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SRI LANKA: Tamil Moderates Charge Gov&#39t With Genocide

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Nov 12 2006 (IPS) - One of the last public acts of Tamil parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj was to visit the United Nations offices here, along with a few of his colleagues, to seek help in getting the Sri Lankan army to stop indiscriminate attacks on minority Tamil populations in the north and east of the island.

A day later, on Friday, Raviraj, 43, was himself shot dead barely three km from the U.N. offices by unknown killers.

Speaking to the press, leader of the Tamil parliamentarians&#39 group, R. Sampanthan, linked the killing to the efforts to seek international assistance for the beleaguered Tamils. "Raviraj&#39s assassination is a clear attempt by the paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka army to stifle the Tamil parliamentarians&#39 voice, in and out of the parliament, to inform the international community of the Sri Lanka government&#39s genocide against the Tamils."

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, in a statement released Friday, demanded that the government bring Raviraj&#39s killers to justice and referred to the mysterious assassination of another Tamil parliamentarian. &#39&#39Within a year of parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham&#39s assassination Raviraj has been killed. This is a threat to democracy. We strongly condemn this cowardly act and urge the government to take legal actions to bring the killers to justice besides providing adequate security measures to Tamil parliamentarians."

Defence spokesman and minister Keheliya Rambukwella said it would be unfair to lay blame on the government or anybody before an inquiry into the assassination of Raviraj was conducted.

"There is a slow genocide of the Tamil people taking place in Sri Lanka and we want the international community to take action," Sampanthan told IPS separately, referring to the gruesome incident on Wednesday in which 65 civilians died when artillery shells fell on a refugee camp at Kathraveli in eastern Sri Lanka that is under the control of the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Widespread condemnation followed the attack and Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the Kathraveli incident showed that massive force continues to be used indiscriminately in the conflict between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army.

A U.N. team that was able to gain access to the area a day later described the situation as shocking. "The people trapped in this camp are terrified and feel that they are completely at the mercy of others. The time has come for all parties to respect the basic human rights of these people, which are simply not being observed at the moment," Allan Rock, special advisor on Sri Lanka to the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, who was part of the team, said.

The government, on its part, accused the LTTE of deliberately provoking the armed forces and using the Tamil refugees as shields. "Two multi-barrel launcher salvos and 130 mm artillery guns of the security forces engaged the target. Security forces believe that the LTTE had relocated their gun positions closer to the civilian settlements which the security forces never expected," the ministry of defence said in a statement.

Faced with mounting international criticism, spokesman Rambukwella regretted the civilian deaths, but insisted that troops would retaliate if attacked by the Tigers, as the LTTE is known.

More than 700 civilians have died in pitched battles between the LTTE and the army since December. At least 200,000 people have fled their homes, while another 600,000 living in the partially blockaded Tamil-dominated Jaffna peninsula are on the brink of starvation.

Supplies to the peninsula have been disrupted since Aug. 11 when fierce fighting first broke out on the mainland link, the A9 highway. The government has tried to move food and other supplies via sea but that has been affected by Tiger threats.

The Tigers wrote to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC)saying they could not provide security guarantees to the ships or officials on board. ICRC personnel then stopped accompanying shipments after the second such warning came mid-September.

"Can the ICRC be attacked? Yes it can," ICRC delegation head in Colombo, Toon Vandanhove, said recently. Private traders too have followed suit leaving the peninsula at the mercy of government ships.

&#39&#39Sea transport is slow, and there are half a million people here. We have supplies only for about a month," Jaffna government agent K. Ganesh told IPS. The government last week said that it was acquiring two new ships to keep supplies moving, amidst reluctance by foreign-owned vessels to take the route.

The two month blockade has brought Jaffna population to the brink of starvation according to relief agencies. &#39&#39The month of October could be considered as the worst time duration after the ceasefire agreement. Jaffna civilians became a direct and indirect target of the conflict," the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies said.

The government and the Tigers entered into a truce in February 2002 through Norwegian facilitation that halted more than two decades of ethnic strife between the Sinhala-dominated government and the Tamil minority. During the failed peace talks in Geneva, last month, both sides agreed to abide by the basic principles of the ceasefire.

Right now, the main issue revolves around the reopening of the A9 highway that leads from the mainland into Jaffna peninsula and is considered to be the visible symbol of the 2002 ceasefire. The Tigers insist that the A9 be opened and that supplies move overland, but the government says the road will be opened only on certain conditions that the Tigers must abide by.

The Tigers have rejected those conditions. They have also rejected three alternatives proposed by the government – movement of supplies under U.N. escort, opening an alternate land route and supplies from India.

"It is A9 or nothing. India, Norway or anybody can come but we want the A9 opened and that is what we want, that is what is in the truce agreement," LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Illanthariyan said.

Among other things that Raviraj and the Tamil parliamentarians had sought from the U.N. was pressure on the government to open the A9. "We don&#39t want any flags, or officials or troops here, we want the A9 open, that&#39s it," Raviraj told IPS the day before he was gunned down.

The highway became an issue at his funeral as well. His party requested the government to allow the body to be transported to Raviraj&#39s native Jaffna through the A9. The government refused, but said it was ready to airlift the body. "We feel that getting the A9 involved in the funeral is a disrespect to the slain MP," Rambukwella said.

International observers have criticised both the government and the Tigers for being more interested in political agendas rather than working towards a quick solution to worsening humanitarian crisis in Jaffna.

"Neither the government nor the LTTE is taking sufficient steps to address the humanitarian situation. While the LTTE wants the A9 opened, the government insists on sending food via sea. This has become a highly political issue. Both parties have to realise that the needs of the civilians come first," James Ross, senior legal advisor, Human Rights Watch, told IPS in an interview.