Sri
Lanka's War Goes North
By Amantha Perera
19 July, 2007
Inter Press Service
COLOMBO
- With the Sri Lankan government celebrating the capture of the country's
east, all-out battles with Tamil rebels in their northern bastion of
Jaffna are imminent.
Five days after the government
of President Mahinda Rajapakse announced that its troops had reached
the last Tamil Tigers stronghold in the east, Toppiggala (Barron's Rock),
more than 25 combatants from both sides died in clashes along the northern
line of control.
The fresh fighting signals
what lies ahead. A Norwegian-facilitated ceasefire, signed in February
2002, is all but dead, along with recent efforts by the facilitators
to renew dialogue.
Both the government and the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the main rebel organization
that has been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland for three decades,
have upped the war rhetoric.
"We have been in preparation
for an assault from the Vavuniya [northern] defense lines for the past
six months," Tigers military spokesman Rasiah Illanthariyan said.
"Every time troops have tried to come into our areas, we have beaten
them back."
The Tiger rhetoric matched
that of the government, which has said openly that it is shifting military
attention to the north. The Rajapakse government plans a massive public
program to celebrate the victory in the east, and citizens have been
asked to hoist the national flag. Posters have already appeared countrywide
praising the troops.
Rajapakse informed Norwegian
peace facilitator Erik Solheim that operations by the security forces
will stop only when Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran halts attacks
on government troops and targets.
"We were compelled to
launch operations when they attacked troops in Mawilaru and Muttur,"
Rajapakse recently told a gathering, referring to the initial breakout
of fighting last August, south of the strategic eastern Trincomalee
harbor.
Even as the government announced
plans to hold local elections in the eastern region, the LTTE warned
that it will continue to attack oil and military installations. On Monday,
a suspected LTTE gunmen shot dead Herath Abeyweera, chief secretary
of the Eastern Province, in Trincomalee.
"The assassination strengthens
our resolve not to give in to the forces of terror," Rajapakse
said in a statement, vowing that his government will proceed with "our
task of restoring freedom and democracy in the east, and all of Sri
Lanka".
Illanthariyan said of a possible
troop advance into the north: "Let them come here, we are ready.
We have switched modes, but we are as active as always." The Tigers
have been putting up stiff resistance in the north.
In mid-July, two days of
fighting left 14 government soldiers and scores of Tiger cadres dead.
"The Tigers fired at troops and we had to retaliate. We have taken
out their gun positions," military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe
said.
The latest fighting contradicts
hyped-up reporting in the local media of a possible thawing in the relationship
between Colombo and Kilinochchi, the heart of the Tigers' northern stronghold
100 kilometers southeast of Jaffna. Reports this month said the government
had once again invited Norway to revive talks. The Norwegians facilitated
a truce in 2002 that still holds, but is limited to paper.
That truce did halt more
than two decades of fighting that had killed 65,000, but violence erupted
again in December 2005. In the ensuing 30 months, 4,500 have been killed,
including 1,500 civilians. The United Nations estimates that recent
fighting has forced 500,000 people out of their homes and affected 3
million Sri Lankans.
The Norwegians themselves
have played down any peace hopes and said that the latest visit by outgoing
Ambassador Hans Brattskar to Kilinochchi was a courtesy call, coupled
with briefings for the Tigers on concerns on the part of international
backers of the truce. "There are no trips by the special peace
envoy planned for any time soon," Norwegian Embassy spokesman Erik
Nurenberg said after the trip.
Illanthariyan, part of the
LTTE delegation to the meetings, said there were no discussions on renewing
dialogue. The Tigers also stuck to their hardline stance that conditions
embedded in the truce have to be fulfilled for dialogue to recommence.
The truce, which recognized
a Tamil homeland, facilitated economic growth, and international donors
led by the United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway stepped
in.
On top of the LTTE agenda
is the reopening of the A9 highway that runs through Tiger-held areas.
"Conditions in the truce like the opening of the A9 have to be
implemented for any talks to recommence. The government is talking peace
and launching attacks," the LTTE spokesman said. The government
closed the highway last August.
The rhetoric and the posturing
in the north have led observers to warn that the climate may deteriorate
further in the coming months. "The peace process remains stymied
in the first half of 2007. Open hostilities continue to flare up frequently.
Terrorist acts and general violence such as ambushes, mine attacks,
abductions and targeted killings further intensify," the Common
Action Plan Review report put out by the office of the UN Humanitarian
Affairs Coordinator said.
It added, "Artillery
shelling, aerial bombings and Claymore mines cause civilian casualties
and damage to property, disrupting the lives of thousands. Forced recruitment
of youth and children to replenish lost cadres persists."
The UN report told donors
that the same trend is likely to continue in the latter half of the
year. And local observers also feel that unless there is a major shift
in the mindset of the government and the Tigers, violence is the only
way to go.
"We need a change in
the thinking, we need words to be matched by action, otherwise the same
trend will hold," said Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council,
a local pro-peace lobby group.
(Inter Press Service)
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