SRI LANKA: Awaiting Durable Peace

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

TRINCOMALEE, Feb 24 2006 (IPS) - Mohamed Nazeer has fond memories of fishing in the calm waters off Trincomalee bay before 1995. The catch was bountiful and this slightly built Muslim fisherman made as much as Rs 5000 (50 US dollars) on a good day.

Buyers vied for a variety of fish and the six-inch long prawns, the bay is known for. Nazeer could not ask for more.

Then on Apr.19, 1995 two gunboats of the Sri Lankan Navy anchored in the Trincomalee harbour were sunk by separatist Tamil Tiger militants, ending a ceasefire with the government and plunging this South Asian island country of 19.5 million people into yet another round of bloodshed – running this time for six years.

&#39&#39Things really began to go downhill after that,&#39&#39 Nazeer told IPS on the Kinniya beach, south of Trincomalee harbour and 250 km from the capital of Colombo. Today, Nazeer&#39s earnings are down to Rs 500 per day (5 dollars). For him that is the difference between war and peace.

Even as he spoke, delegates from the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were rounding off two days of negotiations in Geneva, pledging to halt killings and agreeing to meet again in April.

A joint statement issued in Geneva and made available here on Friday said: &#39&#39The government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE are committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure that there will be no intimidation, acts of violence, abductions or killings.&#39&#39

The ceasefire that the two parties entered into in February 2002 more or less held for four years. However, negotiations for permanent peace, expected to be built on the ceasefire, broke down in April 2003 and, since then, serious differences have arisen between the two sides.

The Tigers accuse the government of aiding a breakaway faction led by its former eastern commander and member of its 2002 negotiating team, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna. But according to the Geneva joint statement, the Sri Lankan government will now crack down on &#39&#39armed groups&#39&#39, a reference to Karuna&#39s paramilitary.

While the government has charged the Tigers with recruiting child soldiers, assassinating political leaders (including former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005) and serial ceasefire violations, the emphasis at Geneva was on avoiding war.

While the 2002 truce brought a temporary end to hostilities between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Tigers, who are demanding a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east of the island, conditions for normal life were missing.

In fact, the troubles of the fishermen worsened after the ceasefire – the longest since the conflict escalated into civil war two decades ago that resulted in the deaths of more than 65,000 people.

The Sri Lanka Navy has restricted fishing to a distance of about two km from the shore after one of its patrol crafts was attacked and sunk near the mouth of the Trincomalee Bay on Jan. 7. The attack occurred during a period when violence peaked to unprecedented levels since 2002 and pushed the ceasefire to breaking point.

The violence, since early December, resulted in the deaths of 120 persons, including 80 members of the Sri Lankan armed forces and police, and stopped only after Norwegian special peace envoy Erik Solheim intervened, late January, and secured guarantees for resumption of dialogue.

Fishermen in these parts are under restrictions, imposed not only by the Navy. The Tigers do not allow boats from outside their areas to fish and are known to collect protection money.

Nazeer and other fishermen have been restricted to a two sq km. area in the wide bay, known as one of the finest deep water harbours in the world. Fishermen who spend five hours out at sea return to shore with catch that barely fetches Rs 250 (2.50 dollars) for a day&#39s work, since the navy has banned fishing before dawn and after dusk.

&#39&#39We are in this two km box and now we have self-imposed restrictions as well, because the area we can fish is so small, all the fishermen here are using wide-mesh nets that will allow the smaller fish to swim out,&#39&#39 Nazeer said.

While Nazeer&#39s income is directly dependent on the situation in the area, the tension influences every aspect of life, especially in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Non-governmental organisations engaged in tsunami reconstruction work in the area have scaled down their operations since last December due to the violence.

&#39&#39There is no work here now, every one is waiting to see what happens next,&#39&#39 said Sunil Rajapakse from the majority Sinhala community who came to Kinniya from the south looking for work in the reconstruction effort.

The restrictions imposed on fishing are not limited to Trincomalee. They apply all over the north and eastern coasts where the Sri Lankan navy and the Sea Tigers, the naval arm of the Tigers, compete for control. In areas dominated by the Tigers, fishermen are mindful of venturing out too far for fear of being mistaken by the Navy for militants.

&#39&#39We have been facing a lot of problems from the Navy and we want an end to it. Two of our men went missing last month and we were only able to recover their boat. I was never directly attacked by them (navy), but this incident has caused panic,&#39&#39 Lewis Jeganathan from Tiger-held Mullaithivu said.

Last week, Jeganathan and other fishermen in the area were taking lessons from the Tigers in self-defence techniques. Jeganathan said they were taking the lessons to be ready to face incidents at sea, although such tactics carried the risk of punitive retaliation by the Navy.

Whether in government-controlled areas or those under the rule of the Tigers, civilians see one sure cure for their sorry plight – durable peace. &#39&#39We want the talks to be a success so that we also can do our own work without any threat,&#39&#39 Jeganathan said.

Nazeer agreed. &#39&#39There is only one way to stop all this, that is if peace is permanent and there is no threat of war, like what happened in December.&#39&#39

People here are only too aware how close the government and the Tigers had come to all out hostilities in December. &#39&#39The (Geneva) peace talks are the final chance. We can&#39t live amidst shelling and firing again and we want a better future for our children,&#39&#39 Cruse Mariadas, a bicycle repairman from the Tiger political headquarters of Kilinochchi, said.