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Clouds of war on Sri Lanka – Water war with Tigers |
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The latest fighting between Government troops and the LTTE over a waterway has raised fears that Sri Lanka is heading for a full-scale war. The civil war appeared to have resumed in all but name as Tamil Tigers attacked three Army camps and pushed into Government territory. At least 34 persons, including 19 civilians were killed on August 3 in the Muslim-dominated Muttur town in the north-east as the “water war” between the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil Tigers spread to Batticaloa, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the LTTE has overrun the Government-controlled Muttur town and an estimated 9000 civilians have taken shelter in the mosques and educational institutions there. Civilian casualties in the town occurred as the places where people are sheltered came under crossfire between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE. Both sides have claimed the upper hand in the fighting.
The fighting started after hundreds of heavily armed rebels infiltrated Muttur near the strategic north-eastern port town of Trincomalee on Aug 2, took control of the town centre and then laid siege to four Sri Lankan army camps on its periphery. Officials said the rebels are attacking many parts of the town including the main telecommunications building and a police station. Fierce fighting is raging and as a government official said, “They are attacking our soldiers and people and we are attacking them”. Troops fired multi-barrelled rockets while jets resumed bombing raids on Tiger positions. A Defence Ministry statement said the Government forces killed 40 Tiger rebels and wounded 70 on Aug 2 while 7 soldiers were killed and 52 wounded. The Tigers dismissed the claim as “desperate” but gave no details of casualties. The Air Force resumed bombing raids on Tiger positions for an eighth day on Aug 2, while the rebels and military exchanged artillery and mortar fire.
The LTTE claims that they have pulled out to their original position in Muttur after, what they called, achieving their aim of forcing to stall government offensive to capture a sluice gate within rebel-held territory. On the other hand, Colombo has alleged that the LTTE massacred over 100 civilians fleeing the fighting in the town. A Defence Ministry statement said, the victims were shot dead as they tried to escape the fighting in the Muslim-majority town of Muttur on August 4. The Defence Ministry said the Tigers had targeted civilians because they had been providing food and information to the security forces. Earlier, the country’s Muslim legislators alleged that the Tigers had been holding hostage over 100 Muslim civilians who were trying to escape the fighting in Muttur.
The Tigers also tried to capture a navy jetty checkpoint in Trincomalee but were repulsed. The Navy has denied reports that the Jetliner ship which escaped a Tiger attack in Trincomalee on Aug 1, came under attack again in the Pulmoddai sea. The ship had 84 Sri Lankan soldiers on board.
The clashes have been among the fiercest since the 2002 ceasefire. The latest violence was sparked after the rebels shut down a reservoir and cut off water supply to nearby Government-held villages. The military responded with air strikes and a ground assault.
With the undeclared war in full swing, Norwegian special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim, is flying to Colombo from Oslo in an attempt to end the hostilities. He will hold talks with the Government and the LTTE on the fate of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission [SLMM]. In an appeal from Oslo, Solheim urged the two sides to end the fighting which began last week after the military’s move to open an irrigation canal that was blocked by the Tigers. Norwegian envoy Jon Hansen Bauer has rushed to Sri Lanka to meet the government and rebel leaders in an effort to settle the dispute. The LTTE denies shutting the sluice gate themselves and says it was done by local Tamil civilians angry at the Government.
The escalating violence since December has shredded the truce and killed at least 900 people, half of them civilians. Tension between the Tigers and the Government has risen markedly since last November. Peace talks have been called off and over 800 people have been killed so far. The outbreak of full-scale hostilities between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has blown to bits the ceasefire that held for over four years from 2002. Even in the absence of a formal declaration of war by Colombo, to all intents and effect, the Tamil Tigers have revived military confrontation; and the Government of Sri Lanka has chosen to respond with like force and fire.
Political observers note that ever since President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected in November last year, the LTTE has been preparing for revival of the military conflict, which it has now managed to do despite the Government refusing to be provoked for several months. The LTTE has used the February 2002 truce first to wage a silent war against the Sri Lankan State, establishing its writ in the North-East and “cleansing” the region of its political rivals. The breaking away of the Karuna faction in 2004 saw the war turn more open, with the Tigers accusing the Government of assisting the splinter group. Despite taking several direct hits, starting with the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005, and an increasing number of attacks on its military from November last year, the Sri Lankan Government refrained from retaliation. The attempt on the life of the Army Chief, the killing of another General and the attack on Sinhalese civilians, provoking the Government to respond with air strikes on LTTE positions in the North-East, escalated the tension. It now seems that the Government has abandoned the restraint that initially gave it the moral high ground in the standoff. The aerial bombing of areas in the east to free a water source in Tiger-controlled territory for the use of people living in Government-controlled areas has given the LTTE an excuse to hit back. The LTTE action is clearly in contravention of the ceasefire in denying water to a large civilian population in Trincomalee.
While the fighting is raging, the future of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission hangs in fire after the LTTE said any monitor from an EU country was unacceptable after the European Union banned the LTTE. The EU monitors are pulling out of the SLMM to meet the LTTE deadline. Predictably, the Sri Lankan Government is livid with the decision of the SLMM’s EU member countries to quit. Colombo has indirectly charged them with aiding terrorists.
Sri Lankan police trainees sent back after uproar in Tamil Nadu
The Tamil Nadu Government has called off a CRPF-sponsored training programme for Sri Lankan policemen near Coimbatore and the 44 cops from Sri Lanka have been sent away from the State. The decision by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi followed an uproar by some pro-LTTE political outfits in the State such as PKM, MDMK and DPI, over the Centre’s decision to provide training to the Sri Lankan policemen, particularly in the backdrop of, what they alleged, the Sri Lankan Government’s increased attacks on the Tamils. “This was like providing training to the Lankan cops on Tamil Nadu soil to kill Tamils in Sri Lanka”, they alleged. Karunanidhi announced in the State Assembly on Aug 4 that the Sri Lankan trainees had left Tamil Nadu following instructions from the Centre to the CRPF to stop the two-week training programme which began on Aug 1.
On Aug 2, MDMK leader Vaiko sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that the training be stopped immediately as “it hurt sentiments in Tamil Nadu”. The same day, the issue was raised in the State Assembly by a MDMK member. They rejected Karunanidhi’s explanation that the training programme was not military in nature but only police training on civilian aspects like crowd management, enforcing law and ensuring peace a public meetings.
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