Major General P. A. Karunatilleke, General Officer Commanding Task Force One and Security Force Commander for Jaffna peninsula, was hosting a team of British diplomats to breakfast at his headquarters complex last Wednesday when the news reached him.
The LTTE had activated two claymore mines near the Punnalai causeway. This was when troops were on a route clearing patrol. It killed a soldier and nine civilians who were passers by. A further six soldiers and six civilians were injured.
Senior military officials were keen to get the message across to Major General Karunatilleke so he may convey it to his guests. The message was clear - Tiger guerrillas were targeting civilians. If nine of them died that morning in Jaffna, just the day before, (Tuesday), a civilian vehicle was caught up in an LTTE pressure mine at Kudapokuna in the Polonnaruwa district. Six civilians including an infant were killed and five more were wounded.
Maj. Gen. Karunatilleke bared the details to his hosts Ñ British Deputy High Commissioner Peter Gregory Hood, Dr. Andrew Hall, Research Analyst in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and Nick Astbury, Second Secretary.
The British team was in the north to make an on-the-spot assessment of conditions there. Britain is to help set up a power generation plant in Chunnakam.
More by coincidence than by design, last week saw considerable interest by the international community in the separatist war.
A high ranking emissary of the US Government, Robin Raphel, Assistant Secretary of State, whom the Foreign Ministry in Colombo described as being on "an acquaintance tour" was in Vavuniya last Friday. She flew into Vavuniya from Nuwara Eliya in a Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter accompanied by US Embassy's Political Secretary, Scot Delisi and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Harold Poore, Defence and Army Attache.
Senior military officials in the area received Ms. Raphel and her entourage and gave her a detailed briefing on the situation prevailing in the area. She was later taken on a conducted tour of the western FDLs of the Vavuniya defences. Although the Thandikulam barrier, the gateway that separated the security forces-controlled area from that of territory dominated by the LTTE, was to be one of the points to have been visited, senior security officials changed their mind. In view of escalating LTTE activity in this key district, there were fears that Tiger snipers may be operating in the area.
Ms. Raphel showed keen interest in learning how the security forces handled the inflow of civilians, the infrastructure facilities available to house them in Vavuniya and how they were being repatriated to their original homesteads. Her visit to the northern Vavuniya district, currently the centre of heightened security forces activity and preparation comes in the backdrop of increased assistance to Sri Lanka from the United States Government to combat terrorism.
Months ago, Ms. Raphel herself took great pains to emphasise that the United States assistance should not be misconstrued as one that is being extended to fight the LTTE. She told representatives of South Asian media during a special briefing that "there has been a lot of misleading reporting on this."
She declared "There is a very clear line between training and joint exercises and actually helping the Sri Lanka military in its fight against the LTTE. We do not do the latter."
She added: "One can argue that if you train someone, you are indirectly assisting them in whatever particular war, guerrilla or otherwise, they are fighting. I draw a much clearer line than that. We have a kind of cooperation with Sri Lanka that we have with many other countries."
United States military assistance to Sri Lanka, as Ms. Raphel says, has been in existence for many long years. But in the past years it has been confined to only Sri Lankan military officers being sent to US military academies for training stints. However, with the advent of the PA Government, particularly in the past two years, military teams from the US have arrived in Sri Lanka to conduct training and joint exercises. At least two commando teams were in the south training their local counterparts. The US Navy SEALS (Sea, Land and Air) commandos conducted a joint exercise with the Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Tangalla. Until last week a team from the US Air Force was helping Sri Lanka Air Force on aircraft maintenance and related activity. Next week two leading infantry officers of the Sri Lanka Army, both highly regarded, Brigadier Shantha Kottegoda and Colonel Seevali Wanigasekera, will leave for training stints at the US Army's Pacific Command.
Ironically the US programmes in Sri Lanka are shrouded by deafening silence. The United States is synonymous with freedom, free expression and openness. But unfortunately its mission in Colombo and its publicity arm, the USIS, are both selective and even discriminatory when it comes to exercising this task. Undoubtedly one cannot perceive this as reflection of policy in Washington, for the world media is replete with the new Clinton administration's openness.
Many Sri Lankan security forces officers and men whom I spoke to are appreciative of the US training programmes and joint exercises. They say the experiences they have undergone have honed their skills to fight the LTTE, the one and only terrorist threat facing Sri Lanka. Equally appreciative are the service commanders about the increasing role played by US defence attaches. The increase in US-Sri Lanka military cooperation came during the tenure of Colonel Carl Cockrum. And now Lt. Col. Harold Michael Poore, his successor, is being praised for the constant dialogue he is maintaining with the defence establishment to identify areas where assistance is felt necessary.
As for Ms. Raphel, when she returns to Washington after her "acquaintance tour," she will assume a new posting. The new US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has replaced Ms. Raphel, with Rick Inderfurth, as Assistant Secretary for South Asia.
Mr. Inderfurth was one of Ms. Albright's deputies when she was Ambassador to the United Nations.
Another visitor to Vavuniya was the High Commissioner for Australia in Sri Lanka, David Ritchie. He toured the area and also met with the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Task Force Two, Major General Patrick Fernando and the Government Agent, Vavuniya, S. Ganesh.
International attention is being focused on the separatist war at a time when there is a lull in the fighting and both sides are consolidating their positions. That is not to say that LTTE activity is at a standstill. Significantly, there were signs that it is stepping up activity to destabilise the Jaffna peninsula. The move is seen as a measure to counter the presence of three Tamil moderate political parties in the peninsula who are now busy engaged in political activity. They are the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and the People's Liberation front of Thamileelam (PLOT).
Barely two or three weeks after opening their political offices and getting down to the task of campaigning, the problems being faced by these parties reflect clearly on the Government's inability to set up a proper infrastructure in the Jaffna peninsula. It is just over two years since the security forces recaptured the peninsula during a string of military operations code named Riviresa.
One moderate Tamil leader, who did no wish to be identified for obvious reasons, explained the conditions in Jaffna, two years after it was liberated by the security forces.
He said there were only three public telephones that are meant for use by over 400,000 civilians and the two Tamil political parties that have now opened up offices. The third political party, the EPDP headed by former rebel Douglas Devananda, however, enjoys the advantage of military communications. After the re-capture of Jaffna, he said, the Government assured it would provide 1,000 telephone lines. But until now, nothing has happened.
Food items are prohibitively expensive. An egg costs Rs. 14. Chicken and meat are sold at high prices. Fish is scarce because only a small coastal area has been allowed for use by the fishermen, he said.
The Tamil leader declared that though the situation in the Jaffna town was normal, people lived in fear of how long such conditions would last. "If there is only a little presence of the LTTE within the controlled areas, beyond the bunker lines in parts of Thenmaratchchi and Valikamam, their presence is very much there," he said.
"The biggest difficulty we have," the leader pointed out "is one of relating with the authorities concerned." He said "we cannot go to the Defence Ministry to get anything done. Prior clearance has to be obtained. That takes a lot of time and effort." At least some arrangement should be made where officials concerned can come out and meet us somewhere, he added.
According to him, electricity supply was only available to some houses in the town and neighbouring military installations. There was no supply available in the rest of the peninsula.
The three non-militant political parties that have ventured into the peninsula appear to be groping to establish a foot-hold. Their focus seems to be in facilitating the rehabilitation process by stepping up the re-establishment of public utilities and related infra-structure. The public seemingly uncertain of the political programmes of these three parties, and perhaps indeed that of other political parties, are at the moment using these parties as intermediary to obtain relief of security related problems regarding persons arrested, detained or reported missing.
At the moment the relationship appears to be one of convenience rather than political in content. The evolution of a political philosophy to replace the virulence of the LTTE ideology is a more complicated problem. In this context it is significant that the three parties that have moved into the peninsula are ex-militant groups. The traditional parties, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), have yet to assert their leadership in the re-occupied areas.
Any political programmes in the peninsula will also be influenced by the LTTE factor so long as the Tiger is not neutralised. The overseas LTTE lobby and that of the non-LTTE Tamil opinion will also be an influencing factor in the formation of a new political outlook.
The devolution package is of course another issue. With all these conflicting interests, the shaping of a political philosophy for the Tamil community, in Jaffna in particular, is an open question. The coming months are crucial in this regard and how the evolving politics of the north will interact at the national level is a matter the two mainstream political parties, the UNP and the PA, should focus on.
The unfolding scenario is becoming increasingly political in content with the military factor receding in priority, if not in the battle-field, in the political arena.
Go to the Military Column
Return to the Editorial/Opinion contents page