[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (31 May 00) [Sri Lanka Special]

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
31 May 2000

[Sri Lanka Special]
------------------------------------------

#1. Families of Sri Lankan Soldiers Speak
#2. Transforming Sri Lanka
#3. Sri Lanka: under siege but intact
#4. Lankan army draws blood as Tamils run for their life

__________________________

#1.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/may2000/sri-m27.shtml

THE FAMILIES OF SRI LANKAN SOLDIERS SPEAK:
'Whoever wins this war, the poor people stand to lose'
By a correspondent 27 May 2000

A correspondent currently visiting the country sent the following
interviews with the families of Sri Lankan soldiers to the World Socialist
Web Site. No names have been published in order to protect those
interviewed from prosecution under Sri Lanka's stringent new censorship
regulations.

Hundreds of soldiers have been killed in recent fighting in the north of
the country against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Thousands more have been wounded. Each day hundreds of family members can
be seen at the country's main hospitals or near the Colombo military
headquarters inquiring about the fate of their sons and daughters.

Their stories speak of the suffering and tragedy that has befallen many
ordinary people whose sons, fathers, brothers and husbands joined the army,
often out of dire economic necessity. A number expressed their desire for
an immediate end to the bitter 17-year civil war.

A sister of two soldiers described the fate of her brothers caught up in
the war. She is from Ratgama, a township on the southern coast. Her elder
brother was killed at Pallai, close to the Elephant Pass army camp, on May
1. He had deserted about 18 months earlier but reported back after being
persuaded by the military police. Her younger brother, also a soldier, is
in the Jaffna battle zone.

She explained that her brothers had little choice but to join the army.
=93Our father was a worker in the government survey department. He died 11
years ago. There are five children in the family. Our eldest brother is an
epileptic and so our mother was forced to work in a limestone quarry. She
used to vend young coconuts as a drink on the wayside. She had to visit
houses and do menial work.=94

Her husband is also on active military service with the 9th artillery
regiment. They have three children. =93I always pleaded with my husband and
my brother not to go back to the army. But my husband used to ask what he
could do at home. If one by one we stopped at home how could we even
sustain ourselves?

=93If a dead soldier's body is disfigured beyond recognition they pour hot
tar over the body and list him as missing in action. The war is accursed a
hundred and thousands of times. I pray that this war that gave us this
agony of fire be stopped at any cost before the same suffering is brought
upon others.=94

She blamed the politicians for the catastrophe. =93The PA (Peoples Alliance
government) promised to stop the war in 1994. We voted for this. But that
promise is in tatters. I don't trust anyone now. People join the war not to
save the country but because that they have no way to live. But once they
don the uniforms and take up arms they get chauvinist feelings.=94

A widow from Kadawatha, a few kilometres from Colombo, explained that her
husband was killed on May 10 at Chavakachcheri on the Jaffna peninsula. =93M=
y
husband joined the army because he had no other job. He had to spend the
best part of his life for a useless war. He had served 11 years and got
several medals but could not get a transfer. He was planning to leave in a
year and a half when the compulsory 12 years was over. But now he is lost
for ever.=94

She has a six-year-old son, is expecting another child and said she could
not imagine what the future held for them. The soldier's father is in a
state of severe shock over the death.

A mother of a missing soldier said: =93My son went to defend the country but
in the end we could not even see a fragment of his body. When an entire
camp is running away, leaving even the cannon, will they stop to pick up a
wounded or dead?=94 Her son, 33, a lance corporal in the 9th Infantry
brigade, was reported missing on April 27 following the Sri Lankan army
retreat from Elephant Pass.

=93The UNP [opposition United National Party] as well as the PA are
responsible for this war. Whoever wins this war, the poor people stand to
lose. We are losing our children. Who will look after us in our old age?
And their children are orphaned,=94 she said.

Other family members explained: =93He joined the army not listening to our
pleading. There are seven boys and girls in our family. He was the eldest.
He told his friends: =91I joined the army to sustain my parents.' Our father
was a farm worker and for a number of years has been unable to do any work
due to serious illness.=94

The wife of corporal, who has a nine-month-old daughter, said: =93On April 2=
1
we got a letter from him. He wrote, =91Tigers have surrounded us on all
sides. I would even walk home (over 300 kilometres) if I could. No New Year
festivities for me. But I am happy that you will be enjoying the New Year.'
[The Sinhala New Year falls in April.]

=93He always used to say, =91there will not be anybody to look after the
children and you if something happens to me.' He stayed in the army to
repay a loan of Rs.10,000 [US$133] he had got from the army to fix electric
lights for our home.

=93He never talked of what was happening at the front when he was at home.
This time he took a camera with him when he went to the front to show us
how they lived. But he wrote back that he was not allowed to take it to his
bunker.=94

The widow of a sergeant major explained: "My husband joined the army
because he wanted to follow his father who had also been in the military
service. The sooner the war is over the better. The grief we suffer is
common to many. Entire families are orphaned. We cannot think of a future.
We have to be ready to face things as they come. All our plans for the
children are in ruins. Although he was in the military for 16 years he
never used to talk of the war at home. Whenever we tried to make him do so,
he would say, =91talk of some thing useful'.=94

In the same neighbourhood in Watugedera in the south of the island, a
family was mourning the loss of a soldier who was killed at Elephant Pass
on April 20. He had been in service for over 10 years and was a member of
the Special Task Force. He had given up his education after 'O levels' in
1985 when his father died.

His mother said: =93He did not want to let the responsibility of running the
home rest solely on his brothers. They are carpenters by trade. But there
is not much work in the building trade. I refused to give him money for the
preliminary application. But he took 96 rupees from his sister's savings
and went for the interview. Two other friends who joined with him were
killed during their training period. One of his friends was wounded earlier
and was brought to Colombo. He is disabled and was discharged from the
military.

=93My eldest son has gone to the Middle East for employment. We lost this on=
e
just as the family was raising its head. The eldest had started sending
home money. My son was not of a mind to go [to the front] this time. He
went only because one of his colleagues insisted. Both of them are now
dead. My son had been wounded three times in the war. He wanted to stay
back. But he said the military police would come for him."

A wife of a sergeant major said: =93It is better if this war ends, saving th=
e
lives of the people. Will they be able to end the war as they have bought
new weapons? My husband was able to save his life in the battle at Elephant
Pass. But his brother has been disappeared.=94

She explained that there is an understanding that if one family member in
the army dies in action, then the other will be released from the service.
So she prays that her husband will be released.

She is from southern Sri Lanka and has four children. =93I married five year=
s
ago. I did advanced level exams, but I was unable to find a job. Now I have
to live in fear for my whole life. If my husband does not do his service
then the police will come to arrest him."

The grandfather of a soldier recently killed in action explained that young
people joined the army because they were unable to earn enough living from
farming. He is from a village near Bandarawela in the central hill country.
=93In this village most families are in dire poverty,=94 he said. =93Some go=
to
tea plantations to earn something to live.

"My neighbour's son joined the army because he could not bear the suffering
his poor mother had to go through to feed them. But my grandson studied
English, typing and technical studies to get qualifications for a job. One
day he left home, saying that he had got a job. But he had joined the army.
We pleaded with him to resign. He asked: =91Can you look after me till my
end? Can you find a husband for my sister without money?'=94

A postal worker from Gampola in the plantation area spoke of his wounded
brother after seeing him at the Colombo National Hospital. =93My brother wil=
l
not be able to walk, as his leg has been severed from his body. He was
caught in a missile attack. He maintained a whole family. But now he will
have to live with the help of others. We were from a family of a five.
Three of them are married. My younger sister studies in the university.
Only my brother could help her. My father, sister and brother earlier did
some cultivation in a small plot of land less than an acre. We are too poor
to help the family.=94

When asked about the war, he said: "It is necessary to do this war to save
the country." But in the same breath, he added: =93This is tragic war. If
there was no war the lives of many youth could have been saved.=94
________

#2.

=46inancial Times
31 May 2000
Published: May 30 2000 19:52GMT | Last Updated: May 30 2000
20:12GMT

Transforming Sri Lanka

By David Gardner

Talk to any Sri Lankan businessman or policymaker and sooner or later the
subject will turn to what the island could have been were it not for the
civil war, which has raged for the past 17 years as Tamil rebels fight for
an independent homeland in the north and east of the country.

This war has not only killed more than 60,000 people, it has destroyed
hopes that Sri Lanka might become south Asia's answer to Hong Kong or
Singapore.

Sri Lanka started liberalising its economy in 1977, early not only for the
subcontinent but in south and east Asia as a whole. According to A.S.
Jayawardena, governor of the central bank: "The economy had been completely
regulated by the government for 30 years, and it had come literally to a
standstill." With reform, the economy began to take off. But then, in 1983,
the Tamil Tigers launched their war.

The cost, in foregone development and unfulfilled promise, is almost
impossible to calculate. But nobody doubts it has been high.

In its annual report for 1999 published this month, the central bank says
that in 1982-91, the developing economies of Asia grew by 6.9 per cent,
against Sri Lanka's average growth of 4.2 per cent. In 1992-96, the
island's 5.2 per cent growth rate was nearly four percentage points lower
than the Asian average of 9.1 per cent. Sri Lanka - like all south Asia -
looked good against the subsequent financial meltdown or Asian contagion.
But as the region's economies recovered to average growth of 6 per cent
last year, Sri Lanka managed only 4.3 per cent.

This looks respectable for a country mired in civil war. It also suggests
that defence spending is pumping up demand by pouring money into the rural
areas where the bulk of Sri Lanka's army is recruited. But it is not much
above the underlying rate of economic growth of about 3 per cent that Sri
Lanka shares with south Asia.

The central bank report says both annual investment and economic growth
would have been about 2 to 3 percentage points higher without the conflict.
Sri Lanka would have become a middle income country earning $800 per capita
by 1994. "The country's per capita income would have reached approximately
$1,200 in 1999 instead of $829," the bank says.

As a peace initiative brokered by Norway got under way in February, R.A.
Jayatissa, the bank's research director, estimated that an end to the war
could raise Sri Lanka's trend growth rate by 2 percentage points a year and
more than double per capita income over the coming decade.

But as the Tigers continue to inflict defeat after defeat on the
demoralised army, this peaceful vision has been lost in the scramble to
find more money for the war.

In nominal terms, declared defence spending has risen from Rs1.3bn in 1983
to Rs53bn ($709m) in 1999. In this year's budget, the government of
President Chandrika Kumaratunga emphasised that, as a proportion of gross
domestic product, planned outlays of Rs52.4bn had dropped from 5 per cent
to 4.7 per cent. P.B. Jayasundara, finance secretary to the treasury, said
in February the defence budget was designed to underpin the peace process
and "will sustain the status quo rather than intensified military
activity".

But now the government has sanctioned an extra Rs12bn military spending in
a desperate attempt to hold back the Tigers' latest offensive in the north.
This will raise the declared defence budget to around 6 per cent of GDP
and, in total, dwarf projected spending on education and health -
respectively Rs29.3bn and Rs15.7bn. It will also deepen the distortions in
the economy and further blight Sri Lankans' hopes of rapid development.

The extra sum, mostly for heavy guns and Israeli jet fighters, is being
raised by increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco and a rise in the National
Security Levy. This war tax, introduced as an interim measure in 1991 at a
rate of 1 per cent, is now 6.5 per cent and levied on almost all goods and
services. The revenue it raises exceeds all income tax receipts, and, along
with other extraordinary levies, such as the Save the Nation Contribution,
a surcharge on income tax, has had the effect of postponing urgently needed
tax reform.

The war has sabotaged much else besides. A declining fiscal deficit, down
from an average 10 per cent of GDP to just under 8 per cent last year, is
spiralling again. This has a scatter-gun effect, ranging from the
uncertainty it creates about investment conditions to the postponement of
financial sector reforms. The war makes politically sensitive changes, such
as labour market reform, all but impossible. And, of course, it scares off
all but the hardiest foreign investors.

Such beasts do exist. Emirates, the Gulf airline, has bought 26 per cent
of Air Lanka, the flag carrier, while NTT of Japan in 1997 took a 35 per
cent stake in Sri Lanka Telecom, which it now manages. These
privatisations, along with the international consortium modernising the
port of Colombo into a regional transhipment hub, mean Sri Lanka still has
a good infrastructure platform despite the war economy.

But if peace were to come - and the current battles are designed to
establish positions at the negotiating table - Sri Lanka's notoriously
fractious political class needs to re-establish its reform credentials.

"Even if the war ends today, they will have a lot to fulfil politically,"
says Nadeem Ul Haque, the International Monetary Fund representative in
Colombo, who sees a bright future for Sri Lanka as a "small and open
economy". "We're a short step away from that vision, but that requires two
things: peace and political will."

________

#3.

The Christian Science Monitor
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2000

SRI LANKA: UNDER SIEGE BUT INTACT
On a visit to the island, US Undersecretary of State Pickering encourages
rebels to negotiate.

by Robert Marquand Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW DELHI
When Tamil Tiger separatists stampeded a Sri Lankan stronghold called
Elephant Pass on April 21, most experts wrote the epitaph for the unity of
Sri Lanka and its Army. Armed with rocket launchers, 5,000 Tiger soldiers
overwhelmed 40,000 Sri Lankan troops and in three days took a position the
Army had captured only after 17 painful months.

It seemed only days or hours before the ferocious Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), one of the most feared and efficient guerrilla groups
in the world, would roll into Jaffna city. Located near the tip of Sri
Lanka's Tamil-majority northern peninsula, Jaffna is considered by Tamils
to be the mythic capital of a greatly desired independent Tamil homeland,
or "Eelam."
Yet in the past two weeks, the Sri Lankan Army has begun to do what no one
expected: They have started to fight back.
Journalists are barred from the fighting areas, but reliable sources report
that the military has been rearming. It's using satellite imagery provided
by the West to detect guerrilla positions, and it has stalled the Tigers'
three-pronged attack in northern Sri Lanka. Early in the week the Army had,
at least temporarily, driven the guerrillas from Chavakachcheri, a key city.

COLOMBO: Soldiers guard a street corner in the capital as a Buddhist
monk walks by. The civil war is concentrated in the northern part of the
country.GEMUNU AMARASINGHE/AP

"The momentum has shifted in the past week," says Ajay Behera, an expert
on Sri Lanka at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. "If the LTTE
was going to take Jaffna, they were going to have to do it quickly. They
can carry out a conventional war for only a short period of time. The LTTE
is a great fighting force, and they may still take Jaffna. But they are not
an army, and they are now exposed on the field."
To the ethnic majority Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka, which has battled
the LTTE since 1982, the taking of Elephant Pass was a devastating loss -
capable of dividing the tropical island nation, creating political and
economic chaos, and adding to the instability of an already unstable region.
The LTTE, led by brutal warlord Vellupillai Prabhakaran, had never captured
the strategic pass, a redoubt built by the Dutch that overlooks a narrow
highway connecting the Sri Lankan mainland with the tiny peninsula.
The potential fall of Jaffna has caused concern in India, just across the
Palk Strait from Sri Lanka, and in the international community. The US
State Department has labeled the LTTE a terrorist organization. The Tigers,
operating often with young boys and girls who join suicide mission groups,
have assassinated dozens of Sri Lankan officials, a president, defense
ministers, and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, as well as much
of the moderate Tamil leadership.
After Elephant Pass was overrun, debate in India was thick over whether to
intervene. But in recent weeks, India has bowed out of any military role
short of possibly helping Sri Lankan forces to withdraw - largely due to
negative public opinion based on India's last troubled experience in Sri
Lanka.
In 1987, as the LTTE was on the outskirts and about to take Jaffna, Indian
forces did intervene and quickly found themselves in a quagmire against the
expert jungle fighters of the LTTE. The Tigers took Jaffna in 1990 when
Indian troops withdrew, and held it until December 1995 when Sri Lankan
forces recaptured the city.
Whether Mr. Prabhakaran can actually realize a homeland and administer it,
however, is problematic, even if he takes Jaffna. The LTTE is almost
exclusively a military group.
Also, no international state seems willing to recognize an Eelam. This week
in Sri Lanka, US Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering stated
unequivocally that the US supports the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
Tensions between the 18 percent Tamils (12 percent native, 6 percent from
Tamil Nadu in India) and the Buddhist Sinhalese majority are complex and
longstanding. The Tamils, who flourished and were favored under British
colonial rule, say they have suffered discrimination since independence in
1948. For years, mainly between 1972 and the mid-1990s, they complained of
being second-class citizens - with few jobs, language restrictions, a
discriminatory new Constitution in the 1970s, and an open "Tamil-crushing"
policy by Colombo in the 1980s.
Ironically, it has been the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga
that has gone furthest in trying to redress Tamil grievances. Mrs.
Kumaratunga, who survived an LTTE assassination attempt in December, has
put her political future on the line with a "war for peace" strategy that
promises to devolve federal powers to outlying states.
Should Jaffna fall after what even Sri Lankan officials admit was a lapse
of judgment in not preparing troops for an attack on Elephant Pass, the
effect on the country would be demoralizing in the extreme. Observers in
Colombo worry about a backlash against Tamil civilians in the south. Sri
Lanka's Parliament is due to be disbanded in August prior to an election.
But with a series of losses at the hands of the Tigers, including a major
defeat last November in the central part of the country, it is questionable
whether Kumaratunga would find a majority on her side.
"I think you would have a split government in a split country," says a
Delhi observer. "The country could become ungovernable at a very weak
moment."
Colombo hopes that the LTTE will sit for talks, mediated by Norway, but so
far it has not responded. Last week Kumaratunga even suggested that
Prabhakaran could be a chief minister in a new confederal state.
Much depends on the fighting taking place in the fields and villages around
Jaffna. Sri Lankan officials discovered in April that many of their jets
and helicopters are missing spare parts; a Sri Lankan diplomat says that
Colombo has earmarked $100 million for purchase of weapons. Last month,
Colombo reestablished ties with Israel, which had been suspended in 1970.
Israel responded by selling several jets and gunboats to Sri Lanka, which
have played a role in the Army's ability to stall the rebels.

_______

#4.

LANKAN ARMY DRAWS BLOOD AS TAMILS RUN FOR THEIR LIFE

MADURAI: The Sri Lankan Tamils caught in the crossfire
between the LTTE and the army have discovered that
they cannot escape shedding blood in order to leave
the island. According to a majority of the refugees
who have arrived in Dhanushkodi near Rameswaram during
the past 48 hours, the Sri Lankan army has made blood
``donation'' by Tamils mandatory for catering to their
wounded defence personnel.

``Even old people and children are not being spared,''
said a refugee to the Indian authorities who rescued
them. The Lankan army and navy have tightened their
grip around the coast in a bid to restrict the
movement of Tamils to India. ``The idea is to extract
blood and use us as human shields,'' the refugees
alleged.

A qualified nurse, who was among the refugees, said on
her arrival on Monday that two civilians had died of
excessive blood extraction recently near Jaffna.

The refugees said the Lankan army had established
several medical camps to treat the injured defence
personnel and a team of soldiers was engaged in
forcing the Tamil civilians to give blood. Even those
fleeing the island were compelled to make last-minute
donations.

Sources on Monday said that over 5,000 refugees were
waiting for ferries at Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka. The
refugees who have arrived here said a proper boat
service was needed between Thalaimannar and
Arichamunai to save those fleeing the country. The
refugees leaded for the International Red Cross to
intervene and rescue the civilians.

Nine more Lankan Tamil refugees arrived on the Indian
shores this morning from the fourth island, where they
were dropped by illicit boat operators late last
night. The refugees, including five women and a girl
child, who belong to areas in Jaffna and Mullaitheevu,
boarded a boat at Thalaimannar on May 21 evening and
reached the fourth island the same night.

They were spotted by Rameswaram fishermen and
officials of the Fisheries Department brought them to
Dhanushodi. They were sent to the Mandapam refugee
camp, sources added

Source:
http://www.newindpress.com/news
______________________________________________
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