War-torn Region on Edge with Peace Process Uncertain
By Rahul Bedi

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Nov 16 (IPS) - The ravages of war in Sri Lanka's
northern Jaffna peninsula scar this verdant region some 21 months after the
start of the ceasefire between Tamil Tiger rebels and the government - one
that has now been put in peril by the country's political crisis.

But away from the political tussles in the capital, a traumatised
population, besieged by around 40,000 soldiers stationed across the
peninsula, thousands of shell scarred and abandoned houses and decapitated
palm trees is the awesome debris that dots the landscape.

This is the legacy of ferocious, seesaw battles fought in the region's
thick coconut groves and atolls between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE), which has been seeking a homeland for minority Tamils in this
Sinhalese-majority country, and the Sri Lankan and Indian armies over two
decades.

Today, the toll of war has hardly begun to be eased, but the feud
between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe has raised fears about where the peace process can go.

On Nov. 4, while Wickremesinghe was in the United States, Kumaratunga
suspended parliament and dismissed three ministers, saying the prime
minister had been giving too many concessions to the rebels since peace
talks began in September 2002.

The Tigers suspended participation in peace negotiations in April, but a
new round of talks was being planned with the help of Norwegian mediators
when the political standoff erupted.

On Friday, Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen announced
Oslo's withdrawal from its mediator role amid the power struggle between
Wickremesinghe and Kumaratunga, saying that there is no space to ''assist''
the process ''unless clarity (in leadership) is re-established''.

''The ceasefire is fragile,'' Bishop Thomas Sandranayagan, a Tamil, said
in an interview here. He expressed fear that this impasse between Sri
Lanka's two top leaders could ''impact negatively'' on the Jaffna region,
the worst affected by the ethnic conflict that has cost 60,000 lives since
1983.

Other residents who want the calm to continue echo the bishop's
warnings. ''The LTTE wants to be patient and work for peace and we hope
they are successful, '' Ponmalar Rajeshwaram from the Council of
Non-Governmental Organisations said. Nobody wants war, she added.

Meantime, efforts to piece life back together, if slowly, continue in
the war-affected regions of this South Asian island nation.

A U.N.-sponsored community mental health programme recently began work in
Jaffna, the Tamil Tigers' cultural and political capital some 560
kilometres north of the capital Colombo, to treat hundreds of people,
including women and children suffering from war-induced trauma.

The Sri Lankan army seized control of Jaffna from the Tigers in 1995
after weeks of fighting in which hundreds died.

Five years later the LTTE, outnumbered six to one by the army, almost
succeeded in
recapturing Jaffna after forcing over 10,000 government soldiers to
retreat. But it stopped just short of the ravaged town that was further
devastated by the conflict.

Shells and mortars rained down on the town for days, with an artillery
round falling inside the Jaffna Bishop Sandranayagan's bedroom and several
others in the nearby churchyard.

Innumerable bombed-out houses line the 9.6-km drive along the palm-lined
dirt road from the seaside Palaly military airport to downtown Jaffna that
still has check posts manned by soldiers carrying assault rifles.

The landscape is grimmer on the militarily strategic A9 highway heading
south from Jaffna to the LTTE headquarters at Killinochchi, 64 km away on
either side of which are minefields and homes, warehouses and buildings
flattened by aerial bombing and artillery shells.

For two years, 1987 onwards, the LTTE battled an Indian expeditionary
force sent to disarm the rebels. It retreated ignominiously after over
1,340 of its soldiers died.

''We live in a prison of rubble and bricks where one-third of the
peninsula, including large parts its most fertile land growing rice and
coconut, remain under military control,'' Sodinadan of the Council of
Non-governmental Organisations said.

The government, he added, had done little or nothing, despite promises
to help rebuild over 120,000 houses and buildings destroyed in the fighting.

When the LTTE had walked out of the negotiations in April after six
rounds of talks, it accused Colombo of not doing enough to resettle
refugees and to redevelop war-ravaged Tamil areas.

In the nearby coastal village of Savatkaddu, around 100 war widows want
to join the Tamil Tigers to avenge the killing of their fishermen husbands
by the military.

'' If the ceasefire was not in place we would have willingly volunteered
to fight for the LTTE,'' said 28-year old Sahila, head of the village widow
association whose husband was shot by navy commandos while out fishing.

Activists attribute their keenness to join the LTTE to the fact that
widows in traditional Hindu households, having no rights and being treated
like pariahs and evil omens, are banned from participating in religious
functions, including weddings.

The LTTE's women cadres earned a formidable reputation as fighters,
especially suicide bombers.

Still, months of peace have brought dividends to Jaffna -- like new
hotels, banks, Internet cafes and shops selling a variety of consumer goods
like computers, refrigerators and airconditioners.

Power generation, a rarity during the war years, is relatively constant
today, and mobile telephone networks operate efficiently.

Japanese cars have slowly begun replacing the city's numerous antiquated
Morris Oxford, Morris Minor, Mini Minor and Hillman cars, many of which
were adapted to run on kerosene during the conflict years due to a shortage
of petrol.

But an atmosphere of mistrust hangs over Jaffna, whose residents fear
that the peace process might become hostage to the standoff in Colombo and
lead to tensions with the LTTE that might just end their brief boom period.

This week, the LTTE has also sought guarantees from the Sri Lankan
government that it would remain committed to the ceasefire. The leader of
the Tigers' political wing, S Thamilselvan, was quoted as saying ''we do
not want war''.

But sources in Jaffna close to the LTTE said the rebels have been
activating their cadres, whose numbers have reportedly doubled to nearly
20,000 after the February 2002 ceasefire.

''They want to be prepared for a high intensity war should the need
arise in order to dictate their political terms,'' a Tiger supporter said.
(END/2003)