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9 ISSN 0255-4488 15 SEPTEM
Sri Lankan troops advancing from Parantha
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Page 2
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Page 3
15 SEPTEMBH 1996
"I do not agree with a ward at what you say, but I'll
defend to the death your right to say it."
Tamil
TIMES
ISSN 0266 - 4488
Vol.XV No.9 15 SEPTEMBER 1996
Published by:
TAMIL TIMES LTD PO, BOX 121 SUTTON, SURREY SW1 3TD UNITED KINGDOM
Phone: 0181-644 O972 Fax: 0181-2414557
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION
UKJlndia/Sri Lanka............................... 15/USS25 Australia................................. AusS45 (Australian bank cheques only)
Canada ...........................................Can'40 USA ............................................................. US$35 All ather Countries...............20WUSS35
Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the editor or publishers,
The publishers assume no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or artwork.
CONTENTS
News Rieview.......................................4. Being a Tamil in Colombo.... - Statemanship.................................. 12 Territorial unitandFamily Uni.............. 15 The Prospect of LTTE-Muslim Reconciliation in the East................. 16 Devolution.................... ... 17 "We want to go home'. ... 19 Topics in Focus................................ 2O Contest Between Man and the BeastWithin Man........... 22 CTBT and Kashmir Elections ......... 28
Efforts to Prevent Refugee influx......30 Kinship and Cornuption Tamil Nadu......31 Why does Tamil NeedTranslation......32 Book Review................................... 33 Visit to Jaffna................................... 34 Struggle for Linguistic Equality............35 Classified.......................................... 38
For
The slaughter of c Mullaitivu campal an unprecedentec this tragic episode which such a large and political terms Mullaitivu operati Mullaitivu rout, wh the Deputy Minist had happened an the non-existent C The Jaffna peni, LT TE where it hac its administrative military operations the early part of th stronghold and in overwhelming ma, The fall of the per the hoisting of the of the island, and the other hand, in described the fall ( area with no peop. Characterise the Exodus' of biblical Egypt to the Prom Moses endowed reality of the pre population have t trapped in the Kilit they will do so on.
The senselessn. to portray even de SCenario of the las for both parties a pOSSesses the re. forcing a surrende recently by a spe Australia on the s. intransigent these Conflict that neithe the Conquest of Jl and all that really Of the East to Con able to win the Stt struggle. There is Lankan army and defeat the Tamil Studies, Australia in this situation both sides are "try and do as much d the civilian popula in this situation, independent third negotiation. The L accept third party role cannot in prin was President K enCountered in th before the resum leader suggested facilitating negotia accept the Presid appears to have r There are many well-Wishers of Sri a role to provide parties. One hop realise that they tragedy to all the
 
 
 
 
 
 

TAMILTIMES 3
Third Party Mediation
ver 1400 soldiers in the recent assault by the LT TE upon the ld the loss of tens of millions of dollars worth of weapons was defeat for the Sri Lankan military. In fact, since World War II, must constitute a very rare instance of a military encounter in number of troops were killed in one singe operation. In military as far as the LTTE is concerned, no one could dispute that its 'n was a great victory. Yet, even after several days of the ch meant tragedy for the 1400 soldiers killed and their families, "r of Defence of the Sri Lankan government did not admit what f the scale of the defeat, but was still talking about recapturing amp which had already been destroyeg by the Tigers.
sula was acknowledged by everyone as the stronghold of the "set up virtually an emergent mini-state with its headquarters, machinery and all its military and political structures. The undertaken by the Sri Lankan government late last year and is year resulted in the LTTE leadership having to abandon its Ove into the Kilinochchi, Mulaitivu and Vanni areas. The ority of the civilian population were evacuated and displaced. insula into the control of government forces accompanied by national Lion Flag produced an euphoric response in the South he government hailed it as a great victory over the Tigers. On an effort to deny what was in fact a major defeat, the LTTE of Jaffna as a pyrrhic victory for the military in capturing a ghost e. Even some Christian Clerics from the north went so far as to sevacuation of the Civilians from their hones as a "Historic proportions. Moses led his people into freedom from slavery in sed Land of Israel. For the people of Jaffna there was neither a with divine power nor did they go to the Promised Land. The sent situation is that a substantial number of the Civilian eturned to the peninsula, and there are tens of thousands lochchi and Vanni areas yearning to return to their homes and ly if there is a way. ess of the situation is that the parties to the conflict are seeking finite defeats as valiant victoriesl The distressing and dreadful t several years has been victory today and defeat the next day ind, as pointed out before in these columns, neither party quired capability to inflict a decisive defeat upon the other, rand bringing an end to the conflict. This point was well made aker at the recently held "Peace with Justice' conference in ubject of Conflict in Sri Lanka. As long as both sides remain sort of conflicts tend to continue. Both groups are locked in r can win. The Sri Lankan military despite its recent success in affna has only managed to control a very small part of Jaffna happened was that the Tamil Tigers just faded into the jungles tinue the struggle. The Government lacks the resources to be uggle. Similarly the Tigers also lack the resources to win the no way in which the Tigers are going to be able to defeat the Sri no way in which the Sri Lankan army is going to be able to Tigers." (Dr. John Powers, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Asian 1 National University). the conflict, which neither side can win, is dragging on while ng to exact as much retribution as they can from the other side amage as they can do to the other side." In the meantime, it is tion which suffers enormously. rational thinking would have prompted that assistance from an party should be obtained in an effort to settle matters through TTE has in recent statements made it know that it is willing to intervention to facilitate negotiations. The idea of a third party ciple be anathema to the government of Sri Lanka because it umaratunga, when she identified certain difficulties being e progress of talks between the government and the LTTE ption of hostilities in April 1995, in a letter sent to the LTTE a French mediator be brought in to play a helpful role in tions. It was unfortunate that the LTTE at that time declined to 2nt's suggestion. But what is relevant today is that the LTTE low recognised the need for third party mediation. independint individuals and organisations in the world who are Lanka and all its people and who will only be too willing to play heir services to facilitate discussions between the conflicting as that the government and the LTTE have the capacity to are engaged in an unwinnable war which brings nothing but people and seek third party mediation.

Page 4
4 TAMIL IMES
Pope Calls for Ta
Citing the “terrible atrocities" of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, Pope John Paul II called upon the parties in conflict to engage in negotiations to protect ethnic minorities in the South Asian country.
In a meeting with visiting Sri Lankan Bishops, the Pope praised the clerics for promoting peace in their country while emphasising that that there was no other course other negotiations to end the peoples” suffering.
In a statement from the Vatican datelined 21 August, the Pope was reported
as saying, "I cannc the anxiety which concerning the har inflicted upon you lence which contir loved nation and t ties being commit “Negotiated se wayʼ to address tl the two sides, John logue can safegua rights, including th minorities.'
Four Day Cease-fire
In an otherwise depressing situation as far as the continuing conflict in Sri Lanka is concerned, the announcement that the government and the LTTE have agreed a four-day cease-fire to enable an island-wide immunisation programme came as a welcome gesture.
The United Nations International Children Emergency FUND (UNICEF) is to undertake an anti-polio immunisation programme among children and appealed to the government and the LTTE to facilitate the conduct of this programme by ceasing to fight during the period.
The LTTE agre four days of cea against governme. plement an island sation programme statement that the Prabhakaran, had 6-7 and October tranquillity” for ti implemented.
Brita Ostberg, sentative in Sri La pealed to the LTT stop fighting on th
“I asked them nalists, “Sri Lanka polio. To do that, need access to chil need access to the
Operation Sathjaya would appear to have been called off inconclusively though no official announcement has been made to that effect. Launched with the objective of capturing the LTTE controlled town of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, the offensive was called off 9 August according to military sources who preferred to remain anonymous. However, the Defence Ministry was refusing to confirm the decision to call off the operation. One official said the troops were "consolidating their positions," an euphemism for calling off an operation or delaying further advances.
"Operation Sathjaya' was launched July 26 in the wake of Sri Lanka's worst military tragedy at the north-eastern
Mullaitivu militar than 1400 soldier clared killed or m Lankan security foi hardware worth ov cle.
Previously the troops, backed by t support, were pois Kilinochchi. But t my's advance had t fields and he rocket-propelled g Tigers.
Military observ Operation Sathjay ble by the governm setback into a vi
 
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
lks
it pass over in silence you have expressed dships and sufferings ir people by the violues to affect your beby the terrible atroci
ed," the Pope said. :ttlement is the only he problems between Paul said. “Only diard inviolable human le legitimate rights of
O
ced on 4 September to se-fire in their fight nt forces to help im-wide polio immuni. The LTTE said in a air leader, Velupillai declared September 11-12 to be "days of he programme to be
the UNICEF reprenka, said she had apE and the military to ose days. ,* Ostberg told jouris trying to eradicate those who vaccinate dren and the children m.' O
y base, where more s were officially deissing in action. Sri rces also lost military er S25 million deba
military had said its anks, artillery and air ed on the outskirts of he LTTE said the arbeen stalled by mineavy mortar and renade fire from the
ers saw the launch of as a desperate gament to turn a military ctory by capturing
Kilinochchi. But the 3000 troops which took part in the operation for several days managed to capture Paranthan in the course of their advance, but thereafter were bogged down suffering mounting casualties in the face of fierce Tiger resistance. LTTE statements claimed that their fighters had pinned down government troops trying to advance on Kilinochchi. They said that for days the military had been making a desperate bid to break out of Paranthan to occupy more territory by capturing Kilinochchi with
O SUCCESS
Brigadier Sarath Munasinghe said on 8 August that three officers and 49 soldiers were killed and 67 others were wounded as troops advanced to Karadipokku, 1 kilometre north of Kilinochchi. However, high ranking military sources have been quoted as admitting to death of over 100 soldiers and more than 350 wounded. Munasinghe claimed an estimated 300 Tiger guerrillas were killed. But it is widely known that official Defence Ministry figures on guerrilla casualties are often exaggerated.
The LTTE has said more than 30 civilians were killed in the fighting. An army spokesmen denied rebel claims that it targets civilians, saying civilian casualties were caused by accident. O
Plight of Refugees
The offensive resulted in many buildings in Kilinochchi had been flattened by air and artillery strikes and civilians numbering tens of thousands had fled the town and its outskirts. Western aid agency officials say about 200.000 people who fled areas of heavy fighting are running out of food and water. On 12 August, the army allowed the first food convoys into the area in three weeks, ending a blockade on food distribution to Tiger-held areas.
Some refugees were hiding in the jungle, living under trees near irrigation tanks because of drought, while others sought sanctuary with friends and relatives.
"There isn't enough water,” said a retired irrigation engineer travelling to Colombo to find money to feed his family trapped in the northern mainland. "People survive on one meal a day.”
He said he found shelter in a school with 30 other families after fleeing Kilinochchi and recently had a narrow escape after he went back to collect some belongings. “While I was there a plane came and bombed the house behind mine,” he told journalists at Vavuniya. "I hid in a bunker in my house and narrowly survived." Asked about the government's peace plan, "People are not

Page 5
15 SEPTEMBER 1996
ready to look at the peace plan when they are being hammered and starved," said the retired engineer.
Refugees say people are disillusioned by the apparent disregard shown to civilians by both sides and the increasingly bleak prospects of resolving the conflict. “There is no one to help us, neither the government, nor the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) nor aid agencies,” said a Tamil refugee who came to Vavuniya 15 August.
"The people are angry," he said, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals. "In the name of killing the LTTE, the government is destroying the Tamils. Innocent people are dying for no fault of their own.'
The plight of people who were evacuated from Jaffna to the Kilinochchiregion following Operation Riviresa 2 is well illustrated by the case of the family of Mrs.B.Emmanuel (53 years) and four children who hailed from Koyathottam in Jaffna. People in their thousands have been wandering through jungles without food or shelter with aim of either returning to Jaffna or government controlled Vavuniya which is an enormously difficult task. Those who are unable to reach these two destinations, have gone to Akkarayan, Skandapuram and Mankulam and other areas in the Vanni region.
In Mrs Emmanuel’s case, her husband is working abroad, and with the money he remitted, the family had areasonably "normal life" before being evacuated from Jaffna. From her village first she with her four children found refuge at Muhanaalai in Chavakachcheri from where she came over to Kilinochchi. When Operation Sathjeya was launched on 26 July, she left Kilinochchi and moved to the Vanni region and found refuge at the Kalaimagal Maha Vidiyalayam turned into a welfare centre. Two of her childrenare over 16 years of age. The other two are 13 and 15. Mrs. Emanuel and her four children first went to Omanthai (under LTTE control) hoping to go to Vavuniya. Finding “obstacles' being placed in taking the two older children, Mrs. Emanuel and the two younger children found their way to Vavuniya. In spite of the enormous problems associated with entering and living in Vavuniya, she and her two children are there clueless as to their future. As of 20 August, 3490 families totalling 14,003 persons had reached Vavuniya having been displaced from Kilinochchi most of whom are living in welfare centres with the sole aim of returning to Jaffna to their homes. As of 22 August, it was reported that 64,879 persons from 16,250 families from the Kilinochchi district have sought refuge in Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya dis
tricts.
Some 200,000 p fighting in the Kilin gerously short of foi ter, a relief agency s Gordon Molitor, Sri Lanka, praised LTTE for allowing livered to refugees Zone, but said that “More relief is desp said in a statemen manitarian situatio may get even worse Since the lifting government said 29 been sent to the area, report datelined 8 S. ing aid workers that ing some of an estir gees because of prob in the Tamil rebel-h mainland despite the food convoys.
"Quite a lot off but some groups of tered with governm not entitled to food ting enough foo Stevenson of Medec (MSF). “We’ve seer
For the first time from Sri Lanka mail cent fighting in the 1 over to South India numbers, and as th 1,500 are reported boats. The Central Delhi and the Tamil ment expressed con
ment.
By and large, th rival of Sri Lankan Tamil Nadu was les was quite clear that of unquestioned sup and people of Tami Lankan Tamils in t July 1983 violence years, the situatio changed.
While DMK lea ister of Tamil Nad expressed sympathy Lankan Tamils ing placed Tamils in p: time in making it cle open invitation to Ta to Tamil Nadu. I "Murasoli' which h torial of each issue ally written by the self in the form of "Blood Brothers', K
 

TAMIL TIMES 5
eople who fled the Ichchi area are danpd, water and shelaid on 21 August. CARE's director in the army and the omne food to be den the northern War was not enough. erately needed,” he : adding, “The hun is precarious and
of the blockade, the 6 food trucks have However a Reuters ptember saidquotfood was not reachmated 200,000 refulems in distribution eld northern Wanni resumption of daily
ood is going across refugees no regisent authorities and rations are not geti,' said Frances ins Sans Frontieres 1 signs of under-nu
; since 1987, Tamils nly displaced by renorth began to cross l, initially in small e days passed over to have crossed in government in New Nadu state governcern at this develop
e reaction to the arTamil refugees into is than welcome. It rom the heady days port that the leaders | Nadu gave the Sri he aftermath of the
and the following has dramatically
der and Chief Minu, M.Karunanidhi, and support for Sri eneral, and the disrticular, he lost no :ar that it was not an milTigers to go over 1 the Tamil daily, e edits, and the ediof which is personhief Minister himun open letter to his arunanidhi made his
ce Fow to Tamil Nadu
trition, especially among children, because food distribution is patchy and some refugees not entitled to food rations go for days without proper food if they don't have money to buy it,”. Stevenson said malaria was on the increase because of a shortage of anti-malarial drugs in the region and the disruption of an anti-malaria campaign.
Arve Ofstad, United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) representative, said there would not have been any food shortage for refugees after the army lifted a three-week blockade in mid-August, had it not been for the distribution problems. "Since the resumption of food convoys our impression is that sufficient food is going into the area,” said adding, "But there may be gaps because of difficulties in distribution.”
The United States announced recently that it had given $1.1 million for refugee rehabilitation work in Sri Lanka through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Earlier the UNDP said it would provide $267,000 to develop a programme to rehabilitate
Jaffna after talks with the
people and local authorities in the devastated peninsula. O
position clear in the following terms:
"Even at the risk to our lives, we take the position that all Tamils, whether they be in Tamil Nadu, Eelam or even in distant England, should be protected. Even if all Tamils from Sri Lanka came over to Tamil Nadu, we are prepared to embrace them. DMK would never support or permit our fertile land to be turned into a battleground of violence. We have never prevented or condemned the measures taken to prevent infiltration into Tamil Nadu by Tamil Tigers. It is one thing to stop the Tigers from coming. It is another thing to stop our Tamils coming in search of refuge. Let the refugees in, but stop the Tigers in their track is our policy and our clarion call.”
Police began screening Tamil refugees as arrived in India from Sri Lanka in recent days to detect whether there were anyone belonging to the Tamil Tigers, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu said on 19 August. Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi told the State Assembly that coast guard and intelligence agencies had joined a search for Tamil Tiger cadres and their supporters. Fishermen in Tamil Nadu were warned that their boats would be seized if they helped Sri Lankan Tamils to cross the Palk Straits into India, The Pioneer newspaper reported. At the same time,

Page 6
6TAMIL TIMES
the paper quoted fishermen as saying that they were threatened by armed Tamil militants, who frequently forced them to take on refugees mid-sea and deliver them to India's shores.
"The refugees appeal to our mercy and the Tiger rebels threaten us mid-sea,' one fisherman was quoted as saying. “We ferry them in, and here the district administration pressures us. We seem to be trapped between the devil and the deep sea.” Some refugees were quoted as saying that they were encouraged to cross over to India by the LTTE
which hoped the draw internationa ka's civil war.
As the first ref ernment ordered seized in an effo Lankans Tamils p dia, the report sai reporter at Rames 25,000 fishermen strike against wha ment by police, v ferrying refugees.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on 2 September that it was helping the Sri Lankan government hold GCE Advance Level examinations in the LTTE controlled areas in the north of the island.
The government said nearly 172,000 students were sitting the examinations which started on 2 August, including students in the northern Wanni mainland, most of which is controlled by the LTTE.
“We're escorting education minis
try examiners at their request," the ICRC’s Gerard Peytrignet told journalists. “We have guarantees from the LTTE that everything will run smoothly and the ICRC work will be accepted.”
He said the government had asked the ICRC to help conduct the national examinations for 'A' level students in
the north where : LTTE-held town placed more than 2 their homes in the Peytrignet also to the refugees dis was back to norma August escorted g voys across no-r Wanni after the arm blockade on trans LTTE-held areas o
The LTTE, in a their London offic cused the governm supplies to the north has said it was the II refugees of food t stocks of governme their own fighters.
The Tigers would appear to have amassed an unprecedented vast quantity of weapons when they overran the Mullaitivu army camp in north-eastern Sri Lanka in late July in the course of its "Operation Unceasing Waves". So much so, reports indicate that for the first time the Tigers are in possession of the quantity of weapons which are considered too many for their cadres, limited in number, to handle in their fight against government forces.
The LTTE journals also have claimed that the Tigers "destroyed" over 1200 soldiers, including senior officers, within few hours of the launch of its operation and capturing the camp, and a further 200 were killed when the military sent in reinforcements in an ill-fated attempt to dislodge the Tigers from the camp by landing troops at nearby Alampil.
The Tigers, though they admit casualties on their side, have denied the claim by the army spokesman, Brig. Sarath Munasinghe, based on an alleged con
fession by a "Sea T in custody that ove another 1500 of the first two days of the camp.
In their 'Viduth 27 August, the Tig impressive list of they took away fron this list includes:
AK type guns RPD LMG guns FNC 60mm mortar 81mm mortar 120mm mortar W-85 Anti aircraft T-69-1 RPG launc PKGPMG T-81 A 1 LMG G3 A3
L-300 A5 Colt pistol Browning pistol
 
 
 

5 SPTEMBER 1996
refugee flow would attention to Sri Lan
gees arrived, the govthat their boats be rt to deter other Sri lanning to flee to Ini. A local newspaper waram said that some nad started a five-day it they called harassiho accused them of
O
big battle near the of Kilinochchi dis00,000 civilians from latter part of July.
said the flow of food placed by the fighting l. The ICRC in early overnment food connan's land into the ny lifted a three-week port vehicles to the f the north.
statementissued from e, on 2 September acent of blocking food 1. But the government TTE which deprived by confiscating large :nt supplies for use by
O
iger' reportedly now
r 800 Tigers died and m were injured in the Battle for Mullaitivu
alai Puligal" issue of ers have published an he array of weapons n the fallencamp, and
1402
93
1
30
12
2 guns 3 eS 29
26
2
5
4
l
4.
TT-33 Rokkarov guns CZ-75 guns 380 revolvers HK-69 A-1 40mm grenade guns
40 MMRCLM 40 A1 106 MMRCLM 40 A1 120mm Horvitzer Artillery guns Bullets: 5.56x45 7.62 x 39 1,514,596
7.62 x 51 7.62 x 54 12.7 x 98 12.7 x 108 Bullet links: 7.62 x 39 7.62 x 51 7.62 Χ 54
40mm grenades Rifle grenades 40mm RPG shells 106mm RCL shells 122mm Hovitzer artillery shells 25 bounder shells 120mm mortar shells 81mm mortar shells 60mm mortar shells 82mm mortar shells Handgrenades Gas shells Claymore mines Hand electrical firing device Jumping mines Pressure mines Controlled mines
1
:
6
2 12, 193
8,483 84,452 10,243 23,377 28,300 80,800 8,675 42
487 821
59
903 672 2,297 1,350 1,071 30 2,846 138 334
227 360 3,222 65
The LTTE also published a list of weapons allegedly captured from reinforcement troops landed at Alambil in their 27 August issue of Eelanatham.
AK type guns RPD LMG
Mc GPMG
PKGPMG T69 - 1 RPG launchers
60 MM commando mortars
60 MM mortar 81 MM mortar Maccam 40 MM MGL Sniper rifle type AW UZI
40 MM grenade
Bullets
7.62 x 39 7.62 x 51 7.62 x 54
Bullets with link 7.62 x 39 7.62 x 51 7.62 x 54
85 16 O2 O1 05 01 03 04 02 01 O1 180
146,000 874 5,915
900 2,500 2,675
Besides the LTTE has shot down an M1-17 helicopter which was landing troops; the powerful naval mother-ship

Page 7
15 SEPTEggs
'Ranaviru' which was providing protection for the naval boats was blown up by Black Sea Tigers; some other naval vessels including a landing craft and a Super Dvora were also damaged.
Besides the abov away with various ty tion equipment, nava plated vehicles inclu built Buffel vehicles
Govt’s Propaganda Dri
The Sri Lankan government is to carry out an image-building campaign in Europe and Asia to counter what it alleges as anti-government propaganda carried out by Tamil Tigers and the supporters abroad, Minister of Media, Tourism and Aviation Mr. Dharmasiri Senanayake announced at a weekly cabinet news briefing in Colombo on 22 August.
He said that the government had approved a $4 million international campaign over a period of two years adding that the image-building campaign,
which will be hand tional public relatio) the winter and will and Asia, with emp including Britain, many, Japan, USA. Korea.
The minister ad sential to effectively ish disinformation ganda” against Sri L by Tamil rebels, whi using Internet for th poses.”
Arrest of “Train Bomber'
The Sri Lankan military said on 3 September that it had arrested an allegedly Tamil Tiger who it claimed planted the bomb that ripped apart a packed commuter train killing nearly 60 and injured over 500 people when two time bombs ripped apart two coaches of a commuter train at the Dehiwela station in the suburb of Colombo on 24 July this year. A third bomb was defused.
“We have arrested one of the people who placed one of the three bombs on the train,” military spokesman Brigadier Sarath Munasinghe told reporters. Munasinghe declined to say how many people were involved in the bombing but presented the suspect to the reporters, allowing them to question him briefly through an interpreter.
The man identified himself as Savarimuttu Loganathan, aged 23, said to be from northern Jaffna. Answering questions from reporters, Loganathan said he boarded the train at the Kollupitiya railway station with the bomb in a bag and placed it on a luggage rack. He planted the bomb and got off at Dehiwela shortly before the bombs went off. The suspect added that he joined the LTTE in 1989 and came to Colombo in 1992 to work as a barber to stay under cover.
But the LTTE in a statement shortly after the bombing of the passenger train denied any responsibility for the attack saying that do not attack civilian targets. According to police, they arrested two women suspects following the arrest of Loganathan when they raided their rented home in Dehiwala.
Munasinghe said Loganathan was arrested on 2 September during police
raids on what he cla safe houses in Colom ern Puttalam distric and ammunition, inc able US-made rocke kg (eight lb) of exp rifles, grenades an rounds of ammunit. explosives detonators said adding that seve pects were also detai
Tigers Overrul
Tamil Tiger cadı lated police post at Welikande in Sri Lan on 29 August killing cording defence offic
A large group stormed the Kudap before dawn. The en run, said a defence C before they left the sc and got away with n.
* Displaced
Attend
About 40 percen dents in the war-tol peninsula are now Education Ministry ber.
The Ministry ha the necessary equipm in the Jaffna district from the army and Agent of Jaffna.
A total of 36 scho in Jaffna town alone has been satisfactory opment Bank and the supplied equipment underdifferent proje
 

, the Tigers also got pes of communicaboats, and armouriing South African
O
V6e
ed by an internais firm, will start in e targeting Europe hasis on countries
taly, France, GerIndia, and South
ded that it was escounter and demoland "false propaanka spread abroad he said were even eir “nefarious pur
O
imed as two LTTE bo and north-west... A stock of arms luding two dispost launchers and 3.5 losives, automatic d a cache of 119 on and electronic were recovered, he rall other LTTE susned. O
Police Post
'es overran an isoKudopokuna near kan Northeastearly 24 policemen, accials. of Tigers cadres okuna police post tire post was overfficial. The Tigers ene raided armoury any weapons. O
t of displaced stun northern Jaffna attending school, said on 4 Septem
already supplied ent for the schools following requests
the Government
ols have reopened and the attendance The Asian DevelWorld Bank have to those schools :ts. O
TAMILTTMEST
The number of Sri Lankans working abroad increased by 30 percent in the first six months of this year over the same period last year, according to sources of the Foreign Employment Bureau in Colombo.
The sources from the Bureau said that over 73,500 people were registered with the Bureau for Jobs Abroad and that about 70 percent of them went through licensed agents.
The major demand abroad is still for Sri Lankan housemaids and over 60 percent of those who went abroad between January and June this year were housemaids, the sources said.
The Sri Lankan governmentis working to improve and expand facilities for people leaving for foreign employment, which has become a major source of foreign exchange earnings and helped to reduce the domestic unemployment burden, the sources added.
Romantic Move
Marriage offers from soldiers are apparently flying thick and fast for young Tamil girls in the war-torn Jaffna peninsula, according to statement made by the LTTE on 21 August which described the action of the soldiers as harassment.
“In a Machiavellian move to break Tamil peoples” resistance to Sri Lankan army occupation of Jaffna peninsula, soldiers stationed there are harassing Tamil girls with offers of marriage," the statement said.
The LTTE also said female soldiers in the mainly Sinhalese army were chasing Tamil boys with marriage offers. O
Shelfers for Shree Children
Sri Lanka authorities have commenced a project to provide street children with permanent shelters for the night, the Ministry of Social Services announced on 2 September.
The project is geared to laying a foundation for these children's well-being. Although these children are also entitled to social benefits, most of them do not get the opportunity to enjoy them for reasons such as ignorance and lack of enthusiasm, the Ministry said.
It added that the government believed that these children should also be accepted by society and given an opportunity for education and employment for them to become useful citizens of the society.
There are more than 50,000 street children in the island country, according to local press reports.

Page 8
8 TAMIL TIMES
Sri Lanka authorities have begun arresting army deserters who did not return to their camps despite a two-month government amnesty, army spokesman Brigadier Sarath. Munasinghe saidon 22 August.
Since the amnesty lapsed at the end of last month, the military has arrested 311 soldiers, including two officers, Munasinghe told a news conference.
They are among the 15,000 who deserted the army during the past five years as fighting escalated between government forces and the LTTE.
“But 4,206 deserters responded to the pardon and have returned to their duty stations,” he said. The army, strapped for troops to fight the LTTE, has offered amnesties in the past, but it is the first time it has publicised arrests. Military sources said the army's recruitment campaign gathered some momentum soon after troops captured the Tiger northern Jaffna peninsula stronghold in a series of well publicised offensives that ended last April.
But the army suffered its worst setback last month when Tigers overran a
Suicide Squad
Suspect Arrested
An alleged suspect head of a Tamil rebel suicide squad was reported arrested on 9 September in Anuradhapura town in North Central province by Sri Lanka's security forces, according to military sources.
The sources claimed that the man identified as Illanko had with him a pen with invisible ink which he used to write progress reports to the LTTE leadership.
Illanko who was alleged to be on a mission to bomb the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi Shrine at Anuradhapura town, had assumed the name of Ramasamy and posed as a truck cleaner. He was arrested on suspicion while travelling in the truck with three others, the sources said. The sources stated that according to military intelligence, he was one of the most wanted rebel operatives in Colombo.
Details of the planned attack had
been revealed by another rebel operative who had been arrested a few days earlier. According to alleged information given by this operative, Ilango had planned to use a 10-member suicide squad to attack the Sri Maha Bodhi Shrine and ram through all security barriers on their way to the target, the sources added.
key army camp in the killing or capturing soldiers.
Observers saya I tempts by the milita boost its numbers th drives may also have ernment to offer the
Defence analyst that because of the la alties over the years, vast area of the north
P
Shortly after the
Chandrika Kumarat)
state visit to South K. ance to speed up Sri development, an offi a South Korean firm i was subjected to a made reportedly by t The President, th from Sri Lanka to vi 12 years, hoped for ment by Korean com government asked help South Korean b in the island's comn generation, steel and other infrastructure
A loan agreem Lanka with $50millic eas Economic Deve tion Fund (EDCF) w visit.
Trade betweenth rapidly grown in rec trade reached $387 from S194 million in Seoul government fi; now has 79 projects investments totallin making it the thirdla tor after Japan and H The office of a S pany in the east Trincomalee was att on 15 August. The office of Korea Tele which is building at in the city. The auth LTTE for the attack. why the Tigers attack some analysts attril President Kumaratu cised visit to Korea i creased Korean inves Seoulhas reporte to tighten security fo Lanka after a bomb : Tamil Tigers upon al Korean Company loc
 
 

15 SÉPTERID-rnyvo
island's Northeast, the camp's 1,400
number of failed aty establishment to rough recruitment prompted the govgeneral amnesty.
s in Colombo say ge number of casuand considering the east that the forces
are expected to cover in their continuing battle with the Tamil Tigers, and the lack of response to recruitment efforts, the security forces severely undermanned and the thousands of desertions have made the situation worse.
In addition there's also a damaging social cost. Many deserters are unable to find legitimate employment and join criminal gangs, who offer them protection and money in exchange for their guns and professional expertise. A spate of violent crimes and bank robberies across Sri Lanka in recent months has focused attention of the issue of army desertion. O
esident's Visit to Korea
return of President unga from a 3-day orea seeking assistLanka's economic ce building housing in eastern Sri Lanka grenade attack was he Tamil Tigers. e first head-of-state isit South Korea in more active investpanies. The Korean ner government to usinesses take part nunications, power road building and rojects. ent providing Sri pn from South Korelopment Cooperaas signed during the
e two countries has ent years. Two-way million last year 1990, according to gures. South Korea in Sri Lanka with g $104.6 million, rgest foreign invessong Kong. (outh Korean comern port-city of acked by grenades blast damaged the com International, elephone exchange orities blamed the It was unclear as to 2d the company, but bute the attack to nga's highly publin the context of intment in the island. dly asked Colombo ir its citizens in Sri attack allegedly by in office of a South :ated in the eastern
port city of Trincomalee on 14 August. "The South Korean Embassy in Sri Lanka has told South Koreans there to take precautions and also asked the government there to enhance security for our citizens,” a Foreign Ministry statement in Seoul said on 16 August.
The South Koreans had been building telecommunication facilities at the navy base in Trincomalee. The blasts shattered windows and damaged some parts of the building. Within 48 hours, all 20 South Koreans in the Trincomalee area had been evacuated to Colombo.
The grenade attack Qn the Korean office was preceded by two bombs being thrown at a telecom office under construction in Trincomalee, causing no casualties but considerable damage to the building. Police said the Tigers were attempting to disrupt the development work initiated by the government for the benefit of Tamil civilians in the Trincomalee area. O
CiVilliams Questioned
Security forces questioned hundreds of civilians in the Jaffna peninsula in an attempt to seek information about LTTE's presence and their presence and released all but one man, military sources said on 21 August.
Security forces which now control the peninsula launched an eight-hour search on the previous day for Tigers in the village of Kokuvil. The military said 350 men and 250 women between the ages of 15 and 35 were questioned. One of the men reportedly was being held in custody.
Troops came under fire during the operation and three civilians, one of them a 7-year-old child, were wounded in the exchange of gunfire, the military said. This exchange indicates that the army has not succeeded in eliminating the LTTE presence in the peninsula. O

Page 9
15 SEPTEMBER 1996
F: “Hua Rigs,
In a 31-page report released on 14 August titled "Sri Lanka: Wavering Commitment to Human Rights', Amnesty International said that, two years since it came to power, the People's Alliance government continued to tolerate human rights violations while refusing to take the crucial steps needed to ensure that human rights protection became a reality in Sri Lanka.
Although the situation has improved dramatically since the late 1980s, the government's stance allows violations such as extrajudicial executions, "disappearances' and torture to continue, particularly in the context of its conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) armed opposition group. "Despite its public commitment to protect human rights, the government is trying to justify human rights violations because it is fighting a war,” Amnesty International said.”This is duplicitous at the very least. The deliberate targeting of innocent men, women and children for horrifying abuses such as electroshock torture and rape can never be justified.” .
Amnesty International is particularly concerned at the recent escalation of human rights violations, including the killing of numerous civilians in several deliberate bomb attacks in and around Colombo attributed to the LTTE, and the alleged indiscriminate killings of civilians by both sides during fighting in the north and east. At the very minimum, both the LTTE and the government should ensure that all necessary steps are taken to protect the safety of civilians, including refraining from indiscriminate attacks, the organization said.
"The government cannot just rest easy by saying that things are not as bad as they used to be,” Amnesty International said. "This complacency is completely unacceptable to the families of victims such as 17-year-old Arumai
Seven Sri Lankan policemen have been arrested in connection with the killing of two civilians in the North Western province on July 9 this year, police sources said on 16 August.
The arrests were made by a special team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department inquiring into the deaths of the two men who had been shot and their bodies burnt on tyre pyres in the small town of Giribawa.
One of the victims was a textile
Seven Policemen Arrest
thurai Tharmaletchu and then shot dead diers, and 14-year-o who was shot betwe tried to stop them.” There has been the introduction of guards to preventh tions, like the establ nal Human Rights C arrest of alleged pe government is still provisions in severa. short of internationa cilitate torture, deat appearances” and e tions.
Amnesty Interna cerned about the iss past human rights vic court cases have bee members of the secu with violations, and t ceeding very slowly. The organizatio government to rep widely formulated p detain currently giv forces, and to speec and judicial proceec accused of human r. is also urging the L make a clear stateme prohibiting the delit killing of civilians.
The LTTE has a of Sinhalese civilian ernment in certain ar east can be justified sider them to be acti the armed conflict. person tried to just rights abuses by the context of general dis Tamils.
An Amnesty Inte which visited Sri Lal gathered evidence fra
dealer, who was arr connections with a su bomb-find in a Colo ple several months a later. However, the
killing remains a my
The arrested men in charge of the Co. Subversive Unit in th Vavuniya, a sergeau and a driver.
 
 
 
 
 
 

خـــــــــــــہ
TAM.L. TIMES 9
Imi, who was raped by government solld Anthony Joseph, en his legs when he
some progress with a number of safeuman rights violaishment of a Natioommission and the rpetrators. But the refusing to amend laws which fall far ul standards and fahs in custody, 'disxtrajudicial execu
tional is also conue of impunity for lations. Only a few n instigated against rity forces charged hese have been pro
n is calling on the eal or amend the OWers to arrest and ven to the security i up investigations lings against those ights violations. It TTE leadership to nt condemning and erate and arbitrary
rgued that killings s settled by the goveas of the north and because they conively taking part in One LTTE spokesify present human organization in the (crimination against
national delegation nka earlier this year »m victims and eye
sted for suspected spected Tamil rebel mbo Buddhist temo, but was released motive behind the
stery.
included an officer ordinating Counter le morthern town of ht, four constables
O
witnesses of human rights abuses committed by both government forces and armed opposition groups. The victims included women and children as young as 12.
Since April 1995, government security forces have arbitrarily detained thousands of Tamil people and have been responsible for torture, extrajudicial executions and more than 60"disappearances” of Tamils. Armed Tamil groups opposed to the LTTE, including the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), have also committed human rights abuses.
The LTTE have been responsible for deliberate and arbitrary killings of Sinhalese civilians; summary executions of Tamils considered to be "traitors'; and torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and young boys and girls who were forced to join the group.
Among the personal stories highlighted in Amnesty International's report are:
* July 1995 - A 15-year-old girl who had been recruited by the LTTE at the age of 12, reported how she was tortured by navy officers after she surrendered to them in Jaffna district. She alleged that she was held naked and tortured by being hung upside down. A young woman who surrendered around the same time alleged that navy officers pulled a shopping bag full of petrol over her head.
* July 1995 - 15-year-old Dharmalingam Chandramohan was taken away by army personnel from Muttur “GPS" Camp in Trincomalee district. Relatives made enquiries at the camp but officers denied arresting him. Nothing more has been heard of his whereabouts.
* August 1995 - Lakshmi Pillai was raped at her home in Trincomalee by two army informants in front of her two sons. The motive may have been revenge as she had spoken out about being raped before at Plantain Point army camp in August 1993.
* 11 February 1996 - Soldiers killed 24 civilians, including 13 women and seven children below the age of 12, at Kumarapuram, Trincomalee district. The soldiers broke open the shutters of houses and shot at the people hiding inside. Among the victims were Arumaithurai Tharmalletchumi and Anthony Joseph.
* 11 June 1996 - 14 Sinhalese civilians, including four children, were killed. One survivor said that about 15 LTTE members entered his house, blindfolded nine people, tied their hands behind their back, attacked them with machetes and finally shot them. Six other villagers were reportedly dragged into the jungle and hacked to death. O

Page 10
10 TAMILTIMES
Five Policemen in Custo
Five police officials accused of torturing and killing suspected JVP members during its failed insurrection from 1988-1990. Investigators also have questioned two deputy police chiefs (DIGs) who are believed to have headed the torture camp at Batalanda, about 5 miles east of Colombo.
The arrests followed investigation by a Presidential Commission headed by two judges of the Supreme Court appointed last year to probe into widespread human rights abuses, including disappearances of tens of thousands of persons during the previous UNP regime.
Witnesses told the Commission which had been hearing evidence for the last several months that they had seen police torturing suspects before taking them to nearby Kelani river, where they
were either fatally sh fuel and burned to de
The witnesses sai ple were murdered, exactly how many di were arrested last y with the killings, and
Evidence from would appear to sugg Prime Minister and pi United National Pa. Wickremasinghe, oth in the previous regim ment officials knew a of this torture camp a were carried out frol that circulating that would order the takil Mr.Wickremasinghel been strenuously den
Sri Lanka's Education Ministry announced on 3 September that it would be recruiting 1,500 Tamil medium teachers to fill vacancies in Tamil schools throughout the island.
Initially 500 of them would be recruited immediately to fill the vacan
cies in estate school posted to schools in district and 12 oth Southern, Central, S Uva provinces, Min The balance number recruited by the end
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Ls. They would be the Nuwara Eliya er districts in the abaragamuwa and istry sources said. of teachers will be of this year. O
The Sri Lankan government announced on 22 August that the price of wheat flour and bread had been increased with immediate effect.
The price of a kilogram of wheat flour was raised by three rupees to 16.50 rupees, while the price of a loaf of bread was increased by one rupee to 6.75 rupees, the Food Commissioner's Department said.
The government was spending seven billion rupees on the wheat flour subsidy, a spokesman said.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga last month said the island must prepare for a cut in state subsidies on food to fund the ongoing war between governmen forces and the Tamil Tigers. Her warning came after a budget overrun caused by the war. The government has said that intensified fighting had sent defence spending soaring to 48 billion rupees by August this year from the 38 billion rupees budgeted in the 1995/96 budget last November.
But the main opposition party, the United National Party has accused the President and her government of betraying the promises they made during their election campaign not to raise prices of essential food items. O
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Page 11
15 SEPTEMBER 1990
a BeingaTamilin Colo
by Professor S. Ratnajeevan H. Ho
t is now eight months since I moved my family back to Sri Lanka, after 20 years abroad, the last fourteen in the US where all my children had been born. Having fled Sri Lanka then, there were now clear indications of the winds of change - the people had at the lastelections firmly rejected the idea of the racist state. The new government boldly proclaimed that we Tamils are very much part of this land. While the reasons for my return are complex, that we Tamils too should make a clear commitment to those Sinhalese who were taking risks on our behalf against bigots, was certainly one.
The experience of living here has been generally pleasant and highly educative for the children, except most notably in the area of the right of us Tamils to go about as freely as the Sinhalese do. I had observed the reluctance of friends to go too far away from their residence. My brother once on a visit to Colombo had been picked up and released after a few hours of enquiry. My sister and husband who had taken my children one weekend to the play area of Majestic City and my brother's children a fortnight later, were picked up by the Bambalapitiya Police when they went there a third time, supposedly because a police informant had reported them as coming there daily for a week. However, the inquiry was professional, we were promptly informed of the arrest, and they were released in eight hours after due inquiry. One put these down as necessary inconveniences in a time of war, inconveniences within the confines of the law. The only substantive complaint we had at the time was being asked to sign a statement in Sinhalese drafted by the police and unintelligible to us, which we signed anyway so as to be quickly out of the place. In another incident, a nephew of mine working in Colombo and studying at the Open University was picked up with many others in the Wellawatte area, produced before a magistrate and transferred to Kalutara where he was relieved of his money by other prisoners in the presence of the guards. His mother was told that this was the pattern when a certain traffic officer was in charge of the station and that if a certain lawyer were hired, the police would have no objection to his release on the next court date. The mother did this. The policeman was paid several thousands of rupees by the lawyer in the presence of my nephew who then got released by the magistrate,
there being no obje lice now, naturally." in the light of the otl professional handlin this down to the occ; the police.
That this is not s lem is structural was great force recently. in Mathematics at Ja has been on leave di at Peradeniya, and who is working at Thornton's Kandy Pettah Bus Station Kandy, on Friday, 9t iting us. A member had been staring a made a telephone ca police turned up, go in their mid-thirties ( accused them of bi While being interro Duty Room there, an gathered round. The sergeant, accused in Pettah for the seco whereas the closest his head office in th
ing. Upon noticing
ter's elbow from an accused her of unde ing and, seemingly marks, roughly ask skirt well above her voyeuristic men and gathered. He thens Pettah Police station his men not to let th He followed a whil more arrestees and b tion during which he tated about Mullaiti that my b-i-l is a R Colombo but work flipped his top sayi everywhere and be while all his men close and hurling v telling him of their Bambalapitiya anc Kandy, and produci OIC Kandy that they cleared and released Shortly after mi CID officer, one P them. According to their being picked hair-style which wa an LTTE girl who h on her way from Batt When my sister beg
 
 

As TAM TIMES 11
ctions from the poThe optimist in me, her two incidents of gby the police, put asional bad apple in
o and that the probbrought to me with My sister, a Lecturer ffna University who oing some research my brother-in-law Ford, Rhodes and Office, were at the l, on their way to h August, after visof the public who them for a while ll and suddenly the it the young couple out of the queue and 2ing LTTE agents, gated at the Police agitated crowd had arresting officer, a ny b-i-l of visiting ond time that day, he had been was to e Fort in the morna mark on my sisold wound, he then rgoing LTTE trainlooking for more ed her to raise her knees in front of his the crowd that had ent them on to the in a jeep ordering em make any calls. e later with three legan his interrogaseemed highlyagivu. Upon learning oyalist resident in ing in Kandy, he ng Tamils can live gan slapping him were threateningly erbal abuse. Their previous arrest in three arrests in ng a note from the " had been arrested, , were of no help. d-night the senior arera, interrogated him, the reason for up was my sister's s similar to that of ad been picked up icaloa to Colombo ged him to inform
the family, he said that that would not be necessary as he found them not guilty of anything and that they would be released in the morning. In the morning however, they were produced before a magistrate for further detention until August 21. When my sister reminded Mr. Perera of his promise, he simply ignored her.
Welikada was a nightmare, although free of police brutality. On arrival, even before the escorting men had left, my sister was stripped by the female wardens. There were sudden unannounced roll-calls in the men's section and those asleep were kicked and stepped upon for not rising up. Drug transactions were visibly taking place. Women were seen snorting stuff. When a prisoner my sister had befriended asked my sister to get her breakfast because she felt sick and my sister communicated this to the woman guard, the reply was a blow with her stick
Even the Christian pastor who took the service on Sunday in prison was no less callous. His sermon had been on how he needed money to clear a computer through customs, for which he had prayed and God had answered with a US $ 200 cheque in the mail for the prison ministry. My sister approached him and asked him to inform our parish priest, the Rev. Canon Sam Horshington whom he knew, that she was in jail. He was apparently too engrossed about his new computer to think of how he could help others. Finally it was on Monday that a civilian worker who shall remain unnamed, defied his/her bosses to give us a garbled message that my sister was at Welikade.
Once we knew, things began to move thanks to many friends and well-wishers doing God's work, unlike the pastor - our indefatigable Attorney Ramani Muttetuwegama who appeared for us “pro bono publico”, C. T. Janz of the Human Rights Task Force, and Wimal Fernando and Sivagurunathan of the Movement for Development and Democratic Rights, to name a just a few. By noon we had established that my b-i-l was also being held and were able to visit them to let them know that someone was thinking of them. Ms.Muttetuwegama persuaded the OIC through police very-high-ups that no objections should be raised for their release and the next day,Tuesday, we filed a motion for their release at Hulftsdorf and waited out the morning for the case to be called. Finally the judge ordered the release of all five, there having been no objections from the police even to the release of the other three. We rushed the order to Welikade asking the jailers to produce the prisoners in court and returned to
(Continued on next page)

Page 12
Z A.W.L. I WEND
STATEMANSHIP DEMOC
POLITICAL MORALT
by Dr.S.Narapalasingam"
he political correspondent of the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), in his article titled "UNP Means Business” published on July 21, 1996, reported that Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Leader of the Opposition in the Sri Lankan Parliament who is also the leader of the United National Party(UNP), responding to the call to act in a spirit of statesmanship and co-operate with the Government in solving national crises had stated:- "statesmen were retired politicians aid that he had no intention of becoming one.” The call was made at a seminar organized by the UNP specially for business leaders in Sri Lanka from July 15-17. They are expected to actresponsibly in their businesses
Mr. Wickremasinghe's response
(conted. from page 11)
Hulftsdorf to await their arrival.
In a final insult, the guard at Welikade told myb-i-l that he had to pay money or he would be taken in handcuffs in public. After some haggling, the sum of Rs. 50 a person was arrived at. My b-i- and sister arrived at Welikade without handcuffs and were released by the magistrate. One there to receive one of the other 3 prisoners told me that they had paid money to the police through their lawyer to secure the release. As a last detail, my b-i-l's identity card had to be picked up from the Pettah Police. As we arrived the men on duty laughed at us saying that the non-Sinhalese speaking party had arrived, even though both my wife and b-i-l spoke excellent Sinhalese. When we tried to explain what we were there for, we were asked if it is "a Tamil suspicion case'! I complained to the OIC about the lost ID card, my sister's skirt being raised in public and the assaulting of my b-i-l. He was apologetic but did not record my complaint. Nor did I press the matter since I would have been asked to sign a statement I could not read. The "lost' ID card was "found" only the next day after Ms. Muttetuwegama had spoken to the OIC again.
The court proceedings we watched at Hulftsdorf as we waited summed up for me what is happening in the country. A senior police officer appeared accused of disappearances. That he was accused at all is redeeming. That he was not asked by the bailiff to stand in the dock
prompts firstly a qu a fit person to be the ing to lead the State he so openly conf going to behave like he retires from pol more fundamentally tion : when is a leac
His assertion ha to examine the wo and multi-party sys Sri Lanka and the ri to the destruction of on which the nation whole has progress ence, culminating iI minority Tamils for
The widely acce 'statesman' is one v
like the other accuse a suit with a smug ing. In examination another abduction c ing a UNPMP, it wa senior CID officer MP's father, the MP son was wanted fora men are Still in the SE the president’s stri families immediate flouted and with imp friend in court that c on his stolen gold c as to what was going ceedings were in Si a good few minute called and postpone his presence was no shows that the state tentions, continues non-persons.
The sum of my while there are good OIC at Bambalapiti conscientiously with ience to suspects, the in the forces today ernment's quest for it the threat of prose deeds or the threat and would therefore dermine the presi Tamils, to be safe ment, need good so nections or money woe betide them. A much less now, and hairdo on the advic Officer at Pettah.
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
estion whether he is President-in-Waitof Sri Lanka when esses that he is not a "statesman' until itics. Secondly and 1, it raises the quesler a statesman? s also prompted one king of democracy tem in multi-ethnic asons that have led the very foundations and the society as a ed since independthe demand by the autonomy. pted definition of a vho exercises politi
2d and stood there in smile was frightenby the prosecutor in ase that day involvas brought out that a had informed the at the time, that the abduction. That such rvices explains how ct orders to inform ly upon arrest, are unity. An old Hindu lay to give evidence :hain, was clueless on because the proinhalese, and it was s after his case was d that he knew that longer necessary. It 2, despite stated into treat Tamils as
experience is that, i policemen like the ya who do their duty the least inconvenre are too many men who find this govjustice a threat - be cution for past misto their livelihood - 2 do anything to unident... As a result from police harasscial or political conto pay. Otherwise, is for us, we go out my sister has a new e of the senior CID
O
cal leadership wisely and without narrow partisanship. But in Sri Lanka, it appears to have a different connotation. To the credit of the present Leader of the Opposition, he has been at least forthright in conveying openly his self-denial as a statesman, while other leaders have acted deceptively contrary to the accepted definition.
Democracy The true meaning of democracy that many of us learned in school (S.F. de Silva's book on Civics used to be the standard textbook used then), and which has embedded in our minds to this day is that it is a political system based on it being "government of the people, by the people, for the people", a concept formulated by the founding fathers of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Democracy in Sri Lanka is not understood in the same way Abraham Lincoln extolled it. When he referred to "people', he meant all the people, not just those of one ethnic group or the other.
How best democracy works in a country is not judged by the rhetoric of the leaders, glorifying it as a "five-star" democracy but essentially by the way the legislative, judicial and executive organs function and democratic and related principles are observed by those holding public offices in the various establishments in the executive (including particularly law enforcement) arm of the government.
A multi-ethnic society in which human rights are violated, the concerns of the minorities are ignored, arguments and demands of different groups are suppressed through acts of terror and intimidation, all members are not treated as equals and equal opportunities for its members individually or collectively as a group to improve their well-being do not exist cannot claim to be democratic. Sri Lanka has been under Emergency Rule for a considerable time and this provided excuses for the curtailment of democratic freedoms by various governmentS.
Political interference in the administration of the police, security forces and justice has been common even during normal times. Governments have neither accepted responsibility for many reported incidents of misuse of powers and unauthorised criminal activities of some within their own establishments nor brought the perpetrators to justice. Extra-judicial punishments including disappearances of "suspects” while in custody have been overlooked. On occasions, the leaders themselves have instigated violence against a section of the citizens. In particular, the situation that

Page 13
15 SEPTEMBER 99
prevailed under various Emergency regimes almost bordered on anarchy. Consequently, people may be confused between what is normally understood to be democratic and authoritarian rule, carried on in the name of “democracy”.
The above observation reflects the shortsighted approach of achieving certain goals regardless of the consequences of the means used, turning a blind eye to ethics and the long-term implications to the unity of the multi-ethnic society and the integrity of the country. In this the misinterpretation of democracy as the “rule of the majority” appears to have prevailed. Political leaders' own preferences for ducking difficult issues rather than confronting them, had paid political dividends in the short termat the cost of long-term “national benefits". The term "national' is used here in the broadest sense, as understood by rational persons. In Sri Lanka, the leaders went further to perpetuate and use the ethnic issues for political gains. We are now witnessing the consequences of their irresponsible actions. Even after four decades of muddling through major issues, some leaders have not learned any lesSO.
One cannot fail to notice the concealed meanings attributed to concepts as “nation”, “people", "democracy" and "therule of the majority” used in numerous debates on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. All have one common rigid characteristicin that to many Sinhalese politicians they imply Sinhalese nation and Sinhalese people and both democracy and the rule of the majority have been interpreted in this background. Even the concept of a multi-ethnic society is accepted by some with the limitation that the minorities should be subservient to the numerical majority.
The civil wars that erupted in Russia and in Bosnia after the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia discarded totalitarianism in favour of "democracy”, illlustrate the problems that arise when majority rule is imposed on minority groups in multi-ethnic societies against their wishes. Some of the former communist states in Eastern Europe populated by different ethnic groups, which were held together by highly authoritarian rule, had been able to secede peacefully after embracing democratic rule. This mutually agreed method of separation of states has not been possible in other cases for various reasons. In most cases, the demand for autonomy by minority groups residing predominantly in separate regions of the country stems from their perceived dangers concerning their safety, loss of their collective and individual freedom and distinct identity, possible inhibitions to their social and economic progress and domination by
the majority group ing their daily live sis, all these fears one composite fact of trust. In the cas threat to the unity ( country originated ward way throught trust by political le be statesmen, but greedy for power a Once the dama the major ethnic gro the multi-ethnic col democratic and wid, would also put an e tilities is for the ma a mutually agreed ment to the releva by distinct minorit ment reached recen Ramos and the ch National Liberation Misuari to end the 2 in Mindanao, a pre region in the Phi catholic country) is approach. In those graphical distributi nic groups is such, r are infeasible then : ing arrangements h ommended to end ethnic countries.
Multi-pa A multi-party s essarily represent c est form, especiall parties are formed and regional lines commitment to de are not familiar wit tion of mixed ethn in the less develo recognize the diff Western-style dem party system in div cally) societies. In for the political pa majority ethnic grol power to rule to th tage is great, which conflict between t minority groups.
It is relevant to contributed so far t the territorial integ many diverse ethni tion of regionalism system there is no system as in multi Sri Lanka or in the authoritarian comm dian constitution ii; ond, India fought f der national leader dhi and Jawarhalal ued even after inde

TTAMIL TIMES 13
in all matters affects. In the final analycan be attributed to or, namely, the lack se of Sri Lanka, the of the people and the in a more straightforhe destruction of the aders not aspiring to political careerists nd position. ge has been done, if up still wants to keep untry united, then the ely acceptedway that nd to protracted hosjority group to grant form of self-governnt regions inhabited y groups. The agreetly by President Fidel airman of the Moro Front (MNLF), Nur 24 years old civil war :dominantly Muslim lippines (a mainly consistent with this cases where the geoon of the diverse ethegional governments suitable power-sharave been widely reccivil wars in multi
rty System
system may not neclemocracy in its pury when the political largely along ethnic , regardless of their mocracy. Those who h the social constituic or tribal societies ped countries fail to erence between the ocracy and the multi'ided (not just politifact, the propensity rties dominated by a up to use the lopsided heir electoral advan1 only aggravates the he majority and the
note the reasons that o the preservation of rity of India with so c groups and a tradih. First, the political it a fully centralised -party "democratic” former single-party nunist states. The Ins quasi-federal. Secor independence unS like Mahatma Gan
Nehru, who continpendence to serve all
the people as members of one large Indian Nation and work for the unity of different ethnic, religious and regional groups, in brief as statesmen unlike the self-proclaimed non-statesman in personality of the current UNP leader. Third, after independence India has been embroiled in wars with her neighbours China and Pakistan. Thus, formidable common adversaries of almost all the Indians emerged, energizing the feelings of national unity.
Responsible Leadership
At a recent seminar organised by the International Centre for Ethnic Affairs, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Prof. G.L. Peiris, stated that empowerment, participation, stability, rationality and compassion are the five irreducible minimum elements for the establishment of civil society in Sri Lanka. In the present discussion, the last two elements, namely, rationality and compassion are relevant.
He is bewildered that a country with an intelligent, a lively population, very interested in political issues, accustomed to discussing political issues in buses, trains, boutiques all over the country, enjoying universal adult suffrage since 1931 for 65 years, practising democracy and the multi-party system which is an ingrained part of the nation's political culture, could not find a solution to the ethnic problem for so long! His explanation for this paradox is that “we have never reflected on this cancer, eating deeper and deeper in our body politic in a rational, sensible way. All discussion of this subject has been pervaded by a high degree of emotion. Very few people are able to analyse these issues in a dispassionate and objective manner. There is a rapid disappearance of the middle ground, a dramatic sense of polarisation and confrontation. Whoever is moderate is denounced as a traitor by both sides, the extremities of the political spectrum. Now this is the kind of situation that has militated against and so powerfully inhibited, the emergence of a rational solution.'
While it is true that the emergence of the situation described by the Minister, has prevented a solution to the ethnic problem based on logic and reason, it is important to examine how such a situation emerged in the first place. The ordinary people are not to be blamed for creating this most intractable intolerant situation. Sri Lanka had many expereienced and educated political leaders but not that many responsible statesmanlike leaders. Leaders expect others to be responsible, compassionate, tolerant, decent, law abiding and honest, which they themselves would nothesitate to breach at the very first opportunity in order to

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14 AMIL IMES
obtain some personal or parochial benefits.
When the leaders have, for selfish and unstatesmanlike reasons, advocated mistrust, division, enmity and parochialism continuously, one should not be surprised that emotion and prejudice have displaced rational thinking among their followers in particular and the people in general. The leaders were not uneducated persons having only the gift of gab. Unless the political leaders set the example by their exemplary conduct in politics, it is foolhardy to expect their supporters among the citizenry to recognize the importance of being responsible in the interest of the entire nation. The fact that Sri Lanka has a literacy rate of 96% compared with around 37% in some Asian countries has proved to be oflittle relevance to the minimum qualities required for the establishment of a civil society in the country. A vicious cancer of mediocre, dishonest and opportunist gurus producing tame followers, has evolved in the political arena. One is not arguing this malign phenomenon is absent on the Tamil side. When meritocracy gave way to mediocrity and "opportunistic loyalty” (the so-called “yes-men") in decision making at the national level, rationality was compromised.
It is the failure of the political leadership in Sri Lanka that has driven the country and the people into the present predicament. As required of responsible statesmanlike leaders, they did not provide the guidance to the people but simply "sailed" with the winds of political fortune. In this process, they knowingly or unknowingly(?) misled the people. It is the people who are now made to pay directly and indirectly (unachieved living standards that have been within reach) for the sheer criminal folly of an irresponsible leadership since independence. Fear, insecurity, misery and uncertainty are the endowments of the legacy bestowed to the people by these so-called leaders after practising democracy and the multi-party system over nearly half a century.
Honest Leadership
The Justice Minister in his illuminating address is reported to have said: "Some people say that if you devolve power, do so carefully. Always protect your interests, use all kinds of stratagems, constitutional ingenuities, whatever, to make certain that when you want to interfere you have the levers at your disposal that would enable you to do so with facility and impunity.” The Minister, very appropriately and effectively, responded to this type of maladroit arguments when he said: "If this is your approach, you may not as well do it at
all.' What the Minis here has a direct be acute national proble nothing but tragedy the people. It is the a litical and other lea cluded) not being p confront the probler and exists today and accept solutions that with solving the prob and for all.
Having allowed ness togrow expone of the Sinhalese and which finally resulte civil war known in t of Sri Lanka, a lasti conflict, short of se much more than a col Tamils from their pas implementation of relating to minority. the various constitut 1948 (section 29 of tion), District Develo the early 1980s, and als under the 13th 1978 constitution wi new provisions whic meet their aspiratio fears. This deceptive trol over the minoriti have considered as a their democratic righ the Tamil leadership. is, whether justifiable made by the LTTE a PA Government, whi drew from the peace t was that the Govern agenda. Even before ship had seen the dev seemed to have concl ernment was not sin Tamil problem. By no winning the confidenc ple has been made ea actions of both warri resumption of hostili The satisfactory w stitution, however w pends in the end on th political leaders, who rule. Not long ago, th under whose leade (1978) constitution adopted, secured the members elected to taining from them u letters of resignation that under the consti powers to do anythin the gender of a Sri La time, he pronounced system he introduced star" democracy. In elected to rule with f Although its leader a

15 SEPI EMBER 19ye
ter has highlighted aring on the most m that has brought to the country and tempt by some poders (religious inepared to directly 1 as it has evolved not being ready to are COInnenSurate lem hopefully once
mistrust and bitterntially in the minds Tamil people and id in the most brutal he modern history ng solution to the paration, requires 1stitutional reform. it experience in the tarious provisions ights enshrined in ions adopted since the 1948 constitupment Councils of devolution proposamendment to the ill be wary of any hon paper claim to ns and expel their way of having cones, which the latter un infringement of its is still haunting An example of this 2 or not, the charge gainst the present en the LTTE withalks in April 1995, ment had a hidden the LTTE leaderolution package, it uded that the Gov:ere in solving the ) means the task of eof the Tamilpeosier by the military ng sides, since the ties in April 1995. "orking ofany conell formulated, dele intentions of the hold the power to e former President 'ship the present
was drafted and oyalty of his party Parliament by obhdated but signed He also boasted tution, he had the g except changing nkan! At the same
that the political in 1978 was a "five 977, the UNP was our-fifth majority. knowledged pub
licly prior to the general elections that the Tamils had genuine grievances, he and his party did not make a genuine effort (not to be confused with the ineffective steps taken ten years later in 1987) to address the root causes that led to the grievances.
Without stopping the bloodshed, providing relief to all the people - Sinhalese. Tamils and Muslims, taking effective measures to rebuild trust and explaining openly how the fears of the Sinhalese and Tamils would be overcome, any attempt to find a lasting solution to the ethnic conflict, within a united Sri Lanka, would amount to an exercise in futility.
Statesmanship
In multi-ethnic countries what is more important is the quality of nationalleadership, one may call it statesmanship, for the progressand contentment of all the communities, communal harmony, political stability and the development of the national economy. The rule under Lee Kuan Yew was not fully democratic in the sense of traditional Western values of freedom that accompany it. But no community felt that they were marginalised because of their ethnic or religious affiliations. The approach taken by the Singapore government to preserve the cohesiveness of the mixed society is to be emulated by all governments presiding over multiethnic societies. The difference between the power exercised by the Singaporear. and Sri Lankan rulers is that the former used it for the social and economic advancement of all citizens, regardless of their race or religion, while the latter used it to destroy national unity and marginalise the minority Tamils, politically and economically.
The remarkable success of Singapore in economic growth and development and the attendant high living standards of Singaporeans could not have been possible, if not for the determined efforts of the political leadership in maintaining discipline in all activities; in ensuring that all obey the law; in providing equal opportunities for all citizens to contribute to and benefit from nationai security and development; and in promoting racial and religious tolerance and harmony, and political stability. This correlation is not a postulate but a maxim, which seems to be readily understood only by few in Sri Lanka.
Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pundit Nehru (in contrast an atheist) and C. Rajagopalachchari were in a position to have led very luxurious lives had they wished. They instead opted to serve all the people of all races and all faiths by sacrificing the comforts and in the case of Gandhi he chose to live

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15 SEPTEMBER 1996
poorly, identifying himself as one among the millions of the poor peasants of India and the so-called untouchables describing them as the "children of God". Their integrity and motives were hardly doubted by most Indians or for that matter by foreigners including the British rulers against whom they were involved in a struggle for independence. Gandhi often proclaimed that he was a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist and a Jew. He fasted and prayed to stop the Hindu-Muslim riots and was prepared to sacrifice his life in his efforts to stop the killings. He never identified himself as a Gujarati although he was one by birth; he believed and acted as an Indian to the core.
When all persuasions failed to convince the founder of Pakistan, Mohamed Ali Jinnah not to secede from India, Gandhi did not want the other Indian leaders to stand in his way. Gandhi was the very personification of the unity of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society. Other Indian leaders of the time never exploited the differences in the Indian society for momentary political gains. They were persons who led all the people according to what they considered ethically right and did not follow the crowd just to win popular support. Nor were they morally weak to discard their principles in order to oblige the dictates of powerful religious dignitaries for fear of losing popularity among the faithful. The difference between the then leaders in India and Sri Lanka should be obvious and needs no further elaboration.
The editorial in The Island (SL) of July 14, 1996 highlighted this weakness in Sri Lankan leadership most emphatically. To quote:- "What is clearly lacking today, and it has been so for the past 40 years, is a leadership with the attributes of Mandela that can transcend petty political rivalries, desist fromharking back to the past and looking to the future of the country...... If we had leaders with only a fraction of the attributes of Mandela our woes would end soon.” If only the Editor of the The Island, and for that matter all other Editors of the mainstream print media, provide space in the columns of their newspapers for the expression of similar sentiments and views rather than those that reflect and promote extremism, divisiveness, prejudice and partiality as they normally do, it will go long way to the ending of all Ol. WOCS,
In the case of Sri Lanka, if the opinion expressed by the Leader of the Opposition prevails broadly or is typical of those aspiring to become leaders, then one may wonder whether the country will ever have any statesman even after the politicians have retired. Even by chance
'statesmen' surface they are no longer ir ter retirement), of w in providing the mol fluencing politics is
moral decay in the
as a whole is quite ev for power, regardles. and the costs to thi caught in the trap of and spiralling pove clock back by sever achieving the econo already achieved by tries. These countrie
* The contributoris field of specialization ha York) and the Commonw oping countries in nation
he major polit Lanka are publ devolution acce. most likely "so teen year SinhaleseT which has threatened dise island” apart. E bate, increasingly ac the "unit' of devolu bate has opened the d the Muslim commu seven percent of the i concentrated mostly ince. The Muslims, a lation hold the bal Tamils (42%) and th the Muslims speak Sinhala, the Tamil logues, expected th them rather than the the Muslims have a separate or distinctiv pact little island thre ethnic or identity cor In the present co (and global) Islami Muslims have asser launching their own founder and Preside Muslim Congress (S Ashraff, is the Minis Ports in President C tunga’s “People’s A ernment. Mr. Ashraff votes in a two hundr (225) seat parliamer party has such a slen is vulnerable to press parties.
Since the debate attention on the "unit as persistently as it
 

TAML TIMES 15
in the future when active politics (afhat use they will be al guidance and inanother matter. The Sri Lankan society ident. The struggle of the means used : ordinary people, unending violence ity, has turned the ul years in so far as nic and social goals some Asian couns were at about the
same level of development (measured narrowly in terms of literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality, nutriton and income) or even below that of Sri Lanka in 1948. Given this alarming slide backwards, the prospects for the vast majority of Sri Lankans to escape from their present predicament, as the country enters the next millennium, seem bleak unless some dramatic changes take place now in the attitude of the country's leaders and their time and efforts are diverted to social and economic development that benefits all the people.
a former Additional Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Sri Lanka. His main s been development planning. He has also been employed by the UN (New 'ealth Secretariat(London) to advise and assist governments of some devel
al economic development.
ORIA UNITAND FAMILY UNIT
By Mervyn de Silva
ical parties in Sri icly committed to pting the idea as the lution' to the thiramil ethnic conflict to teartheir “paraBut the current derimonious, is about |tion. And this deoor to a third party, nity, about six-tosland's population, in the eastern provthird of the popuance between the e Sinhalese. Since Tamil rather than parties and ideoe Muslims to join Sinhalese. In fact, isserted their own e identity in a comatened by divisive flicts. ntext of a regional c revivalism, the ted themselves by political party. The it of the Sri Lanka LMC) Mr M H M er of Shipping and handrika Kumaraliance” (PA) Govcan command six ed and twenty-five t where the ruling der majority that it |re from the smaller
how focuses public " (that is, territory) did on "collective
identity", the SLMC's demand for a separate Muslim Unit dominates the current debate, besides, by coincidence or not, the secessionist Liberation Tamil Tigers (LTTE) have made the ethnically mixed east their main theatre of armed confrontation with the (Sinhalese) State. The Tamil heartland in the north, has been taken by the Sri Lankan army. The “Lion' flag flies over the tallest building in Jaffna, the “Eelam” heartland. (The Sinhala word for "lion” by the way, is "Sinha". This makes the ongoing war a clash between “the lion race' (Sinhalas) and “Tigers” (representing the Tamils).
While Minister Ashraff, wearing his Sri Lanka Muslim Congress fez cap, insists on a separate “Muslim Unit". Colombo’s political sociologists remind us that the "family' is the basic unit of community and society. If this is particularly relevant to the Sri Lankan crisis, the reason is spread out for days in the week, and especially on Sunday, on the front pages of the national newspapers. It concerns the ruling (a visitor may be tempted to say “royal”) family, the Bandaranaikes.
When Solomon West Ridgeway Bandaranaike, son of Sir Solomon Bandaranaike, the Maha Kudliyar or chief adviser to British governors, realised that Prime Minister D S Senanayake, “the Father of the Nation" was grooming his son, Dudley Senanayake (St Thomas College Colombo and Cambridge) for party leadership, Bandaranaike quit the United National Party (UNP) and launched the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Bandaranaike had an
(Continued on next page 27)

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16 TAMILTMES
he Political wing of the Liberation Tigers in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts recently issued a pamphlet (see box) addressed to the Muslims. It was distributed a few days before the annual conference of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. It is considered in the east as an important political statement by the Liberation Tigers. Thurai the LTTE's political wing leader for the Batticaloa and Ampara districts gave me the pamphlet to make his point that the LTTE's relationship with the Muslim community in the east has improved dramatically in recent time.
AWe have a ve dial relationship wi ple. For example y come and go freely control to engage ir he said. He deniec said that some Aunf
In the pathofour struggle which transcends ethnic and religious divisions, the contributions you have made and are making cannot be forgotten and have to be respected. The sorrowful days during which you helped the Tamils bear the miseries which they had to face as a minority stood like trees which lean to provide shadow on the path of liberation. Your words of consolation flowed like cool streams in our hearts when we had to cross rivers of fire. But communal poison is being sown amongst us to day to make the very hands of friendship which provided us succour into thorns.
Today chauvinism and its lackeys and some selfish leaders are making efforts to drive a wedge between us who speak the same language, who share the same livelihood resources and who have lived together like Pittu and the (scraped) coconut in it. They are more desirous of promoting their interests than look after our welfare. You have to identify them.
In the mid-1980's the Sri Lankan government sought advice from Israel's Mossad to crush the desire for liberation among the minorities. No-one but innocent Tamil and Muslim people were the victims of (the consequences of) Mossad's advice. The Mossad's aim was to use the Muslims as pawns to divide the minorities and to create animosity towards them (the Muslims) permanently. Riots broke out. A considerable number of minority people were killed. Many became refugees. That the Sri Lankan government is ruining our lives by using the same tick again and again and that the consequences of this are affecting the minorities everywhere in the country today are truths we all know.
The Muslims are a distinct community. It necessarily needs a leadership which can safeguard and nurture its religious, cultural and social values. But it is our wish that its leaders should not be communalists who have only chauvinism as their basis like the Sinhala governments which have, one after the other, come to power. Today anyone can raise the chauvinist cry. By distorting incidents which took place here and there making young blood boil and by nurturing hatred (one) can even go to Parliament.
But what we need is a leadership which can realistically and with vision judge the future of our people who have lived inseparably together as one by virtue of language and region.”
"To our always beloved Muslim bro
In forty-eight hour were destroyed in the number later went beyor were killed among (the
AThis shows that I people who love their fri land from the very depth. if an attempt is made to be destruction and defea ation, yelling that Awe w of the north and east” ai not possible" cannot be ( sion of those who have international affairs. The knowledge of politics v dated talk as the naiveté the mouthpieces of ther sidered an insult to the which has struggled an eration in many countrie
Why is it that those distinct status of the Mu for votes, do not like to ing the paddy lands that h the Muslims in the Amp
Have these (people retrieve thesepaddy fiel Atchaya Paathiram of th chauvinists and resettle tł were chased away from taken (those responsible reluctant to enlighten the leaders by making use o holding on to the luxur office?
The truth is that if they will be thrown out. political tricksters who only in the electorates w test elections and put up and who to gain sympath there is a plot to kill ther vinism grows in their mc that each Muslim should sideration and come toco We should not forget that today our children will h ist storm much worseth ise the truth that no pow nities which want to forg together inharmony. We create a peaceful and pro children.
 
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
ROSPECT OF TE-MUSIM
ONCILIATION IN THE EAST
By D.P. Sivaram
y friendly and corth the Muslim peoou can see that they into areas under our trade and to work,” the massacres but ortunate events took
thers
s about 1300 soldiers Mulaithivu base. The ld 1500 with those who roops) sent to help." Io power can defeat a 2edom of their motherof their heart and even do so there would only t. While this is the situill not allow the merger ld that Thamileelam is considered) the expresmature knowledge in xse who have profound vill consider such outof the novices who are ulers. This will be conworlds Islamic society d is struggling for libS.
who speak about the Islims in order to hunt say anything concernave been grabbed from ara district?” ') taken any action to ds which were like the e east from the Sinhala le Muslim farmers who there? Have they even ) to task? Why are they people who made them f their position but are life and government
the people are awake These are nothing but speak of development here they haveto cona few buildings there y issue statements that 1. The poison of chauuths. It is today's need take all this into coninstructive conclusions. if we do not act firmly ave to face a chauvinan this. Let us all realer can divide commuet differences and live shall resolve today to sperous future for our
place” and that Aeverything possible would be done to strongly cement Muslim-Tamil relationship and rectify all that'. He points out some businesses owned by Muslims in the Paduvankarai region which the LTTE now dominates to make his point. He also gives me two pamphlets by the political section of the Batticalao-Ampara division of the LTTE addressed to the Muslims. Suspicions, however, linger.
On my way back I met some Tamil agricultural labourers from Batticalao who had been working in the paddy fields of Sammanthurai going home. They had been asked to return to their villages in view of the SLMC's annual conference.
The concern apparently was with the security of the VIPs who were scheduled to attend the conference although officially no-one was prepared to even acknowledge the Tamil labourers from Batticaloa. This annoyed Muslim landowners who were anxious about gathering the harvest before the unseasonal rains which have hit the east in recent times. It was feared that the LTTE, despite its statements, might infiltrate Sammanthurai to stage an attack or attempt an assassination during the conference. This is connected to the killing of two Tamil youths whom the Police alleged were Black Tigers sent to blow up Fowzie and Ashraff in Kalmunai recently. However, some Muslims and some ex-Tamil militants helping the army say that these were not Tigers but innocent schoolboys. The SLMC seems to have decided not to acmy head to the sacrifice of the suicide fighters.”
The LTTE is yet to reciprocate the hand of friendship extended by Mr Hisbullah. Although it now clearly refrains from attacking the SLMC directly, the LTTE keeps sermonising to the Muslims about Adivisive communal politics practised by some Muslim leaders.” The pamphlet issued recently by the Tigers in Batticaloa and Ampara basically takes on the SLMC without referring to that party or its leadership by name. But some informed sources in Batticalao seem to think that Mr Hisbullah's line might eventually bring about at least some manner of tacit rapprochement between the Tigers and the SLMC if the security situation does not improve in the government's favour.
The Tigers, they point out, have for
(Continued on page 29)

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15 SEPTEMBER 1996
ontroversy clamps ( down the proposals on devolution and
there is a growing fear the arrangements to devolve
power and responsibility to regions will collapse in the same way as the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact and the Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayagam agreements.
If there is any likely majoritarian consensus, it may mean really to carry on with these arrangements despite all its deficiencies and defects, the arrangements that followed the 13th amendment to the constitution of 1978 and the Provincial Councils Act of 1987.
But it will lead to no peace at all. This diluted devolutionary exercise that was devised however, is something that former President J R Jayewardene had to accept because of a superior power's insistence. It clearly demonstrated that force majeure alone matters in politics or international relations.
The present antagonism to devolution articulated by extreme elements which conclude that military suppression is the only answer to a political problem is thoroughly short-sighted. Such an idea of force alone as a solution to contentious issues is bound to fail. As the tragic recrudescence of militancy indicates in reland or elsewhere, militant rebellion against majoritarian insensitivity cannot be militarily subdued.
Such insurrectionist violent uprisings need political answers. Even though questions as to the grievances of dissidents, the grievance felt or even perceived is that a numerically lesser ethnic group is not sharing power and its demonstration of discontent cannot be put down by force alone.
Both the advocates of military repression and the militants have to acknowledge that solutions to grievances arising from political deprivation or disadvantage can be furnished only through redress of grievances by political means and the supply of answers to deficiencies by political accommodation and inclusion.
It is simply wrong to justify centralised rule in Sri Lanka on the basis that it has been the usual form of Government from the past.
Actually centralised rule was an exception and never the feature in the past. Indeed the notable figures such as Dutha Gamini, Vijayabahu I, Parakramabahu I, or Parakramabahu VI are exceptional figures because they united the country which was otherwise fragmented into autonomous regions.
The truth that autonomy was general in the Governments in early Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and that there were princi
palities under chief or less independent to the historical trutl was a unitary count The present day government has bee island by the Britis of roads to link toget in the capital and i to execute centrally i representatives in mode of indirect rul enous hierarchy of h central governor's honed to provide ur The billeting of diverse places in Inc used by the British t agement of unitary form of centralised tion was in order to in the interests of in litical, economic or Today we have t ality that Sri Lankai land composed of a religious, multi-lin; tion. The form of should suit this ac majoritarianism is c of managing affairs smoothly in an env ised by diversity.
It will drive thos majority community discontented. They grant their consent to ordinates of the maj There is a haul among a few fromth lution will cause s North-East joining wrong. India is the guarantor of Sri La does not tolerate se when autonomy wa regions in India the tism in the South su Only a few aberr elements still talk of as a few in Sri La vainly of resurrecti Therefore India had of autonomy to the Tamil community militancy and disco The cry for sep Quebec in Canada s to give it generous d tinct status. Howev the people of Quebe
 

TAMIL TIMES 17
s and princes, more , approximate more n than that Sri Lanka
concept of unitary in bequeathed to the h with their system her areas proconsuls n provinces regents ssued fiats, and their districts using the e through the indigeadman to assert the authority were all itary management. military garrisons at lia or Sri Lanka was ofacilitate the mangovernment. This unitary administraimpose alien power nperialism, be it pocultural. o reckon with the res a multi-communal varied ethnic, multigual plural populagovernment hence tual condition, and ertainly not the way either peacefully or ironment character
e that are not of the f to be alienated and will not voluntarily be governed as subority. hting baseless fear e majority that devoeparation with the Tamil Nadu. This is surest and strongest kan integrity. India paratism. Moreover s given to linguistic clamour for separabsided. ant and insignificant separatism as much nka keep shouting ng a mythical past. made clear that grant Sri Lankan minority would help to end ntent among them. aratism by some in tems from a refusal evolution with a disr on two occasions voted against sepa
ratism. Therefore to talk of devolution encouraging separatism is wrong. Separatism can be fought for because of other provocations with or without any devolution being allowed to a region or people. Devolution deters on the other hand a possible abuse of power by an over mighty centralised authority. A counter to an authoritative centralised government is created by devolution which permits assigning to peripheral area bodies, a reasonable quantum of legislative and executive powers. Similarly to the regional power also could be devolved some judicial power by creating less expensive and more easily accessible judicial institutions in the regions.
Superior judicial power alone need to be retained at the centre.
Federal systems in the US, Switzerland, Germany, India and Australia afford examples of a positive experience of the devolution of power.
All these countries have in regions within them their own body politic endowed with their own governmental powers. They do not comprise merely provinces or administrative sub- divisions of a central authority. Each of these regional units have their own democratically elected legislature, administrative structures and regional judiciaries with defined powers.
Generally the central authority, in such states where devolution has been introduced, manages and conducts foreign affairs, issues of citizenship, immigration and emigration, currency and money, customs and industrial property rights, copyrights, patents and other such common matters which impinge indiscriminately on all people across the board.
In reality there is a tendency in the national or central level for managers to extend their own powers. To combat this and curb the proclivity, regions have been vested with legislative power in the field of culture, to an extent in education, and over questions of police and internal security. The regional authorities are allowed general administrative competence or jurisdiction.
What is of interest to the regional population is agreeing to be administered by elected regional bodies who are accountable to the voters in the region. This arrangement also facilitates development which could meet the aspirations of those within the region, and administration is left in the hands of those with an interest in the region itself.
An imperative requirement within a devolved set-up is the division of tax revenues equitably between the central structure and the regions. Devising a fair

Page 18
18 TAMIL TIMES
system of equalising revenues and funds, and sharing them becomes a perennial problem to the National Government or the Central Authority and the regional administration or the peripheral authorities.
Furthermore, equality in the collection of revenues too becomes a problem among regional administrations themselves. Hence with a devolved set-up the people’s representatives, both at the Centre and the region, would have to work diligently and co-operatively in trying to solve this vexatious problem.
Critical financial reforms have to be undertaken so as to get fairer results out of a devolutionary arrangement, in respect of allroundprogress and development, in the central and regional spheres. This is nevertheless not an insuperable obstacle to devolution because in many countries they have worked out such satisfactory arrangements regarding the sharing of revenue as well as in regard to the sharing of power and responsibility for the running of the regions and the country. It will also be politic and prudent to review revenue sharing exercises from time to time so as to maintain equitable arrangements in spite of a changing economy.
It is salutary to note that in a country like Germany or the US, devolution helps to prevent authoritarianism being practised by providing checks and balances in a system where there is almost an inevitability of the separation of powers.
Where there devolution, an independent judiciary which has to adjudicate impartially on issues on conflict or competing interests is absolutely indispensable. Such a judiciary prevents the usurpation of powers, be it by the centre or the region.
Moreover devolution provides an opportunity for citizens to get closer to political decision-making and implementation. This certainly is a measure that makes it easier to cater better to regional interests. Regional administrations have a direct and intimate knowledge of problems faced by citizens within a region, and any practical decision could be made taking immediate concerns into better account.
Furthermore, regional and local problems can be handled in a way so as to provide to individual cases a fairer evaluation of their merits and defects.
In Sri Lanka it is through regional administration that the specific concerns of the minorities could be respected better and attended to. Also, by having regional administrations participating in the governance of the country the procedure of taking political decisions is rendered more transparent. Closer and firmer ties are developed between the people and their administration and the
government because for an easier identifica with their political or It has been argued devolution provides f with all their appurter and consequently the a country becomes mo costs however couldl of devolution since m of what is administer will have to get admir levels.
Then the staffing structure at the centr duced and ought to bi gions. Even the Cen well as the executive tially reduced while re on the other hand, ne ened. So the Centres the regions thicker." The number of re be naturally lesser at tional level and their terests of an island-w parochial. You shoul strument of devolutio machinery of adminis tre which instead wou tial cuts.
It is now clear in S meaningful and effe alone can pave the w;
Lanka.
The Sri Lankang proved a scheme to a person in the islandt a United Nations Col any complaints of h tions.
The cabinet agre come a signatory to t col to the Internati Civil and Political Ri low appeals to the U man Rights Commit suffering violations (
Human rights org
Suicide At
Two suspected Ta as schoolboys tried to with explosives into on 15 August, and w by police. They wer hours before the arri ministers at the me in the eastern provi military sources. He denied the allegation in any attempted as Ministers.

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
devolution allows tion of the citizens der.
in Sri Lanka that or new institutions lances to spring up administration of reexpensive. Such be reduced in spite uch of the amount ed from the centre listered at regional
and other infraall level will be re2 transferred to retral legislature as could be substangional institutions, ed to be strengthhould be thin' and
presentatives will the central or naconcerns and inide nature and not d not graft the innonto the existing stration at the cenld require substan
Sri Lanka that real, iective devolution ay towards a solu
tion to the ethnic strife between Sinhalese and Tamils. In introducing salutary and constructive devolution, the aspirations, fears and suspicions of the Muslim community have also to be catered to in a convincing manner.
Military victories alone can be useless without a political solution to the long prevailing intractable conflict between communities in Sri Lanka being simultaneously, if not earlier, introduced. Delay in effecting a political solution will only enhance further the isolation of the Northern and some of the Eastern part of the provinces from the South. Such delay can only worsen conditions since problems magnify and get more complicated.
The defence budget of Rs 38 billion for November 1995 (Rs 104 million per day) could increase to Rs 48 billion this year. This money could have been spent on schools, hospitals and irrigation works rather than on ruinous and avoidable military expenditure.
Military development means brutalisation of society and also the threat of militarisation of the government itself. Sri Lanka can never endure or experience such a prospect. Instead, it is far, far better to be magnanimous to the minority peoples as the majority peoples in South Africa have been under the great statesman, Nelson Mandela. O
Adopts
overnment has aplow any aggrieved o appeal directly to mmittee if they had uman rights viola
ed to ratify and behe Optional Protoonal Covenant on ghts that would alJimited Nations Hutee by individuals of human rights.
ganisations both lo
Rights Protocol
cal and international, have been urging the adoption of the Optional Protocol by previous United National Party regime which ruled the country for over fifteen years during which widespread and unprecedented scale of human rights abuses, including arbitrary killings and “disappearances” of tens of thousands of persons occurred.
Even the rather belated action of the present government to adopt the Protocol has welcomed by all human rights organisations inside and outside the country. O
ck foiled
mil Tigers dressed ride bicycles laden a government rally ere shot and killed e intercepted just wal of two cabinet eting in Kalmunai nce, according to wever, the LTTE hat it was involved sassination of the
Wearing white school uniforms, the two rebels tried to speed pass a checkpoint where police were searching those going into the rally, the officials said. Police later found explosives hidden in the hollow metal frames of the bicycles.
The incident occurred before Shipping Minister Mohammed Ashroff and Health Minister Mohammed Fowzie arrived at the rally. Ashroff heads the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, a key ally of the governing People's Alliance, and also supervises relief operations in war ZOSIS O

Page 19
15 SEPTEMBER 1996
“WE WANT TO GO H WE ARE NOT REFU(
By Pearl Thevanayagam
Loganathan Dharmadevi, 41, left her hometown of Thirunelveli with her 20 year old son and 25 year old disabled daughter when Operation Riviresa of the Government forces began to capture Jaffna Peninsula. The family walked 10 miles and reached Kilaly after paying Rs 200 bus fare the rest of the way. They crossed the lagoon by boat and entered Kilinochchi on 3 November 1995. They then settled in Jayanthinahar. After eight months Operation Sathjaya began with the christening by mortar shells and aerial bombardments on 16 July 1996.
The sounds of war were heard first around 7am on 26 July and the family fled to Vattakachchi eight miles from Kilinochchi Town. They arrived four days later to Visvamadu. On 19 August, they reached Thandikulam.
Dharmadevi told Weekend Express, AAt the checkpoint, the soldiers treated us like dogs. “Angalai po. (Move over there). Kewilenillada (stay in the queue) - this to my son. Then they told us to assemble at a place and finally we were brought in vehicles to this place."
The criteria for securing a place at Nelukulam Kalaimahal Maha Vithiyalayam in Vavuniya is as follows:
1. A family or individual should have arrived at Thandikulam through the LTTEcheckpoint at Omanthai after Operation Sathjaya.
2. The family should consist of at least one youth between the ages of thirteen and forty irrespective of sex.
3. They should have the wherewithal to proceed to North or South from Vavuniya.
4. They need clearance by the checkpoint military intelligence and certified as having passed through LTTE hands.
5. The family is suspect. Welcome to the world of the displaced at Nelukulam who resemble neither the refugees in war torn Bosnia nor the dying and the destitute of the so-called third world countries.
Perhaps the people at Nelukulam are better-fed than they were back in Kilinochchi under LTTE control; meals arrive on time in paper-wrapped parcels and the caterer engaged by the government is doing good business feeding the 420 families there. Eight toilets of the school-turned-displacement centre serve their bodily needs and the toilets are over-flowing. A tube well in the vicinity
and two water tank water. But water w ous problem since encing scarcity of w
Large bowsers centre but since the (no personnel to r overbathing) some the deprivation of c bled, invalid or age
Adolescents pl away their time. Th staring into empty : are making friends from schools.
“Why are we he to do was to go bac lombo or even stay We sold everything could find a place to chchi.ʼ was the lan lips.
The Government K Ganesh, is formi 10,000 rupees daily t sons out of Rehab funds. All because have serendipitous h LTTEier among Nelukulam.
Although relieve nochchi, which has late cemetery not un Government forces tory in capturing it LTTE, the people ha CS OCC II1OTC.
The Officer-in-C Camp, Sunny Silva, greets his visitors, th two ICRC represen perintendent of Wasantha Meegoda, gust. Of course, the had nothing to dow sentatives. The form ance from the Defer niya military col Malawarachchi, and niya Police. The ICF to these camps sinc munication among tary and the LTTE.
The instructions of the ICRC to the want you to arrange these forms and ge names of each famil relatives who need t

TAMILTIMES 19
OME, GEES”
provide them with puld become a seriVavuniya is experiater, bring water to the re is no supervision *gulate wastage or 2njoy more baths to thers who are disai. ay cards to while e elderly sit around space. The children and playing truant
re? All we wanted to Jaffna or to Coin Vavuniya itself. we had so that we live outside Kilinoment on everyone’s
: Agent of Vavuniya, ng out close upon o feed the 1,200 perilitation Ministry the security forces opes of bagging an
the inmates of
ed to be out of Kiliturned into a desolike Jaffna after the scored a major vicund shooing out the lve become prison
harge of Nelukulam beams widely and : Weekend Express, atives and the SuVavuniya Police, on Monday 26 AuWeekend Express th the ICRC repreer had to get clearce Ministry, VavuImmander, Nanda finally the VavuChas ready access ! it facilitates comhe displaced, mili
rather than request DIC are clear. “We someone to fill out their particulars; f member and their
be contacted.'
“Yes, yes. Do you want the particulars now, or are you coming back for them?" OIC Sunny asks.
Now. While we are here. Organise someone to take charge and we will wait. We will send messages to the relatives or acquaintances of these families who need to know these families are here,' said one of the ICRC persons who speaks all three languages fluently and handed out a bundle of printed forms.
OIC Sunny thereupon beckons a Woman Police Constable and sends her out to find an educated man to undertake information-gathering.
She was not to have any difficulty in finding one among the inmates for there are engineers, accountants, Government clerks, education officers, teachers and you name it, there they were. The educated ones are housed among less educated ones and all have one thing in common; they want to get out of the wretched place.
Exit the ICRC and the OIC turns his attention towards the Weekend Express. How long are they going to be here? “We have not had any instructions to allow them out. But we give four hour passes twice daily to go into town for two sets of people,” replied OIC Sunny. The officer who hails from Matale has to do his compulsory stint in the North or East for six months; he has completed four months and two to go.
“But,” he said, AI am getting a total of Rs 2,500 risk allowance. Only thing is I miss my wife and kids. Anyway there is less violence here. No brawls, no land disputes or such things.”
There are no communication facilities and the centre is down a beaten path at least a quarter of a mile from the main road. Those with passes have to trek this distance to board a bus to get to Vavuniya Town.
An international aid worker whom Weekend Express spoke to regularly travels round the Wanni region comprising Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya meeting with both Government officials and the LTTE. Whether you like it or not there is no way you can attend to the needs of the people in LTTE controlled areas and displacement camps without LTTE co-operation.
According to this worker, the government's priority is to stop the panic exodus of people from Mannar and Kalpitiya to India by boats purportedly arranged by the LTTE and fishermen.
“Our information is that the LTTE is asking these people to flee to India. It could very well be that the LTTE is trying to prove you cannot live in Government controlled areas. Who knows. But the actions of the police force are not at
all helping to curb the exodus. You can(conted. on page 29)

Page 20
20 TAMIL TIMES
Topics in Foc
USnvolvement
The extent of US support for the Sri Lankan government in its "war" against the Tamil Tigers and whether the LTTE should be banned in the island have been two topics which have occupied substantial space in newspapers and magazines in recent months. Mark Kaufman of the Philadelphia Inquirer in an article published in the Dallas Morning News of 30 June 1996 (Tamil Times, July 96) let the cat out of the bag to public view by giving details of the involvement US Green Berets providing training at Wirawela in Sri Lanka. The publicity following this article's appearance would appear to have caused unexpected embarrassment to the US authorities. There were evasive, but strenuous denials from the US State Department. On the other hand, the LTTE issued a Statement condemning the US stance of assisting the Sri Lankan regime and urged Washington to remain neutral and to use its influence to mediate a solution to the ethnic conflict in the island.
A news despatch datelined 16 August quoted the U.S. Army as saying that it did not intend to get involved in Sri Lanka's 13-year-old ethnic war. The Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command, responding to recent media speculation that the United States had stepped up defence cooperation with the Sri Lankan government, said in a statement its relations with the local army remained confined to "routine military-to-military co-operation.”
"We emphasise that United States armed forces have not been, and will not be, involved in the current conflict,' it said in a statement.
The U.S. army statement said four U.S. non-commissioned officers recently assisted the Sri Lankan army in its efforts to develop a non-commissioned officer education system. "At no time have American service members been involved in combat operations in Sri Lanka,' it added. "All activities related to the training events took place well away from the areas of active military operations."
The Voice of America in a report datelined 16 August said that military authorities in the United States have denied media reports that defence co-operation with Sri Lanka has been
stepped up. in as Pacific Command tary spokesman sa Lanka were confir tary co-operation a to change.
The VoA repo
lation had been ris
of US military inv land. Media repor eign journalists ha ington of shifting long standing mil gram on the island eral US military year sparked wide when it was alleg be giving limited Sri Lankan troops Quoting the sta Command the ri was only focused leadership, safety that US personnel volved in any cor the island and Stre ton had no intenti volved in the Sri ) US diplomats reports that Wash ised the sale of let Lankan military
Whether the U weapons to Sri La of an eight-memb included officials f forcement agen counter-terrori Sn name them led by partment Count ordinator, Philip cited by defence a of increased US land's security in concerning "terro LTTE upon specta South of the coun that the previou arm's length stan new strategy fav ment of Sri Lanka following the LT drawal from the resuming the wal and more so aft bomb attack upo tral Bank comple Whatever ma the change in the
 

SEPTEMBER 1996
atement at the US in Hawaii a milid relations with Sri ed to routine miliind were not likely
added that specuing about the level olvement in the iss by local and forive accused Washthe emphasis of its itary training proThe arrival of sevrainers earlier this spread controversy 2d that they would combat training to
tement from Pacific port said training on logistical skills, and navigation and had never been inmbat operations on ssed that Washingon of becoming inLankan conflict. also denied media ington has authorhal equipment to Sri forces. JS is selling lethal Inka or not, the visit *r U.S. team which rom several law encies involved in h, but declined to the U.S. State Deer-Terrorism CoWilcox, has been nalysts as evidence nvolvement the isLatters particularly rist attacks' by the cular targets in the try. They also feel sly adopted US's *e was revised and ouring the governcame to be adopted E's unilateral withpeace process and in April last year, er the de vastating the country’s Cen(. t be the reason for US stance, the fact
is that it was the first time a U.S. team had visited Sri Lanka to discuss counter- terrorism. Following a series of classified meetings with Sri Lankan authorities during their four-day visit which ended on 21 August, officials in Colombo who wanted to remain anonymous said that the United States had promised to use every legal means to prevent American soil from being used to plan or carry out terrorist acts against Sri Lanka.
"The visit provided an opportunity to explore concerns shared by the United States and Sri Lanka about the scourge of terrorism,' said a statement released 23 August by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry.
"The United States government sympathised with the current predicament Sri Lanka was facing” and "would do all within its prevailing legal framework to prevent the use of American soil to perpetrate violence against the democratic government of Sri Lanka.”
Political analysts believe that the US's change in its stance reflects also the change in the attitude of some western countries towards the Tamil Tigers. For example, the Canadian and Swiss government which had been quite sympathetic to the cause of the Tamils and allowed the LTTE and its known front organisations an almost a free hand to carry on their activities began to adopt harder line. In Canada, Surest allegedly a well known LTTE activist there, has been charged with being associated with a "terrorist organisation' and the trial on charges which may resultin his deportation out of Canada is now in progress. Again in Switzerland, Muralidharan and some others allegedly on charges of enforced collection of funds for the LTTE have been in detained in custody.
To Ban or Not
In the meantime, not for the first time, Sri Lankan newspapers have raised the issue of the proscription of the LTTE in a sustained manner in the wake of some well researched articles in journals such as "AsiaWeek" and McLeans magazine. The Asia Week article titled "LTTE International' purported to give details of the LTTE's arms-buying network across Asia and claimed that the LTTE received $2 million a month income from taxing the Tamil expatriate community in western countries.
The McLean magazine articles

Page 21
15 SEPTEMBER 1996
have highlighted the LTTE’s dominance of the 12,000 Tamil refugees in Canada and alleges that a t least 10,000 Tamil Tigers have entered Canada under false pretences. Connections have also been made to dealing in illegal drug and arms. The Sri Lankan newspapers, primarily privately owned and perceived to be antigovernment have lost no time in reproducing these articles
The Colombo government has also during the past several months pressing particularly western governments either to proscribe or curtail alleged LTTE or pro-Tiger activities in their countries. In the aftermath of the much publicised global summitofforeign and security ministers at Lyons France held July this year on the subject of combating terrorism, Colombo had hoped that its pleas to western governments to curtail pro-LTTE activities would at last be heeded. But very little happened.
Some argued that unless the LTTE is banned in Sri Lanka, one cannot expect foreign governments to ban it, and so the campaign in the media for its ban has developed into a near hysteria. So much so the Sunday Island columnist Probate Sahabandu in one his recent pieces said, "It is surprising that a government that goes for the jugular of Opposition politicians at the drop of a hat over trivial issues has refused to ban a terrorist organisation like the LTTE. How many bombs, one would be justified in asking, should go off in Colombo or how many more should be killed before the LTTE is banned in Sri Lanka. For India, which Created and nurtured LTTE terrorism, assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was reason to proscribe the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. Why Sri Lanka, which has lost many more leaders including thousands of civilians at the hands of terrorists dilly-dallies on this issue escape's one's comprehension.”
This sustained campaign by the local media seems to had an impact in government circles and it has been reported that the cabinet too had been considering the question of banning the LTTE and it had sought the opinion of non-LTTE Tamil parties for their views.
Some within the government concede that the ban would not produce any immediate practical impact on the activities of the LTTE, but they argue that it would give Colombo the leverage to pressure foreign governments
to curb LTTE acti countries. Others ban on the grounc would destroy any ing negotiations v bring an end to the conflict.
The issue of CU tivities abroad can during the recent vi. eign Secretary, Ma quickly dampened his government wo to curtail. LTTE ac Rifkind said Britai cal freedom and ru down on the LTTE ties even if the WS1 ment decided to ba Speaking at a hosted by the Sri La istry, Rifkind said, take this opportuni condemn the LTT atrocities in Colom elsewhere in S. past twelve month ain's policy towards overriding objectiv ple of this island v fair and permanen differences,' he emerge from negoti great sympathy wit Lanka because we have been victims also have a terroris has destroyed in brought damage a innocent people in litical objectives.”
"There are in L ple from many cou World who have the ences with their go ind said. Tamills, lik country, must obey prohibits support of Simply express poli their rightina cour in free speech. If ing or an office thi vent them from d( said. "We have to : cording to British acts as a result of a individuals, not by
The non-LTTE not have much love their views appear ban on the LTTE. D dharthan, MPand le cratic People's Lib firming that the asked his party for

AML IMES 21
vities within their argue against the that such action chance of resumwith the LTTE to prolonged ethnic
rtailing LTTE acle to the forefront sit of Britain's Forlcolm Rifkind. He expectations that uld take any action tivities in the UK. n respected politiled out any crack's political activii Lankan governin the group. Colombo dinner nkan Foreign min"I should like to ty unreservedly to E for its terrorist bo and ri Lanka over the S,' he said. "BritSri Lanka has one e - to help the peowork out a stable, t Solution to their said. "That must lations.” “We have h the people of Sri ; also, in Britain, of terrorism. We t organisation that nocent lives and nd destruction to pursuit of their po
ondon many peontries around the ir political differvernments,” Rifke anyone from any British law that terrorism. "If they tical views, that is ntry that believes they have a builde law cannot prebing so," Rifkind act in London aclaw, and the law decision taken by organisations.”
Tamil parties may for the LTTE, but to be against any harmalingam Sidader of the Demoeration Front, congovernment had an opinion on out
lawing the LTTE, "We said we don't See any benefit since the ground reality will remain the same whether they are banned or not, adding that such action would give the impression that the government "is no longer interested in peace talks.' Siddhar- than also said a ban would have little impact on the LTTE's military strength or its overseas activities.
Rauf Hakeem of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress(SLMC) said that banning the LTTE was not the solution for the problem. "It's only the symptom of the problem. But the desease will remain. The SLMC strongly feels that the LTTE should be defeated militarily. Banning the LTTE will only mean that they would operate underground as in other countries.'
The TULF is also opposed to the proposal. It's Batticaloa MP, Joseph Pararajasingham said the ban would close the doors for any discussions. EPRLF leader Suresh Premachandran said that banning the LTTE would not stop the international help they receive now. "The have their own offices which are functioning very successfully. The ban would not stop them getting support and money from Tamils living countries like Britain, France and Canada,' he added.
Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council writing in the Sunday Island expressing opposition to the proposal to ban the LTTE said, "Banning the LTTE in the hope that this formidable army will be weakened, is to emulate the Ostrich who, it is said, buries its head in the sand so that it may not see its enemy. In 1979 also the then government manned the LTTE and similar organisations, but that did nothing to end the problem of terrorism or the civil war. In 1983 the government further banned separatism with the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, but that too did not lead to any improvement in the situation. On the contrary, it may have worsened the situation by driving the democratically elected Tamil political leadership out of parliament.... By banning the LTTE, the government will once again be denying the LTTE the parity they aspire to, and will be further demonising it. It is likely that the LTTE's response will be in the form of more terrorism. Conflict resolution theory would advocate instead a legitimisation of the LTTE and an accompanying strategy to ensure that they live up to their upgraded status by renouncing the use of terrorism.” O

Page 22
22 TAMIL TIMES
his report mainly T covers the situation in Jaffna during the four months following the mass return of refugees to Valikamam. Though the security forces had shown a refreshing level of care in Jaffna, cases of human rights violations continue to be covered up and the Government remains unaccountable for many of their actions. The LTTE remains determined to block any attempt at peace or rebuilding, focusing their efforts on selective assassinations and executions. A political vacuum hence exists, where the people of Jaffna struggle to deal with the past cycle of terror and the resulting present environment of cynicism.
In the 2 1/2 months following the return of civilians to Jaffna in April 1996, the armed forces had been surprisingly accommodating in their relations with civilians. A concern for civilian safety has been demonstrated and harassment has decreased substantially. When the LTTE has attacked security forces, the traditional knee-jerk reaction of reprisal killings of civilians has largely not occurred. There is concern around the question of how long this restrained behaviour will continue, following the loss of Mullaitivu at the end of July and recognizing the fact that unauthorized arrests increased dramatically in Jaffna after the July 4th incident where the LTTE made an attempt on a minister's life. Cases of unauthorized arrests, beatings, torture and killings by the security forces continue nonetheless, and have become notably worse after Mullaitivu. Several incidents of rape also have been reported. Arrest receipts are not being issued and the detainment of prisoners is most often denied. In situations such as the rape and killing of civilians in Manthuvil in May, the Government simply blamed the LTTE. There is a very serious concern that the failed terror methods used in the past as well as the infamous white van abductions and killings are going to be introduced again. Units who were involved in these activities are still at large in the security services and there is strong testimony to the sighting in Jaffna of the white van in recent times. Correspondingly, there is a rising incidence of missing persons.
While the situation in Vadamaratchy remains hopeful, the current physical insecurity reawakens in Valikamam memories of the early days of state repression from July 1979. The level of unchecked indiscipline in Thenmaratchy is substantially worse - 20 homicides, mostly attributed to the Army, having been recorded by mid-August.
Any feeling of security on behalf of the people of Jaffna has been shattered by LTTE assassinations and provocations. Many who have returned gestures of goodwill towards members of the army have
Man and th
met their fate after b tors' by the LTTE. be used as cover wh rolled grenades thro example, in the dire sonnel. Extra-judici after desperate effort public support, fail.
The Governmen gent steps to supply C community, an orde: lack of any land rol the commitment to medical supplies has stance. At least initia tors have been accus
...'
partnership with som curity forces. In its ment has refused to ties of professional medical staff being Jaffna Hospital. In had underestimated turning groups of r shortage of supplies, injury from remaini
Jaffna remains While the Governme access to the media, to weed out public c tive for the common revitalisation of the still grow up knowi their violent surroul deeply traumatized ety.
Refugees remail have been displacec by either the securit do not see a caring cent push towards K is further exacerba many cases, the bo terpreted as direct a LTTE being nowh camps. Such occur minder of the bom at Navaly and nea Kovil in 1995, a cl which the governme able for.
The people of J
 
 

15 SEPTEMBE
sing labelled as “trailivilians continue to in LTTE cadres have 1gh food queues, for :tion of security peral executions occur s to gain any form of
has taken many urssentials to the Jaffna l complicated by the te to the area. Still, providing food and been lacking in sublly, local administraed of racketeering in
he members of the separanoia, the governutilize the capabilis and NGOs, a solid lesperately needed at some cases, the army and lost control of reefugees, resulting in LTTE infiltration and ng landmines.
a closed community. nt continues to restrict the LTTE uses terror riticism and all initiagood essential for the community. Children ng nothing other than dings. The result is a and worn down soci
ing in the Vanni, who
over and over again y forces or the LTTE, government. The rellinochchi by the army ting the problem. In nbings have been intacks on civilians, the re near the refugee 2nces offer a dark reings near the Church the school at Nagar ar attack on civilians nt remains unaccount
ffna need recognition
intest Between Beast Within
and restoration of the freedom to empower themselves through collective political action. The once heralded education system of Jaffna must be immediately rebuilt from the ground up. The government must end its meaningless policy of censorship and facilitate freedom of movement, despite the logistical problems, between Jaffna and the outside world at least by allowing journalists and other groups to visit more frequently. All parties must take full responsibility for their actions and demonstrate the will to aid legitimately and honestly in the renewal of the community. Not only the survival of Jaffna's citizens be established and asserted, but also their integrity, dignity and humanity respected.
Jaffna: The Contest Between Man and the Beast Within
1.Introduction
The main task confronting the people of Jaffna, those who wish them well and the thousands of members of the security forces who have shown remarkable restraint, is to keep alive those high hopes which once kindled expectations afresh and are now under a cloud. Events from the time we brought out our Special Report (N0.6) on the Exodus from Jaffna during October/November 1995 up to the end of June this year, have been amply covered in the press. In a new departure two of the newspapers even reported the incident in Manthuvil of 17th May where three women had been raped by members of the army and four others were killed. We have also given below the situation during the first two months after the return of civilians to Valikamam which was written just before the 4th July incident, complementing what has appeared in the press. Our main concern has been that there was very little politically, institutionally and administratively to sustain the high expectations in Jaffna.
As regards immediate needs such as food distribution and the restarting of agriculture, remedial measures have been making slow but steady progress. Most disturbing is the political vacuum. The political task was to help the people to overcome the legacy of state oppression as well as nearly a decade of terror and totalitarian control directly by or under the shadow of the LTTE. The natural temptation of certain sections in the government and media is to take a patronising approach where it is sought to project the Tamils as antiLTTE while playing down the fact that the Tamils too have some awkward and legitimate political aspirations that are integral to their self-respect.
As for maintaining a disciplined approach by the armed forces, the brunt of

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15 SEPTEMBER 1996
the responsibility quite unrealistically rests on the Forces themselves. Several crimes where army personnel have been implicated in murder, rape or robbery, particularly in the Chavakacheri AGA Division, have been covered up. Although there was willingness on the part of some army of. ficers to check what had happened, no pressure was brought to bear on them by the political establishment or any other appropriate institution to do a thorough investigation and punish the culprits. The recent speech by the Deputy Defence Minister in parliament that there was not a single rape incident during the recent military operations under the PA Government, points to serious lapses on the part of the political establishment.
The people need to see that there are monitoring bodies with teeth, involving civilian volunteers and officials, that are in place and do the job effectively. This is particularly so because Jaffna remains largely cutoff and the local population will remain inert for some time.
This concern is highlighted by two events in July that ended 2 1/2 months of very cordial relations between the people and the armed forces causing new tensions, a freezing of the atmosphere and even worse. The first was the suicide bomb attack in Jaffna town on 4th July, and the second the over-running of the Mullaitivu army camp by the LTTE on 19th July with huge loss of life on both sides.
July, 1996: A Disturbing Turn
On 4th July Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister of Housing & Construction was visiting Jaffna in connection with the rehabilitation programme. Laterin the morning, shortly after he had declared open a much needed sales outlet of the Building Materials Corporation on Stanley Road, Jaffna, a suicide bomber blew herself up killing several people. Among those killed during the incident and its aftermath were Brigadier Ananda Hamangoda, the Town Commandant, and Carlyle Dias, a retired DIG of Police assigned to run the civil administration.
The loss of these two men left a void that is deeply felt by the civilian population. The former who had been up and about meeting people and listening to them was immensely popular. The latter was closely studying the problems and had impressed those who talked to him by his enlightened approach. He also understood the importance of independent bodies to monitor the behaviour of the armed forces. Once again the Government failed them in what they were trying to achieve by not telling the whole truth about the incident. The media coverage largely centred around statements by the official military spokesman and interviews with the minister who had sustained injuries.
It is now widely known in Jaffna that several of the 20 or so deaths from the incident resulted from firing by soldiers after the suicide bomb explosion. In the first
instance soldiers co visit had fired from t Road. Once the soun heard, people in the the bus stand toward Again they were fiu guarding the area. scene took to hiding Soldiers searching three students whom shot, killing two. The with several others 30 of the Jaffna Tea A most ironical pressed was that exkilled by army firing explosion he lay flat with some governm words reflected his s go and see what ha ter”. Having said thi his fate in doing so. This unprofessio diers was however c control by officers. blame the soldiers m it as a response to v took for a wider LT suicidal attack by on problem in that the trained to anticipate tingencies. By not holding an inquiry measures for the fut being buried. And Carlyle Dias deserve placed on record ral pressed for the sake ency.
The habit of but with the truth was Government's credib hind fertile ground sentment. Serious in: the clumsy attempt the case of murder, and robbery in Man (see Reports below problem with aerial b areas (see last sectic
The immediate incident was that the tense than before. T over had it not bee Mullaitivu two week of the time things a but checks became t gan to experience a rudeness at check-p More serious w; tle noticed aspect of Army had been alm LTTE presence even bers of the public. F Army began making a short period about in Ariyalai, a suburl City. On one day brought to Jaffna fr questioning. Most o released after a few of torture.

.aMIL IMES Z3
vering the minister's he two ends of Stanley d of the explosion was DaZ22 23 2 3COSS S Clock Tower Road. red upon by soldiers Others close to the in the neighbourhood. he area came across they pulled out and injured student along was admitted to Ward ching Hospital. fact which was supDIGCarlyle Dias was . Following the bomb on the ground along ent officials. His last tense of duty: "I must ppened to the minisshe stood up and met
nal activity of the solsuickly brought under
The people did not nuch for it. They took what the soldiers misTE attack instead of a e person. There was a
Army had not been and reactito such contelling the truth and o formulate remedial ure, the problem was surely the family of es to have his heroism her than have it sup: of mistaken expedi
rying problems along taking its toll on the bility while leaving befor the growth of restances of this concern to shift the blame for accompanied by rape thuvil onto the LTTE ) and the continuing bombing in operational on). effect of the 4th July soldiers became more This may have blown in for the disaster in is later. Still, for much ppeared to be normal, tighter and people bea higher incidence of oints. as the unseen and litthings. Previously the lost indifferent to any when alerted by memollowing 4th July, the several arrests. Within 17 arrests were made b to the east of Jaffna p to 25 youths were om Chavakacheri for f those detained were days, but complained
Even more disturbing is that formal receipts for arrest are not being issued to the families as is now the accepted practice in the East. Several instances have been brought to our notice where even in the case of those not released, the arrest has been denied, and more ironically, inquiring family members or guardians have been told by the Army that if they had made the arrest they would have issued a receipt. This was how even educated Jaffna folk came to know of the legal obligation of the Army to issue a receipt and their right to obtain one (see Reports below).
Of greater concern is the appearance in Jaffna of the dreaded white van, a phenomenon we have had occasion to report on in the East, particularly during 1990/ 91. It has been associated with names like Suresh Hashim in Trincomalee and Munas in Batticaloa, both terror-operators associated with the armed forces. It made its appearance in Kallar in December in 1990 and it was also involved with the operation in Colombo last year with which the STF was associated, leading to corpses in lakes. Although not so far widely known, we have firm testimony to its manifestation in Jaffna.
It was as though the Army suddenly woke up from complacency in the face of repeated warnings by the public, and decided to deploy some alienating methods involving terror. Although things are still far better than the terror that once obtained in the East and still continues there at a low ebb, the terror and death symbolism of the white van in Jaffna represents an unhealthy mental shift.
What the Mullaitivu disaster may mean for the detainees is suggested by the experience of about 26 youths detained by the Army during the early stages of military operation late last year. They were mainly persons who went back to their homes in areas recently occupied by the Army to fetch some of their family's belongings. They were kept chained under the custody of the Military Police and were subject to regular beating. The beating however stopped abruptly on the 5th of December 1995 - the day the Army took control of Jaffna. It was as though the Army had suddenly proved their own worth as soldiers and had earned their self-respect. It had in consequence become mean and unbecoming for them to beat people in order to get over their sense of failure and inferiority. They were now prepared to think professionally and take death as a matter of course. It seems to be that Mullaitivu on the other hand went some way towards reversing this positive development by taking away their self-esteem. Even most of the recent bombing and shelling in the operational areas of the Vanni strongly suggest that more than for any military purpose they were done merely to vent their anger.
The almost total absence of institutional safeguards for detainees in Jaffna leaves room for some of the worst fears.

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24 TAMILMES
The facts in our reports below present what was indeed, by mid-August, a very grim picture. In the Thenmaratchy (Chavakacheri) Division there have been at least 20 recorded homicides since the Army's takeover in April, with the Army implicated in more than 80% of them. The latter have generally involved rape or robbery. Routine torture of detainees includes some of the worst practices recorded in the annals of the Sri Lankan Army, often leading to permanent physical and psychic impairment, which one had only a few months earlier dared to hope, were things of the past. The case of missing persons may yet be numerically small in comparison with the worst episodes in this country. But the ease with which it could happen, with blatant denials even in cases publicly witnessed, is truly alarming. De
spite some disturbing trends, the situation
in Vadamaratchi however remains more hopeful.
Quite independently, the LTTE was doing its own thing to enforce a regime of terror in one of its most dreadful aspectsthrough selective assassination. A poignant instance is the killing on the streets of a middle-aged mother, Sivayogini Patkunamanikkam. Her only known crime was that she was among those who defied the LTTE's order to vacate Jaffna on 30th October 1995, and was cordial towards the security forces. The reasoning of those who stayed behind was pretty sound, as the current suffering of refugees in the Vanni amplifies. They knew that once they left Valikamam with no prospect of returning home, they would be herded from place to place by the LTTE as vagrants with every new military operation. If they had to defy the LTTE at some point, now was a good time to start. Ultimately the 400,000 who "turned their backs on the LTTE' followed the same line of reasoning after their first displacement by refusing a further displacement into the Vanni. The pioneers thus remained more vulnerable when the LTTE wanted to make an example of someOe.
The message was only too clear to the people of Jaffna (see Reports). Those who were looking for a happier turn of events for the terror-ridden society felt very angry with their "Liberators'. For once people had felt free - free of bombing and shelling, freer to associate, to think, to speak and even to an extent free from the fear of the security forces -- and then the LTTE had to bring back this fear one again! An expert on its effects, particularly when there is no organisational structure to counter it, described fear in its internal manifestation as poison of the deadliest kind. It spills over into all relationships where habitual dissembling becomes the norm - partly as a means of turning the tables on the authors of the fear. A highly respected teacher who constantly irritated his intimate circles with contradictory remarks observed defiantly, "No one will ever know what my real feelings are!" There is a general flight from reason.
Sadly, experts fron political commenta situation purely to p any serious analysis of the people.
Jafna: T (This section was writt
(Mid-April - June
Jaffna has beco lorn place. The once part of the year is sl ple - people who are once proud indigen folk who they once structure and much C destroyed. To rebuil and painful process. pear to have lost the sire and motivation start again from th spend the days stal hoping for whatever and they appear ( faces: Staring ahea faces worn down by thy - more like the described by Lifton pervasive tendency They seemed to live they are "walking c. dead" (Death in Lif shima(1967))
The effects on s struction and disrup 'loss of communi (American Journal This results in demo tion and loss of con of the exodus, the I of refugee life, the e to a looted and dar seemingly insurmo picking up the threa are all elements cont gish despair.
True, they will an overwhelming se returned to their hom and it is a thousand erstwhile refugee lif makeshift shelters, t and food, and days ness. "Never again leave..." better to be home'. A major sho was the destroyed : owing to fighting ir of all valuables fro utensils had been wi windows had been S. sonal belongings thrc thrown carelessly in to the elements unde tragic were the landr traps awaiting ther
In the first two civilians were injure ally losing a leg; ma dren. Some died. No to clear the mines foi eral they were left to

PTEMBER 1996
n military analysts to tors write about the push their line without s about the real plight
The Return an at the end of June 1996)
(96?و me a desolate and forghost town of the early owly filling with peoperhaps ghosts of the ous, thrifty and active were. The whole infraf the rest has also been d is going to be a slow But the returnees apir zest for life, the deto do something, to e ashes. Rather, they hding in long queues rations they may get, xhausted with grim ld, no smile on their I uncertainty and apa'survivor syndrome' after Hiroshima as "a :o sluggish despair..." : a half life, as though orpses" or the "living e: Survivors of Hiro
ociety of massive detion have been called ty' by Lai Erikson of Psychiatry, 1976). ralisation, disorientanections. The trauma igours and hardships mptiness of returning naged house and the untable obstacles to ld of life once again, ributing to their slug
freely admit, there is nse of relief at having es, Land, Ur (village) times better than the e - living in crowded he struggle for water spent in empty idle" they say will they shot dead in our own ck for most returnees and damaged houses their areas. Looting m clothes to kitchen despread. Doors and mashed open and perwn on the floor, some the garden or exposed r broken roofs. More nines and other booby trmees.
months more than 70 d by such blasts, usuny of them were chil| much has been done the returnees. Ingenheir own devices like
using a rake to detect the mines while sophisticated mine detecting equipment is available internationally.
The life of the community has been stifled. There is little social or cultural celebration, or gathering. The streets are deserted by dusk even in the so called "uncleared' areas where there is no curfew. School attendance is low but picking up and is now (August) high in Jaffna Town. Few people have started their temple festivals and bhakti songs can be heard over loudspeakers once again. There is talk of the Nallur festival being a grandone. Some are expecting the Army to have a big hand in it this year.
During this period when people were returning to their homes, the Army's behaviour has been unimpeachable except for a few "lapses' (see Reports). The troops have been over-friendly, even condescending, cracking jokes, giving a hand to the old and feeble, talking politely and apologizing for the inconveniences caused. When a grenade is thrown by the militants killing a few soldiers, they first ask the civilians to lie down or take cover before opening fire. The big change in the Army's behaviour is epitomised by the loss of fear and tension that in the past led to atrocities - the knee jerk reaction that the LTTE could always count on in carrying out a guerilla attack and vanishing, following which the Army would go on a rampage killing civilians - no longer seemed to work so far
The LTTE was trying its best to provoke the Army to the utmost such as by rolling a grenade through crowds waiting at checkpoints or queuing for rations. But the army always seemed take it coolly despite the death and injury to their comrades. They first made sure of the safety of civilians, even telling them not to feel afraid. This was not the army the civilians had come to know in bygone years. The other remarkable change was the confidence and nonchalant behaviour. They cycled around in groups and alone with or without arms. The method of cycling indicated that they were not habitual cyclists like the Jaffna man. They cracked jokes, played with children, helped the elderly and disabled. It was all amazing. As a soldier checked our reporter's bagat one of the innumerable checkpoints dotting each of the cross roads within Jaffna town, he apologized, "Sorry, we never had to do this before but the LTTE has just thrown agremade today killing a soldier, so now the orders are to check every bag". Again at another checkpoint where one had to get down and walk, a soldier said with a smile, "Only we are giving trouble, no trouble with the LTTE, no?'
The question foremost in the people's mind at that time was, how long is this good behaviour going to last in the face of the LTTE trying everything in the book to provoke the standard pattern of reprisals? Their political sustenance after all depends on this reaction. When will the mask come off to reveal the real "beast' within, which

Page 25
15 SPMB199
the people have so often in the past been accustomed to expect? By their own admission, the soldiers are constantly instructed "not to harm the civilians', 'be good to the civilians', 'our task is to fight the LTTE' and so on. During the military operations Riviresa (Sunshine) II & III these orders kept coming over the armed forces radio every few hours. In the evenings there are meetings for every group with senior officers going over the day's events where public relations featured prominently. The Government well realizes that the course of the ethnic War will be determined by this winning and keeping the hearts and minds of the people. The Army and Police are much friendlier with the Tamil civilians, even trying to learn the language from children. This is in sharp contrast for example to what prevails in Colombo or Vavuniya and definitely the East, where only last February a large scale massacre of civilians took place.
Expectations and Performance Among the main problems after the return of civilians in April was the shortage and distribution of essentials that had gradually eased significantly by July-end after the Government took urgent steps to increase the supply. During the time of shortages the local civil administration was widely accused of racketeering in collusion with sections of the security forces.
Since the government's supply of rations came by ship, it was difficult to supply the whole population. Moreover, the cargo ships the government has are relatively small and have to be escorted by the Navy. The ICRC's effort to supply overland food and other essential items had met with the LTTE's refusal. (The ICRC is dependent on both parties agreeing to whatever it wants to do.) During the early weeks a whole underground system of blackmarket had come up overnight. There were long queues starting at 3 a.m. at the only Sathosa outlet in Jaffna. Traders and individual entrepreneurs bought up the daily stock to re-sell it at immense profits outside. Thus for example the popular red rice selling at Rs. 26 a kg at Sathosa fetched up to Rs. 100 on the outside market. The less popular rice sold at Rs 50 a kg.
At present rice, sugar and dhal which are rationed items are generally available at the normal price at designated outlets and are part of the normal free benefits to people classified as displaced. Kerosene is also generally available at the reasonable price of Rs 12.50 a litre. The sound of working pumps in Valikamam is a sign that agriculture is reviving. Although vegetables are in short supply, seed onions were distributed freely and a bumper crop is anticipated. The Government is also helping with the shipping of onions and tobacco to the South.
Yet considerable problems remain in distribution and communication, particularly in the "uncleared' areas. Several leading persons in Jaffna putthisdown to sabotage by the LTTE which has been sending
a stream of intimidati ernment officials. No to appear zealously h operative.
Other reservation ernment's failure to U enced personnel and rather to project mini seeming to be doing often put off when su sloppily smartened u and opened somethir tions and left, while exposed the weaknes: ministration, run dow its inability to take ap actions. Against this in mind that institutic pital - which was ne; ments for a long time minimum facilities, w the LTTE at the endo placements to be broug following the exodus the hospital remains any specialists. More leave Jaffna than to r
In the matter of there remains the feel could have been done special expertise.
The governmen turned down many w help from NGOs and shows how paranoid : machinery is. A sur equipment were prol (European). NGOs w Jaffna are eager to ge ernment remains adan help. Many old hanc old structures back i urgent programmes. loved into Pt.Pedro b both are under arm arouses disturbing qu fides of the Governm
Reports: Mid-Novel August The following at flavour of developme in any way being exh Late November - . The final battle for Ja Only a few hundr around Jaffna town f from 30th October 19 400 were at St. Patri thew's and Long's B. those better off on th latter.
The LTTE tried to few times, resulting il through one entranc through another. Els mained hidden in ho show themselves. The play white flags when Their problem was no when the LTTE was s Earlier, as the crow deserting LTTE cadre

TAMILTIMES 25
ng messages to govofficial thus wants hard working or co
s concern the Govise available experiNGOs, preferring sters in high-profile a lot. People were addenly a place was p, a minister arrived g, created expectalittle happened. It s of the Island's adn over decades, and »propriate follow-up one must also keep ons like Jaffna Hosglected by governand functioned with tas later stripped by f 1995 - need all reght by air or sea. Also the staff-position at critical with hardly people yet want to et lrn. mine clearing again ling that much more :, even getting down
t has inexplicably 'ell meant offers for foreign donors. This still this government geon and valuable mised by MERLIN ho were working in et back but the govnant in refusing such is can easily get the place to begin the Some have been alut not Jaffna, though y control. All this estions on the bona ent.
mber 1995 - Early
1996 'e meant to give the nts in Jaffna without austive. 5th December 1995. afjna ed people remained ollowing the exodus 95. Of these, about ck's Jaffna, at Matlocks, with some of e upper floor of the
chase them away a n the people leaving e and coming back sewhere people rebuses not daring to y had decided to disthe Army moved in. ot to do it too early still around.
wds left Jaffna, some too had tried to min
gle with the crowds. Witnesses saw about 4 of them being arrested and taken away, The only hint of what happened to the prisoners held by the LTTE was the sighting of about 30unkempt persons in chains near Sattanathar Kovil, Nallur, being marched towards Chemmani and Thenmaratchy. Among the prisoners released at this time was the former chairman of the Jaffna Red Cross detained in 1993, when there was a crackdown on the supporters of former
Deputy LTTE Leader Mahattaya.
As the Army approached nearer, shelling became more intense after the vacation of most civilians and the ICRC by midNovember. The shelling during the advance was not as randon as the noise indicated. The Army later told civilians that certain areas had been blocked out on maps fed to computers controlling artillery pieces. In some cases this was confirmed by civilians - that certain areas were generally, but not entirely, free of shells. Some of these included certain schools and religious institutions. Still, even in such places, the Army shelled back when the LTTE shelled. Such an instance was the shell which fell near the chapel at Holy Family Convent, Jaffna, causing injury to the shoulder of Dr. Abraham. Dr. Abraham was again a victim later, this time of the suicide bomb explosion of 4th July 1996, and died while under treatment in Colombo. Mrs. Nadarajah, the wife of the Atheenam (Manager) of Nallur Kandasamy Kovil, also died when a shell fell while she was out in the compound.
At St.John's college, Jaffna, the retreating LTTE had looted most office equipment and safe, and fired shells horizontally form close range, severely damaging some buildings. The total damage to the school from the army shelling in approaching Jaffna and the LTTE's destruction is estimated at Rs.5,000,000. Now, August 1996, the school is functioning with most of the students (1200) back, but only 60% of the staff.
During this time the LTTE was rapidly pulling out most of its cadre. Among the last to go was a large group of women who were in the area around the Chundukuli end of Hospital Road where there was a women's camp. Some of the more hardened LTTE cadre sought out civilians, threatened them and turned them out of their homes at a time of intense shelling. Some others, younger, were considerate, and advised them to show white flags after they had withdrawn and even directed them to Roman Catholic institutions in the Convent area, where a few priests had remained, including Fr. Selvarajah, the Bishop's chaplain.
One incident illustrates the kind of danger that confronted the civilians from shelling even in places of refuge, as all NGOs with radio communication had withdrawn. The information the army had was either outdated or based on intelligence reports of LTTE transmissions. In the last days the LTTE resisted from Kailasapillayar Kovil and Passaiyoor. On 1st De

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15 SEPTEMBER 1996
cember the Army column moving west along the coast had an intense fire fight with the LTTE in the Passaiyoor area. An old couple, Mr&Mrs. Ponnuthurai had remained in their home near Holy Cross Nursing Home. Until 1.00 AM (2nd December) there were intense firing noises. Mr. Ponnuthurai had narrowly escaped when a piece of shrapnel from an exploding shell hit a leg of a bed on which he was seated. Another shell hit a coconut tree at their home. After 1.00 AM it became very quiet as the LTTE pulled out. In the morning the old couple came out and ran into the main group of the Army who were levelling their cannon at St. Patrick's. The couple told the commanding officer that there was a large refugee population at St. Patrick's. The officer immediately ordered the men to stop and told the couple that according to information given to them Chundukuli Girls' College 5/8 mile north of them was a refugee camp while St. Patrick's, about the same distance to the west, was an LTTE centre. While this exchange was going on, a white flag appeared out of an upstairs block at St. Patrick's. By mid-day on the 2nd December the troops were at St. Patrick's. The Army took a much destroyed Jaffna City on 5th De
cember. December end 1995 Kanthar- mada owner of seven retai his goods home and He was a frequent Atheenam’s, and hac food supplied by the out that some LTTE tacted him and that h them with pulses ti the supplies at his h family had left Valik motives, he was adm able position. One d tip-off, the Army can 20 members of the searching his place sh hiding in the water was shot dead.
19th April 1996:
By 16th April mu rating Valikamam an dried up. The Arm Thenmaratchy on tha preceded by an adv, walked into the fields the night. In the morn met surprised farmer
(conted. from page 15) English governess and was sent to Oxford for his higher education. In short, political power was a monopoly of the English-educated elite.
Bandaranaike's SLFP did not do too well at the first general election in 1952. For the next contest, 1956, Bandaranaike had his “magic formula”, Sinhala as the only official language. Taking no chances, he promised to make it law in twenty-four hours. It took in fact several months but Bandaranaike, by no means a racist, had opened the bottle and let out the genie.
One of the first consequences of this dramatic change was the exodus of educated middle-class families. On hindsight, however, it is clear that the most important consequence was the advent of militant Tamil youth groups, all conscious of the fact that “Sinhala Only" would soon affect employment opportunities. Certainly, the public service required a knowledge of Sinhala, the official language. A predictable loss of job opportunities, and a wounded pride which nursed a righteous anger, produced Tamil separatist guerrilla groups, many trained and armed in the late 1970s by Indian covert agencies. While almost all these liberation fronts had intimate connections with New Delhi, the LTTE was a clear exception. It was a tribute to the LTTE's uncompromising nationalism.
Once the Senanayake hegomony over the conservative UNP ended through natural causes, Sri Lankan poli
tics were left with the Bandaranaikes, . widow, Sirima, and ter, Chandrika. That the "Founding Fathe naike out in the cold He joined the party quit. His place in an "People's Alliance" nel Anuruddha Rat Mrs. Sirima (Ratwa the PA's Prime Minis was given the strate gation, Power and Er defence-Deputy Mil rectly serving Presi who doubles up Sr Minister.
It was in that ca. Ratwatte got into h visited the “battle fr launched "Operatio was successfully c. capture of Jaffna, the But the hero of Jaffn Serious battle - a bat Law. He is charged w the Bandaranaikes h it "criminal defama cerns the reputation Sirima Bandaranaike sented in Court top elevated General Ra meeting that Anur NOT the son of SW the revered founder Minister Mrs Band evidence in suppoi Bandaranaikes are a

TAMIL TIMES 27
n: Chellappah, the stores, had brought ad remained behind. risitor at the Nallur been a recipient of Army. It also turned remnants had conhad been supplying at had been among ome. The rest of his amam. Whatever his ittedly in an unenviay, presumably on a e to his place. About LTTE fled. Soldiers bt dead3 LTTE cadre ank. Chellappah too
sh of the lagoon sepaiThenmaratchy had y's incursion into it morning had been ance party who had in Navatkuli during ng before dawn they s who mistook them
bne ruling family - from SWRD to her now to her daughleft the only son of r”, Anura Bandara. He had no choice. that his father had SLFP - dominated was taken by Colowatte, a cousin of tte) Bandaranaike, ter. And Anurudcha gic portfolio of Irriergy, together with nister of Defence dilent Kumaratunga, i Lanka's Defence
pacity that Colonel s old uniform and ont” when the army n Riviresa' which bncluded with the capital of “Eelam”. a now faces a more le in the Courts of ith defamation, and ope they can make ion” since it conof Prime Minister . Tapes will be preove that the newly watte told a public
Bandaranaike is R D Bandaranaike, f the SLFP. Prime ranaike may give : of her son. The lready armed with
for the LTTE. The Army quickly advanced into Kaithady and then Chavakacheri hardly meeting resistance from the LTTE. The Army was taken aback by the favourable response of the civilian population who had resisted persistent inducements by the LTTE to move into the Vanni, where the LTTE was pulling back to.
The Army had not anticipated a large civilian population to come under their control. They had at best expected 20,000 civilians to return to Valikamam. But what resulted was a flood of returning refugees on the road to Jaffna, reaching 200,000 by early May, going up eventually to about 60% of the original population - the rest being mostly trapped under the LTTE in the Vanni. The Army lost control of the situation and decided to abandon checks on those coming so as to eliminate queues that would have taken weeks to clear.
Apart from the LTTE's infiltration two important shortcomings were a shortage of food that lasted over two months and the lack of medical facilities. Only two local doctors had remained behind to help in Jaffna Hospital - Dr. Rajasooriyar and Dr. Jegasothy - the latter being a dental surgeon.
(Continued in next issue)
tapes of General Ratwatte's speeches. The Tamils demand a north-and-east merged unit and Minister Ashraff of the PA insists on a separate Muslim Unit, but the basic unit of society, “the family', that governs Sri Lanka is being torn apart O

Page 28
28 TAMIL TIMES
CTBT AND KASHMIRELEC TWO DIMENSIONS OF THE INDI
TN Gopalan
ndia has blocked the comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a pact avowedly aimed at capping the nuclear weapons programmes in the entire world, a different version of the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT).
India finds the treaty, in its present format, discriminatory and also "impinging on its own sovereignty” and hence was vetoed at the Geneva talks. Needless to say that India wants to keep its nuclear options open and so would not like to be tied down by any kind of international treaty.
Even though other nuclear threshold states like Iran and Pakistan too were not happy about certain aspects of the text, it was India which exercised its veto power, inviting flax from across the globe for blocking the passage of a treaty which could have acted as the first step towards total nuclear disarmament or at any rate put a cap on the nuclear arms
aC.
“We’ve not been isolated from the international community. Everyone understands why we were forced to use the veto power. Nor do we apprehend any sanctions against us because of our refusal to toe the line of the big five... Anyway in the final analysis, it is our national interests, our security, which should dictate our own course of action and we should be ready to stand up to any kind of international pressure while protecting our own sovereignty," says Mr I KGujral, Minister for External Affairs. If India's stand on the CTBT is seen as a telling assertion of the national will and a resounding slap on the self- proclaimed gendarmes of the world like the US and its cronies, the four-phase elections in Kashmir in the next few weeks, to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to be more precise, are supposed to reveal yet another strong and heartening facet of the Indian State - at least that is what the so-called patriotic sections, especially the media, believe and say.
The autonomy demands of the Kashmiris may not have been met and the human rights violations in the valley maygo onunchecked. The militant threat might still be hovering behind the entire election process.
Still for the patriots the very fact that elections are being held is sufficiently exciting to make them all jump with joy at this march towards democratisation. They are prepared to close their eyes to the pitfalls ahead in holding elections
without offering an and hail the Deve ( for its refusal to giv pressure and looser on this sensitive bo same time taking the towards democracy principled act of st rejection of the CT think for a moment volved in fuelling th all over again.
India proclaime clear major (or mi 1974 when the Pok carried out. In facttl known case of test but it is supposed tc clear arsenal quietly tunately, for the all inclined, the atomic deadly charm. Theil tial seems to increa the middle classes, f ers, for the Indian m ring some honourab The high econ Pokhran, the cutting First World and the scarce resources int( world, leaving the health and educatio floundering of then lishment - power fr hibitively expensive predictable radiatio strophic possibilitie clear arms race, esp volatile region as S seems to make any pro-bomb lobby.
ʻWe need the bo effective deterrent signs of Pakistan a sacrifice can be too status of a nuclear p argument. No dif A Bhutto's thunderi the seventies - "We we will make the b though the poor Pa eating grass today faction' of having th to some experts it h at leasta dozen ator
“Years of heavy taking a toll of the P said a recent despatc “In the current finan per cent of the total t on defence and 36 pe

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
TIONS AN STATE
autonomy package gowda Government e in to international the country's hold rder state but at the : first tentative steps
- just as they see a atesmanship in the BT, not pausing to
about the costs inhe nuclear arms race
d its arrival as a nunor?) Way back in hran explosion was hat remains the only explosion by India, ) be building its nusince then. Unforegedly patriotically weapons exercise a * devastating potenIse its mystique for or the opinion leadedia in general, barle exceptions.
onic costs of the off of aid from the : channelling of the ) the nuclear reactor priority sectors like n high and dry, the uclear power estabom the atom is probesides having unin fall-out - the catas involved in a nuecially so in such a outh Asia, nothing difference to the
mb. That is the only against the evil dend China. And no great to attain the ower...” so goes the ferent from Mr Z. ng proclamation in may eat grass, but omb...." It looks as kistanis are indeed put have the `satise bomb. According as in its possession in bomb.
defence spending is akistani economy,” h from Washington, cial year, almost 26 budget is to be spent 'r cent goes towards
debt servicing... Its worsening economic condition has jeopardised its planned defence purchases..."
Mercifully the atmosphere in India is less hysterical and the politicians, not even the BJP type, are baying for the blood of the Pakistanis or Chinese all the time. Certainly there is no obsession with defence buildup. In fact in the wake of liberalisation there are some muted calls for the pruning of the defence outlay.
But the bomb project, its presumed deterrent effect, the national pride involved, they are a different cup of tea altogether.
When the CTBT issue came up before the Parliament, MP's right across the spectrum urged the Government "to stand up to nuclear blackmail."
"Time has come for India to take certain concrete decisions with regard to national security,” advised the old peacenik, George Fernandez in his new role as a forbidding hawk, AChina has 300 bombs. We can't afford to keep quiet. We should not succumb to pressures from the US...'
An opinion poll also revealed that a majority of the electorate not only supported the Government's stand on the CTBT but also wanted India to make the bomb.
There are many interpretations of the CTBT as discussed in Geneva and rejected by India. That the big five, the US, France, the UK, Russia and China had schemed to show up India as the villain of the piece by stipulating that the fact could become valid only if India signed it, that they were never serious about a freeze on nuclear testing and anyway their objective was to prevent the threshold states from growing too big for their shoes, etc. And India was right in demanding that the international community start working towards total nuclear disarmament.
"CTBT will certainly bring about a cessation of the nuclear arms race, which has played havoc and made the world. qualitatively more insecure decade afte: decade. Without test explosions, the nuclear weapon states will not be able to develop new-generation weapons or modernise existing ones,' feels Mr Praful Bidwai, noted journalist.
The British Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, Michael Weston himself has conceded that the CTBT has a disarmament bite. Aleave alone build new weapons, we cannot maintain or replace old ones without elaborate explosive testing because they degrade, the tritium trigger decays rapidlv...”
'Bu then who cares. Any voice of sobriety and reason is lost in the din of

Page 29
15 SEPTEMBER 1996
jingoism. No-one seems to be ready to distinguish between self-respect and self-destruction.
What is happening in Kashmiris yet another instance of the myopic approach of the nationalist sections. Certainly some elections, any elections, are better than no elections. Assembly elections are being held there after a gap of nine years. Unlike the elections to the seven Lok Sabha seats held in May last year when many voters were reportedly press-ganged into voting, this time round there is going to be no arm-twisting, no coercion, say the authorities. If the Kashmiris make their way to the polling booths on their own, that in itself would be a comprehensive repudiation of the azadi cry and of the Pakistani designs, it is claimed.
Partly such a line of thinking could be right. Eightyears of militancy has not made life any better for the Kashmiris. Only violence and more violence, an unending spiral. And they are as far
away from azadi (freedom) as they were
when it all began. Thus they could be voting with their feet.
But then the fact remains that the
Union Government thing by way of aut no indication that the ernment is inclined to of its constituents an it are known to be fo lution of powers.
Even Farooq Abd ing in the sidelines h fray though he was i age until recently as joining the election p There is generally the valley. Of the 87 constituencies are lo the rest being dist Jamma and Ladakh non-issue, the two ar of a Muslim populati The militants eith under pressure seem the moment, not seel election campaign Hurriyat Conference, the wishes of the Ka umbrella organisatio are for Kashmir’s indi cotting the poll and h tematic boycott cam
(conted. from page 19) not deny that this attitude is pushing the people into fleeing Wanni to India,” the aid worker said.
Since Operation Sathjaya, which began on 26 July, Kilinochchi Town has become deserted and completely destroyed, according to this humanitarian aid representative.
“The outskirts of Kilinochchi has around 200,000 people. People who have fled Jaffna during Operation Leap Forward in mid'95, and Operation Riviresa 1, 2 and 3 have since been coming into Akkarayan, Skandapuram, Mallavi, Mankulam and the eastern parts of Mullaithivu. In Kilinochchi business is booming since those businessmen who are relocating in the wake of military of fensive are taking their businesses with them.
“But others are having a difficult time since some of them have been displaced for the 10th or 15th time and they need to get registered to get Government food and essential supplies. There are no proper centres for the displaced for registering and there's no infrastructure in Kilinochchi. All the buildings in town have disappeared,” the aid worker said. Kilinochchi had a week of rain but Vavuniya had about ten days by 25 August, according to this humanitarian worker. The fear among humanitarian workers is that since no aid or health personnel are allowed into LTTE controlled areas there is no way a tally can be kept on the lack of health care, diseases or mortalities.
But this aid worl Express that people iu areas are suffering fro) arrhoea, malaria and
"There is definite shelter, food, portable the situation will def unless some urgent m the humanitarian wor The staple food p chi has risen sharply fensive began. Rice is Rs 40 and the overa from satisfactory, acc representative.
This person point displaced from Oper the most affected sinc sidered displaced.
(Courtesy of
(conted. from page 16
the first time officiall pamphlet) that the M tinct community and t culturaland social val served and safeguard damental principle on built its politics sixte cal community lead LTTE pamphlet and were of the opinion
problems which bede be resolved if the SLN out of sheer pragmat provide each other cor tingly or unwittingly, eventually for the mu Tamils and Muslims.

TAML TIMES 29
as not offered anynomy and there is United Front Govdo so, though most the CPMbacking r maximum devo
llah, tired of waitis jumped into the sisting on a packa precondition for OCCSS a relaxed mood in seats at stake, 47 cated in Kashmir, ributed between where azadi is a eas with not much
O. er out of design or o be laying off for ing to disrupt the . The All party presumed to reflect shmiri masses are ns most of which 2pendence, is boyas gone on a syspaign, urging the
der told Weekend LTTE controlled m malnutrition, dityphoid.
ly urgent need for (clean) water and initely deteriorate asures are taken,” ker said.
rices in Kilinochsince military of sold at Rs 32, dhal l situation is far ording to the aid
ed out that those tion Riviresa are o they are not con
"Weekend Express")
conceded (in the uslims are a disat their religious, les have to be pred. This is the funwhich the SLMC n years ago. Lors who read the heard Hisbullah hat many of the "il the east could C and the LTTE, c considerations, mon ground, witor striking a deal all benefit of the
O
people to Aignore the farce.”
Now the question is what will happen if the elections are held, there is a reasonable voter turn-out and Farooq Abdullah's National Conference which is still popular to some extent does come to power but the Centre does not come up with a broadly acceptable autonomy package? Or a BJP Government is in place in the next couple of years and it refuses to entertain any autonomy demands.
The Kashmiris will feel betrayed. Despite all the army repression, there could be terrifying bouts of violence attracting international attention.
Farooq says, defending himself, “Deve Gowdais talking of strong states and a strong centre and that makes a world of difference.'
That is the only silver-lining. But that no-one is visualising a scenario wherein the Gowdas of this country will be marginalised with serious consequences and so is demanding a package first goes to show how vacuous and complacent the liberals are turning and therein could be the danger for the Indian Union. O
Tourism Campaign
Sri Lanka is to launch a $4 million campaign to attract investors and tourists by stressing that a 13 year-long ethnic war has been largely limited to the country's north and east.
Media and Tourism Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake told a news conference on 22 August that the government had to counter moves by the LTTE and its supporters to tarnish Sri Lanka's image. "Presently we suffer from a problem of disinformation,' he said. “These reports are exaggerated.” -
Tourist arrivals to the island dropped by 39.6 percent in April from a year ago, the Ceylon Tourist Board said. Sri Lanka had 403,101 tourists last year.
The armed forces have battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since 1983 in a war largely contained in the north and east and away from attractions such as the southern beaches, the central hill country and the ancient kingdoms in the north-central region.
The LTTE bomb attacks in Colombo is said to be partly responsible for the drop in the arrival of tourists who have security considerations uppermost in their minds. For instance, even the Australian cricket team refused to visit Colombo early this year to participate in the World Cup Tournament alleging security reasons. The much publicised devastating attack on the country's Central Bank tower in the commercial heartland of the island's capital must have had an adverse impact on tourism.

Page 30
3O TAMIL TIMES
nce again the Sri Lankan Tamils are pouring in, well, not exactly. Actually it is only a trickle at the moment. Around 1,000 of them have arrived at Rameswaram in August, and more continued to in batches of twenty or so. And all of them from Pesalai in the Mannar island.
Thus their number being small, the Lankan Tamil refugees in the current phase do not pose any great problem, administrative or otherwise, to the government of Tamil Nadu.
But apprehensions that the trickle could turn into a flood a la 1985 and 1990 are widespread. Columns after columns are written in English and Tamil newspapers and magazines on the implications of the renewed refugee inflow, where it all could lead to, when the influx would stop, whether it is all part of a grand rather insidious design of Velupillai Pirabhakaran, what are the steps the governments of India and of Tamil Nadu could take to forestall the take-over of the land by the Tiger columns ad nauseum.
There is a distinct sense of unease in the air. Though an avowedly Tamil nationalist party like the DMK is in power and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi nevertires himself of proclaiming his undying love for his ethnic brethren across the Palk Straits and affirming his determination to play host to these fleeing persecution at home, the ground reality is that the refugees are unwelcome and all out efforts are on to discourage further inflow. None of the political parties would breathe a word on the none too subtle methods employed by the Government to stem the flow, though some of the sordid details are out in cold print. Again though all these parties including Jayalalitha herselfstress the need for Tamil Nadu to extend a helping hand to the suffering fellow Tamils of the neighbouring island, no-one is willing to stick his or her neck out and say or do anything that might be interpreted as an unequivocal invitation to the Lankan Tamils to come over here if they really feel unsafe over there.
That is indeed a sea-change since the mid-eighties when the Lankan Tamils started arriving in large numbers and even settled down to a permanent refugee life. There was such a groundlswel of sympathy for the refugees, for the Eelam cause that the Lankan Tamils
were treated almos they went- and suc tended not just to th even to ordinary fo The administ tremely sympathe spondent had beer displayed by the of to the needs of the gee camps. That w to the way the repal tations were treate officials, like dirt be it class bias, he h Whatever it was, were a privileged Indo-Sri Lankan pa ous militant groups the number of ref multiplying, with th among the Lankan problem whatsoev or bungalows to liv But, after the a dred thousand refi were sent back - tho been some subtle hi all the process was When the LTTE sympathy for the started declining. I tions demanding th IPKF could be held nidhi was voted bai things improved slig inside and outside
Mr S C Chand spirit behind the Or Refugees Rehabilit son of the late Ch AAt that time regu be held between th habilitation departir as now we did not guests, whatever b juncture that had could always disti Eelam politics and refugees."
But the very sa was maintained a d the Customs Depal Government seize which ferried in tl 1990 in the wake c Subsequently the b lack of maintenan were stolen too. Af in the Courts, the bo their owners only a
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1995
like VIPs wherever hhospitality was exe various leaders but ks. ation too was extic and this correstruck by the zeal ficials then to attend inmates of the refu'as in sharp contrast riates from the pland by the very same neath their feet. Was ad wondered then. the Lankan Tamils lot. Right up to the ct of 1987, the varihad a field day and ugee camps started he better-off sections Tamils finding it no er to get apartments e in for rent. ccord nearly a hunugees in the camps ugh there might have nts of coercion, over voluntary. took on the IPKF the Lankan cause itself But still demonstrale withdrawal of the i and when Karuna:k to power in 1989, ghtly for the refugees the camps. ahasan, the moving ganisation for Eelam ation (OFERR), and lvanayakam recalls lar meetings used to e NGOs and the rement officials. Then, feel like unwelcome e the political conobtained. Kalignar nguish between the the problems of the
me Kalignar regime iscreet silence when tment of the Union d the fishing boats he refugees in June if the Eelam War II. pats went to seed for ce and the engines er protracted battles bats were returned to couple of years ago.
Be that as it may, again over one hundred thousand refugees came to India again and despite the IPKF-LTTE conflict and despite the fact that the Indian Government had become distinctly cool towards the Eelamists of any kind and even in Tamil Nadu only a few Tamil nationalist groups talked about Lanka any more, the refugees were treated decently.
Whatever the political configurations at any given moment, the people at large were certainly not hostile to the Lankan Tamils. Not a single refugee was harmed after the Rajiv assassination in June 1991.
Anyway Jayalalitha sought to derive political mileage by branding the refugees as the villain of the piece, blaming them for highway robberies and otherincidents of violence, and vowing to repatriate them all. The camps were going derelict. Many were folded up and the inmates relocated. A lot of restrictions were imposed on the movements of the refugees. Over 50,000 were repatriated, many of them against their will. The special camps, originally set up during the last days of the Karunanidhi Government, apparently to segregate the militant elements, increased in number, this time those who failed to register themselves with the police stations also finding their way to the special camps whereinprison-like conditions obtained and the inmates were humiliated no end. The return of Karunanidhi in May last saw the restoration of the quota for the refugee students in higher educational institutions and the camps too received some face-lift. With Jaffna having fallen once again, there is some sympathy for the benighted ethnic brethren. All the same the return of the refugees is greeted with mixed feelings.
Everyone across the spectrum seems to be genuinely concerned with possible infiltration by the LTTE. Even the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) which prides itself on its open support to the Tigers, cautioned the DMK to ensure that even while taking care of the refugees, Athe situation in the state does not deteriorate to a point when our enemies could raise the spectre of breakdown of law and order and get your Government dismissed again.... (Incidentally the PMK, badly mauled in the recent elections, is once again inching its way towards the DMK-front. That the Tamil Maanila Congress does not like the prospect is a different story.)
Karunanidhi also declared that all refugees would be screened for possible militant links and that those suspected to be having any would be kept in the special camps.
He also clarified that none of the fresh refugees would be allowed to live

Page 31
SEPTEMBER 1998
on their own and that all of them would have to live in the camps meant for them. There are nearly 30,000 refugees living on their own, most of them dating back to the eighties. While generally they are well-off, there are also those who have fallen on bad days, like the dropouts from the militant ranks and who take to minor crimes, creating a headache for the Government. Perhaps the chief minister would not like their numbers to swell and hence his stipulation that every new refugee be kept within the confines of a camp.
Only on 31 August the state police took into custody four members of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party at Tuticorin. Two AK-47 rifles and 120 rounds of live cartridges were recovered from their contacts. They had been brought over hereby some Rameswaram fishermen. Such developments put everyone on the edge.
The goings-on of Rameswarm and what generally the fishermen there are up to have always been a matter of much animated discussions and speculations. That many of them do act as conduits to the militant groups, the LTTE especially, transporting kerosene, diesel drugs and many essential commodities, for a fee is well-known. The fishermen on their part claim that they do whatever they do on the point of a gun but that they are harassed all the same by the authorities here. The refugee influx too has created problems for the fishermen. Unlike in the past when the refugees arrived in their own boats, only for find them seized by the customs authorities, this time round, at least in the first few days, they managed to hitch a hike in the boats of the Rameswaram fishermen.
Apparently from Pesalai they were taken to a point in the sea by the LTTE
and then transferred to the Indian fish
ing boats. Karunanidhi acted smart. On the one hand he declared on the floor of the Assembly that no refugee would be turned back. At the same time his fishing department officials were quietly seizing the fishing boats which brought in the refugees. The fishermen cried foul. “You can't pretend to be extending a red carpet to the refugees, but harass the fishermen who bring them in”, they protested. But none, not even the AIADMK MLAs would not take up their cause evidently for fear of being branded as abettors of the LTTE designs. Finally the fishermen cried off though they are still apprehensive that the LTTE could create problems for them midsea.
The incoming refugees themselves repeatedly tell the Press that the Tigers are instigating the process, dirctly or indi rectly. Though they also talk about problems at the hands of the Lankan army, abductions, disappearances and so on.
At the time of g. the first week of Sep inflow had tapered signs those from the join the queue.
The Deve Gow apparently told the ( see that the flow do long. Not that there that the Lankan Gov is provoking the cur
Evidently the L residents of Pesalai hoped to once again for the Tamil cause and abroad. Many
dependence, the has seen several ing families. Recer with assassinations, import deals, shad bank accounts, hawa Kinship and corrup are seen to be centr porary subcontinent ways. (Their relatio topic for a PhD the history in a Western between the two ha major features, pos corporatedom here:
1. The ruling fa father or mother at tl leading to a succes rare exceptions to til Gandhi (who succ Nehru after a sh Sirimavo Bandarana SWRD), Sheikh H took on the mantle ur-Rahman) and Ra case, they fought bit opponents within a spective parties.
(a) If it is a patri War after death or a ally fought among wife/wives/concubin them lose and anoth (b) If it is a mot tween sons and da daughters-in-law a throwing themselve There are enough case. In the case of the fight is betwee Bhutto and son Murta by Nusrat Bhutto, th of Anura and Char
in the last five de
 

MENS SY
oing to the Press, in tember, the refugee off and there are no peninsulatoo would
da Government has handrika regime to es not go on for too are credible reports 'ernment or its army rent exodus. TTE is coaxing the to leave because it whip up sympathy both in Tamil Nadu observers feel it is
once again playing a cynical game and the influx could create unnecessary pressure on the Karunanidhi Government which will only prevent the DMK from playing an active role in finding a solution to the ethnic tangle.
Many had still expected Karunanidhi to mount pressure on the Centre and make it tell Chandrika to get back to the negotiating table fast. If he is going to be burdened with the refugee problem and the possible infiltration by the Tigers at this juncture, he just will not be inclined to play a larger role in the isS. O
G.Ramesh, Madras
cades of politicalinIndian subcontinent family rules and rulit history is replete dynastic wars, arms y swamijis, Swiss ala transactions etc., tion, it can be said, al issues in contemal politics in many nship is fit enough a sis in anthropology/ University!)The link s the five following sibly shared by the
milies have a tough he helm, necessarily sion war. There are his trend like Indira :eeded Jawaharlal ort interregnum), like (who succeeded asina Wajed (who : of Sheikh Mujibjiv Gandhi. In any ter battles with their ind outside their re
arch, the succession ssassination is ususons, daughters and es. Sometimes, all of er family takes over. her, the battle is beaughters, with the nd sundry cousins s around the ring
hexamples for every Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in daughter Benazir aza who is supported eir mother. The case drika with mother
supporting the latter is too well known. After Sheikh Abdullah's death in the early eighties, son Farooq Abdullah, supported by his mother, and son-in-law G M Shah fought a bitter battle unmindful of the emerging Kashmir insurgency.
2. The whole idea after assuming office is to establish a kinship authority who'll perform the difficult task of backroom negotiating and/or fund collection which is crucial to anybode of governance in the contemporary subcontinent. Thus, it is doubly wrong to call this authority as Aextra constitutional'. That this authority is as Aestablished' as the Aestablished democratic structures' and is necessarily related to the head of the state/government/party structure is obvious. Only that they don't put it in the constitution.
3. This entire family is thoroughly corrupt, in the sense that nepotism is the very grammar of contemporary subcontinental politics and not wayward behaviour to be corrected later. Thus, electoral (mis)fortunes of a leader who is known to be corrupt, or fundamental changes in the economy towards Westernised liberalisation, do not necessarily alter this rule. Witness the Narasimha Rao or Sukh Ram corruption episodes, with their wards getting implicated in urea and telecom scams respectively.
4. The link between the two is universal cutting across the entire spectrum of class, caste and creed.
5. Tamil Nadu cantake pride in contributing the fifth feature to this hitherto-unwritten grammar: if there is not a family, acquire one so that it could be disowned later
Ms J Jayalalitha was without a real (Continued on next page)

Page 32
32 TAMIL TIMES
WBY DOES *AMODL,
SLATIONT
G.Ramesh
hatever is available to us in the form of Tamil texts, it is stated, are out of a legendary sea flood which sank a sprawling continent, the home of the mythical first sangam, or academy of discourse in which even dangerous Gods participated as poets and scholars to enunciate and celebrate the landscape of poetry. Some texts, including works of grammar, it is said, floated out northwards of the sinking city, Tenmadurai. A princess, who was Tamil herself in a manner of speaking, and her brother-prince, a poet, carried them to the safety of Kapatapuram, the next capital of the Tamils which went onto host the second sangam.
In his short story titled Kapatapuram,
Pudumaipithan, one c of modern Tamil prose other being Mouni), as follows: Kapatapu consumed, by fire an after a sacrificial rite The priest-hero kills a monster which disru the streaming hair, of about to be sacrifice sonification of Tamil) watched by her lovergolden fortresses mel fire originating from fiery third eye of a G dance, Nimalan. An escapes this catastrop
This is one of the
(conted: from page 29)
family when she managed to ascend to the AIADMK leadership after going through an open war with MGR's widow propped up after his death by MGR loyalists. She even boasted about not having a real family of her own. After she became the head of government, she promptly acquired a family from Mannargudi near Thanjavur.
Thus, Sasikala Natarajan, the videoshop owner of Alwarpet, was her fostersister, Sasikala's husband and ex-government public relations man Natarajan was her hatchet-man for shady political deals and starting the private channel JJ TV; she really wept when Sasikala's brother and mother died; Sasikala's nephews were like her sons; she ultimately called one of them, Sudakaran, her foster- son and antagonised the civil society here to conduct his Rs 100 crore marriage last year; she was happy when his wife gother a grand-daughter two months ago. Last week, due to pressure from party cadres smarting under electoral defeat, Jayalalitha disowned Sasikala and her clan. Out went Sudhakaran, his wife and Jayalalitha's new grand-daughter from Pose Garden. Sasikala had been out of Pose Garden ever since her arrest in June last for foreign exchange violations. Sudhakaran's brother, Bhaskaran, is out on bail fighting the same case. Another brother, Dinakaran, is in jail facing trial for foreign exchange violations worth Rs 65 crore.
Jayalalitha chose London-based Guardian daily to give the first indication that she was about to disown her foster-family. The next day, she called on her foster-sister in jail and told her that
she was being ditched. ment, ditching Sasik blaming her party me arrived the very next statement, she called of a new family, that and wanted party me cently along with reb to her. AI belong to no you belongs to me, as or sister.” she simply
This jaded script with many people he the economic and er tween the erstwhile strong. It is clear that put on stage and their ing put on hold - just DMK to win back sup (who are currently le minister S Muthusar pan) in order to figh polls in Tamil Nad month after decades. almost no allies in t DMK-led alliance, Tamil Maanila Con National League and intact.
The DMK too is nastic succession. N M Karunanidhi lords as Chief Minister, sor not be left behind as with a cellular phon raised when Stalin fa in the DMK cabinet. will get the first tast the Mayor of Madras the new name. The name, simply, only b incorrectness

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
NEED
f the two geniuses in this century (the ecreates this myth am too would be the flooding sea, oes out of control. huge dinosaur-like its the ritual. And an eternal maiden l (who is the pertouches the waves narrator. The city's into the sea set on the smiles and the od in a balance of d language alone he.
central myths (and
Jayalalitha's stateala and indirectly n for the decision, day. In the same herself as the chief is the AIADMK, n who left her reel leaders to return )-one. Everyone of I am your mother told them. nas failed to cut ice re who know that motional links beSisters are indeed the script is being relationship is beto enable the AIAport from the rebels d by former health ny and S Kannapt the local bodies' being held next The AIADMK has he polls while the consisting of the gress, CPI, Indian smaller parties, is
preparing for a dyWhile party chief it over Tamil Nadu Mu Ka Stalin cana humble legislator e. Eyebrows were iled to find a place It is stated that he : of governance as ... oops... Chennai, use of the former etrays my political O
not historiography) ofsangam Tamil. For them, language bursts forth out of an apocalypse but continues to glow, like a lamp. The origin of cosmos of whose order resembles grammar (with the chief work being Tolkappiyam) and whose peak expressions are, in the classical sense, the poetry of intimate love landscapes, or agam, and the poetry of public spaces, or puram.
The sangam classics and later works like Silappadhikaram, Manimekalai and Chintamani, had remained lost, for more than seven centuries or so, to the Tamils who were preoccupied with bhakti poetry and its later variants. The works came to light in the later part of last century, as the late AK Ramanujan puts it, in a dramatic manner during a thorough search of palm manuscripts by a team of scholars led by Ci Vai Damodaram Pillai of Jaffna and UVe Swaminatha Iyer of Tamil Nadu. This time, Tamil had to survive not flood and fire, but the gnawing of the termites!
Following this, the Tamils saw a veritable renaissance of language and culture. Coming to think of it, this discovery of Tamil texts proved so crucial that, rightly or wrongly, it had played a decisive role in structuring of Tamil political identity in south India and Lanka for an entire century
Politics apart, it is clear that Tamil texts are primordially works of cultural uniqueness, proving to be of immense value to scholars from across the world. As Tamils, we owe it to Western scholars like the Portuguese Fr Caspar d'Aquilar (Portuguese), Italians Robert de Nobili, Guiseppe Constantine Beschi (popularly known as Virama Munivar), Germans Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Rhenius, Rev G U Pope and Fr Caldwell (from the British Isles), the Frenchman
“ Julian Vinson, the Czech Kamil Zvelebil
and the American George L Hart and countless others. They have done our job, by informing the Western world about this unique language and its poetry and grammatology.
It was the European missionaries who gave us the first modern Tamil dictionary and works of comparative grammar. Later, they translated the Kural. Thanks to some of our scholars like the late K Kailasapathy and Karthigesu Sivathamby, the Western academia was made aware of the heroism of another culture.
While some translations like that of Pattuppaattu by JV Chelliah (of Jaffna) are of great value to classical English, the translation of selections of sangam poetry and Nammalvar's hymns into contemporary English verse by the late AK Ramanujan has turned out to be an extremely fruitful exercise! Well, the best (Continued on next page)

Page 33
spEMER Iggs N
CONTEMPORARY SRI LA
IN PERSPECTIVE
Democracy and Human Right
By Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam Published in Tamil by the International Centre for Ethnic Stud
A new and valuable addition to the little literature available on the subject of Human Rights in Tamil has been made by Dr Neelan Thiruchelvam, who is a Member of Parliament and also a scholar of no mean repute in legal studies. This attractively published book, released in 1996, takes a critical and empirical look at Human Rights and Democracy, especially in relation to the sadly troubled island of Sri Lanka.
The book is written in an eminently readable style and for this our thanks are due to the competent translators of the original contributions made by Dr Thiruchelvam in English. There is minimum use of jargon and I found the assembled essays easy to understand and absorbing reading. Since there is a paucity of good quality studies on this subject in Tamil, it is useful for the Tamil reading public to
(conted. from page 32) translations are inevitably in contemporary language. Ensuring such translations is a sure way of updating a given culture. This way, English seems to benefit from Tamil rather than the other way round
It needs a living poet to effect a good translation. Ramanujan, being one of the outstanding contemporary Indian English poets, has created an extraordinarily rich space for Tamil in the Western world. Sangam poetry is being compared to the works of English poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas and the American Marianne Moore. It is up to Tamils now living in the West to make use of this space. An Indian scholar, Professor Indira Peterson, of Mount Holyoke College in the United States, has followed him by rendering Thevaram hymns into English verse.
Another outstanding Indian English poet has rendered the first-ever English verse translation of Silappadhikaram. R Parthasarathy, who teaches comparative literature at the Skidmore College of New York, has come out with The Tale of An Anklet, after ten years of intense work. The Silappadhikaram has had three translations so far - all in prose - by VR Ramachandra Dikshithar (1936), Alan Danielou (1965) and Ka Naa Subramaniam (1967). And now in English verse, Ilango=s Adigal's poetry can take its rightful place besides the immortal works of Homer, Goth and Milton. This
read this book which
Human Rights a Civil Society have a in the agenda of th whether it be nationa fact many of the do
North have in recent t
need for good gover countries if they wis because whatever de place it would not b people unless they a mocracy and an assu and liberties, and the erosion of civil socie Divisions
The book itself sions: 1. Democracy 2. War and Peace ir and Justice; and the fi some leading person
writer, who recently listen to Professor meeting at Madras, w sheer power of the E cially the Kanal Va Madhavi and Koval Fatehurtles the latte passionate Love at path of imminent De
Fate has willed in Tamils live all over th in North America a more fortunate peop Tamil country and a occasionally travel). dous strength to absor of language. Yet, mos operate in languages mostly for economic r this difficult situatio an advantage for Tal both ways and make temporary and come said, the literature an translate into Tamil n as many languages as ers should patronise {
And, we're soong eration of Tamils, fullings, or cultural mong learn their mother to 20. Even at least for responsibility to ens Tamil classics into c forms of the world's to give them respect space.

TAMILTTMEs ܚܡܫܝܢ
NIKA
es, Colombo.
satisfies a dire need. nd Democracy and ssumed a vital place e politics of today, l or international. In nor countries of the imes emphasised the nance in developing h to gain assistance velopment may take e meaningful to the re able to enjoy derance of their rights y remain free of any
ty.
falls into four diviand Human Rights; | Sri Lanka; 3. Law nal section discusses alities and their role
had the occasion to Parthasarathy at a as astounded by the Inglish verse, esperi, wherein lovers an part ways, and r from the mode of Puhar towards the ath at Madurai.
the current era that le world, especially ind Europe. (Some ble like me live in lso get a chance to Tamil has tremenbany modern mode tofus are forced to other than Tamil, easons. We can turn for ourselves into mil, if we translate our language con: alive. As Bharati long us must try to modern literature of possible. And othhis activity. oing to have agenscale translated berels who'll have to ngue at the age of their sake, it is our ure translations of Dntemporary verse major languages - bility and cultural
O
in relation to values and good governance, selected from the local and foreign enviTOnment.
For example, the essay on S Nadesan demonstrates the invaluable contribution of this singular-sentinel of Human Rights in his days, more or less, as a pioneer in Sri Lanka. The next personality taken for scrutiny is Mr Parthasarathy and his indefatigable contribution towards resolving the national question which unfortunately ended unsuccessfully and thanklessly. When he goes on to write about Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan in his review, and his essay on Myanmar, Dr Thiruchelvam shows the situation regards democracy and liberty in his mastery of material with dexterity and incisive analytical interpretation.
The first section of the book should be read to gain an understanding of the movement for Human Rights in contemporary times. In this study of 97 pages we are able to gain a sound grasp of both democracy and the inalienable relationship of it to human rights. This is saliently made clear in the series of essays presented by the author.
The second section which is devoted . to the conflict and its damaging effects on the society of the island is of particular interest to all of us today. He raises very important questions such as that of the price of life today and goes on to answer them in a manner shat should shock and shame Sri Lankans. The language question, the tribulations of the minorities, the right to life, are some of the more tragically poignant studies encompassed in this section. The chapters make us engage in soul searching and the sensitive reader will realise how Sri Lanka had fallen from having been Aparadise" isle because man alone is ville. Analytical
On the section of law and justice, Dr Tiruchelvam is profoundly analytical. His learning and acumen are evidently, and vividly demonstrated by him in the manner in which he deals with the topics, he had set out to examine. He has dissected bills and laws, acts, reform and attempt at reform, and interestingly there is an evaluation of the Budget - 1966 - in pages 188-196. It is also fascinating to read his presentation on the ACommission on Bribery and Corruption".
I found that all these articles and essays have really been delivered by Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam as speeches. All of them demonstrate cogentreasoning, solid argument, methodical assembly of material and exhaustive reading. All interested in gaining a clear and proper perspective of contemporary Sri Lanka and of the present day times will largely benefit from reading this collection of studies.
The studies themselves are informa
tive, they educate the reader, and present to him lucidly an intelligible vision and insight into an important series of issues of public interest and common concern.
-Professor Bertram Bastiampillai.

Page 34
34 TAMILTIMES
Visit to Jaffna
by E. S. Thevasahayam, Ph.D.
Chairman, Governing Body of Church Missionary Society Scho
Diocese of Colombo, Retd. Principal, St. John's College
Taken from: St. Luke's Church, Borella: Parish Newsletter, July 1996. Note: The last paragraph of this message from Dr. Thevasahayam is slightly outdated by the army's change of attitude since the suicide bomb of July 4 and its db>cle in Mullaitivu, as detailed in the accompanying UTHR (JB) Special Report 7. However, it is a useful document in that it records the sentiments of the Tamil public towards the army between December 1995 and June 1996 - Jeevan Hoole)
Our Bishop was invited by the government to visit Jaffna to look into the schools and churches. He asked a few of us to join him. I went along as the Chairman of the Governing Body of CMS Schools to look into our three schools. The Ven. Sarvanandam, came along on his visit to Jaffna as Archdeacon to look into the churches. Mrs. Jeyaweerasingham, Principal of Chundikuli Girls' College, came along to handover to the Acting Principal. Her husband) Mr. Jeyaweerasingham was invited to join as a Civil Engineer to assess the damage and Rev. Nesakumar who is now a refugee in Kilinochchi joined as he is to go back to take charge of St. John's Jaffna.
We flew down, courtesy of the army on the 17th of June and returned on the 19th. When I went over to Jaffna on 1 Jan. 1988 to take over as Principal of St. John's College, Jaffna, there were about 25 army checkpoints from the airport to Jaffna Town. This time too, it was the same checkpoints, except that it was the IPKF then and the Sri Lankan Army this time. When I went to my school then, many of the buildings were damaged by the 1987 war. This time too it was the same, only worse.
What we saw was more than we had imagined. The whole place is devastated and about 80% of the houses are destroyed or damaged. Most of the people have lost all or most of their belongings. But after being in refugee camps for over six months, the people are happy to be back and start their lives all over again. Of the churches, St. James's Nallur, is the worst hit, both the Church and the Vicarage. St. Mary’s Kopay has been hit, and the Vicarage and Parish Hall are badly damaged. St. John's Church, Chundikuli, is slightly damaged, but the
roof being so steep come down for Urumpirai Church Jaffna, had been de need to be rebuilt. John's is the worst buildings damaged, The damage to Chl lege is not that bad. the Deaf and Blir slightly damaged. T repairs is estimated neer to be about RS. lion. As the people w ate in Oct. 1995, th with only what they long trek to refugee ( things have been lo this, the mood of the and relief. Those wh ous parts of the penin to return to their ho now in control.
But those who mainland, mainly to able to get back. Sch aged, have started to
The Sri Lankan selves worthy World a magnificent all-rol 7 September to be: Singer World Series Sri Lanka score three wickets and the runs the Australian in the World Cup f year.
Once again, Ara Australia's nemesis. feated 75 runs off 6. the "man-of-the-m of-the-series' award De Silva's blazi the Sri Lankan team asking rate of 6.71 task proved beyo slumped to 48 runs
Only Steve Wa mined 55 runs off Law with 31 runs m contributions to the
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
ols,
, the tiles have all he nearby blast. and Christ Church stroyed earlier and Of the schools, St. hit, with about 10 three of them badly. Indikuli Girls” ColNuffield School for id, Kaithady, was he total cost to the by the Civil Engi6 million to 7 mil'ere forced to evacuey left their houses could carry on their camps. Most of their oted. In spite of all people is one of joy o evacuated to variInsula have been able mes, as the army is.
evacuated to the Kilinochchi are unools, although damfunction. St. John's
and Chundikuli have a strength of about 60% of teachers and students and the number is picking up by the day. Food is available, but the distribution system being inadequate, the CWE is unable to cope, and people buy from the CWE and sell at exorbitant prices. We were tole that the problem is unloading a Kankesanthurai with just the one birth. available. Only when road transport is restored, will there be free flow of food and all other commodities. The most urgent need is forcement and tile/asbestos sheets for roofing. When this is freely available, the repair work can be expedited. We were told that there is no demand for petrol as all cars and three-wheelers have been converted to kerosene. But kerosene sells at Rs. 10s. per litre, Civil administration and police have been re-established.
The Sri Lankan Army, unlike in the past, has been most considerate to the civilians and one is able to see the good rapport between the army and the civilians. The army has made every effort te befriend the people and are there now not as rulers, but as liberators. People have responded well. Government anc international assistance is needed in big way to rebuild and one is confider that it will be forthcoming. May be we too should, as a church, do what we can. to help our fellow churches in Jaffna. I. would be a very welcome gesture. O
again proved themCup winners with ind performance on at Australia in the final.
i 234 runs for just n dismissed for 184 team, their victims inal in March this
vinda de Silva was He struck an unde4 balls to take both Itch" and "playerS. ng innings enabled to set Australia an runs per over. The nd them as they or three wickets. ugh with a deter3 balls and Stuart ide any worthwhile Australian total.
Leg-spinner Upul Chandana wrapped up the Australian innings with a spell of four for 35 in six overs. Roshar Mahanama took a superb one-handed running catch at long-on to send back last man Glen McGrath for a duck.
But no-one could deprive de Silva ci his match award. It was largely due to his spectacular batting that Sri Lanka were able to set Australia such an imposing total. De Silva finished the tournament with an aggregate of 334 runs without being dismissed once in the four matches. He hit three sixes and two fours in his latest effort.
Earlier, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana set the tone for the Sri Lanka innings by scoring 42 for the first wicket off 28 balls. They made 27 and 58 runs respectively.
De Silva and skipper Arjuna Ranatunga finished the innings off in style with an unfinished partnership of 103 runs off 87 balls.

Page 35
SEPEEERTso
FORTYYEARS IN THE STR FORLINGUISTIC EQUA
By Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam
From a book of political and legal essays on Democracy and Human Rights by Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam which was released on 9 July
5 June 1956 was an important moment in the political history of this island. SWIRD Bandaranaike had been swept into power on a wave of linguistic nationalism at the elections which had been concluded in March 1956.
The Government had made the extravagant claim that it would introduce Sinhala within 24 hours as the Official Language of the country.
The 5th of June, was the day on which the Sinhala Only Bill was introduced in Parliament and the day on which 200-300 supporters of Federal Party did Satyagraha on Galle Face Green, a non-violent protest which was disrupted by an unruly mob. Last month we passed the fortieth anniversary of these two events which have traumatised the subsequent history of ethnic relations in Sri Lanka.
This week is also the fortieth anniversary of the Senate debate which took place on 4, 5 and 6 of July 1956.
One of the first acts of the new government was to prepare a draft bill before the end of April.
This apparently was drafted along the lines of the SLFP manifesto provided for Sinhala as the sole national language while assuring the minorities that their language rights would be protected.
However the Government Parliamentary Group on 3 May was critical of the provisions relating to minority rights, and the draft was hastily withdrawn. Prime Minister Bandaranaike had received an overwhelming mandate, but could not prevailupon the more extremist elements within his Parliamentary group.
The Prime Minister appointed a Committee (known as the Sinhala Only Committee) which included the Prime Minister as Chairman, M W H de Silva, the Minister of Justice, Philip Gunawardena, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, W Dahanayake, the Minister of Education, IM R A Iriyagolla, Deputy Minister, and K M P Rajaratna, Deputy Minister. The only minority representative was a Burgher, R. S. V. Poulier the appointed Member of Parliament.
Here again while the Committee was working on its report Bandaranaike was again upstaged by Sinhala hard-liners. L H Mettananda presented his own version of the draft bill which gave no concessions to minority rights. This draft was
released to the press coverage. This dra clauses.
The Committee'. six clauses and thre for local government or English, and provi ance of English and administration unti Here again efforts by to push through amo frustrated by hard-li F R Jayasuriya, a ics at the University fast unto death in the ment on 24 May aga gument was that the mitted the use of Si local authorities wol parity of status for S
Bandaranaike i suaded Jayasuriya tc the assurance that he to address the govern Group at its meeting ( a fatal mistake. Jayas Group was given wi Bill that was finally the Mettananda draft minor concessions to It was in this con party had organised a of the north-east, an to a halt. The Party h sive meeting at the C on 18 May. On 4 Jur nayakam wrote to th follows:
Members of Parli our Party will lead a Satyagrahis to sit o Western entrance to t sentatives and theret ing the whole day.”
Mr Chelvanayak copy of this letter to mail at about 12 no Speaker verbally ass that he saw no obje and instructed the P. sary measures to all to take place on the However, this perm quently revoked.
It appears that t who received the let cabinet meeting, adj and conferred with t officials. He there Speaker that permis granted on the grounc

AIVL EMS we
ЈGGLE LITY
and received wide ft had only three
; draft however had 2 of them provided bodies to use Tamil ded for the continufamil in the general l 1 January 1960. the Prime Minister remoderate bill was
CTS. lecturer in economof Ceylon started a precincts of Parliainst the Bill. His ardraft bill which pernhala and Tamil by ild pave the way for inhala and Tamil. nterceded and pergive up his fast on would be allowed ment parliamentary on 30 May. This was uriya's speech to the de publicity and the adopted was almost excluding even the
minority rights. text that the federal hartal in many parts brought public life ad organised a masolombo Town Hall e 1956 Mr Chelvae Prime Minister as
lament belonging to batch of about 200 in the steps on the he House of Reprehey will remain fast
am also delivered a the Speaker H S Isan on 4 June. The ured the delegation :tion to the request blice to take necesDw the Satyragraha steps of the House. ission was subse
he Prime Minister er in the midst of a purned the meeting he police and other upon advised the sion should not be | that the Satyagraha
would disturb the proceedings of the House.
He wrote to Mr Chelvanayakam, Anot only will the Satyagraha be disturbing... there is every reason to believe that a breach of the peace would take place." The letter was delivered to Mr Chelvanayakam in the afternoon of the 4th, but Mr Chelvanayakam remained defiant. He told the Press Aif our supporters are kept out of the precincts of the House we will have to plan some counter move".
The next morning the entire precincts of Parliament had been cordoned off and heavily guarded by police personnel. However the entire area from the Galle Face Hotel to the end of the Green was not policed. Mr Chelvanayakam accompanied by Messrs C Vanniasingham, EMV Naganathan, A Amirthalingam and other Parliamentarians and volunteers started their fast in an orderly manInᏫcᎢ.
C Suntheralingam also joined the Satyagrahis and was seated next to Mr Chelvanayakam. Both G G Ponnabalam and Senator S Nadesan also visited the scene of the Satyagraha to express solidarity with those engaged in the fast.
Soon unruly mobs began to gather around the Satyagrahis. They were initially curious onlookers, but subsequently waves of hostile thugs surrounded the place. They initially threw stones, one of which hit Mr Amirthalingam and he later entered Parliament with his head bandaged. The mob subsequently proceeded to attack the Satyagrahis and any Tamil who was found in the vicinity. Tamils were pulled out of buses and beaten up. Tamil public servants who left the secretariat building suffered a similar fate. Several were thrown into the Beira Lake. Mr Chelvanayakam watched unflinchingly when his son, Manoharan was set upon by thugs who attempted to throw him into the Lake. Dr Naganathan and Mr Vanniasingham were almost stripped of their clothes and beaten up. The police were passive and unresponsive. They were not equipped to cope with the magnitude of the mob. Many police officers did not even have batons. It was widely believed that the Police had been instructed not to intervene. In some cases the police apprehended a victim and took him to precincts of the House to protect him from further attack.
No member of the lawless mob was arrested. When a Sinhala Inspector of Police went to the rescue of a Tamil constable he was set upon by the mob. The violence soon spread to other parts of the city and Tamil boutiques and shops were attacked and defenceless civilians subjected to violence. Amongst those who were attacked were A C Nadarajah, a

Page 36
36 TAMIL TIMES
Vice President of the SLFP and S Sharvananda later Chief Justice.
Mr Pieter Keuneman accused the Government of having created a panic in the country by a radio broadcast on 5 June which had been repeated every half an hour. In this broadcast the impression had been created that a "huge army of Tamils led by the Member for Kankesanthurai were coming down to capture Parliament, to upset the democratic process and therefore it was necessary to fight against such a move'.
He also stated that it was curious that Mr FR Jayasuriya was allowed to fast within the precincts of the House for several days without any impediment.
Mr Keunemanspoke with great conviction that he feared for the future of the country as one group of citizens had been denied "equal justice' and the "equal protection of the law'.
Despite the continuing violence against Tamils, the debate continued until 14 June. 1956 voted for the Bill and 29 voted against.
The 29 included 14 Members of the Federal Party, the Members of the Communist Party, the LSSP the Tamil Congress and Mr C Suntheralingam. Of this group Anil Moonesinghe, Vivienne Goonewardene, Bernard Soysa and Pieter Keuneman are with us today.
The Official Language Act of 1956 clearly aggravated the ethnic conflict. Since then there have been several important milestones in the struggle for linguistic equality.
The first was the Kodeeswaran case which challenged the constitutionality of the Sinhala Only Act. The second were the Regulations framed in 1965 which made Tamil the language of administration and the language of the Courts in the North and East Provinces.
The third was the Second Republican Constitution which in 1978 made Sinhala and Tamil as national languages. Fourth the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord called for Sinhala, Tamil and English to be Official Languages, while the 13th Amendment in 1987 provided that Tamil will also be an Official Language.
The new Constitution in its draft Chapter on official Languages seeks to provide equality of status to Sinhala and Tamil. -
No doubts significant gains have been made in the legal and constitutional status of Tamil, but we encounter serious problems of implementation.
The Official Languages Commission has yet to exercise in any meaningful way the powers that have been entrusted to it. Forty years later the struggle for language rights continues to ensure that the promise of linguistic equality is made a reality. O
I happen to be ol share the expressed c about the status of T with much of his ass of the language in th and largest populatio do not share his pess differ from his views ( like any fossilized diglossia but English it and the present clos written language was of the tremendous inc and a conscious can kind of uniformity in larization' of English conscious effort whi under certain socio-po though the kind of dig Thamil poses some s not unique to Thamil, veloped languages, ar itself. Diglossia plays ics of language growt ful only in situations dominate language pc commodate change. lam dealt with some a by regularizing and ac features of the spoken at one time dismissed matically incorrect. T with modern Thamil.
The struggle to wi spoken language in noteasy, butthe contr the late Professor Kan of challenge by the tra able. The progressive Sri Lanka played am the bigotry of the tra the conservative Thau ship in the 50's and certainly in Sri Lanl progress in meeting modern era and I am c ering the achievemen the future (the post. bleak. In the 60's, des sole official language cal terms for natural ties and even techno and are even now put ties. At Peradeniya, f engineering students and Sinhala and exa available in English, Sinhala for the first t year course. The on the way of teaching all the way was the dents who were con ment prospects at ho as I am aware, the la fully capable of hand subject that anyone culties that we face i tial are social and po
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
le among many who ncerns of G. Ramesh lamil. While I agree essment of the status 2 region of its origin of native speakers, I mism. I also beg to In diglossia. Sanskrit, anguage, is free of is not entirely free of ness of the spoken to
achieved as a result rease in mass literacy paign towards some 'ducation. The "reguspelling was another ch was possible only litical conditions. Allossia associated with erious problems, it is is shared by many deId is nota bad thing in a role in the mechanhand becomes harmwhere traditionalists olicy and refuse to acSinhala and Malayaaspects of the problem :cepting as valid some language which were as colloquial or gramThis has yet to happen
in acceptability for the Thamil literature was ibutions of people like apathipillai, in the face ditionalists, were valuwriters movement in ajor role in combating litionalists backed by mil nationalist leader60's. The language, ca, made remarkable the challenges of the onfident that, considts of the past decades, modern era?) is not pite Sinhala being the , glossaries of technisciences, the humaniogy were developed, to use at the universiom 1971, the first year were taught in Thamil nination papers were is well as Thamil and ree years of the fourly thing that stood in in the mother tongue eluctance of the stuerned about employne and abroad. As far nguage is robust and ing the most advanced can name. The diffi1 exploiting its potenlitical. It is not suffi
cient to develop glossaries of technical terms for a society that denies a vast majority of its members access to advanced knowledge. It has been this majority, and not the elite. that preserved the language and its various cultural traditions, and without modernization of the Thamil speaking societies on their own terms, and not the terms of the imperialist masters and the elite bonded to them, the language cannot develop to meet the challenges of the present era and those to COe.
I wonder where G.R. got his impressions about the status of creative writing in Thamil. If they are based on the crop of commercial literature in Thamil, he needs to search farther. Thamil poetry is alive and well in Sri Lanka, thanks to the inspiring work of poets like Mahaakavi, Muruhaiyan, and Sanmuham Sivalingam. Bhaarathithaasan was a worthy successor to Bhaarathi but the problem of Thamil poetry today in the land of these two great poets is that much of it has become too intellectual and lacking in social awareness. Jeyakaanthan, despite his decline in later years, was a great writer offiction andJaanakiraaman was brilliant. There are many more writers of good quality fiction in Thamilnaadu today, although not as great as Puthu- maippiththan. There have also been quite a few remarkable novels in recent times, which are not generally accessible to the readers of the commercial rubbish churned out by the publishers of mass circulation magazines. But this is always the case with serious writing in any society dominated by commercial interests. Nevertheless, the accusation that the modern writer tends to ignore the eternal cultural value of the cosmic language forms is rather unfounded and certainly does not match my experience with the many creative artists and writers I take seriously.
Today's Thamil cinema and cable and satellite television are evils which go far beyond inflicting damage upon the language and its native dialects. They are social ills in the forms in which they exist in Thamilnaadu, and a state whose destiny has been dominated by cinema personalities right up to this moment when leaders of respected political parties need the mercy of a matinee idol to win an election has far more to worry about than the plight of the language. One positive thing about Thamilnaadu is that, thanks to leaders like E.V. Raamasaami (Periyaar) and some good traditions of the self-respect movement, it is perhaps the least susceptible state in India to communal violence based on religious fanaticism. It can be proud that the BJP and the thugs of the RSS have not succeeded at all in whipping up religious fanaticism.
I somehow fail to share the contempt of G.R. for 'convent drop-outs'. I do not rate formal education very highly and believe that the best chief minister that Thamilnaadu ever had (and is likely to have for a long while) was K. Kaamaraaj who did not go beyond primary school. And, it was never the elite or the creative writers or the scholars who determined the fate of the Thamil language and culture but the broad masses. The intellectuals can play a posi

Page 37
uo Sot ~ ! -Mt t. h{ 1996` "`
tive role only when their concerns extend beyond abstract notions about culture, modernism and tradition to meet the needs of the vast majority and examine how language and culture can serve their needs and social advancement.
I value the contribution of the author of the software to type in Thamil using the keyboard with Roman characters, but that system also brought with it much of the irrationalities of English spelling. Also, its value is restricted to people familiar with English, and, to the typist trained to work in Thamil, the keyboard needs to be based on the standard Thamil typewriter. I do not deny the benefits of computerization, but we seem to be doing these things on the terms dictated by our masters in the West. A unified alphabetic script system for the whole of south and much of south-east Asia will be a sound Asian linguistic response to the challenge of modernism. This need not take the form of Romanization of the script, but that remains part of an option.
S.Sivasegaram 47 Camberley Avenue, London SW20
When I saw the four and half pages of the short story in Tamil Times TT (August 96), my first impression was that TT is short of substance and were just trying to fill the space. (In fact nowadays I am not pleased with TT as it does not publish articles to reflect the aspiration of Tamils) But eventually after reading all the pages in TT, I just started to read that story and I could not believe what a fitting story it is, depicting the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka (SL), and I request anyone who has not yet read that story to do so.
I know Rajeswari Balasubramanium as a writer in Tamil, but I hardly read any of her stories, probably because I have lost interest in reading stories. But this is the first time I have come across her story in English and I am amazed to note how she has presented some of the real life situations concerning mothers of Sri Lanka in London through Devika and Luxmy and that of Colombo through Geeta and Devika's sister. Let me congratulate Rajes for her effort.
Through her story she also highlights the following questions and facts:
* How many mothers, like Geeta have lost their lovedones, when is it going to stop and who is going to stop it? Is there anyone who would dare to challenge the SL Government ?
"An Oaktree in UK has the right to exist in the world but there is no right for ordinary people in SL to live in peace because they belong to the Tamil ethnic group.
* The poor children in SL have been denied their right to be children, the poor Tamil boys are in the battlefield, some poor Sinhalese boys are at the beaches to sell sex to the foreign paedophile who have no hesitation or moral restraint against exploring innocent lives for their perverted sexual de
sires.
* The Sinhala do regardless of their part want to continue wau do not allow the Tam rights in SL.
* The governmei country are mainly r violence, not just the
*Whyare weletti ticians and religious young ones; the poli never go to the battlef our children to die f luxury of life? Webre. the same water, walkc at the same blue skyb ages to please the po fanatics!
* To solve these do campaign work wit movements to preven gerous situation forth
76 Windermere A Wembley Middlesex
Sir I write to comme work you are doing in portant at this junctur tics to have an alternal on the Tamil questior thank you for publi Narapalasingam. Unf identify him in any wa a small descriptive lin article indicating the a Perhaps you could fol In Narapalasingar him as Dr What is he cannot be a medical or palasingam's analysis i well-informed for tha the simple medical sol social and political p penicillin or cut it out. political problems ca. simple-minded formul risations.
I don't think that doctor of laws either. get paid for arguing onl he is able to examine and come to conclusi reasonable.
He cannot be anac to focus not only on the mediate profits, but al. sequences and the sc forms of conflict. Pray and unhysterical persc should not give hisado phy would do.
18 Livingstone St. Newark, New Jers
 
 

IAM TITMES 37
minated governments political point of view to stay in power and ils to live with equal
ts that have ruled the sponsible for all this amil militants.
ng these mindless polifanatics destroy our ticians' children will ront, why do we allow or them to enjoy the the the same air, drink n the same grass, look ut we behave like saviticians and religious
problems, we have to hthose Human Rights the increasingly dane Tamils in Sri Lanka.
TSelvaratnam
Vérité
‘nd you for the good yourjournal. It is ime in Sri Lankan poliive and critical voice n. I must particularly shing the essays by ortunately you don't ly. Many journals put le at the bottom of an author's background. low this example. n's case you refer to doctor of Surely he animal doctor. Naras too complex and too t. He does not go for ution to complicated roblems: either give He understands that nnot be solved with las and crude catego
Narapalasingam is a Unlike lawyers, who yone side of the case, all sides of an issue ons that are fair and
:countant. He is able obottomline and imso on long term conicial costs of given tell us who this sane on is. Of course you ress; a short biogra
J L Stanislaus ae{
e
Propaganda Offensive in Jaffna
The government, in an attempt to "win the hearts and minds" of the Tamils living in captured areas, particularly in the northern Jaffna peninsula, are engaged in distributing hundreds of thousands of leaflets urging the people to support the government's peace efforts. The first in a series of proposed six leaflets urged the people "not to miss this historic opportunity. If this opportunity is missed, Sri Lanka's future will not be beneficial to you, for us and to your and our children. It will turn out to be a dark future, full of suffering and grief."
The leaflet which recounts the immense suffering the people of Jaffna had undergone during the past 13 years states, "We will work tirelessly to restore to you your homes and properties and your way of life. We are working hard to restore to you the freedoms you were denied.'
The leaflet adds that the government was forced to resort to military action because the LTTE unilaterally withdrew from the peace talks and resumed the war. It promises that the government's proposals for devolution of power would meet the long standing demands of the Tamil people for autonomy. It calls upon the Tamil people to help the government to put behind the unfortunate happenings of the past and rebuild a united Sri Lanka where all communities can live with self respectinequality maintaining their separate identities.
Tens of thousands of copies of the government's devolution proposals have also been distributed mainly in the Jaffna peninsula.
Prelates on
Devolution
The Buddhist Mahanayakes of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters have been reported to told the US Envoy in Colombo, Mr.Peter Barleigh when he recently paid a visit to seek their views on the current situation, that they were totally opposed to the government's devolution package because its implementation was tantamount to granting the Tamils the separate state of Eelam which the LTTE was demanding.
Responding to the suggestion of the US Ambassadorthatthe world community including the intelligentsia andacademics had welcomed and hailed the government's proposals, the prelates are reported to have said, "Devolution may be suitable to any country of the world, it will not suit our country, Sri Lanka."
The added, "We cannot allow this island to be divided and parcelled out to different groups. It was never done throughout history. As the majority inhabitants of this island, we have a responsibility to see that it remained intact throughout the years ahead.”
There was Prof. Anurudha Seneviratne to facilitate the exchange of views by interpretation. However the ambassador mostly conversed in Sinhala.
Mahanayake of Malwatte : Venerable Rambukwelle Sri Vipassi Mahanayake Thera.
Mahanayake of Asgiriya : Venerable Palipane Sri Chandrandanda Mahanayake Thera.

Page 38
381AMILTIMES
CASSFED ADS
First 20 words t10. Each additional word 60p. charge for
e extra) Prepayment essenta
Tamil Times Ltd. PO Box 121
utton, Surrey SM13 TD 81-644 0972 Fax: 0181-22
MATRIMONAL Jaffna Christian parents seek professional partner for independent, fun-loving daughter, M.A., 37, US citizen working in US. Details M 868 C/O Tamil Times.
Jaffna Hindu parents working in Middle East seek UK, USA based bride in medical profession for son, 29, MBBS, doing higher studies in UK. Correspondence treated confidentially/returnable. M 869 c/o Tamil Times.
Lankan Tamil civil engineer, M.S., 46, permanent resident USA seeks correspondence
-fron nature females for narriage. Box 2622, Oxnard, CA 93033, USA.
Jaffna Hindu aunt seeks partner for semi qualified CIMA accountancy student niece, 25, resident in Colombo. Send horoscope, details M 871 C/o
arri Tinnes.
Cousin seeks educated partners for cousin sister, 40 years and cousin brother, 43 years in good professional employment in Sri Lanka. Intermarriage considered. Religion immaterial. M 872 C/O arri! TipneS.
Jaffa Hindu parents seek professionai partner for their UK qualified engineer son, 29, in good UK employment. Send horoscope, details. M 873 C/o
armi ines.
30s groom preferably graduate for Tamil daughter, 30, London, with good employment, vivaciotis but old fashioned morals. Details and photograph. M 874 ca Tamil Times.
Jaffna Hindu parent seek professional doctor, engineer groom for British qualified doctor daughter, age 26. Send horoscope, details. M 875 C/o Tamil Times.
Jaffna Hindu parents seek professional bride for accountant son, 32, working in Colombo. Willing migrate. P.O. Box 7141, Northridge, CA 93327, USA.
Jaffna Hindu parents seek professionally qualified groom, 35-40, for well accomplished daughter, 34, M.Sc. Nutrition, employed in hospital in India.
Prepared to migrate. Send horoscope, details. M 877 c/o Tamil Times.
Parents Seek educated Jaffna Hindu bride for engineer son in America (30 years). Photo please. Strict confidence guaranteed. M 878 c/o Tamil Times.
US Hindu parents seek professional bride for M.B.A., East West culture son, 27, holding responsible position. Horoscope immaterial. Details, photo please. M 879 c/o Tamil Times.
Jaffna Tamil Catholic mother seeks professionally qualified partner willing to reside in USA, 27-33, for son, Vice President of major American bank. Religion immaterial. Indian Tamil Considered. M 880 C/O ami Times.
Jaffna Tamil parents seek Hindu doctor bride for well qualified medical doctor Son, 34, tall, slim, working in Australia. M881 C/o Tamil Times.
Jaffna Hindu parents seek professional partner for professional daughter, 32, US citizen. Telephone: 603 643 9434 (US).
Jaffna Hindu sister seeks bride for brother, 35. Please send details to M 882 C/o Tamil Times.
Jaffna Hindu parents seek bride for Son, 34, M.Sc., Canadian citizen holding management position. Send horoscope details to Ramalingam, 188 Linden Ave., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1 K3H8.
WEDDING BELS
We congratulate the following couples on their recent wedding. Mala daughter of Mr. & Mrs. K. Jeyasingham of 67 De Vere Gardens, Ilford, Essex lG1 3EF and Surendran son of the late Mr. & Mrs. Selvarajah on 24th August 1996 at London Murugan Temple, Church Road, London E72 Shyama daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Pon Balasundaran of 1 1 Madangahawatte lane, Colombo 6 and Shoban son of Mr. & Mrs. A. Kanagasabapathy of E 1/3 Hampden Lane Flats,
 

15 stz-TeMBER 1996
Colombo 6 on 24th August 1996 at Mayurapathy Amman Temple, Mayura Place, ColOmbo 6. Senthuran son of Mr. & Mrs. S. Sridas of 100-91 LAnoreaux Drive, Scarborough, Ontario M1 W 2.J8, Canada and Kavitha daughter of Prof. & Mrs. S. Thillainathan, C-31 Marrs Hill, University Park, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka on 25th August 1996 at the Crystal Banquet Hall, Markham, Ontaro, Canada.
Bhageerathan son of the late Mr. M. Ratnasabapathy and Mrs. Ratnasabapathy of 65 Rudra Mawatha, Colombo 6 and Shyamala daughter of Mr. S. M. Raja dura i of 32C Jayawardena Avenue, Dehiwea and Mrs. Rajadurai on 1st September 1996 at Saraswathy Hall, Lorensz Road, Colombo 4.
Ravikandan SOn of the late Dr. V. Nadarajah and late Mrs. 3owri Nadarajah of Uyarapuann, Anaicoddai, Sri Lanka and Ramani daughter of the late Mr. A. Mahendran and Mrs. P. VMahendran of 27 Pinewood Close, St. Albans, Herts., UK on 7th September 1996 at The Alban Arena, Civic Centre, St. Albans.
Dhamayanthi daughter of Mr. & Mrs. C. Balendra of 17A Fernando Road, Colombo 6 and Sivamohan son of Mr. K. 3alasubramanian and late Mrs. Maheswari Dev Balasubarmaniam of 39 Vivekananda Road, Colombo 6 on 8th September 1996 at Liberty Balroom Holiday inn, Colombo 3.
hanuja daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Balachandran of 43 Camrose Avenue, Edgware, Middx., UK and Gobiraj son of Mr. & Mrs. Wavaratnarajah of 62 Hillfield A venue, Colindale, London WW96NX at Harrow eachers Dentre Hall, Wealdstone, Middx.
Dr. Parthipan son of Mr. & Mrs. K. Kanthapillai of 49 Haverford Way, Edgware, Middx., UK and Dr. Priyadharshini daughter of Dr. & Mrs. S. Puvalendran of 9 Rochester Gardens, East Croydon, Surrey, UK on 15th September 1996 at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, Surrey. Rengan son of Mr. & Mrs. E. Ponnampalam, 24 Mill Ridge, Edgware, Middx., UK and Anita daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Braich on 15th September 1996 at Acton Town Hall, Lon
on M/3. Kuhendiran Son of the late Mr. Kullandave! and MrS, P. Kulandavel of 22 E. S. Fernando
Mawatha, Colombo 6, and Umyalini daughter of Mr. & Mrs. V. Nithiananthan of 33 Fathinna Road, Mabola, Watkala on 15th September 1996 at Shri Balaselva Vinayagamoorthy Temple, Captain's Gardena, Colombo 10.
OBTUARIES
N. Sivasithamparam (Baby) of Thirunelvely North, Jaffna, retired Assistant Director of SoCial Services and Assistant Commissioner of Marketing beloved husband of Saraswathy; brother of the late N. Kumaraswamy; brother-in-law of Pushpam Sivagurunathan, the late Kylasam, the late Leela Ilankanathan and Dr. Sivapragasam, loving father of Rani, Shanth Rajini, Ranjan and Gowri; father-in-law of Kanakaratnam, Mohan Thiagarajah, Sabadevan, Gnanakumar and Varalakshimi; loving grandfather of Usha, Mahi, Jana, Arjuna, Abi, lima, Gajan, Lavan, Sashi, Ramanan, Ahilan, Krishna, Ruban and Vithya passed away on August 12, 1996 in Scarborough, Canada.
The members of the family thank all friends and relatives for their messages of sympathy and support during the period of grief. - 67 Shootfield Crescent, Scarborough, Ontario, Carada M1 S4E1 Tel: 416299 0576
Mr. Sinnathamby Rajaratnam of Alaveddy, retired chief Station Master, Anuradhapura, be

Page 39
15 SE F : EMBER 1996
loved husband of Yogalakshmy Rajaratnam, Retired Principal, Ramanathan College Chunnakam, loving father of Siddharthan, Bhakeerathan, Paranthaman, late Nakkeeran, and Aravinthan, affectionate father-inlaw of Vishanthri, Sureshini, Brintha and Niraiyani passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, 18th August 1996 in Toronto, Canada. Funeral took place in the presence of a large gathering of friends and relations on 218.96.
The members of the family thank all relatives and friends who attended the funeral, sent messages of sympathy and assisted them in several ways during the period of great sorrow. - 65 Thorncliffe Park Drive, Apt 1512, Toronto, Ontario M4H 1L2, Canada. Tel: (416) 467 5221.
Seethaledohumy beloved wife
of late Mr. A.E. Sinnadurai,
retired P.W.D. Overseer, Prop
rietor, Faithfield Estate,
Yatiyantota; of Vannarponnai,
Jaffna, daughter of late Mr. K.
Vythialingam and Mrs. Thilllaiammah Vythialingam of Navalar Press, Nlavalarkottam and Ward & Davy, Jaffna, daughter-in-law of Mr. & Mrs.
Arunasalam Eliyathamby of Vannarponnai; mother of late Mr. S. Parameshwaran, Sister of late Mr. V. Mutucumaraswamy, Retd. Teacher, St. Joseph's College, Colombo, late Annapoorani Sinnadurai of Vannarponnai, late Mr. V. Sivasubramaniam, Proctor, Jaffna, late Mr. V. Sivajoti, Engineer, UK, Mr. V. Anandanadarajah, Retd. Principal of UK, late Baby Rajarajeswary, Jaffna, late Dr. V. Thangarajasingam of UK, Mrs. Kamalanayaki Param Thilllairajah and Mrs. Pathmawathy Balasingam (both of Australia); sister-in-law of Mrs. Rasamma Thiagarajah (wife of late Mr. V.C. Thiagarajah, Overseer, Yatiyantota), Mrs. Thangaratnam Mutucunaraswamy, retired teacher, Mrs. Dhanaluxmy Sivasubramaniam, Mrs. Logeswary Sivajoti, late Mrs. Kamala
wathy Anandanadarajah and Mrs. Punithawathy Thangarajasingam (all of UK) passed away peacefully on 4th September 1996 in N.S.W., Australia and was Cremated On 6th September.
The members of her family
thank all friends and relations
who extended their sympathy
and support. - 15 Budapest
Street, Rooty Hill, N.S.W. 2766,
Australia. Tel:(612) 8323357.
a;
Mrs. Nagaratnam Chelliah (87), beloved wife of the late Mr. Thillaiambalam Chelliah; loving mother of Amirthalingam (Kanderodai) and Dr. Sornalingam (UK); sister of Mrs. Chellammah Namasivayam (presently of Vavuniya); mother-in-law of Mrs. Gnanan Amirthalingam and Sathiabama Sornalingam and appamma to grand and great grandchildren passed away on 8th July 1996 in Navatkuli, Jaffna and was Crennated there. - 54 Kendall Avenue South, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 OOO.
Mrs. Rose Parimalam Thurairatnam, (89), beloved wife of the late Mr. I.P. Thurairatnam, Principal Emeritus, Union College, Tellippalai, Sri Lanka; precious nother of Dr. T. Harichandran (New Zealand), Balan Thurairatnam (Zambia), Sarojini Paramananthan (New Zealand), Dr. T. Manoharan (Saudi Arabia), Sakuntala Kunanayagam (Sri Lanka), T. Mahendran (New Zealand) and Dr. Mithrathevi (UK), loving mother-in-law of Sugirthamalar,
 
 
 

TAMIL TIMES 39
Vimalavathy, late Dr. T. Paramananthan, Mary, Charlie Kunanayagam, Rajini and Niranjanan passed a way peacefully on 25th August 1996 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Burial took place at Kanate on 26th August.
She leaves behind Seventeen grandchildren, fifteen great grandchildren and a host of relatives, loved ones and friends to mourn her death.
The members of her family thank all relatives and friends for their messages of sympathy and Support during the period of grief. A service of thanksgiving will be held at St. Nicholas Church, Church Lane, London SW17 on 5.10.96 at 6pm. - 5 Barrie Pavement, Wickford, Essex SS 129DR.
IN MEMORAM
in loving memory of Mrs. Parasakthy (Kanagamuthu) Chellapah on the 25th anniversary of her passing away on 2nd August 1971.
Deeply missed and always remembered by her loving husband Mr. Kasinathar Chellappah, retired Examiner of Post Office, Nunavil East, Chavakachcheri, Sri Lanka; mother and mother-in-law of Vivekananthan (G.P. Feilding, New Zealand) and Bavany, Vimala and Mr. S. Mahadevan (formerly of Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Colombo) Johnsonville, New Zealand; Vigneswary (Chandra) and the late Mr. S. Pathmanathan (Ceylon Bulbs); Swarna (Indira) and Mr. V. Sivapalasingham (Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, New York); Savitri and Mr. S. Vamadevan (Govt. Press); Vijelakshmi and the late Mr. A. Tharmarajah (Education Office, Kilinochchi); grandmother of sixteen grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. - P.O. Box 110, Feilding, New Zealand.
IN MEMORAM
in Loving Memory of Our Beloved Daddy T.J. Rajaratnam (Retired High Court Judge)
BOT? 23.1. 1919
Called to Rest 15.9.81.
Fifteen Sorrowful Years Have passed away Your absence is felt everyday No words, no tears could Ever say How much we miss you DAD Today and everyday.
Fondly remembered and Sadly missed by your wife Arul, children Rohini, Renuka, Rajiv, sons-in-law Vijayan, Sriharan; grandchildren Vasi, Ravi, Prathi, Jayanthy and Ajit.
ln everloving memory of Deva Rajan N. F.S.I., Licensed Surveyor, Leveller & Valuer of 257 Arasady Road, Kanthermadam, Yaripanam.
Fondly remembered on the fifth anniversary of his passing away on 11.9.91 by his beloved wife Padma; children Sujithan, Siva Kumaran, Rajam, Jeyaraman, Rengan and Raj lswari; sons-in-law Theventhiran and Nirthanakumaran, daughtersin-law Jeyadevi, Suhanya, Thangalogini and Helen, grandchildren Jamuna, Karthika, Bharathan, Uththami, Luxmanan, Sri Ram, Vaitharani, Vithuran, Devarajan, Poorani, Pavithran and Dhurkka, sister Saraswathy Panchadcharam, brother Punjaksharam; sistersin-law, brothers-in-law, relatives and friends. - Flat 4, 24 Mansfield Road, Ilford, Essex lGf 3AZ.

Page 40
40 TAMILTIMES
IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED
Nanniththamby Southarammal Rasa Rasa Born 1907-07-18 Born: 1919-05-25
amrnah Rest: 1966-09-03
appah
Rest 1991-12-01
it is a very long time since we have been missing you both, with ever loving memory. Ammah, it is 30 years since you left us. Your love, affection and the sweet memories we shared linger day and night and is planted for ever and remain engraved in your beloved ones.
Rajeswaran (Geneva), Rajendra (UK), Rajanayagan (USA), Rajasooriyar (UK), Sri Ranjini (UK), Pushpa Ranjini (UK), Rajamanokaran (UK), Jaya Ranjini (Singapore); beloved niece: Maheswary Tharmarasa, sons-in-law: Rajayogeswaran, Mahendran, daughters-in-law. Loheswary, Gowry, Malika, Chandrakumari, Jayanthi, and grand children: Rajini-Vidya, Raj-Anand, Arathi, Jayashan, Luxmi, Ruban, Kalyani, Vathani, Prathaben, Ramanan, Shankar, Kavitha, Abirami, Kiruthiga. (Rasa Rajeswaran: — 67 Winchester
Close, Hertfordshire, UK).
Our Family Garland of Flowers. A united family is like a garland; there is no garland without its thread; and there is no garland without its flowers, each different in colour and fragrance. The flowers are strung together by this thread which may not be visible, but is vital to firmly hold the flowers together, and should never be missed or weakened. Appa, you were one of threads which held together our family Garland of varying colours and fragrances. Your physical presence may not be here to hold together the flowers anymore, but the legacy you left behind is and will always be there guiding us through this life, forever remembered with love and pride, especially on this the second
anniversary of your passing away on the 24 September 1994. Mr. Ponnudurai Narendra Nathan, most dearly beloved and adoring husband of Gnanambal; dearest loving and proud Appa to your children, Dr. Thrinayani Jegathambal, Dr. Mrs. Sowmya Wijayambal, Mrs. Sobhana Meenambal, Dr. Mrs. Priyadarsani Brahathambal, Adhithya Thrillochanan, Mrs. Vasutharini Girijambal, Agasthya Ponnambalam and Ambika Dhakshayani father-inlaw of Dr. P. Arulampalam, S. Raveendran, T. langovan and R. Srikanthan; darling dearest Thaththa to your grandchildren, Abhirami Janani Raveendran, Amarnath Thirunadha van Raveendran, Nirmala Arulampalam, Janaki Saruhasini Srikanthan, and Janarthanan Ragavan langovan. A man of great courage, integrity, humour, wit and wisdom, whose kindness and generosity knew no bounds, you are greatly missed but never forgotten, and are always in the thoughts of all your family and friends. Ever present, ever missed, and ever lo ved. God Bless. (Address: 53 Crossways, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 8JQ).
 
 

15 SEPTEMBER 1996
ln fond memory of Mr. M.A. Rasiah (former Head Master, lavalai, Ceylon and teacher at Herts Tamil School, Watford, UK) on the fourth anniversary of his passing away on 18th September 1992.
You are very much missed by your family and friends, but you are always on our minds. God bless. - 40 Hillingdon Road, Garston, Watford, Hertfordshire WD26G.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS Sept. 29 1.00pm Kokuvil Hindu College Old Students' Association (UK) Lunch & A.G.M. at Coston Primary School, Oldfield Lane, Greenford, Middx. Tel 0181 5783179. October 1 Kaarthikai; Feast of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. Oct. 2 Feast of Guardian Angels.
Amuthavanee Shines
Oct. 5 Praddasi Sani 3. Oct. 7 Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Oct. 8 Eekathasi. Oct. 10 Pirathosam. Oct. 12 Anawasai, Puraddasi Sani 4. Oct. 13 Navarathiri Starts. Oct. 16 Chathurthi. Oct. 17 Feast of St. Ignatius. Oct. 18 lypasi Velli 1; Feast of St. Luke.
Oct. 19 6.30pm Anniversary Service of Christa Seva Ashrann, Marutharnarnadarm, Jaffna at St. Nicolas' Church, Mitcham Road, Tooting, London SW1 7. Oct. 20 Saraswathy Poojah. Oct. 21 Vijaya Thasamy; Manampoo, Vidhiyarambam for new beginners. Oct. 22 Eekathasi. Oct. 24 Pirathosam. Oct. 25 lypasi Velli 2: Feast of Forty Martyrs of England & Wales.
Oct. 26 Full Moor. Oct. 28 Kaarthikai. At Bhawan Centre, 4A Castletown Road, London W14 9HQ. Te: O171 381 3086 4608. Oct. 56.30pm Srisht Creations. Bharata Natyam Ensemble directed by Dhananjayans. Oct. 27 Kathak by Jayshree Acharya and her pupils.
smal S possible "FORGIVENESS ISA SOCIAL POSSIBILITY" Intercessors' Action Group
* PaSțOr barrabAS Of Elizabeth Thulasi
013-251 8325
Amuthavanee, a pupil of City of London Girls' School and eldest daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Anpananthan, owner of Vanee Agency, Manor Park, London E12, has obtained 10 A grade passes in the G.C.S.E. (O.L.) examination held in June 1996. Six of these passes were in A Star grade. She has also obtained an A grade pass in the G.C.S.E. (O.L.) Tamil examination held by the Cambridge University Examinations Board as a pupil of the East Ham Thiru vallu var Tamil School. Amuthavanee is a musician as Well and is due to have her Veena Arangetram in 1997. Our congratulations go to Annuthavanee and we look forward to more of such brilliant performances.
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Page 41
CANADAN NEWS LETTER
Weather: Unusually warm for fall with temperatures rising to 25-28 with clear skies and dropping overnight to 13-15 with Occasional showers.
1996 New Pioneers Award: Two Sri Lankan Tamils won the 1996 New Pioneers Awards for extraordinary performances, among eight recipients selected by 'Skills for Change' a nongovernmental organisation which administers the award. They are Mary Atputhamalar aged 19 and Kumarasamy Nehru who is 63 years old.
Mary started learning English by watching 'Polka dot door' on television and is now an honours student at Richview Collegiate. She now edits the college year book and also works as a volunteer at the Etobicoke General Hospital.
Nehru at 63 is an undergraduate at the York University majoring in Sociology having declined the offer of a scholarship by the Canadian Human Rights Foundation to follow a course in "Human Rights' at the University of Prince Edward Island. Having been a victim of torture and persecution in his native Sri Lanka, he now spends his time counselling refugees who had gone through similar experiences and newly arrived. Nehru is a founder member and secretary of the Sri Lankan Posts and Telecommunications Association of Canada. He is an active member of the Senior Tannis Centre of Ontario.
The 6th international Conference on Tamil Culture which was inaugurated on 24th August with much fanfare of floats and processions petered out into a subdued side show with only a few hundreds in the audience at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre which could accommodate 2000.
The Chief Guest, Hon. M. Thamilikudimahan, Tamil Nadu Minister for Tamil Development and Tamil Culture failed to turn up and Professor K. Sivathamby filled in for him. A few others billed to speak were not present and it was left to Dr. K. Rannadas, Dr. R. Janarthanan and the film director Barathiraj to keep the spirits up of what amounted to a lacklustre Conference. The debate on "What is needed more to foster Tamil Culture? Political Supremacy or Socio Economic Development' was the Stand out event that deserved merit Or appreciation. The World Tamil Movement of Canada celebrated its 10th anniversary with a musical extravaganza at the Allan. A. Lamport Stadium, Toronto on 31st August. The event was heralded by speeches by Drs. K. Ramadas and R. Janarthanan and well over 5000 Tamils living in Toronto met under open skies to listen to "honey tongued" Thenesai Chellappah render soul stirring Eelam songs.
Tamil Nadu Politicos meet Canadian Tamils: Dr. K. Ramadas and Dr. Keeran, both members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly along with Chellappah met the Executive Committee Officers of the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada and other
prominent member community in Toron They said that ther Tamil Nadu for the the political level fea centre is inhibiting le ing meaningful mea One could do is to
politicians of the No real issues involved. sending periodic dele Canada and other w
Narmatha In Van
沙
The Eelam Tamil Co of British Colombia pt Bharata Natya recital Thanigasalam at M. Vancouver in aid of tion Organisation, on Narmatha is a disc chana Shivalingam o Her recital was well and Canadians living The highlights of her Varnann “Varuvai” in I and the Krishna Pa Aberi ragam.
The President of th Selvakone in his ad generous contribution cause. Narmatha h recently in Edmontor, artistes were Dr. Smt am: Nattuvangam, motheram: Vocal, Sr dangam, Sri V. Kali Kumar: Flute, Smt R and Sri Vinod Bhardy
AUSTR NEWS
Abaya Karam (He annual Abaya Kara funds for orphanages of Sri Lanka was
Bankstown Town Hal benefit show was a
performance by the Chandrabanu from M
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔
AMIL TIMES 41
among the Tamil on 2nd September. is mass support in elam struggle but at of reprisal from the ders from Undertakures. The best that 2ducate parties and h and South of the his could be done by gations to India from Stern Countries.
Delights
COs Ver
mmunity Association Iresented a classical by Kumari Narmatha Chael Fox. Theatre, the Tamil Rehabilita
11th August 1996. iple of Dr. Smt Kanf Edmonton, Alberta. attended by Asians in British Columbia. programme were the haramawathy ragam han "Mathuram' in
9 Association, Dr. G. ress appealed for a towards this worthy ad her Arangetram
The accompanying Kanchana ShivalingSmit Ambika ThaR. VaSudevan: Mirdhar: Tabla, Dr. S. i Amarnath: Veena, aj: Sitar.
ping Hand): The concert to raise n the North and East elod on 10.8.96 at Sydney. This year's olo Bharatha Natya
well-known artiste elbourne.
Chandrabanu has been a performing artiste and dance teacher in Australia for over 20 years. In the seventies when he arrived in Australia, he created a serious awareness and deep appreciation of indian Classical Dance with his inspiring performances. In 1973 he established the Bharatalaya School of Indian Classical Dance and had numerous students who followed classes there. After graduating with first class honours at the Monash University in 1974, he was awarded the Ph.D. in Social Anthropology in 1980. He has staged several dance-dramas in AuStralia.
His recital began with Natesha Kavuttuvam and was followed by the Padam - "Mylvahanam' and the Varnam - "Innam En Manam". After the interval Chandrabanu performed several padams. The highlight was a dance he had composed for the Navagraha Kriti dedicated to Saturn by Muthuswamy Dikshitar. He was the first dancer to perform this item, and the audience response was outstanding. The concert ended with a Thilana in Ananda Bhairavi. It was a scintilating performance wherein the artiste displayed his superb mastery of this dance form. Chandabanu is a disciple of Sri Adayar K. Lakshman. The accompanying artistes Smt Ambika Docherty - Nattuvangam, Sri Shanmugharaghavan — Vocal, Sri Balasri Rasiah — Mridangam and Sri Raghavedra Rao - Violin gave excellent support.
Earlier, Mr. K. Sivananthan, the President of Abaya Karam announced that the net proceeds of the concert was 6000 dollars of which 3000 dollars had already been remitted to the Ramakrishna Mission Orphanage in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka and the rest of the Collections would be remitted to the Hindu Board Orphanage, Jaffna after correspondence with the administration had been completed. The VicePresident MrS. Devi BalaSubramanian proposed the vote of thanks after which the artistes were honoured with gifts and garlands.
Protest Rally: The Sri Lankan Tamils of Sydney organised a rally to protest against the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in the Kilinochchi area and the economic blockade imposed by the Sri Lankan government. A well attended meeting took place at Stratfield Square and the rally called for self determination by the Tamil people.
Dr. N.T. Sampanthan - An Appreciation
Dr. Nagalingan Thirugnana Sampanthar, formerly Medical Superintendent of Moolai Co-operative Hospital and subsequently Consultant Surgeon/Physician died in Colombo on 2nd August 1996. He was residing at his son's residence following the war in Jaffna, since January 1996.
Doctor Sampanthan was born in
Malaysia, where his father was resident, on 19th May 1916. He had his early education there and noved to St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia for his secondary education. He belonged to the first batch of medical students who passed out of the

Page 42
جھ سےسیسی بصمہ 42 TAMIL TIMES
Ceylon Medical College in 1943 and was the first graduate to obtain the certificate because of his excellent performance in the final examination. He joined governnent service and was at the Colombo and Kandy General Hospitals for a short period.
The Moolai Co-operative Hospital had been founded by then and Dr. Sampanthan was allured by service to his people. He decided to stake his future With this new venture full of uncertain prospects and joined Dr. M.O. Chacko, who had resigned from the Manipay Green Memorial Hospitall and accepted the post of Medical Superintendent of this full fledged hospital in 1939 and Dr. G. Chelvadoray who joined about the same time. This trio along with the band of their assistants formed a formidable team and the growth of the hospital from then on was phenomenal. It became the Shining example of the incredible success story of the co-operative movement. Dr. Chacko had his store knowledge of vast experience and Dr. Chelvadoray had his impressive string of British medical degrees; but the rush of patients was to young Dr. Sampanthan in his late twenties, fresh from the Ceylon Medical College. From the word go' it was his charisma, his "Midas' healing touch, his gentle caring, his total inability to lose his patience or temper under even the most exciting situations that endeared him to the hearts of his patients for whom his word was the last word in medicine. No wonder Samnanther' became a household word in and around the villages of Valikamam West. All this praise and fame on a young doctor did not one bit turn his head. On the contrary it awakened his self-assessment to the realisation of the need to specialise and he chose to do surgery. Study leave was gladly approved by the Board of Management of the hospital and he returned to the hospital in the shortest possible time after obtaining his Fellowship in Surgery from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He could have found employment in Britain or in any other foreign country or even picked from one of the tempting offers in Ceylon where such a qualification was rare. Instead he faithfully returned to Moolai to the heart of his community. From then on his duties became manifold - Physician, Surgeon, Obstetrician, Gynaecologist. Patients from all over Jaffna District from all Walks of life thronged his consultation room. He would work round the clock starting at 0700 hours with ward rounds, O.P.D., hurried lunch, O.P.D., ward rounds again and walk back to his residence where his relatives/ friends/patients would be awaiting his arrival for consultation or for a follow up of an earlier consultation. He would willingly tolerate their long discussion and have a very late dinner. He would never take leave or go on holiday with his family. The best part of his life he gave to his patients.
Rev. S.K.. Bunker and nearly everyone of the Jaffna College community were his patients. Once the U.S. Ambassador in Colombo was on holiday with Rev. Bunker in Vaddukoddai. He suddenly developed abdominal pain and had to be operated by
Dr. Sampanthan fot an in-patient for thre months later Dr. Sa invitation from the to be their guest o States. lt was a sin accepted and enjoy hospitality. He could in the States but hy Moolai. He was a K. out his dutie:S to ti without any expecta
As the grey, elder, Inerners of the B faded away and a revolution of the la extended its tentaCl Moolai Hospital, a ba enCed men fOOk CO board. Dr. Sampanth inte defnt fad to f resulting mismanage tude. Many feared th and resign, but he he was insensitive to thi management, but be his Connitinent to dedicated himself to,
ln 1960, Dr. N. M. visits to Jaffna spen persuade him to cor, elections as an ind not on the L.S.S.P. t. listened to all his declined, saying that community was at til
By a strange quirk Victim of an eye a eyesight was failing the best of opthaln retirement in his h Kondavil, incapacita reconciled. He and all the traunas of advances, the IPKF removal to refugee c damage caused to shellings. He stuck c in poor health, until December 1995. Ne Vails and tribulation signs of dejection or of his character is un
At last he and h, Son's house in Color in his last letter tonne said: "I have develo which might go in prognosis was perfe the illness Clained h,
Dr. Sampanther's mous with Moolai C for nearly four decad Spanned half his life With singuiar dedi sincerity, untiring de fessionalism and ex
eS.
Sri Lanka has lost and Jaffna One of Gratitude is perhaps modity of our times. peace returns to Nor the Tamil public coul a Sampanther Men

JEPTEMBER 1996
appendicitis and was e or four days. Several mpanthan received an J.S. State Department honour and Visit the gular honour which he ed their overwhelming have got employment s roots were firmly in arma Yogi who carried he best of his ability tion of rewards.
ly, astute, experienced oard of Management s the vigorous Social te fifties in Sri Lanka es On the frail Craft Of and of young, inexperintrol of the managing lan, as Medical Superace the brunt of the ament and moral turpiat he would get fed up aldon, not because he epin-pricks of the new 2cause the intensity of the Cause he had
exceeded all bounds.
Perera On One of his t a few hours trying to test the parliamentary ependent candidate if icket. Dr. Sampanthan leadings, but politely his best Service to the he hospital.
of fate, he became a ilment. Gradually his despite treatment from ologists. He lived in puse he had built in fed, but cheerful and his wife went through the Sri Lankan army onslaught, the forced amps and the terrible his house from the n with his wife - both the forced exodus in ver through these trais did he show any self pity. This aspect ique and exceptional. is wife reached their mbo by January 1996. dated 01 July '96, he ped a kidney illness any direction." His Ct for within a month im.
татe was synony2o-operative Hospital es. HiS Service which 's years was marked cation, transparent votion, absolute proOellent bedside man
One Of her finest SOnS her priceless gems. : the most rare ConHowever, if and when "h Sri Lanka, the least d do for him is to build norial Ward for the
Moolai Hospital. To his beloved wife whose contribution to his greatness is immeasurable, to his sons and grandchildren the loss is as profound as it is irreplaceable. Their only consolation could be that they had their finest hour with him. K. Jeganathan, (Formerly Principal of Colombo Hindu College), South Africa.
Jeyasankar & Sharavan Mrudangam Duo
:' 懿 ‘
A formal Arangetram though it was, but proved to be a public performance of a professional Kacheri; it was the Mrudanga Arangetram of brothers Jeyasankar and Sharavanan, sons of Dr. and Mrs. Jeyanathan held at the Lewisham Theatre on 31st August. The boys aged 15 and 12 were perfected in the art of playing the mrudangam by Sri Kurpakaran, a veteran in the art who has trained many more worthies.
The highlight of the event was the lead singer who pilotted the programme. He is One of the foremost musicians of South India, a musicologist, Rajkumar Bharati. He is the son of Lalitha Bharati, a grand daughter of the renaissance poet and nationalist Subrahmanya Bharati. From the moment the programme was introduced the entire hall reverberated with the galloping Valachi varnam in Navaragamalika, with the young Sharavanan stroking the mrudangam with gay abandon. Subsequent recitals and the way the two brothers aligned themselves with the singer in the variety of kirthanams and complicated rhythmic variations was a sight to be watched. The important element in the practice is the bodily gestures that accompanied the playing and while following the singer's raga delineations as well. Already both the boys have shown talent, understanding the medium as well as karnatic music. The continuous applause from the singer enthused the youngsters. They had the privilege of playing thani Avartham jugalbandhi in complicated thala variations with Ghatam expert Balaskandan and the morsing master Chidambaranathan. The vocalisation of Konnakol by the youngsters was a delight.
A real note of appreciative comment was given by Prof. John Marr, who is an expert in the theory of our Karnatic music. Parents of these two young artistes must feel proud. At the start of the event there was the usual puja and benediction where the Guru who should take the lead was misSing. It was a visible omission overlooked by the organisers.
S. Sivapatha Sundaram.

Page 43
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