Tigers' Restrictions Reflect Uncertain Peace Process

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jun 27 (IPS) - When Tamil Tiger rebels opened up areas under their control after reaching a ceasefire with the government last year, the Heroes' Cemetery at Visuvamadhu in Mullathivu district along Sri Lanka's north-east coast became a major attraction.

Maintained in pristine condition by cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers rebels are formally called, the cemetery is not only a great photo opportunity. It is also the resting place of Tiger cadres who died just before the April 2002 ceasefire accord with the government.

Getting to the cemetery became easy after the truce -- travellers just had to take the right turn off the main A9 highway at Paranthan Road and drive on unhindered.

But no longer. In recent months, especially since the Tigers suspended participation in the peace talks in late April, the LTTE has set up checkpoints on Paranthan, which also serves as the main access road to Mullathivu, where the rebel group has its main military camps.

In many ways, this shows how the peace process that began in September 2002 remains precarious, even though the Sri Lankan government won praises and pledges of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in aid at a donors' meeting in Tokyo in June. The Tigers boycotted that meeting.

The uncertainty can also be seen in a recent report by the independent human rights group University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), which said: ''The signs are that the (peace) carnival is coming to a close and the country faces, barring a miraculous reprieve, the terrible cruelties of war.''

Already, a German media team found out this month that the Tigers are not so willing to allow snoopy reporters to roam all over.

After negotiating permission to visit the Mullathivu bases, the team, along with its Tamil translator and Sinhala driver, left for Mullathivu. Soon after taking the turn at the A9 highway, they were stopped at a Tiger checkpoint.

While the LTTE cadres had no problems with the journalists and the Tamil translator, they were not willing to allow the driver -- who belongs to the majority Sinhalese population -- to proceed, despite a pass given by the Tigers' Political Office in Kilinochchi, some 70 km from Mullathivu.

It took another round of negotiating, this time through walkie-talkies, to get the driver the green light. By the time they arrived at the famous cemetery, the team had passed three checkpoints.

The Tigers' clampdown has been so strict that one researcher on reconstruction says he has given up visiting LTTE-controlled areas. Instead, he talks to civilians when they go to areas outside LTTE control.

''This tightening of civilian movements within their areas of control has been intensified after their 'temporary withdrawal' from the peace talks in late April," the researcher, who requested anonymity, told IPS.

Checkpoints and armed cadres are not the only signs that the LTTE has become apprehensive of visitors and is now restricting access to Tamil areas.

Even relief organisations and non-governmental organisations find that the Tigers are not as accommodating as before -- but are also wary about speaking out against the rebels especially in light of reports such as the shooting of a police officer on Jun. 22.

These do not surprise people like Dayan Jayathileke, a political science lecturer at Colombo University. ''The LTTE is using the public as a battering ram,'' he said in an interview. ''It has used the memorandum of agreement (on a ceasefire) and the negotiations to gain power in areas outside its control, for example Jaffna."

The Jaffna peninsula is under government control, but Jayathileke thinks the ceasefire has allowed the LTTE to creep in and that the Tiger cadres have just ''shed arms for the time being''.

After the ceasefire, the LTTE organised village committees to interact with non-government and relief groups coming into the areas they hold.

In a visit this month, officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recalled that they felt that the LTTE was restricting direct access to civilians and that it could be using sympathisers to interact with visitors from outside.

''They (the LTTE) are very keen to get locals trained as intermediaries (with outsiders and activists),'' said a source closely associated with the visit. "It was like they were okay with distributing 20 roofing sheets, but no reconstruction and rehabilitation," he said.

The Tigers have been open about their views on this. They say that in a few years, the aid groups that have come in would leave -- and they would have to handle rehabilitation themselves anyway.

The LTTE has a de facto administrative structure in areas under its control in the north-east. This includes the police, courts, a tax system, dispensaries and a reconstruction arm.

When meeting with government officials in LTTE-controlled areas, the first question researchers and NGO workers are asked is if they have obtained LTTE permission.

Even the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission -- a multi-member Nordic team overseeing the truce -- consults LTTE officers before visiting areas, says spokeswoman Agnes Bragadottir, though she says it does not face any restrictions in visiting areas or talking to civilians.

But if critics say the Tigers have been using the peace to strengthen their clout, the Tigers' restrictions are partly due to similar fears about the army using the ceasefire period to induct spies into LTTE-controlled areas.

After the truce, the LTTE also began requiring returning Muslims, displaced during the conflict, to pay a tree tax for all trees planted after 1990. Their theory is that the trees were planted by Tamil farmers who occupied the land in the legal owner's absence.

Early this month, the Tigers held a meeting of 35 government officers from the government-controlled Jaffna in Kilinochchi, and on Jun. 18 held another meeting to canvass support for a cultural festival.

A similar meeting with tuition masters ended with the LTTE ruling that admission fees should be 50 rupees (50 U.S. cents) and that no classes would he held after 7 p.m.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) says that it remains hard for civilians in Tamil areas to speak out against the rebels. ''Anyone familiar with the scene knows that the people long for a way out of the death trap set by the LTTE, but cannot, for the fear to express it openly,'' its report said.

Added Jayathileke: "The LTTE will not change just as long as (Tiger supremo Vellupillai) Prabhakaran is at the helm. It has a very structured leadership, and that will not change soon.'' (END/IPS/AP/IP/HD/AP/JS/03)