Mail Today, June 27, 2009
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WHAT ARE India’s strategic goals in Sri Lanka? All visiting Sri Lankan Tamil politicians pose this seemingly innocuous question without getting an answer. The fivemember Tamil parliamentary team that called on the External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on June 13 too left empty- handed unsure of a positive Indian intervention in the worsening Tamil refugee situation in the island nation.
Sure, Mr Krishna did ask the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brothers, senior advisor Basil and defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, early this week to let in the relief ship Captain Ali. But beyond Lankan assurances of dismantling the refugee camps in 180 days, the foreign minister, who hosted the brothers, has done precious little for the civilian victims of the ethnic war.
The unfolding human tragedy on the island may not spill guns and gore into the Tamil Nadu coast, and the defeat of Vaiko in the general elections dispels all threat of militant Tamil nationalism resurfacing to avenge deaths across the Palk Strait. But is it official Indian policy to let Sinhalese triumphalism prevail over a defeated race?
After the death of Prabhakaran and the decimation of the LTTE, has the Indian government left the Tamil people, particularly the civilian refugees of the ethnic war, to their fate? The answer is to be had in the story of the “internally displaced people or IDPs” of Vanni — the large north Lankan territory that Prabhakaran once ruled with a border post, no-man’s land and international monitoring. The visiting team of Tamil parliamentarians from Sri Lanka shared their extraordinary tale of woes, which the Lankan government may deny in long rejoinders.
The government needs to understand that it has lost all its credibility after the murder of the known anti-establishment journalist, Lasantha Wickrematunge by state-supported fascists. And in any case, the victims justly deserve more sympathy than the victors on an issue concerning human rights. So, unless the international media is let in to verify the claims of the Tamil MPs and until they are proved false, their stories will be considered as facts simply because the Lankan government has something to hide. This account here is that of the team of MPs led by Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary party leader and Trincomalee MP R Sampanthan.
Camps
About three lakh civilian refugees are being held in camps that are nothing short of prisons, by all nongovernment accounts. Vavuniya has three to four camps, Jaffna has a small one at Tenmarachi, Tricomalee one and Mannar two. Of these the Vavuniya camps have around 2.25 lakh refugees, but the Lankan government is yet to publish a list of inmates. That is, there are no civilian records of lakhs of refugees. The military knows, but it does not even let the elected representatives of these refugees into the camps.
Sampanthan says all that he knows are what others have told him and that they are all terrible accounts of ethnic crimes by the Sri Lankan government against a group of people whose only crime was to be born in Vanni. These prison- like camps, with gun- toting Sinhalese army men guarding even queues to toilets, are out of bounds for Tamil politicians, most international aid workers and particularly the media. There is no free movement to the camp or out of it for the inmates. Even visiting relatives are kept on one side of a wire mesh as in a prison interview.
Doctors at the Vavuniya hospital give first aid or emergency treatment to patients and discharge them to their dingy tents as the hospital, overflowing with 3,000 patients, has no place for even the dead, who are counted and segregated in the evening. But the biggest Tamil worry is that these camps might be turned into permanent structures and the inmates would lose forever their homesteads. Again quoting reports from the ground, Tamil leaders say electric poles, schools, permanent dwellings and large food stores are coming up to cater to the huge population of refugees. Then, they quote, the Buddhist monk and MP, Medhananda Thero who told Parliament that, these lands have been liberated by the Sinhalese forces not to be given back to the Tamils and that the army men ought to be rewarded with the ownership of these lands.
Buddhist shrines have begun sprouting in the newly imagined past of Vanni. In a very familiar setting for Indians, the victors want to build temples where they believed ancient shrines existed. The monks have already identified 1,500 such sites in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar.
The intentions so far, the Tamil leaders say, are clear: the Sinhalese right wing opinion will not allow Vanni to remain an exclusive Tamil territory. The Tamil MPs seek a pointed intervention from India on this issue. They don’t want their lands to be colonised and their people reduced to the status of permanent refugees next to their villages, with hostile Sinhalese ex- army men occupying their land.
The Sri Lankan government has dropped even the fig leaf of inclusive democracy by setting up a 19- member committee for resettlement and rehabilitation of Tamil refugees without any Tamil participation. There are 18 Sinhalese and one Muslim in the committee and not even a single Tamil MP from Vanni.
Why even the Indian officialdom that had effectively intervened with intelligence and “ non offensive technology and equipment” to defeat the LTTE does not seem to heed the demands of these moderate mainstream Tamil politicians.
Wants
All they want are the removal of barbed wire prison- like camps; an inclusive body to handle resettlement of refugees; Indian involvement and intervention to chalk out a rehabilitation strategy; reuniting of separated families; accounting of refugees in camps; removal of army from within the camps monitoring even queues to the toilet; demilitarisation of the Tamil territory; the release of the Tamil MP and three doctors who were caught from the battlefield. None of this could in any way be termed radical.
On the contrary, by not addressing these genuine Tamil grievances, the Lankan government and its Indian friends are promoting unconfirmed reports that have a resonance in Tamil Nadu. Tamilnet, the pro- LTTE website, had in the last fortnight reported the abduction of teenage Tamil refugee girls by the army.
Generation
In fact, the Tamil MPs insist that 25,000 critically wounded people in Vanni were mowed down and buried in their bunkers during the final assault. The Lankan government had announced that there were no civilians left in the no- fire zone on May 17, but soon, when defeat became imminent, the LTTE claimed that there were 25,000 injured civilians and probably some combatants in the war zone. Tamil leaders allege that the army is not letting in the media to hide this story of mass murder.
Tamil lawmakers say that between May 27 and 30, some 13,100 people had disappeared from the camps. They claim that these people were taken out of the camp after Col Karuna, the renegade Tamil leader who is now a junior minister in the Sri Lankan government, visited them to identify the LTTE cadre in the camps. Well, the stories of camps for LTTE cadres are not even known to the moderate Tamil leaders.
The historic discrimination and the 1983 anti- Tamil riots that led to the rise of Prabhakaran pale into insignificance in comparison with today’s injustice towards civilian refugees. Prabhakaran would soon be a frayed memory of a failed war, but if these civilians are not allowed to return to their homes, they would spawn a new generation of war mongers not unlike the LTTE and they won’t forgive the Indians either.
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Prabhakaran ruined what he created
Obituary
Mail Today
May 19, 2009
There can never be an easy assessment of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its slain chief Velupillai Prabhakaran (54). For the governments of the world, including India and Sri Lanka, he was a terrorist, who funded his war against their armies peddling drugs and arms. Worse, for India, he was the one who masterminded the murder of a former prime minister.
But in 1987, the Asia week magazine compared him to the immortal revolutionary Che Guevara. The same year, the Newsweek said he is "the stuff of legend". This darling of former Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.G. Ramachandran, trained and equipped by the Indian secret services and the army in the mid-1980s, was once a gallant freedom fighter only to become India's most wanted terrorist. He never talked about the Rajiv murder in public, but finally, that did him in.
India never forgave him, not for the 1,255 Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) men who died fighting the Tigers, but for the political assassination at Sriperumbudur. Even while grieving for Tamils in Lanka, Tamils of India were rendered defensive forever just by this action.
Life in Sri Lanka is not easy for the ethnic Tamil minority. The Army that defeated the LTTE and killed Prabhakaran does not have a single Sri Lankan Tamil among its combat troops. It indeed was an ethnic war in which one ethnic army defeated another smaller one. This crucial factor makes any evaluation of the LTTE chief terribly one-sided: it is either demonisation by the Sri Lankan propaganda or grudging glorification by the Tamils.
Every Tamil in embattled Jaffna, every youngster at the Jaffna University I met in 2006 had told me that Prabhakaran is the undisputed leader. Sure, many of them might have been scared of the ruthless LTTE killing machine to openly criticise Prabhakaran, but they all did say one thing: We are defenceless without the LTTE.
One of them at the University campus with folded hands had pleaded for forgiveness, grieving that India had cut its umbilical cord after Rajiv's murder. The issue for them was not whether they supported the LTTE or not, but that only the LTTE stood between them and ethnic humiliation, genocide, riots and a life of second class citizenship.
After all, it was from the failure of Eelam Gandhi, Thanthai (father) Chelvanayagam and the 1983 ethnic riots that armed guerrillas rose to defend Tamil pride and people. Soon, Tamils gave up their lives for a leader who created one of the toughest guerrilla forces in the world out of a peace-loving literate and prosperous community. The Tamil diaspora poured money into bomb and gun-making factories of Kilinochchi. Just a week ago, at an election rally in Tamil Nadu, chief minister M Karunanidhi, with Sonia Gandhi next to him, had read out a poem in honour of the slain LTTE political head, S.P. Thamilselvan.
The 'thambi' (or younger brother) as he was fondly called by his compatriots in his early days had built up his organisation killing fellow Tamil leaders, moderate and radical, to assume complete control of the community. In fact, Prabhakaran's first known target was a Tamil, Jaffna mayor Alfred Duriappa in July 1975. He either branded his opponents Sinhala collaborators or Indian spies.
What emerged was a guerrilla army that could hold the IPKF, defeat the Lankan army and control a huge portion of Sri Lankan territory in north and east. It ran its own banks, schools, hospitals, general administration, police and even an FM radio station. Like Tamil kings of yore, Prabhakaran captured and ruled Jaffna from 1990 to 1995. The radio station even in late 2006 was belting out songs in his praise, a sure sign of the leader's megalomania and an organisation's sycophancy.
All these trappings of power obviously made him feel invincible. The guerrilla leader converted his mobile squads into a conventional army and began holding territory losing his strategic advantage and inviting a rain of bombs from ground and air, causing death and destruction to over a lakh of Tamil civilians. Megalomania takes its toll on the leader and the masses. In his case there were stories of brutal torture and murder of close associates like Mahattayya. But finally it was internal dissension that led to his fall. Karuna, his eastern commander, walked away in 2004 to the enemy camp delivering a body blow to the LTTE.
Karuna had vital intelligence and the Lankan army had newly acquired technology and equipment that could listen to and see the Tigers from afar. The military juggernaut rolled on, finally finishing off one of the biggest insurgent armies the world has seen. The leader could have fled the battlefield long ago, but he went down fighting, becoming a martyr to the cause of the Tamil Eelam or homeland. He is probably one of the biggest terrorists ever for the rest of world, but for his people he personified Tamil power.
Mail Today
May 19, 2009
There can never be an easy assessment of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its slain chief Velupillai Prabhakaran (54). For the governments of the world, including India and Sri Lanka, he was a terrorist, who funded his war against their armies peddling drugs and arms. Worse, for India, he was the one who masterminded the murder of a former prime minister.
But in 1987, the Asia week magazine compared him to the immortal revolutionary Che Guevara. The same year, the Newsweek said he is "the stuff of legend". This darling of former Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.G. Ramachandran, trained and equipped by the Indian secret services and the army in the mid-1980s, was once a gallant freedom fighter only to become India's most wanted terrorist. He never talked about the Rajiv murder in public, but finally, that did him in.
India never forgave him, not for the 1,255 Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) men who died fighting the Tigers, but for the political assassination at Sriperumbudur. Even while grieving for Tamils in Lanka, Tamils of India were rendered defensive forever just by this action.
Life in Sri Lanka is not easy for the ethnic Tamil minority. The Army that defeated the LTTE and killed Prabhakaran does not have a single Sri Lankan Tamil among its combat troops. It indeed was an ethnic war in which one ethnic army defeated another smaller one. This crucial factor makes any evaluation of the LTTE chief terribly one-sided: it is either demonisation by the Sri Lankan propaganda or grudging glorification by the Tamils.
Every Tamil in embattled Jaffna, every youngster at the Jaffna University I met in 2006 had told me that Prabhakaran is the undisputed leader. Sure, many of them might have been scared of the ruthless LTTE killing machine to openly criticise Prabhakaran, but they all did say one thing: We are defenceless without the LTTE.
One of them at the University campus with folded hands had pleaded for forgiveness, grieving that India had cut its umbilical cord after Rajiv's murder. The issue for them was not whether they supported the LTTE or not, but that only the LTTE stood between them and ethnic humiliation, genocide, riots and a life of second class citizenship.
After all, it was from the failure of Eelam Gandhi, Thanthai (father) Chelvanayagam and the 1983 ethnic riots that armed guerrillas rose to defend Tamil pride and people. Soon, Tamils gave up their lives for a leader who created one of the toughest guerrilla forces in the world out of a peace-loving literate and prosperous community. The Tamil diaspora poured money into bomb and gun-making factories of Kilinochchi. Just a week ago, at an election rally in Tamil Nadu, chief minister M Karunanidhi, with Sonia Gandhi next to him, had read out a poem in honour of the slain LTTE political head, S.P. Thamilselvan.
The 'thambi' (or younger brother) as he was fondly called by his compatriots in his early days had built up his organisation killing fellow Tamil leaders, moderate and radical, to assume complete control of the community. In fact, Prabhakaran's first known target was a Tamil, Jaffna mayor Alfred Duriappa in July 1975. He either branded his opponents Sinhala collaborators or Indian spies.
What emerged was a guerrilla army that could hold the IPKF, defeat the Lankan army and control a huge portion of Sri Lankan territory in north and east. It ran its own banks, schools, hospitals, general administration, police and even an FM radio station. Like Tamil kings of yore, Prabhakaran captured and ruled Jaffna from 1990 to 1995. The radio station even in late 2006 was belting out songs in his praise, a sure sign of the leader's megalomania and an organisation's sycophancy.
All these trappings of power obviously made him feel invincible. The guerrilla leader converted his mobile squads into a conventional army and began holding territory losing his strategic advantage and inviting a rain of bombs from ground and air, causing death and destruction to over a lakh of Tamil civilians. Megalomania takes its toll on the leader and the masses. In his case there were stories of brutal torture and murder of close associates like Mahattayya. But finally it was internal dissension that led to his fall. Karuna, his eastern commander, walked away in 2004 to the enemy camp delivering a body blow to the LTTE.
Karuna had vital intelligence and the Lankan army had newly acquired technology and equipment that could listen to and see the Tigers from afar. The military juggernaut rolled on, finally finishing off one of the biggest insurgent armies the world has seen. The leader could have fled the battlefield long ago, but he went down fighting, becoming a martyr to the cause of the Tamil Eelam or homeland. He is probably one of the biggest terrorists ever for the rest of world, but for his people he personified Tamil power.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
"Dixit told me Rajiv wanted Prabhakaran killed"
Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, ordered the cold blooded murder of V. Pirabhakaran, the Tamil Tiger chief in September 1987. An order was given to this effect to the Indian Army on peace-keeping duty in Sri Lanka at that time.Pirabhakaran was invited by the chief of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) Major General (retd.) Harkirat Singh, for a meeting on September 16, 1987 to find ways to implement an accord signed between Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayawardene to bring peace to Sri Lanka.
At midnight on September 14, Maj. Gen. Singh received a call on the special army communication network. The call was from Colombo — J.N. (‘Mani’) Dixit, then Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka, wanted to speak to the general officer commanding, IPKF.
The general was ordered to kill Pirabhakaran, when he would come over for a meeting on September 16, under the white flag, to discuss the formation of an interim administrative council. This despite the fact that no professional Army would kill an adversary called for a meeting under the white flag.
But Harkirat Singh refused to execute the order, because he says, “Good soldiers do not shoot an adversary in the back.”The general, who recounted this episode briefly in his book (Intervention in Sri Lanka) told MAIL TODAY that he had no doubts or no dilemma about what he had to do. He asked Dixit for time and put a call across to his boss, Overall Forces Commander Lt Gen. Depinder Singh. Depinder wanted Harkirat’s assessment. Harkirat said that he would not be party to a murder.
In the autumn of his life, trying to catch some winter sun in his study at his south Delhi home, the 71-year old general still remains resolute. “Killing someone during a war is fine. But killing under a white flag is just not done.” But would his act not have saved Rajiv’s life? After all, without Pirabhakaran, would the LTTE have been able to carry out Rajiv’s assassination? The general had never ever thought about it. “This was something I should have never done. So I never thought about what could have happened had I killed Pirabhakaran.
At that point the order had nothing to do with Rajiv’s life,” reminds Harkirat Singh.Still, that night had its share of drama. After his conversation with his boss, General Depinder Singh, Harkirat rang up Dixit in Colombo. Singh calmly told the high commissioner, “I will not obey your directives.” He tried hard explaining that he had invited the LTTE supremo to find ways to implement the accord signed by the Indian Prime Minister and Jayawardane. And he was coming to meet the general at his headquarters at Palaly airbase in Jaffna.
Dixit would have none of it. He threatened the general: “Rajiv Gandhi has given these instructions to me and the Army should not drag its feet, and you as the GOC, IPKF will be responsible for it.” The all powerful high commissioner was not spewing empty threats. Singh was soon posted out and never promoted. Though he never spoke to Dixit afterwards, he badly wanted Dixit to be around when his book, the tell-it-all, Intervention in Sri Lanka finally came out a few months ago. Dixit unfortunately died in January 2005.“When we met socially for cocktails, he used to tell my wife that the general is still angry. I never talked to him because I didn’t want the conversation to end in unpleasantness. But he was alive when I started the book,” Harkirat recalls.
The two men, Rajiv and Dixit, who ought to contest Harkirat Singh, are not alive. Dixit later went on to become the national security adviser before he died of a heart attack.What Harkirat says is recorded in the War Diary of 54 Division headquartered in Secunderabad and would be part of the military archives. In fact, after every telephonic conversation during a war, the exchange is noted down and passed on to the next higher authority and it reaches all the way up to the chief of Army staff. The very next morning after Singh turned down Dixit’s order, he got a call from the then director-general military operations, Lt. Gen. B.C. Joshi, congratulating him. Then Army chief, General K. Sundarji, thought differently. He was annoyed. But none of them asked Singh to alter the correspondence or objected to the Prime Minister’s name being referred to in the communication.
Though Singh is uncomfortable rekindling the controversy, he still wants to put the record straight. But he said that he waited all this while because he did not want to be harassed by the Army or the government for making these startling revelations. “There is a 3 to 10 year-old security embargo period. That is why I didn’t write my book earlier. Look at what happened to that RAW guy (Maj. Gen. V.K. Singh). I didn’t want them to create problems for me,” he said, as he chuckled. Singh, in fact, doubts whether Dixit was completely honest when he invoked Rajiv Gandhi’s name. “How do you cross check, when somebody tells you that he is speaking on behalf of the President or the Prime Minister," he asked. The Army or the Prime Minister's Office never objectred to Singh's notes in the war diary.
As the general wgho began the campaign, he took the flak for a war that cost India 1,155 of its men, almost double the number of Kargil martyrs.
But he is happy that he did not sully his career like many officers accused of murder during counter-insurgency operations: "I am not one of them. A meeting under the white flag is a well established norm and even the Chinese honoured this in 1962. You have to ensure the safety of those whom you invite under the white flag. It was a wrong concept of Dixit's."
Singh is a contented old man without regrets. After retirement in 1991 he had been advising Ratan Tata and says that he has had all the privileges that he would not have had in the service.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DMK-Congress Alliance and LTTE
2 May 2004
Rajesh Ramachandran
The Times of India
TIRUCHENGODE: IK Gujral could be justifiably upset over this constituency: His brief stint at South Block ended when Congress, jumping at the JainCommission's interim report on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, withdrew support to the UF government by branding DMK guilty.
Eight years later, Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan is the DMK candidate for Tiruchengode, sandwiched between Salem and Gobichettipalayam both being contested by alliance partner Congress.
Jagdeesan is special, not because she seeks votes for Sonia Gandhi. She was a TADA detenue for 10 months accused of helping TELO leader Padmanabha's assassins. LTTE was the prime suspect and she was arrested after Jayalalithaa came to power. She figured in the JaiCommission report as well.
Now, she is the symbol of Congress' acceptance of its past blunder. When confronted with voters' grouses, she blames the Jayalalithaa government for all ills and reminds them that Karunanidhi provided buses to villages. K S Rajeswaran, a former member of Tamil Manila Congress PCC when GK Moopanar split the Congress, runs the campaign in the area.
He is the district Congress treasurer and an AICC member. Do local Congressmen oppose Jagdeesan's candidature? "Not at all. She was exonerated by the courts. It was a politically motivated case", says Rajeswaran.
There appears no hiccup on the ground as Rajeswaran leads the entourage from one village to another. This is an upper caste Vellala Gounder dominated area. Both Jagdeesan and AIADMK candidate Palanichamy are Gounders. Jagdeesan alternates between stressing on the Congress and PMK support as she fleets across Gounder and Vanniyar pockets.
Does she feel vindicated? "Around 500 of our cadre were arrested during the emergency. Indira Gandhi came here to apologise for excesses in 1980 when we had struck an alliance with Congress.," she says. "I was not involved with the Padmanabha murder. I was sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. But after Padmanabha's murder Karunanidhi turned against LTTE."
The Centre's intelligence agencies after training and arming Tamil militants might have turned against them, but Tamil Elam is very much a part of Dravidian politics. And Jayalalithaa's constant reference to Sonia Gandhi cheating her dead husband by joining hands with DMK doesn't strike a chord in Tiruchengode.
Rajesh Ramachandran
The Times of India
TIRUCHENGODE: IK Gujral could be justifiably upset over this constituency: His brief stint at South Block ended when Congress, jumping at the JainCommission's interim report on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, withdrew support to the UF government by branding DMK guilty.
Eight years later, Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan is the DMK candidate for Tiruchengode, sandwiched between Salem and Gobichettipalayam both being contested by alliance partner Congress.
Jagdeesan is special, not because she seeks votes for Sonia Gandhi. She was a TADA detenue for 10 months accused of helping TELO leader Padmanabha's assassins. LTTE was the prime suspect and she was arrested after Jayalalithaa came to power. She figured in the JaiCommission report as well.
Now, she is the symbol of Congress' acceptance of its past blunder. When confronted with voters' grouses, she blames the Jayalalithaa government for all ills and reminds them that Karunanidhi provided buses to villages. K S Rajeswaran, a former member of Tamil Manila Congress PCC when GK Moopanar split the Congress, runs the campaign in the area.
He is the district Congress treasurer and an AICC member. Do local Congressmen oppose Jagdeesan's candidature? "Not at all. She was exonerated by the courts. It was a politically motivated case", says Rajeswaran.
There appears no hiccup on the ground as Rajeswaran leads the entourage from one village to another. This is an upper caste Vellala Gounder dominated area. Both Jagdeesan and AIADMK candidate Palanichamy are Gounders. Jagdeesan alternates between stressing on the Congress and PMK support as she fleets across Gounder and Vanniyar pockets.
Does she feel vindicated? "Around 500 of our cadre were arrested during the emergency. Indira Gandhi came here to apologise for excesses in 1980 when we had struck an alliance with Congress.," she says. "I was not involved with the Padmanabha murder. I was sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. But after Padmanabha's murder Karunanidhi turned against LTTE."
The Centre's intelligence agencies after training and arming Tamil militants might have turned against them, but Tamil Elam is very much a part of Dravidian politics. And Jayalalithaa's constant reference to Sonia Gandhi cheating her dead husband by joining hands with DMK doesn't strike a chord in Tiruchengode.
LTTE: We Didn't Kill Rajiv Gandhi
Rajesh Ramachandran 
NDTV Transcript
22 November, 2006
Jaffna/Kilinochchi: In an exclusive interview to NDTV the political wing head of the LTTE, SP Thamilselvan claimed that the LTTE had nothing to do with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. He demanded that the case should be further investigated. Also, the banned organisation is now seeking Indian support.
Are these signs of weakness or of a growing realisation that without Indian support Tamils in Sri Lanka will never be able to find a lasting solution?
They call themselves the forgotten people, their umbilical cord with Indian Tamils snapped. That was in 1991, after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The Tigers' biggest blunder the Tamils of Jaffna say, that led to their being dropped off the Tamil map.
But they stop short of attacking the LTTE, their sole protection in times of ethnic cleansing.
Seek India's intervention
Students ready to take on a larger role in Tamil politics plead for India to forgive and forget. 'It was a tragic incident. I mean the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. India should move ahead. Without Indian intervention there can never be a solution,' said a local.
Even people in authority like the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna ask for India to intervene again. 'Certainly by ourselves we can't achieve peace. We are a very small group of people, a minority. In other countries also peace was achieved by the intervention of international community,' said Bishop Dr Thomas Savundranayagam.
'For us the best country is India. It's our closest neighbour and culturally we are very much linked and lot of our people have taken refuge there. India must not be simply a spectator but must play an active role in bringing a lasting peace,' said Savundranayagam.
Public mood changed
The LTTE says that the public mood in India has changed and that it is in its favour now. The LTTE is seeking Indian support and is disassociating from Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
"'We need the support of the Indian government and the people. They should recognise our struggle for liberation. We want to know whether we have been rightly accused of the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. The LTTE or the movement has never admitted to the murder. More details of that incident need to be examined," said Thamilselvan, Political Head, LTTE.
The LTTE does not want to appear weak by asking directly for Indian intervention but its also clear that their lost camaraderie with Indian Tamils remains deeply felt.
NDTV Transcript
22 November, 2006
Jaffna/Kilinochchi: In an exclusive interview to NDTV the political wing head of the LTTE, SP Thamilselvan claimed that the LTTE had nothing to do with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. He demanded that the case should be further investigated. Also, the banned organisation is now seeking Indian support.
Are these signs of weakness or of a growing realisation that without Indian support Tamils in Sri Lanka will never be able to find a lasting solution?
They call themselves the forgotten people, their umbilical cord with Indian Tamils snapped. That was in 1991, after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The Tigers' biggest blunder the Tamils of Jaffna say, that led to their being dropped off the Tamil map.
But they stop short of attacking the LTTE, their sole protection in times of ethnic cleansing.
Seek India's intervention
Students ready to take on a larger role in Tamil politics plead for India to forgive and forget. 'It was a tragic incident. I mean the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. India should move ahead. Without Indian intervention there can never be a solution,' said a local.
Even people in authority like the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna ask for India to intervene again. 'Certainly by ourselves we can't achieve peace. We are a very small group of people, a minority. In other countries also peace was achieved by the intervention of international community,' said Bishop Dr Thomas Savundranayagam.
'For us the best country is India. It's our closest neighbour and culturally we are very much linked and lot of our people have taken refuge there. India must not be simply a spectator but must play an active role in bringing a lasting peace,' said Savundranayagam.
Public mood changed
The LTTE says that the public mood in India has changed and that it is in its favour now. The LTTE is seeking Indian support and is disassociating from Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
"'We need the support of the Indian government and the people. They should recognise our struggle for liberation. We want to know whether we have been rightly accused of the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. The LTTE or the movement has never admitted to the murder. More details of that incident need to be examined," said Thamilselvan, Political Head, LTTE.
The LTTE does not want to appear weak by asking directly for Indian intervention but its also clear that their lost camaraderie with Indian Tamils remains deeply felt.
A Nursery for Tiger Cubs
Rajesh RamachandranNDTV Transcript
28 November, 2006
Jaffna: The humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is getting from bad to worse with every passing day. NDTV travelled to the Jaffna University, which the Sri Lankan government claims is a breeding ground for training the LTTE.
The Sinhalese perception of Jaffna University is that it's a nursery for Tiger cubs. The university, which was unable to feed its students, was forced to close in August.
Also closed to students was their road to learning - the A9 highway - which brought many of them to the temple of Tamil studies from LTTE controlled Kilinochchi and Mulativu districts.
Recruitment base
About 1,300 students have not returned to Jaffna after the war resumed on August 11 - all because the Sri Lankan government believes the university is the biggest recruitment base for the LTTE.
"The road was closed because there was information that the LTTE was going to recruit 6,000 students from Jaffna and going to send them for training. Now the university has been closed," said Dr Palitha T B Kohona, Secretary General, Peace Secretariat, Sri Lanka.
Jaffna commander Major General MA Chandrasiri also considers the university a dangerous zone. "When we raided the university, we found grenades, satellite phone and a cutout of Prabhakaran. There are some hardcore LTTE cadres in the university, who are also student leaders. We cannot allow that," he said.
However, it's a different story at the university. Those supposed to be hardened LTTE cadre and supporters don't even face the camera.
They are truly afraid that they could be the next target after a student, they claim, was brutally killed by the gangs unleashed by the Sri Lankan forces to counter the Tigers. "Truth has died here. Those who speak the truth are targetted. That's why we are scared to speak out or show our faces," said a student.
VC rubbishes claim
However, Prof R Kumaravadivel, Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University, rubbishes the government claim, pointing out that there aren't even 6,000 students in the university."There are just 5,300 students, of which 75 per cent are from the LTTE controlled area of Vanni. They would have joined the LTTE there. They don't have to come to Jaffna to join the LTTE," countered Kumaravadivel.
In a community that is spread across the world from Australia to Norway and has been reduced to half of its original population, these Tamil students stand out. They speak of their alienation - the divide between the Sinhalese and the Tamil nations and their total commitment to their cause - a separate Tamil homeland.
"Tamil Eelam is not an LTTE proposal. It became our demand after the death of Thanthai Selvam in 1977. It is our need. We'll always seek a homeland and the LTTE is also part of that struggle," said a student.
Moreover, they consider themselves special - the educated youth in a war torn community who have a historic role to achieve the dream of a Tamil homeland.
The Cost of War
EXCLUSIVE
Rajesh Ramachandran
NDTV Transcript
27 November, 2006
Jaffna: A humanitarian crisis in the war battered north of Sri Lanka has forced many people to take refuge in the camps of Jaffna town. The Church of St Nicholas has become the latest refugee shelter in the town.
The rich migrate, others cross the Palk Strait and reach Tamil Nadu in southern India. But the poorest who stay back are trapped in the crossfire between the Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. A couple of weeks ago government air strikes killed 45 refugees in the area.
Father Ravichandran of St Nicholas Church says, "there have been lot of displacements since 1983. Displacements are part of our experience. We get displaced, then we go and get settled we live in camps for a few months and sometimes few years. I have been in refugee camps,` said Father Ravichandran, "as a school going boy I studied in a school for the displaced".
Over the last two decades, ever since the 1983 riots, Tamils in Sri Lanka have been reduced to being refugees in their own homeland in regular intervals.
High Security Zones
When the army fortified the Palaly airbase it took over a huge area of land all round the airbase as High Security Zone. Since 1991 the Tamils there, once proud farmers who owned small landholdings have been evicted from the most fertile land in Jaffna and that's one possible reason for the severe food shortage there.
"I had land and I used to cultivate chillies, onion, tomato and other vegetables, now I am struggling," a displaced farmer said. "Nearly One lakh 20 thousand people have been in camps for the last 15 years. They were driven out because the most fertile land was taken over by the army to explad the Palaly airport," said activist Srishakthivel. "That's the reason why the cost of living has gone so high," he said.
But for the army the High Security Zone is a necessity to sustain its 40,000 troops. "The High Security Zone I understand... there is red soil. Lot of cultivation was going on there, but when it comes to country's requirement all other things have lesser priority. This is a national requirement. People have to understand that Sri Lankan armed forces have to be in Jaffna and we need a separate high security zone," said Jaffna Commander Major General MA chandrasiri said."
Every new national security demand, every fresh battle in the war for freedom throws the poor deeper into the abyss of misery without food, home or hope of a decent living.
Rajesh Ramachandran
NDTV Transcript
27 November, 2006
Jaffna: A humanitarian crisis in the war battered north of Sri Lanka has forced many people to take refuge in the camps of Jaffna town. The Church of St Nicholas has become the latest refugee shelter in the town.
The rich migrate, others cross the Palk Strait and reach Tamil Nadu in southern India. But the poorest who stay back are trapped in the crossfire between the Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. A couple of weeks ago government air strikes killed 45 refugees in the area.
Father Ravichandran of St Nicholas Church says, "there have been lot of displacements since 1983. Displacements are part of our experience. We get displaced, then we go and get settled we live in camps for a few months and sometimes few years. I have been in refugee camps,` said Father Ravichandran, "as a school going boy I studied in a school for the displaced".
Over the last two decades, ever since the 1983 riots, Tamils in Sri Lanka have been reduced to being refugees in their own homeland in regular intervals.
High Security Zones
When the army fortified the Palaly airbase it took over a huge area of land all round the airbase as High Security Zone. Since 1991 the Tamils there, once proud farmers who owned small landholdings have been evicted from the most fertile land in Jaffna and that's one possible reason for the severe food shortage there.
"I had land and I used to cultivate chillies, onion, tomato and other vegetables, now I am struggling," a displaced farmer said. "Nearly One lakh 20 thousand people have been in camps for the last 15 years. They were driven out because the most fertile land was taken over by the army to explad the Palaly airport," said activist Srishakthivel. "That's the reason why the cost of living has gone so high," he said.
But for the army the High Security Zone is a necessity to sustain its 40,000 troops. "The High Security Zone I understand... there is red soil. Lot of cultivation was going on there, but when it comes to country's requirement all other things have lesser priority. This is a national requirement. People have to understand that Sri Lankan armed forces have to be in Jaffna and we need a separate high security zone," said Jaffna Commander Major General MA chandrasiri said."
Every new national security demand, every fresh battle in the war for freedom throws the poor deeper into the abyss of misery without food, home or hope of a decent living.
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Jaffna Diary
Rajesh Ramachandran
NDTV Column
Friday, December 8, 2006
JAFFNA: There was no mistaking the boom of artillery guns. But apart from me and my colleague Dhanpal, the cameraperson, nobody seemed worried at the Kopay refugee camp.
According to the displaced victims of this civil war, those were Sri Lankan guns pounding LTTE positions. As evening set in and curfew began at six, the firing intensified.
The only solace was that the LTTE doesn't fire at Jaffna, at the Tamil population. And here, unlike in other parts of the country, Tamil Tigers are not hit-and-run terrorist squads, bombing crowded political rallies or targetting leaders. Instead there is a pitched battle with lines drawn and two armies exchanging fire, as if the land across the line is enemy territory.
Just as distinct as the February 22, 2002 ceasefire line is the divide among the nations --- the Tamil north and the Sinhala south. Jaffna general hospital and medical college offer further proof of this. Here surgical gauze, disposable gloves and other surgical material are, shockingly, recycled.
When we visited the hospital in November, bandages were removed from wounds, washed in boiling water and used again. Also, the lack of centralised piped oxygen supply, forced the hospital's acting director Dr Ravi Raj stop all routine surgeries for two months.
Lack of basics
Life has not been the same here after August 11, when the Tigers attacked the Sri Lankan forward defence line at Muhamalai, 30-odd km south of Jaffna town. Government forces retaliated by closing the A9 highway, the lifeline from the Sinhala south to the Tamil north.
There are long serpentine queues, with some of them waiting after the curfew relaxation at six in the morning for rice, dal, sugar and just about everything. Yet, there is not enough for anyone. There is no baby food, no medicines outside Jaffna general hospital.
It's not just the nameless poor villagers who rue their fate. Dr Ganesh Murthy, a retired consultant of Jaffna medical college, says there is not even paracetamol available in pharmacies. "I never stood in a queue after I was 10. Now, I wait for over two hours for rice and dal. A match box costs Rs 25 outside," says Murthy.
And this is no exaggeration. At Thinakkural, the hotel where we stayed, we were the only guests and had to do with tea without milk and just rice, sambar and sambhol --- coconut gratings with chillies. Where a matchstick costs one Rupee or a kg of garlic over Rs 1,000, there is no point in enumerating the spiralling cost of living.
There is a thriving black market. Though the Jaffna commander major general MA Chandrasiri blames the people of Jaffna for hoarding and selling food at astronomically inflated rates, the people say that whatever little is available at government controlled cooperative stores is not enough so they sell sugar to buy rice or fuel for food.
Expensive ride
It was difficult getting into Jaffna, cut off as it was from the mainland at Muhamalai. In fact, we could not even cross over to the LTTE controlled Killinochi by road despite the Government insisting that the A9 Highway was closed only at Muhamalai. The army had turned us back at Vavuniya while trying to cross over. Our persistent pleas were rebuffed by the army. And this was contrary to the army's stated position.
Even while stopping us at Vavuniya, the army maintained that the road was open for us to travel up to Killinochchi. Had it not been for Dr Palitha TB Kohona, secretary general of the Peace Secretariat in Colombo, we wouldn't have got to travel to Killinochchi or Jaffna.
Ironically, Tamil Members of Sri Lankan Parliament, the Jaffna bishop of Church of South India and other activists favoured our visiting Jaffna, but none of them could book us on a civilian flight. Finally we paid for our tickets on a military flight, a cargo carrier meant for military hardware and personnel, which was doubling up as transportation for civilians.
We were lucky...but our fellow passengers weren't. Firstly, anyone travelling to Jaffna requires clearance from the Ministry of defence. That's just the first hurdle. Apart from the airfare, the rate of excess baggage was Rs 430 per kilo in the military aircraft.
Accompanying us on the flight was a family going to attend a funeral in Jaffna...and in these times of scarcity they were carrying sugar, tea, garlic, vegetable oil, mosquito repellents and other household stuff ...You can imagine the amount they paid in excess baggage.
Also accompanying us was Jaffna University vice chancellor R Kumaravadivel. Jaffna University is according to the Sri Lankan government, a nursery for tiger cubs. It has been closed for this very reason. While in Colombo, Dr Kohona had told us, "We have credible information that the LTTE is going to recruit 6,000 students from the university. We don't want that to happen." For General Chandrasiri, Jaffna commander of the Lankan government, the university is a dangerous zone. He had raided the campus and seized propaganda material, satellite phones, and even a huge cut-out of Prabhakaran.
The vice chancellor of Jaffna University, naturally has a different story to tell. Prof Kumaravadivel says there aren't 6,000 students in the university, but around 5200, and that there is no point in closing the university to stop students from joining the LTTE, because 1300 of them come from LTTE controlled areas. "They don't have to come to Jaffna to join LTTE", he contends.
Call for help
The VC is not worried about the LTTE sympathisers, but is completely helpless because he cannot feed his students or assure their safety. "The situation is much worse than what it was in 1987, when India airdropped food parcels," he says. The hint is too obvious for explanation.
And the Tamil tragedy is intrinsically linked to this yearning for support from India. They call themselves the forgotten people, with their umbilical cord with Tamil Nadu snapped and being left to fend for themselves. All because of what they call, "the most tragic incident of 1991". Perhaps nowhere else is Rajiv Gandhi and his assassination a real life dilemma than here.
Off camera, they all, young and old, term Rajiv's assassination the Tigers' biggest blunder. But they stop short of attacking the Tigers. "The Tigers are our sole protection in times of ethnic cleansing," they say, pleading anonymity. They want India to intervene, to forget Rajiv's murder and to move forward, but they also admit things can never be the same again. Rajiv's murder has left them friendless in Tamil Nadu. It is almost as if an entire people feel responsible for what the Tigers have done and that obviously answers the big question: Do the Tigers represent the Tamil people?
Students of Jaffna university were not willing to be interviewed on camera...so we had to film them looking away from the camera, so only their voices w ere recorded. Obviously, no names. "Truth is dead here. People are being killed and we are scared to speak out or even show our faces," one of them told us. They were referring to mysterious kidnappings and killings in Jaffna, which they claim are being done by gangs unleashed by security forces to counter the Tigers.
Yet, they don't want to distance themselves from the Tigers. "A separate Tamil homeland is not an LTTE proposal. Ever since the death of Thanthai Selvam in 1977, Tamil Eelam had been our formal demand. LTTE is part of our struggle to achieve Tamil Eelam," is how a student theorised a normal Tamil's support for LTTE. At the end of the interview, he wanted to add an appeal to the people and government of India: "Please forget Rajiv's assassination. Without Indian intervention there could never be a solution."
The only one to openly proclaim his support for the LTTE was a fisherman: probably here discretion was giving way to desperation. His and many of his friends' boats are grounded. And those who go out fishing do it only for a couple of hours because they are restricted to 200 to 300 metres from beaches. "Soon we'll starve. LTTE may have stopped ships from bringing foods, but we want the highway to be opened. We are never troubled by the Tigers, they are fighting for our liberation," said a fisherman.
It was not just these faceless students or nameless fisherfolk who wanted Indian intervention to avert a catastrophe. The catholic bishop of Jaffna, Dr Thomas Sovindranayagam doesn't believe that Norway as a peacemaker would achieve much because Norway is so far away from the island. And the further the negotiator, the more difficult it is to implement peace proposals, he believes.
"We are a very small group of people. Certainly by ourselves we can't achieve peace. In other countries also peace was achieved by the intervention of international community. For us the best country is India, our closest neighbour and culturally we are very much linked and lot of our people have taken refuge there. India must not be simply a spectator, it must play an active role in bringing a lasting peace," says the bishop. But the Tigers are much more subtle when they seek help from India.
'Tiger land encounter'
K ILLINOCHCHI: We were not exactly welcome here in Tiger territory. Luckily there were no humiliating body searches or frisking as we had undergone at the gates of Jaffna security forces headquarters where we had gone to meet General Chandrasiri. But the rest was heartstoppingly tense. At the Omanthai check point on A9, almost 20 km north of Vavuniya, nobody stopped us, so we raced past the shacks that were Tigers' customs checkpoints. A further 10-15 km and a youngster waved us down at a barricade. "Go back," was the terse order. At the Omanthari checkpoint, young Tigers with walkie-talkies as small as mobile phones opened our bags and took their time giving us travel documents.
At Killinochchi, the LTTE spokesperson, Daya Master was tentative. When the army initially refused us permission to travel to Killinochchi, the LTTE didn't want to help either. LTTE leaders told an intermediary that, a journalist lost her eyes last time when they tried to smuggle her in during war. But it seemed to be much more than mere reluctance to take risks. The Tigers are generally suspicious of the Indian media, they don't want to respond to repeated queries about the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and they don't want to be perceived as weak, bending over backwards to accommodate Indians to win a propaganda war.
Daya Master took us to Killinochchi hospital where the false ceiling was broken at many places when the Sri Lankan air force bombed what it claimed an LTTE safe house in the vicinity. It was a doctor's house, the LTTE maintains. The LTTE is anticipating more attacks and has dug up bunkers all over the place. Even at One2Nine, our hotel, there are LTTE bunkers. And contrary to hearsay, there was alcohol and cigarettes on offer at the hotel, both taboo for the LTTE cadre. One thing that struck me most was the casual business -as -usual approach of the people of Killinochchi. There was scarcity but nothing compared to Jaffna. For a slightly higher price everything was available. Bombed out buildings are the only common denominator between Jaffna and Killinochchi. And unlike Jaffna, there was no presence of armed men or women on the streets. The only time I saw a few of the cadre, women in fact, was when we went asking for Daya Master's office. Life in Killinochchi is controlled totally by the LTTE, even the local FM station is that of Voice of Tigers, Pulikalinkural, broadcasting songs in praise of Prabhakaran and the war against the Sri Lankan forces.
Changing stand?
The next day, SP Thamilselvan gave us an interview, where he wanted India to acknowledge and support the Tamil cause and stop aiding the Sri Lankan army. But how could India support LTTE, a banned organisation? His answer was rather simple, the Tamils and the LTTE are inseparable. And anybody who cares for the Tamils would have to support the LTTE.
This led to the obvious questions of how he expects India to support LTTE, when it is considered to be the killers of Rajiv. Thamilselvan's reply was interesting: "We have never admitted to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. We have no links whatsoever with the incident. Just as India has forgotten the murder of Indira Gandhi, it should move ahead and forget Rajiv's murder."
I jumped in: "If you didn't then who killed Rajiv?" As Dhanpal changed the tape, Thamilselvan replied, "We will give more details of the murder at an appropriate time." But he refused to repeat it on camera. As I persisted with my questions, Thamilselvan became increasingly irritated and the interview was soon over.
We wanted to shoot the LTTE cadre, training, marching or just hanging around but we were not allowed to do so. Daya Master for the umpteenth time cycled off to the political office to seek permission. After what seemed like eternity, he came back with a DVD. "Sorry, this is all I can give you," he said. Thus, without those dramatic pieces to camera or any romantic notions of LTTE, we returned to Colombo and then to Delhi.
Post Script: We aired out stories during Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse visit to India in the last week of November. And in an interview to The Times of India, he said our stories were only the LTTE's version of the Jaffna situation. I hope Daya Master would make a clipping of the President's interview and send it across to Velupillai Prabhakaran through Thamilselvan. Then at least I would be assured of a better reception at the Omanthai Tiger checkpoint next time, if not an interview with Prabhakaran !
NDTV Column
Friday, December 8, 2006
JAFFNA: There was no mistaking the boom of artillery guns. But apart from me and my colleague Dhanpal, the cameraperson, nobody seemed worried at the Kopay refugee camp.
According to the displaced victims of this civil war, those were Sri Lankan guns pounding LTTE positions. As evening set in and curfew began at six, the firing intensified.
The only solace was that the LTTE doesn't fire at Jaffna, at the Tamil population. And here, unlike in other parts of the country, Tamil Tigers are not hit-and-run terrorist squads, bombing crowded political rallies or targetting leaders. Instead there is a pitched battle with lines drawn and two armies exchanging fire, as if the land across the line is enemy territory.
Just as distinct as the February 22, 2002 ceasefire line is the divide among the nations --- the Tamil north and the Sinhala south. Jaffna general hospital and medical college offer further proof of this. Here surgical gauze, disposable gloves and other surgical material are, shockingly, recycled.
When we visited the hospital in November, bandages were removed from wounds, washed in boiling water and used again. Also, the lack of centralised piped oxygen supply, forced the hospital's acting director Dr Ravi Raj stop all routine surgeries for two months.
Lack of basics
Life has not been the same here after August 11, when the Tigers attacked the Sri Lankan forward defence line at Muhamalai, 30-odd km south of Jaffna town. Government forces retaliated by closing the A9 highway, the lifeline from the Sinhala south to the Tamil north.
There are long serpentine queues, with some of them waiting after the curfew relaxation at six in the morning for rice, dal, sugar and just about everything. Yet, there is not enough for anyone. There is no baby food, no medicines outside Jaffna general hospital.
It's not just the nameless poor villagers who rue their fate. Dr Ganesh Murthy, a retired consultant of Jaffna medical college, says there is not even paracetamol available in pharmacies. "I never stood in a queue after I was 10. Now, I wait for over two hours for rice and dal. A match box costs Rs 25 outside," says Murthy.
And this is no exaggeration. At Thinakkural, the hotel where we stayed, we were the only guests and had to do with tea without milk and just rice, sambar and sambhol --- coconut gratings with chillies. Where a matchstick costs one Rupee or a kg of garlic over Rs 1,000, there is no point in enumerating the spiralling cost of living.
There is a thriving black market. Though the Jaffna commander major general MA Chandrasiri blames the people of Jaffna for hoarding and selling food at astronomically inflated rates, the people say that whatever little is available at government controlled cooperative stores is not enough so they sell sugar to buy rice or fuel for food.
Expensive ride
It was difficult getting into Jaffna, cut off as it was from the mainland at Muhamalai. In fact, we could not even cross over to the LTTE controlled Killinochi by road despite the Government insisting that the A9 Highway was closed only at Muhamalai. The army had turned us back at Vavuniya while trying to cross over. Our persistent pleas were rebuffed by the army. And this was contrary to the army's stated position.
Even while stopping us at Vavuniya, the army maintained that the road was open for us to travel up to Killinochchi. Had it not been for Dr Palitha TB Kohona, secretary general of the Peace Secretariat in Colombo, we wouldn't have got to travel to Killinochchi or Jaffna.
Ironically, Tamil Members of Sri Lankan Parliament, the Jaffna bishop of Church of South India and other activists favoured our visiting Jaffna, but none of them could book us on a civilian flight. Finally we paid for our tickets on a military flight, a cargo carrier meant for military hardware and personnel, which was doubling up as transportation for civilians.
We were lucky...but our fellow passengers weren't. Firstly, anyone travelling to Jaffna requires clearance from the Ministry of defence. That's just the first hurdle. Apart from the airfare, the rate of excess baggage was Rs 430 per kilo in the military aircraft.
Accompanying us on the flight was a family going to attend a funeral in Jaffna...and in these times of scarcity they were carrying sugar, tea, garlic, vegetable oil, mosquito repellents and other household stuff ...You can imagine the amount they paid in excess baggage.
Also accompanying us was Jaffna University vice chancellor R Kumaravadivel. Jaffna University is according to the Sri Lankan government, a nursery for tiger cubs. It has been closed for this very reason. While in Colombo, Dr Kohona had told us, "We have credible information that the LTTE is going to recruit 6,000 students from the university. We don't want that to happen." For General Chandrasiri, Jaffna commander of the Lankan government, the university is a dangerous zone. He had raided the campus and seized propaganda material, satellite phones, and even a huge cut-out of Prabhakaran.
The vice chancellor of Jaffna University, naturally has a different story to tell. Prof Kumaravadivel says there aren't 6,000 students in the university, but around 5200, and that there is no point in closing the university to stop students from joining the LTTE, because 1300 of them come from LTTE controlled areas. "They don't have to come to Jaffna to join LTTE", he contends.
Call for help
The VC is not worried about the LTTE sympathisers, but is completely helpless because he cannot feed his students or assure their safety. "The situation is much worse than what it was in 1987, when India airdropped food parcels," he says. The hint is too obvious for explanation.
And the Tamil tragedy is intrinsically linked to this yearning for support from India. They call themselves the forgotten people, with their umbilical cord with Tamil Nadu snapped and being left to fend for themselves. All because of what they call, "the most tragic incident of 1991". Perhaps nowhere else is Rajiv Gandhi and his assassination a real life dilemma than here.
Off camera, they all, young and old, term Rajiv's assassination the Tigers' biggest blunder. But they stop short of attacking the Tigers. "The Tigers are our sole protection in times of ethnic cleansing," they say, pleading anonymity. They want India to intervene, to forget Rajiv's murder and to move forward, but they also admit things can never be the same again. Rajiv's murder has left them friendless in Tamil Nadu. It is almost as if an entire people feel responsible for what the Tigers have done and that obviously answers the big question: Do the Tigers represent the Tamil people?
Students of Jaffna university were not willing to be interviewed on camera...so we had to film them looking away from the camera, so only their voices w ere recorded. Obviously, no names. "Truth is dead here. People are being killed and we are scared to speak out or even show our faces," one of them told us. They were referring to mysterious kidnappings and killings in Jaffna, which they claim are being done by gangs unleashed by security forces to counter the Tigers.
Yet, they don't want to distance themselves from the Tigers. "A separate Tamil homeland is not an LTTE proposal. Ever since the death of Thanthai Selvam in 1977, Tamil Eelam had been our formal demand. LTTE is part of our struggle to achieve Tamil Eelam," is how a student theorised a normal Tamil's support for LTTE. At the end of the interview, he wanted to add an appeal to the people and government of India: "Please forget Rajiv's assassination. Without Indian intervention there could never be a solution."
The only one to openly proclaim his support for the LTTE was a fisherman: probably here discretion was giving way to desperation. His and many of his friends' boats are grounded. And those who go out fishing do it only for a couple of hours because they are restricted to 200 to 300 metres from beaches. "Soon we'll starve. LTTE may have stopped ships from bringing foods, but we want the highway to be opened. We are never troubled by the Tigers, they are fighting for our liberation," said a fisherman.
It was not just these faceless students or nameless fisherfolk who wanted Indian intervention to avert a catastrophe. The catholic bishop of Jaffna, Dr Thomas Sovindranayagam doesn't believe that Norway as a peacemaker would achieve much because Norway is so far away from the island. And the further the negotiator, the more difficult it is to implement peace proposals, he believes.
"We are a very small group of people. Certainly by ourselves we can't achieve peace. In other countries also peace was achieved by the intervention of international community. For us the best country is India, our closest neighbour and culturally we are very much linked and lot of our people have taken refuge there. India must not be simply a spectator, it must play an active role in bringing a lasting peace," says the bishop. But the Tigers are much more subtle when they seek help from India.
'Tiger land encounter'
K ILLINOCHCHI: We were not exactly welcome here in Tiger territory. Luckily there were no humiliating body searches or frisking as we had undergone at the gates of Jaffna security forces headquarters where we had gone to meet General Chandrasiri. But the rest was heartstoppingly tense. At the Omanthai check point on A9, almost 20 km north of Vavuniya, nobody stopped us, so we raced past the shacks that were Tigers' customs checkpoints. A further 10-15 km and a youngster waved us down at a barricade. "Go back," was the terse order. At the Omanthari checkpoint, young Tigers with walkie-talkies as small as mobile phones opened our bags and took their time giving us travel documents.
At Killinochchi, the LTTE spokesperson, Daya Master was tentative. When the army initially refused us permission to travel to Killinochchi, the LTTE didn't want to help either. LTTE leaders told an intermediary that, a journalist lost her eyes last time when they tried to smuggle her in during war. But it seemed to be much more than mere reluctance to take risks. The Tigers are generally suspicious of the Indian media, they don't want to respond to repeated queries about the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and they don't want to be perceived as weak, bending over backwards to accommodate Indians to win a propaganda war.
Daya Master took us to Killinochchi hospital where the false ceiling was broken at many places when the Sri Lankan air force bombed what it claimed an LTTE safe house in the vicinity. It was a doctor's house, the LTTE maintains. The LTTE is anticipating more attacks and has dug up bunkers all over the place. Even at One2Nine, our hotel, there are LTTE bunkers. And contrary to hearsay, there was alcohol and cigarettes on offer at the hotel, both taboo for the LTTE cadre. One thing that struck me most was the casual business -as -usual approach of the people of Killinochchi. There was scarcity but nothing compared to Jaffna. For a slightly higher price everything was available. Bombed out buildings are the only common denominator between Jaffna and Killinochchi. And unlike Jaffna, there was no presence of armed men or women on the streets. The only time I saw a few of the cadre, women in fact, was when we went asking for Daya Master's office. Life in Killinochchi is controlled totally by the LTTE, even the local FM station is that of Voice of Tigers, Pulikalinkural, broadcasting songs in praise of Prabhakaran and the war against the Sri Lankan forces.
Changing stand?
The next day, SP Thamilselvan gave us an interview, where he wanted India to acknowledge and support the Tamil cause and stop aiding the Sri Lankan army. But how could India support LTTE, a banned organisation? His answer was rather simple, the Tamils and the LTTE are inseparable. And anybody who cares for the Tamils would have to support the LTTE.
This led to the obvious questions of how he expects India to support LTTE, when it is considered to be the killers of Rajiv. Thamilselvan's reply was interesting: "We have never admitted to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. We have no links whatsoever with the incident. Just as India has forgotten the murder of Indira Gandhi, it should move ahead and forget Rajiv's murder."
I jumped in: "If you didn't then who killed Rajiv?" As Dhanpal changed the tape, Thamilselvan replied, "We will give more details of the murder at an appropriate time." But he refused to repeat it on camera. As I persisted with my questions, Thamilselvan became increasingly irritated and the interview was soon over.
We wanted to shoot the LTTE cadre, training, marching or just hanging around but we were not allowed to do so. Daya Master for the umpteenth time cycled off to the political office to seek permission. After what seemed like eternity, he came back with a DVD. "Sorry, this is all I can give you," he said. Thus, without those dramatic pieces to camera or any romantic notions of LTTE, we returned to Colombo and then to Delhi.
Post Script: We aired out stories during Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse visit to India in the last week of November. And in an interview to The Times of India, he said our stories were only the LTTE's version of the Jaffna situation. I hope Daya Master would make a clipping of the President's interview and send it across to Velupillai Prabhakaran through Thamilselvan. Then at least I would be assured of a better reception at the Omanthai Tiger checkpoint next time, if not an interview with Prabhakaran !
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