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Sri Lanka

Tamil party sweeps Lankan polls

2013-09-23

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party, won a landslide victory in the former Northern war zone where the provincial council elections were held for the first time in 25 years. The TNA swept all five districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya during the elections held on Saturday, defeating the ruling party. The Tamil party which called its win historic, clinched 30 out of 38 seats with the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United Peoples Freedom alliance (UPFA) coming in far behind winning just seven seats and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) winning one. “This has been an unprecedented result in the history of our country, and we’re calling on the government to respect and recognise the democratic state of the Northern Province,” a TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran, told Khaleej Times. The Tamil party won 80 per cent of the total votes in the North, while 90 per cent of the people in the most populous district of Jaffna voted for the TNA. “It is great confidence placed in us by the people despite the various intimidation and violence that occurred during the last days of the elections. Being a democratic verdict that people have given in the backdrop of the war, the government is obliged to respect it,” said Sumanthiran. The TNA said that government was obliged to respect its massive victory. “This means that the provincial council must be a fully exercisable one, and the devolution has to be made a meaningful one as the government has previously promised,” said Sumanthiran. Or else. It'll take a year or two but we'll see another civil war. They never learn... The major Tamil party has been demanding the government to devolve land and police powers under the provincial council system. The government has repeatedly refused to devolve such powers citing security reasons. However, the TNA has promised to press on their demands for self-rule in the Tamil majority Northern Province from where the Tamil Tigers rebels fought in an attempt to carve out a separate homeland for the minority Tamils.

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Sri Lanka

Former top Lanka rebels in poll alliance with govt

2013-07-16

Three former top Tamil Tiger rebels will support the government in the upcoming crucial provincial council elections in the North which was the former rebel territory. Velayutham Dayanthi better known as Daya Master, who was once Tamil Tiger media spokesman, confirmed that he has been selected as the governing party United People’s Freedom Alliance’s (UPFA) candidate for the Northern Provincial elections. “Only I will be contesting from us,” he said crushing speculations that other top former Tamil Tiger rebels who have been through the government’s rehabilitation programmes will also contest the September elections. Two other key former rebels, the movement’s international fund-raiser and weapons procurer KP or Selvarasa Pathmanathan and former women’s wing leader Thamilini were also tipped to contest the September polls. However, Daya Master in a recent rally in the North confirmed that KP and Thamilini will not contest this year’s Northern elections and instead will stand by him. “All former Tamil Tiger combatants and other members will support me in the fray,” he said. Meanwhile, reports said that Daya Master will help prepare UPFA’s manifesto for the Northern Provincial Council election. Local media said that he had identified issues faced by the Tamil people and the solutions to these issues would be included in the party’s manifesto. Daya Master surrendered to the Sri Lankan army during the last stages of three decades of war against the Tamil Tiger terrorists in 2009. KP was arrested by Sri Lankan intelligence agents in Malaysia a month later. Thamalini crossed over to government-held areas in the guise of a civillian two months before the army shot dead the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, ending the war. Almost all surrendered and captured Tiger cadres have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society by the government. The upcoming elections in the province, which has a Tamil majority population, will be a battle for governance between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The government fears that a win by the former Tamil Tiger sympathising party TNA will hurt the province, which is just 30km away from Tamil Nadu, and bring all reconciliation and development efforts to a standstill.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lankas Tamil alliance vows civil disobedience

2010-03-14

[Iran Press TV Latest] Sri Lanka's major Tamil party has promised to launch a disobedience campaign and press for autonomy for the country's ethnic minority. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says they will launch a peaceful Ghandi-style campaign if the government fails to view the rights of the Tamils. Since launching a violent revolution brought them nothing but death and destruction ... The announcement comes after the group renewed its demand for regional autonomy in its manifesto for April general elections. The alliance has also called for power sharing arrangements -- acceptable to the Tamils. The TNA currently has 22 seats in 225-member parliament.

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Sri Lanka

Upset in Sri Lanka post-war polls

2009-08-09

Initial results from the first post-war elections in northern Sri Lanka show the governing party has taken Jaffna, the region's biggest city. But it suffered a surprise defeat in Vavuniya, the other town where polling took place, where a group supportive of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels won. The local elections came a day after the defence ministry said it had arrested the new head of the Tamil Tigers, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. Mr Pathmanathan was detained abroad and was being questioned in Sri Lanka, it added. The rebels have confirmed his arrest. According to preliminary results, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's governing United People's Freedom Alliance, won control of Jaffna city council in Saturday's election, securing 13 of the 23 seats available. The Tamil National Alliance, a fractious but broadly pro-LTTE parliamentary grouping, came second with eight seats. Turnout was only 20%. Monitors said one problem had been that many people did not receive voting cards, for reasons that are unclear. Refugees were also required to apply to vote. But in Vavuniya, where turnout was 52%, the UPFA was pushed into third place, winning only two seats. The TNA came first with five of the 11 seats on the council, followed by a moderate Tamil grouping. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the result in Vavuniya will be seen as an upset. For one thing, our correspondent says, the TNA had openly said it did not feel this was the right time for elections, with more than a quarter of a million Tamils still detained in nearby government camps and much of the north depopulated. And it was generally believed that the government would do well, having a broad coalition led in the north by a powerful and stridently anti-Tiger Tamil party, and having promised a "northern spring" of major development projects that would gradually return the region to normality, our correspondent adds. As a result of its victory in the war, the government is expected to have done well in the Sinhalese-dominated southern province of Uva. Voting passed off largely peacefully, although monitors reported scuffles, including one involving a government minister at a camp housing refugees from Jaffna who had been voting remotely. However, our correspondent says there has not been much chance to scrutinise the conduct of the elections or the campaigns. Just as it did from the war zone, the government once again kept independent journalists out of the north, and even election monitors said information was hard to come by, he adds.

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Sri Lanka

Local elections in northern Sri Lanka fixed for August 8

2009-06-26

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka is planning to hold two local elections in the north of the country which will mark the first attempt to restore political administration in the region after the defeat of Tamil rebels, officials said Thursday. Elections for two northern local councils have been fixed for August 8, the commissioner of elections announced. Polls will be held for the municipal council in Jaffna, 397 kilometres north of the capital, and the urban council in Vavuniya, 257 kilometres north of the capital, after a gap of 11 years. The government and the main opposition have fielded candidates for the elections while a former pro-rebel party known as the Tamil National Alliance has also put forward candidates. The move to conduct elections is seen as the first step towards restoring full political and civil administration in the region which has been affected by fighting for the last 30 years.

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Sri Lanka

Tamils suspicious of Sri Lankan president’s ‘unity’ offer

2009-05-20

Much hand-wringing, rending of garments, etc ... COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s president marked victory over Tamil Tiger guerrillas with a vow that Tamils would not be victimised, but the minority community remains deeply suspicious after years of discrimination. Accounting for about 13 percent of the island’s 20 million population, Tamils have long been wary of governments run by the Sinhalese-majority, which they accuse of treating them like second-class citizens. President Mahinda Rajapakse told parliament on Tuesday that ‘all should live with equal rights. They should live without any fear or doubt. Let us all be united.' Tamils greeted the speech with little enthusiasm but expressed hope that the end of the decades-long bloody war might at least bring about some practical improvements in their everyday lives. ‘Tamil people know that the war is over. We hope now there will be free movement for our people,’ opposition Tamil National Alliance legislator C. Chandranehru said. He wants authorities to reduce the endless checkpoints and roadblocks that divide up the country, where Tamils have to carry official papers to prove their identity. Tamils have to do their part: they're beaten, and they'd better get that fact straight. If they start doing girlie-booms, etc., they're going to be sat on really, really hard, and there won't be much sympathy for them outside the EU. Most believe they are singled out for grilling at the checkpoints, while last year hundreds of Tamils were evicted from Colombo because officials deemed them a threat to national security. Only later did a court intervene to stop the evictions, saying it amounted to collective punishment. ‘Now we have to wait and see what happens next, if we will be treated equally,’ equity analyst and Tamil Anchana Ratnasingham told AFP. Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda, a former Tamil fighter, said tackling long-standing Tamil grievances was ‘a must’ if Sri Lanka is to secure a more peaceful future. ‘Until now, Prabhakaran stood in the way. Whatever all democratically elected political parties suggested, Prabhakaran rejected. Now the obstacle is no more,’ said Devananda after the Tiger leader was found dead. Tamils had a privileged status under British colonial rulers but have suffered discrimination in language, jobs and education since the Sinhalese majority took power after independence in 1948. Classic imperialism: promote a minority to favored status as a way to control the majority. Classic consequences: when the colonial power leaves the majority looks to even the score. Successive governments have promised to address the problems, but progress has been slow or non-existent with Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism both on the rise. Jaffna, in the island’s war-torn north, is regarded as the Tamil cultural capital. Troops wrestled the town from the Tigers in 1995, but residents there still face severe travel restrictions. Businessman L. Satheeshnathan urged President Rajapakse not to use the rebel rout to ‘settle scores’ with the wider Tamil community. ‘Otherwise the ethnic pot will continue to boil,’ he warned. For lawyer Kanthi Vijayakumar, any victory celebrations were ‘tasteless’ after so much bloodshed and with so many people driven from their homes. ‘My two sisters and their families are at one camp, my mother in another camp,’ she said. ‘They have no money, no jobs, no land and no hope for the future. The war has torn our family apart.’

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Sri Lanka

TNA stays away from all-party meet

2009-03-27

The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) stayed away from an all-party meeting convened by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday. Hours before the meeting, in a letter addressed to Mr. Rajapaksa, the TNA said priority must be given to resolution of the humanitarian crisis before it assumed catastrophic proportions and that any political discussion must follow such resolution. Sources in the government maintained that by not taking part in the meeting convened by the President, the TNA had missed an opportunity to put forth its viewpoint on the prevailing situation in the north and the ethnic conflict. "The President extended the invitation in good faith. The negative attitude of the TNA would not deter the President from continuing his efforts to generate consensus on a political solution to the ethnic conflict," said a senior official. The TNA letter said: "Since you have hitherto consistently followed a policy of ignoring the TNA in regard to all political issues in the north-east, we are glad that you now wish to engage in discussions with us, recognising, even though belatedly, that we represent the Tamil people". "We will extend our cooperation to any credible political process that seeks to evolve an adequate, acceptable and durable political solution to the Tamil question. We would strongly urge that you take necessary steps to address forthwith the grave humanitarian crisis pertaining to the displaced Tamil civilian population," it added. The invitation to the TNA is the first after the abrogation of the Norwegian-brokered 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in January 2008 and imposition of a ban on the Tigers in January this year.

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Sri Lanka

Prabhakaran & Son sighted in Puthukudiyiruppu area's "No Fire Zone"

2009-03-22

First signs of differences among pro-LTTE outfits over the ongoing war surfaced in Sri Lankan Parliament on Friday. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Vinodharadhalingam surprised everyone with his comments in support of the government efforts towards welfare of the displaced in the areas that had come under military control in recent weeks. The MP told Parliament he had personally visited the Kadiragamapuram welfare camp and had witnessed the manner in which the government was taking care of the displaced persons. He maintained that the people in the welfare camp were living free from fear and that they were provided with all necessary amenities under the present conditions. He told the House that vocational training programmes for the youth in the camps "gives them hope of a better future." In another report, the Defence Ministry said LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran, along with his son Charles Anthony Seelan, was sighted several times in the Puthukudiyiruppu area's "No Fire Zone". It said both had, from time to time, come out from the bunkers and explained to non-cadre the importance of rising up against the government forces. "Prabakaran and Charles Anthony Seelan come out of the bunker in non-military attire to mix up easily with the civilians. But they had said they are always surrounded by heavily armed special bodyguards," the Ministry said. Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE TamilNet alleged that shelling by Sri Lanka Army had killed 102 civilians inside the "safety zone" in the last three days. "SLA artillery shelling killed 46 civilians Friday inside the safety zone in the besieged pocket in Mullathivu. On Thursday, 39 civilians including 11 children were killed and at least 17 civilians were reported killed inside the safety zone on Wednesday," it said. Meanwhile, an announcement by the government said police were to conduct a special two-day census on Saturday and Sunday to register the people who had come to the Western Province (in and around Colombo) from the North, East and central provinces during the last five years.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka rejects calls for truce as fighting escalates

2009-02-19

Sri Lanka's government yesterday rejected fresh calls for a truce with Tamil Tigers as troops took another village from rebel control and concern mounted for civilians trapped in the war zone. Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government was firmly committed to wiping out "terrorism" and described the demand for a ceasefire from a Tamil Tiger proxy as "laughable". "We have taken a policy decision to completely root out terrorism," Rambukwella told reporters here. "There will be no ceasefire with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)." The ceasefire appeal from the Tamil National Alliance echoed calls from Sri Lanka's key international financial backers, including the US, European Union and Japan, for a "no fire period" to allow civilians to get out of harm's way. A pro-government Tamil legislator said on Tuesday that 288 civilians had been killed during one week this month while nearly 800 were wounded in crossfire in the shrinking territory still under rebel control. The fighting has provoked a strong reaction in neighbouring India where 62 million Tamils in the state of Tamil Nadu share close cultural and religious links with the ethnic Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. The Indian parliament was in uproar yesterday when India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused the Tigers of causing "much damage" to the wider Tamil community as he stressed the importance of a "negotiated political settlement" acceptable to all communities in Sri Lanka. officials in Sri Lanka said logistics were not the issue and accused the Tigers of forcibly holding the civilians as a human shield in preparation for a final showdown with troops. Indian Tamils have been staging protests condemning Sri Lanka's military offensive with at least two men self-immolating this month. Indian Tamils have also urged New Delhi to broker a ceasefire on the island. India said yesterday that it was ready to help evacuate tens of thousands of Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire. However, officials in Sri Lanka said logistics were not the issue and accused the Tigers of forcibly holding the civilians as a human shield in preparation for a final showdown with troops. Meanwhile, Australia, home to a sizeable number of Tamils, said it was giving 2.55 million US dollars to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help those displaced by the war, adding to a similar-sized donation late last year for food aid. "Australia is committed to doing what we can, in partnership with the government, the ICRC, UN agencies and other humanitarian bodies, to provide relief for this vulnerable population," said Kathy Klugman, Australia's top envoy here. Sri Lankan troops are on the verge of crushing the LTTE and ending their 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland after pushing the rebels back into a small stretch of coastal jungle -- less than 100 square in size -- in the island's northeast. A senior military official said security forces had taken another village that was previously under Tiger control. The LTTE yesterday denied United Nations allegations that it had stepped up the forcible recruitment of child soldiers ahead of a final showdown with the advancing government troops.

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Sri Lanka

Lanka to hold elections in recaptured east amid violence

2008-03-10

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka - Residents in Sri Lanka’s tense eastern city of Batticaloa and surrounding towns go to the polls Monday in a vote the government says is key to restoring order in the area, which troops recaptured months ago following more than a decade of rule by the Tamil Tiger rebels. But human rights groups say the government is irresponsibly rushing ahead with the city and village council elections to show that its rule has brought democracy to the long-troubled east. They fear that violence and intimidation will taint the results. If the Lankans weren't moving towards elections the human rights groups would be equally unhappy. There's just no pleasing them. By last July, a major government offensive _ supported by thousands of former Tamil Tigers now known as the Karuna faction _ had forced the rebels out of the east. Violence and chaos have plagued the area since then, however. Residents speak of armed groups demanding protection money, abducting civilians, forcibly recruiting children into their militias and killing people without fear of arrest. Several such groups were fielding candidates for Monday’s election in Batticaloa city and other towns and villages in the surrounding district, where 101 council seats were up for grabs. On Sunday election officials transported ballot boxes from Batticaloa to village polling booths guarded by police with rifles. A Batticaloa school was being used as the election coordination and counting center. Authorities _ fearing Tamil Tiger suicide bomb attacks _ frisked officials, reporters and observers as they entered. Government spokesman for national security and defense Keheliya Rambukwella said the elections were an important step toward cementing democracy in the area, even if the environment was not perfect. "Here you have democracy. There is a serious development taking place. You have freedom of movement, but again, until the last six months, it was in the clutches of a major terrorist group," he said, referring to the Tamil Tigers. But a coalition of human rights organizations said there was so much violence that it would be impossible to hold a fair poll. The island’s main opposition United National Party and the main regional party, the Tamil National Alliance, were boycotting the election. They said they could not take part alongside armed parties. Feel free to deal with the Tamil boomerrettes yourselves ... The rights groups said some candidates were unable to campaign due to fear of attack by rival parties, while armed groups have forced local officials to run as their candidates, rights group say. In such a situation, there is no possibility of free choice between candidates,’ said Dulani Kulasinghe, a researcher at the Law and Society Trust rights group based in the capital, Colombo. Many groups have declined to monitor the elections because the intimidation level was so high that making an accurate report would be impossible, said Sunila Abeysekara, executive director of the Colombo-based human rights group Inform. The government was sending 4,200 police officers to Batticaloa and the other towns holding elections. Five officers would guard each of the 285 polling stations, police said.

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Sri Lanka

Rebel-backed MP killed in Sri Lanka

2008-03-07

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers said on Thursday an Army special forces unit blew up a rebel-backed member of parliament in their northern stronghold with a roadside bomb, and a party colleague confirmed his death. It was the latest in a string of attacks inside rebel territory using Claymore mines as roadside bombs that the rebels have blamed on government troops, who are using the Tigers’ own deadly methods against them as a 25-year civil war escalates. K Sivanesan, an MP with the rebel-backed Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was driving near his home in Mankulam in the Tigers’ de facto state in the far north of the island when the blast occurred, killing him and his driver, his party said. Army accused: “It was an Army deep penetration unit,” rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone. “His vehicle was precisely targeted, because there were several vehicles travelling along this road. It’s another example of how the regime in Colombo acts.” The military denied any hand in the attack. “We don’t know what exactly happened because it has occurred in an uncontrolled area,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. “There are no deep penetration units operating in that area. We totally deny it.” Sivanesan had attended a meeting in parliament on Wednesday. “He left the parliament quarters after attending the parliament sessions yesterday,” said fellow MP Suresh Premachandran. “Most probably in those areas the Army is deploying deep penetration units,” he added. “This fellow is a victim of that.” Abductions: The attack came as Sri Lanka’s government faced a barrage of criticism over its human rights record. Human Rights Watch issued a report on Thursday accusing the government of being responsible for widespread abductions and disappearances as it fights the Tigers, which the government denies. And a panel of international experts observing a Sri Lankan investigation into a raft of human rights abuses and killings said on Thursday it was quitting Sri Lanka, accusing the government of hindering the process and saying the probe was seriously flawed. Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island’s east. But they still see no clear winner on the horizon. An estimated 70,000 people have died since the civil war began in 1983.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Tamil parliamentarian shot dead

2008-01-01

COLOMBO - A prominent Sri Lankan opposition Tamil parliamentarian was shot and killed on Tuesday, the military said, as the opposition charged that a lack of security made the government responsible for the death. Main opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian T. Maheshweran was shot at a Hindu temple on Tuesday morning. “The government had reduced his security after he was being critical of the government and the president, so the government should be held responsible for his killing,” said UNP general Secretary Tissa Attanayake. “Maheshweran was voicing (concern) over the recent abductions of Tamils.” The military said unidentified gunmen shot the parliamentarian while he was in a Hindu temple and police are investigating. “Inside the (temple) unidentified gunmen had shot Mr. Maheshweran and it was reported he died after being admitted to the hospital,” said Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. The military said another civilian died after being admitted to the hospital, and seven others were injured from the firing. Maheshweran, from Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil community, was a former Hindu Affairs minister and party chief district organiser of the army-held northern Jaffna peninsula. In 2005 Tamil National Alliance member of parliament, Joseph Pararajasingham, was shot and killed at a church in the eastern district of Batticaloa while attending Christmas Eve prayers, and another parliamentarian from the same party, Nadarajha Raviraj, was shot and killed in Colombo a year after.

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