Ottawa is part of my search for peace - Jayalath

By Roshan Peiris

UNP national list MP Jayalath Jayawardena, once again in the centre of controversy over his participation at the Ottawa Tamil conference, says it was his search for peace that takes him to various international fora where he explains the need to end the war.

Once again on an international tour, Dr. Jayawardena who gave up his medical practice for politics and later for peace moves spoke to The Sunday Times about the Ottawa conference and his 'search for peace.'

"In Washington, too, I will focus on the search for peace. I will meet senators and State Department officials and stress the need for peace here and an end to the on-going ethnic war."

Claiming that his visits were not sponsored by any international group, Dr. Jayawardena said he went to Ottawa on an invitation from Professor Elagu Elgupillai of the University of Ottawa.

Participants at this conference had agreed that the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka had become a complex problem, he said.

Asked why he was chosen, Dr. Jayawardena said "since leaving government practice in 1994 to become an UNP national list MP, I have used my medical knowledge and sought to focus attention on those people in the North and East who are unfortunate victims of an on-going war."

"My efforts have been known and appreciated abroad, that I have tried to protect the lives of innocent, defenceless and unarmed people. So Sri Lankans living in Canada too hearing my efforts have helped me in the recent past to provide assistance to the border villages over here," he said recalling how he helped provide portable alarm sirens to the vulnerable Sinhala and Muslim villages in the border villages.

He said that even at the Ottawa Conference, he spoke of the suffering of these people who are undergoing immense hardship without basic facilities. "I spoke of how the economic embargo on goods entering the Wanni has had an impact on all aspects of day-to-day living including the drastic effects on children.

"While in theory, the embargo is only with regard to items of potential military significance, in practice even other items do not reach the people. As a result, there is a scarcity of drugs, foodstuffs, kerosene, agricultural material, spare parts and fertiliser. Even items such as clothes and water jars, pens and pencils and school books and other educational items are in short supply or not available at all."

"I also told the Ottawa conference that our party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe's call for unconditional talks with the LTTE for a peaceful settlement".

Dr. Jayawardena also said he spoke of displaced Vavuniya residents fleeing the fighting which has led to high levels of malnutrition, within camps in Mannar.

Dr. Jayawardena said as a peace and human rights activist, he serves people irrespective of caste, creed, political and religious motivation.

"I am proud that the people in these areas, be they Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim like me very much."

Asked about financial support, Dr. Jayawardena said "we asked for no money, not even from foreign NGOs. The one million people who have been benefited, are from money given by local philanthropists and local NGOs like the Lions clubs.

Kandy's bogus Kachcheri raided third time

False birth certificates, official seals and forged passport documents were found when a bogus kachcheri at a shopping complex in Kandy town was busted for the third time by the Kandy Police yesterday.

Three suspects were taken into custody and 250 forged birth certificates, 33 false official seals, forged marriage and death certificates, false documents for the processing of passports, the official seal of a magistrate, false educational certificates, national identity cards and electoral lists were seized.

Investigations showed that the suspects had bought the originals of relevant documents with the assistance of certain workers and officials in the Kandy Kachcheri and national identity card office, Kandy Police Inspector W.S. Uvindasiri said.

Greens warn against land offers in Deniyaya

A move to distribute land in the Deniyaya electorate under a Presidential directive has caused concern among environmentalists.

According to reports, the identified area Enselwatta is part of the natural forest reserve of the significant Sinharaja range which needs to be protected to maintain the ecological balance.

Environmentalists warned indiscriminate distribution of land could also lead to more earthslips and floods as seen recently in Galle and Matara districts.

UNP man's family seeks probe

The mutilated body of a young man was found floating in a Kamburupitiya tank on Wednesday and his father is seeking a probe on what he feels is a political killing connected to the southern election.

K.T. Upali of Pitabeddara in a letter to opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday said his son Ajith, a supporter of the UNP, had received death threats because he was working for the party in Deniyaya.

He said PA supporters had also accused his son of being an army deserter and told the police to arrest him.

According to the letter, Ajith had been reported missing since May 25 when he fled after police tried to arrest him.

Mr. Uplai has urged the UNP leader to conduct a full probe and bring the culprits to justice.

If war is costly what about "peace" moves?

By Kumbakarna

According to the 1998 financial analysis of the Central Bank, the country will face a bleak economic outlook in the near future. This pronouncement has been eagerly grasped by the so-called 'peace movement'. If military action against the LTTE is not immediately stopped, they warn ominously, the country will become one big beggar colony.

Some prominent businessmen have also got in on the act. The on-going conflict, they say, is scaring foreign investors away and having an adverse effect on the economic climate.

Let us consider the amount of money actually being spent on military operations. Defence expenditure in the years 1993, '94, '95, '96, '97 and '98 were, in billions of rupees, 20.78, 26.44, 43.14, 44.93, 41.52 and 56.00 respectively. This represented 4.16% of GNP in 1993, 6.45% in 1995, 5.85% in 1996 and 5.7% in 1998.

What this shows is that defence expenditure has by and large remained below 6% of GNP. By way of comparison, it is worth considering the amount of money the nation loses through corruption. It is estimated that the Treasury loses over Rs. 50 billion annually due to corruption in the Customs Department alone. It is also common knowledge that the wealth lost by the country through the process known as 'privatisation' of national institutions amounts to roughly ten times this figure. The individuals who are so concerned about the cost of anti-LTTE operations do not consider this as anything worth bothering about.

It is also worth considering the cost incurred by attempts at a so-called 'negotiated solution'. On each occasion these 'negotiations' took place, the LTTE insisted on a ceasefire. On each occasion, this was granted. On each occasion, the LTTE used the opportunity to re-arm and increase its military capability. Ever more sophisticated weapons were brought in by them. On the last such occasion, during 1994-95 'peace talks' under the present government, the LTTE brought in surface-to-air missiles for the first time. Nobody even bothers to count the number of aircraft shot down since then. The intensity of the conflict has increased by a quantum leap with each round of these 'peace talks', with a corresponding increase in the defence budget. This fact is of course evaded by those who keep advocating yet more 'peace talks' on the grounds that the 'war' is too expensive.

Another financial burden foisted on the country in the name of a 'negotiated solution' are Provincial Councils. These totally redundant institutions cost the country Rs. 20.85 billion in 1995, Rs. 22.13 billion in 1996, Rs. 23.42 billion in 1997 and Rs. 27.15 billion in 1998. They were supposed to solve the problem in the north and the east through 'devolution of power'.

The joke is that the power got devolved to the rest of the country, which never asked for it, but it could never be implemented in the north and east because the LTTE prevented it. But the 'peace' lobby, like trained parrots, keep on going with ''devolution of power leading to a negotiated solution". Their reasoning is probably that, if they repeat it often enough and for long enough, somebody might even believe it. But what the country cannot afford any more are these 'negotiated solutions.'

Whether we like it or not, the essential condition for the implementation of any solution is the elimination of terrorism. Without establishing the ethos of free political discourse in the north and the east, it is an exercise in futility even to talk about the form of government that should exist there. For this to be established, the LTTE must go. While the LTTE exists, there will be no politics, no democracy, and no solution. This has been proved beyond doubt to all but the most wilfully blind, most recently by the murder of two successive Mayors of Jaffna by the LTTE. That is why the elimination of the LTTE is the first unavoidable step. The longer it takes for a national consensus to be reached on this, the longer this problem will drag on.

For this to be achieved, a correctly planned political-economic-military strategy over a period of several years is required. There are of course many aspects to this, but one essential component of this strategy is to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign suppliers of military equipment, by the creation of a local armaments industry. Why is this not done? Is it because some influential people would lose their commissions on arms purchases?

If the ultimate objective is the establishment of lasting peace in the country, there is no way other than the destruction of the LTTE, and that can be achieved only through military means. But of course, the groups clamouring for 'peace' have a different objective.

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