sick and tired of living in areas under LTTE control.
“What Tamils need today is not (an) ISGA, not a joint mechanism for tsunami relief. What they need is liberation from the LTTE. What they need is a right to live without fear of the LTTE.
“The peace process cannot go on and on at the cost of the ordinary Tamil people. I told this to Erik Solheim also.”
http://www.island.lk/2005/04/24/news1.html
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Sunday, April 24th, 2005
The Island Editorial
Courtesy The Island 24-04-2005
TULF leader, V. Anandasangaree, in an impassioned appeal to Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim and US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca last week asked the international community not to think only in terms of bringing back peace to Sri Lanka by merely satisfying the LTTE “whose track record has no parallel” anywhere in the world. The Tigers have found by experience that digging their heels in and biding their time, they can exploit the overwhelming desire for peace both at home and abroad to get much more than is their just due. That is exactly what they are doing right now over the joint mechanism for tsunami relief that Solheim has said is 99% ready and which the government, but for JVP resistance, will “jump and sign” if we may be pardoned the colloquialism.
This mechanism, which the Tigers are extracting by holding the tsunami victims in the areas they control as hostage and exploiting the cash-strapped plight of the Chandrika government which came into office making extravagant and economically unaffordable promises, will be a great leap forward in the LTTE’s drive for winning legitimacy for themselves in the eyes of the world. Granting Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’s premise that the government is confronted with the reality of dealing with a party with which it would normally disdain doing business, the signs are that the Norwegian draft the LTTE has accepted and is awaiting the government’s agreement is very much in the Tigers’ favour. The foreign minister’s honeyed words that no “vast powers” will be conceded to the LTTE may sound reassuring to those who want to see the bright side, but pictures of Mr. Thamilchelvan on his return from an extended tour of Europe and South Africa had him looking rather like the cat that has swallowed the canary.
The country now is like the proverbial arecanut caught between the blades of the girey. On one side is the need to get the relief effort going and the joint mechanism is a sine quo non to get the aid flows pumping. On the other side is the LTTE playing its usual game of trying to extract every possible ounce of advantage to strengthen its hand and to hell with the tsunami-battered people in their tents dreading the advent of the monsoon. The president, in her New Year message, says that making the joint mechanism for providing relief to the tsunami victims of the northeast a success work will be “a fine foundation for finding a lasting solution to the national problem.” God knows that Sri Lanka needs that solution. But is it going to be at any price? If that is the case, then what is to stop us from conceding the de facto separate state by whatever name it is called granting the Tigers suzerainty over one third of the territory of this country and two thirds of its coast? There is no debate that the vast majority of Lankans desperately desire peace, a just and honorable peace; no more, no less.
In his letter to Solheim and Rocca, Anandasangaree said that he was not trying to disturb the peace process, nor was he anybody’s agent. Unlike the TNA, he could have added but did not. Hopefully the world knows that given the propensity of the Tigers to bump off anybody who does not toe their line, most so Tamils, Anandasangaree’s life hangs by a very slender thread. Yet he has the spunk to speak out. In remarks he had made in New Delhi last week he had called upon India to play a pro-active role to end the “growing stranglehold” of the Tigers in Sri Lanka. And he told our international visitors here at home that the Tamils did not want to negotiate peace by subjugating themselves to the LTTE. He’s socked into the Indians that the kind of international mediation that was going on here now was only helping the Tigers who have a stranglehold in the areas they control to get a foothold even in the government-held areas of the northeast.
His words will surely have resonance here. “This is the time for India to say ‘no’ to the ISGA and `no’ to any joint mechanism on tsunami relief. Once such mechanism comes up, then the Government of Sri Lanka will be caught in a trap from which it will not be able to withdraw.” The joint mechanism, let us remember, is for the whole of the northeast and not just the Tiger-held areas which is less than what the government holds in the claimed “homeland.”. As Mr. Rauf Hakeem has pointed out, the Muslims have not been consulted on the substance of this mechanism although Mr. Solheim has been talking to him (though after the proposal was 99% ready) and also visiting the Muslims in refugee camps in Puttalam.
As Anandasangaree has pointed out, Norway in particular and the western countries in general are underestimating the dangers posed by the LTTE, not realizing that ordinary Tamil people are sick and tired of living under the Tiger jackboot. He is firmly on record saying that what the Tamils need is the kind of devolution that prevails in India and nothing more. The federal solution that the LTTE agreed to explore in Oslo is the ideal solution but given the Tigers’ success in getting their own way from both major southern parties whose predominant interest is gaining power or perpetuating their rule, it makes sense for Prabhakaran to play it the way he is now doing. If Ranil Wickremesinghe was appeasing him then, Chandrika Kumaratunga is appeasing him now and the JVP is trying to pull her back. Where exactly the country is headed remains unclear as different players make their moves on the political chessboard.
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Sunday, April 24th, 2005
TULF leader, V. Anandasangaree, in an impassioned appeal to Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim and US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca last week asked the international community not to think only in terms of bringing back peace to Sri Lanka by merely satisfying the LTTE `whose track record has no parallel` anywhere in the world. The Tigers have found by experience that digging their heels in and biding their time, they can exploit the overwhelming desire for peace both at home and abroad to get much more than is their just due. That is exactly what they are doing right now over the joint mechanism for tsunami relief that Solheim has said is 99% ready and which the government, but for JVP resistance, will `jump and sign` if we may be pardoned the colloquialism. (more…)
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Sunday, April 24th, 2005
Courtesy: The Island;Politics
Veerasingham Anandasangaree well knows that he’s very much on the LTTE hit list. Yet he does not mince his word on matters which he feel are in the best interest of the Tamil people who’s “sole representative’’ he does not claim to be. Thus nobody except perhaps the Tigers would dispute his claim in a letter to US Assistant Secretary to State Christina Rocca last week that “I am not trying to disturb the peace process. I am not acting as anybody’s agent either’’ to urge that the international community must not think only in terms of bringing back peace to the country “by merely satisfying the LTTE.’’
His assertion that the current opposition will not talk about these matters because they hope that the 22 TNA MPs who are LTTE proxies will help them to topple the government and form a new government. Some on the government side also hope to win TNA support to stabilize itself. “Either way it is the Tamils who are getting to suffer,’’ Anandasangaree said. “It is the duty of the international community to prevent the Tamils from being made a sacrificial animal to the benefit of others.’’
But he’s socked it in harder in an interview last week in New Delhi when he told the IANS news agency that the Tamils neither needed an ISGA or a joint mechanism for tsunami relief. What they needed most was to get the LTTE off their backs. In the view of the TULF leader, what the Tamils of Sri Lanka need was “Indian-type devolution. We don’t need anything more.’’ He warned that the joint mechanism the LTTE was seeking would lead the Sri Lanka government into a trap from which it will not be able to get out and repeatedly urged India to play a pro-active role in what is going on here.
“The kind of international mediation that is going on in Sri Lanka is strengthening the LTTE,’’ Anandasangaree said. “The international players are only helping the LTTE to get a foothold even in government-held areas.’’ Norway particularly and the western countries in general were underestimating the dangers posed by the LTTE and were not realizing that ordinary Tamil people were sick and tired of living in areas under LTTE control.
Bravo.
http://www.island.lk/2005/04/24/politics1.html
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Saturday, April 23rd, 2005
Coyrtesy: The Island
The simultaneous presence of your Excellency and that of Her Excellency Christina B. Rocca in Sri Lanka gives some hope to the unfortunate Tamils of the North and the East who having lost all their democratic and fundamental rights, are yeaning to win back their lost rights and freedom. It is my earnest request that both of you should meet and have a frank and free discussion on the Sri Lankan ethnic issue and the peace process.
A local daily, noted for biased reports, carries a news item in its yesterday’s issue that America and Norway are at their respective diplomatic level bringing pressure on the Sri Lankan government to agree to the setting up of a joint mechanism with the LTTE to provide aid for the Tsunami victims. If there is any truth in this news, I wish to place before you certain facts, that will help you to decide either in support of or against setting up a joint mechanism, which will if permitted, ultimately end up in including the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the war affected areas as well in the north and the east.
In the absence of no one raising this issue, I am compelled to raise it. Me, being a senior Tamil politician owe a duty to the Tamils in the North and the East, to voice their grievances, even at grave risk to me. Furthermore, I had been a Member of Parliament for over 17 years and came first out of the 9 Members of Parliament elected to represent the Jaffna electoral district.
I am not trying to disturb the peace process. I am not acting as anybody’s agent either. I love my community more than my life and I like to see them free, enjoying all rights like any other person, in the south of Sri Lanka. I only want the international community to understand the ground situation in the North and the East and not to think only in terms of bringing back peace to the country by merely satisfying the LTTE. The Tamils are not prepared to negotiate peace by subjugating themselves to the LTTE whose track record has no parallel to any other similar organization in the world
The Sri Lanka’s opposition party will not talk about these matters because they are hoping that the LTTE proxy, the 22 TNA members of Parliament will help them to topple the government, to form a new government. Some on the government side also feel that by pleasing the LTTE, the TNA’s support can be had to stabilize itself to go through the full term. Either way it is the Tamils who are going to suffer. “It is the duty of the international community to prevent the Tamils from being made a sacrificial lamb, for the benefit of others”
Kindly consider the following matters before the final decision is made with regard to the joint mechanism with the LTTE.
1. There are no such arrangements in the south where several political parties operate
2. Of the 73 Divisional Secretaries Divisions in the eight administrative districts of the north and the east, 47 divisions are under the full control of the government and only 15 divisions are under the full control of the LTTE. The balance 10 divisions come under both the government and the LTTE
3. In view of the above the LTTEs demand for a joint mechanism is unreasonable and will not be acceptable to other communities in the north and the east
4. The claim that 60% of the coastal areas affected are under the control of the LTTE is also unacceptable and not correct
5. The whole world knows that the LTTE refused permission for everybody to go into their areas with relief items and insisted on all such aid be handed over to them. As a result they deprived the victims from receiving aid from number of NGOs and voluntary organizations
6. There are numerous offers coming everyday from foreign governments and NGOs to build houses, hospitals, roads, bridges and many other amenities. These offers are not taken seriously by the LTTE and as such, when all offers accepted for various places; Muallativu, Kilinochchi and Point Pedro will have to be satisfied with the leftovers, and the crumbs.
7. The LTTE had proved by its conduct that its main intention is to gain legitimacy, not only in the areas held by them but also in other areas held by the government to cover the entire north and the east
8. The ceasefire agreement signed three years back has given them legitimacy over their areas and by the demand for a joint mechanism they are only trying to claim legitimacy in the north and the east, which will not be acceptable not only to Sinhalese and Muslims of the East but also by the Tamils of the two provinces
9. Successive governments, for reasons best known only to them, have given them more and more opportunities to grab power almost in all parts of the Northern and Eastern provinces, except in the Ampara electorate which is over 98% Sinhalese
10. The Tamils who enjoyed all democratic and fundamental rights in government held areas are now deprived of all their rights and are weeping in silence being unable to show their opposition due to fear
11. Murders, arrests, torture, conscriptions, extortions, taxation etc, go on unabated. The two Sri Lankans holding British citizenship are lucky. The moment their detention and torture was brought to the notice of the British authorities, they acted promptly and had them released. But, the poor Sri Lankan Tamils so detained are not that fortunate to have the intervention of any authority local or foreign
12. In this situation, if the Government sets up a joint mechanism with the LTTE will it not amount to legitimising all their unlawful acts? Will it not be an encouragement to commit more such crimes?
13. Will the LTTE remove its iron curtain and allow everyone to reach any part of the territory under their control as they are now allowed in government controlled areas?
14. Will the LTTE with the setting up of a joint mechanism encourage a free print and electronic media to operate in the areas held by the government, leave alone in their areas?
15. As a pre-condition for setting up a joint mechanism will the LTTE withdraw from areas held by the government and allow democracy to prevail in those areas?
There are many more matters that can be brought to your notice. I am confident that these facts alone will help you to take a reasonable decision. As far as I am concerned, I want democracy to prevail all over the north and the east, like other areas in Sri Lanka.
http://www.island.lk/2005/04/23/features2.html
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