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An amnesty offer and new problems

The latest offer of amnesty to the “stranded cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” in the east extended by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has brought to the fore the problems facing the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government. In the third week of July, the government had made a proclamation on the “liberation of the east” from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers. Implied in the amnesty offer is the acknowledgement of the possibility of a substantial number of LTTE personnel lurking in the region and of their return in sufficient numbers to challenge the writ of the Government. Hence Mr. Wickramanayake’s characterisation of the LTTE cadre as “misguided youth” and the offer of rehabilitation.

The Government has been down this road before. The hard-won military victories of the past failed to translate into any concrete political gains because the Government did not address the root causes of the unrest in terms of devolution of powers and development. It is in this context that the amnesty incentive is significant. The direct appeal to the stranded LTTE cadre is aimed as much at them as the people of the east.

The Government’s problems in the east are not on account of the LTTE alone. Colombo is committed to holding local elections at the earliest and launching a series of programmes for all-round development of the region; unfortunately, there is no unity among the political forces in the east.

The Karuna group or TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which actively participated in the campaign against the LTTE alongside the military, has overnight become villain of the piece. ‘Disarm the Karuna group’ is the chorus from a variety of voices that till the other day cheered it from the sidelines as it took on the LTTE.

The LTTE’s virtual ouster from the region has dramatically changed the equations. Suddenly, there is a clamour for political space from a number of forces traditionally united in their opposition to the LTTE. The first evidence of the “post liberation” tensions were the open clashes between Karuna group cadres and those of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) of Minister Douglas Devananda.

The EPDP is not alone in its resentment of the perceived larger role of the Karuna group. In its weekly report on July 29, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) quoted the General Officer Commanding Batticaloa district as saying that peace in the east could be achieved only if the Karuna group was disarmed. “The SLMM was informed that the police would increase its forces from 2,000 to 4,000 officials in Ampara. Moreover, a new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp would be established in the Thoppigala area, according to the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 23 Division in Batticaloa district. The SLMM received several complaints regarding extortion and harassment by the so-called Karuna group in Batticaloa and Ampara. It was also reported that the Karuna group summoned people to their offices for questioning. The GOC told the SLMM it was a requirement to disarm the Karuna group in order to restore normalcy in the east,” it said.

Predictably, the TMVP was livid over this demand from several quarters, including from the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, who was on a visit to the island nation for a first-hand assessment of the ground situation. The TMVP has argued that its cadres faced threats from the LTTE and that they would be vulnerable without weapons.

“We are not married to weapons. Our weapons will never back up any anti-democratic activities,” is the group’s argument. It has alleged that the LTTE is sending threatening e-mails to NGOs and others in its name to defame it. The other groups contend that free and fair local elections will not be feasible as long as the Karuna group is armed.

The view is endorsed in private by groups such as the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) led by V. Anandasangaree that intend to act under one platform. According a senior leader of the grouping, they are also faced with a serious dilemma in any tie-up with the Karuna group: they are opposed to a de-merger of the north and the east unlike the rebel faction that seems to have reconciled itself to the idea.

The Karuna group could be justified in its protests against disarming its cadres without ensuring proper protection. But it will have to do some soul-searching about its reputation as an outfit whose members are said to be involved in kidnapping for ransom and recruitment of children.

The growing unrest among Muslims in the east, particularly their apprehensions about the agenda of the Government and the Karuna group, is another problem area. The declaration of portions gained from the LTTE as high security zones (HSZs) and the consequent dislocation of Muslims and Tamils is giving room to speculation that a “Sinhalisation of the east” is being planned.

According to the Muslim Guardian, on August 12 about 50 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Muslim families who had recently returned to their own lands in Arafa Nagar, Muttur, were ordered by the Defence authorities to move ou t on the ground that they were within the HSZ in Trincomalee district. The military justified it saying the families were displaced in 1985 by the LTTE and were living as refugees and that irrespective of their ethnicity or religion all those falling in HSZs were being relocated.

It is indeed a tricky situation. The Rajapaksa Government, in its endeavour to restore the “pristine glory” of the east, should not fail to take into account the diverse interests of people and their concerns.

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