What is there to celebrate? Rumblings of a Jaffna Tamil
Repost This ArticleThe question that I have been repeatedly asked by people outside Jaffna is whether we Tamils are not happy that the war is over. An immediate follow up question is whether we are not happy that the LTTE is defeated and the prescription that the defeat of the LTTE should not be considered a defeat of the Tamils, because as they say, clearly both are distinct. The first question is one that is supposed to ‘trick us over’ (to solicit an affirmative response to the second question) and the second is an obvious political question asked to evaluate whether there are still “tiger sentiments” prevailing among the Tamil populace in Sri Lanka. I always refuse to answer these questions in a paradigm of a yes or a no – people are generally very adamant for a response in either of these solitary words. But like all political questions they just don’t have a one word answer. Let me then get down to answering the questions. Yes I am “happy” that there is no war or in the conflict resolution jargon ‘negative peace’ but it is akin to being happy of the inheritance that one receives when you lose your spouse. The manner in which the war was conducted and won can never make me feel happy about the outcome of the war. My standard response to the second question is that the Tamil people generally had a love-hate relationship with the LTTE and hence the emotions are just very complicated. Beyond the question of whether you liked the LTTE or not there was a feeling of being defeated; an important part of our life being lost; a sense of feeling drained out; a sense of losing political power. This sense of mixed feeling was well captured by my mother’s domestic aide in Jaffna (who had lost one of her children to the war – he was an LTTE cadre) who cursed Prabhakaran in despair, when she saw his dead body on TV on 18th May – cursing him for taking away her son (and for the futility of purpose in her son’s death) – but who immediately also said  that all was lost for the Tamil people.
What has changed since the war ended? The A9 is open (people are alighted at Omanthai for checking but otherwise can commute between Jaffna and Colombo in about 10 hours), a lot of banks have opened up offices in Jaffna (one Multi National bank employee told me that ‘Jaffna people have a lot of money’ (?!) and hence the rush to Jaffna), traffic police are in Jaffna after a long time, some check points have been removed, a lot of tourists from the South are continuously flocking to Jaffna (largely to visit Nagadipa and also as one tourist told me ‘to see the war wreckage before the Government develops Jaffna’), goods are available in Jaffna almost at Colombo prices, Jaffna traders are able to take their products to the South with less difficulty, Tissainayagam has been pardoned (but we don’t know whether he is guaranteed freedom of movement) and apparently some Emergency regulations have been withdrawn (the latter two are supposed to satisfy the appetite of the international community and they are not too hungry anymore. They make very meek demands. Susan Rice has welcomed the recently appointed “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission”, styled on the British John Chilcott’s Iraq Inquiry. Most western diplomats that I have met urge us to be patient and be happy with the opportunities created by the ‘liberated’ free market in the North.)
What has not changed? There are still 40,000 troops stationed in Jaffna and probably more in the Vanni. More than 80,000 people reside in the Menik Farm Camp. People who are resettled in Vanni have the least of assistance to regain their livelihood. There are more than 60,000 relocated from the Menik Farm camp in Jaffna who face the same plight. They await the day they could return to Vanni. More than 70,000 ‘old’ IDPs still remain displaced because of the High Security Zones that take up 1/3rd of the arable land and a good portion of the fishing coastline in Jaffna. Permission is denied for deep sea, multi-day fishing. Despite the recent notification of withdrawal of Emergency regulations on this particular subject, the Armed Forces occupy private property in the form of check points (which cluster four or five houses together) in almost every junction in Jaffna. (for those who are not aware of how Governments in the past and present have acted absolutely illegal even where the Emergency Regulations do not provide for such action read Mr M A Sumanthiran, TNA National List MP’s maiden speech in parliament)
What has gotten worse? The Government is interested in archaeological excavations, supporting the construction of hotels, conducting of trade fairs in Jaffna and in building war monuments in the Vanni (Not a single monument for the dead civilians in the conflict though). Almost all LTTE memorials and graveyards in Jaffna and Vanni constructed for their dead have been destroyed. The statue of Thileepan who died observing a hunger strike seeking the withdrawal of the IPKF, has been entirely demolished. The Government is very particular about erasing any memory of the war and conflict. The right to memory of the war and the dead is considered criminal by the Government in the North and East. Only the death of the Sri Lankan armed force personnel is worth remembering. This is the Sri Lankan approach to reconciliation.
Those resettled in Vanni live in a highly militarized environment. We in the civil society in Jaffna are receiving reports both from credible and unverifiable sources of friction between the resettled IDPs and the armed forces. This Government is adamant on reducing the involvement of non state actors (NGOs, INGOs) in the resettlement process and we have a supra legal structure called the Presidential Task Force which from Colombo is making all decisions relating to resettlement and development. It is Basil Rajapaksa and his all-purpose Ministry of Economic Development which is tasked with the responsibility of managing “All Regional Development Programmes (including District Development Programmes)” as per the Gazette notification on the allocation of departments and functions to the different ministries. The elected representatives of the Tamil people (including Douglas Devananda, who has now been a Cabinet Minister for over 15 years, are not consulted as part of this process. From information that I have none of the INGOs or the NGOs in Jaffna seem to be involved in any programmes relating to housing and reconstruction for those resettled in the Vanni. There seems to be no programme at all as of now.
In Jaffna there is an increase in the number of abductions which has led to at least one death. The murder is linked to an EPDP member and the EPDP is accused of threatening the Chavahacheri Magistrate who is handling the case. At the time of writing this piece lawyers attached to the Northern Province were boycotting courts protesting against the threat on the judge. One does not understand for what purpose these former Tamil militant groups are holding on to their weapons one year after the LTTE has been wiped out. There are also many mysterious deaths being reported. More than two dozen deaths where bodies were found inside wells have been reported.
And what of the political process? Post-May 2009, the TNA has compromised significantly as was exhibited in their General Elections Manifesto – retracting on the claim for a separate state and agreeing to reconfigure the benchmark of a solution to federalism. So this becomes the new ‘maximalist’ standard of the demand of the most important Tamil political formation of the Tamil people. This can only mean that they are willing to settle for a solution below the federal benchmark – within a unitary structure or a quasi federal structure, despite rejecting the 13th amendment as a solution in their manifesto (Anyone who understands the basics of negotiations will know, a party articulates its most desired solution so that through compromise you may achieve something less eventually). This is made clear by confirmed reports that the TNA will run for the upcoming Northern Provincial elections. It seems like the Government will compliment TNA’s stand by providing for a Senate which gives an illusion of moving past the 13th amendment (13++?) while there remain provisions of the 13th amendment which clearly will not be implemented. The TNA seems like it will be satisfied with federalism being a target to which the present system could evolve to. The main splinter group from the TNA (called the Tamil Nation’s People Front – TNPF) have expressed serious dissatisfaction with this approach of the TNA. While agreeing that federalism is what the Tamils should settle for they disagree with making federalism the benchmark for a solution. They are for an articulation of the demands through the lens’ of principles than frameworks. The TNPF’s approach sought to make sure that the Tamils do not settle for devolution within a unitary state but they lost badly at the General Elections. The Tamils largely voted for preserving unity within the Tamil political space – the TNA. The TNPF was seen as breaking the unity amongst the Tamil political forces the ‘founding rationale’of the TNA.
Post-war is no Post-Conflict. The South has not shown a single evidence of maturing as a democracy that is not defined in majoritarian terms. For all these reasons I say there is no reason for celebration. The moment is for introspection, deep reflection and for remembering the dead, whatever political colouring they might belong to. I refuse to be forced into optimism. I refuse to believe in false hope.
Let me get this right: the fact that no Tamil child has been forcibly conscripted and that no young Tamil man or woman blew themselves up in the last year, is no cause for celebration or happiness? Great !
If the Tamil didn’t want to divide the community, they could very well have voted for the TNPF and not the TNA. After all, they DID divide up by voting for the EPDP.
Finally, just out of curiosity, who was the writer’s ‘spouse’…you know, the one who died and left the inheritance? (Was it perhaps The Fatty with the Large Exit Hole in the Back of the Head?)
What a callous and insensitive remark Dayan Jayathilake! Is that the best you can do?
Aachcharya,
An excellent sum-up. Thank you. I am still searching for the light but all I see are the blinking light of fireflies and hear wailing of survivors, barking of dogs and howling of wolves. Amid this chaos it is important for us in the dark to make sure our gyroscope is working even though we can’t see it.
“The moment is for introspection, deep reflection and for remembering the dead, whatever political colouring they might belong to. I refuse to be forced into optimism. I refuse to believe in false hope.”
I agree with this 100%; the author has clearly said that, war is over, which is good, but the Tamils are not in any mood for celebration.
Dr. Dayan needs to remember that, most of the LTTE cadres who got killed in the last phase of the war were born into the war culture; it was their misfortune. If they had had an opportunity live longer, like you went through different phases your life, who knows many would have formed different opinions about their struggle! The fact that, you do not recognise that, the young Tamil men and women who joined the LTTE as victims of political failures of Sri Lanka is very sad, especially from a man like you who went from a radical revolutionary to a self-proclaimed political Scientist!
I’m curious to find out whether Acharya actually lives in Jaffna; the way he/she writes seems like the information comes to him/her second hand.
If he/she does not live there, where does she live? Just curious, of course…
Well done Jayatilleka,
Some of your comments are funnier than your articles.
Aachcharya,
Thanks for your perspective from Jaffna.
The end of the war and the end to the LTTE’s conscription and other atrocities against the Tamil people themselves, came with the mass murder of 30-40,000 innocent civilians, grievous injuries, loss of limb and eyesight, disembowelment , etc., of another 20,000, and the displacement, incarceration or loss of livelihood of nearly a million Tamil people.
How can any sane person say that is something for Tamils to celebrate?
If Sri Lanka and India had jointly found ways, using whatever technological advances possible, to eliminate the LTTE’s top leadership without visiting this catastrophe on the Tamil people, it would have been hard for even the hardcore LTTE people to complain. Tamil people would have been able to appreciate the resulting peace.
But what happened is an illegitimate abridgement of individual rights of the Tamil citizens to live free of death and displacement.
This grave crime shall not go unpunished. The Sinhala hawks who celebrate now are collectively deluded and think the war ends the Tamil struggle for justice in Sri Lanka and they can talk about forced reconciliation and assimilation. They are sadly mistaken.
The enormity of the crime they have committed ensures that Sri Lanka will not have peace for the next several decades. It will remain a pariah state, governed by thugs and war criminals. These criminals will be hunted down for decades to come. The shrill denials by the pro-Rajapaksa crowd of war crimes will not wash; not with me, not with the Tamil people, not with progressive elements in Sinhalese society and not with the international community, which increasingly is seeing that a grave injustice has been done to the Tamil people.
Excellent piece. I guess these sentiments must surely be similar to those of any people who have suffered a defeat, however unacceptable and tyrannical their leadership might have been — Germans in 1945, Iraqis today, etc. Hopefully with the emergence of the TNA into the political center — something I was hoping for and recommending for over a year now — the Tamils will begin to feel better represented and capable of getting the Sinhalese to also compromise in the long term.
“If Sri Lanka and India had jointly found ways, using whatever technological advances possible, to eliminate the LTTE’s top leadership without visiting this catastrophe on the Tamil people, it would have been hard for even the hardcore LTTE people to complain. Tamil people would have been able to appreciate the resulting peace.”
Agnos, while this Utopian sort of warfare is ideal, it almost never happens. If only our leaders were willing to fight like David & Goliath or Dutugemunu & Elara, but that is fantasy. I remember JRJ challenging Wijeweera to a boxing match at Galle Face, but that was a bit of a joke. With all its technology the US can’t get Bin Laden and couldn’t get Saddam without invading and killing thousands. There are no laser beams and x-ray vision to conveniently find the leaders and zap ‘em like James Bond. You need informants and spies and lots of cooperation from the general population to find these guys, and there wasn’t a lot of the latter. In spite of this, we had a few successes and got guys like Thamilselvam and Shankar. That’s the best you can hope for.
Dear Aachcharya,
Thanks for the insightful piece. Yes it is shameful that a vast majority of the people in the country are being hoodwinked and “drugged” into a state of euphoria. A lot of soldiers died in my mum’s village – Walasmulla and the adjoining areas – the deep south. And it is interesting – the families seem to have a mixed reaction – different to the flag waving cries highlighted in the state media. It is a feeling of relief that things are over, but also a deep sense of loss and even that sense of futility – even though military personnel who died are being elevated to the level of national heroes. It feels a little hollow – the ppl who are celebrating seem the least affected. the ones who have lost someone seem to be able to understand at a deeper humane level the sense of loss. (But yes, there is no parallel to the loss of political bargaining power) It is sad. honestly as a nation it is time for introspection. I am amazed at how the “all party conference” just disintegrated – and why there is no discussion at all about a political solution – it is really intriguing how machiavellian politics is hoodwinking, and oppressing people on both sides
Foodie,
I was born, live and work in Jaffna.
Burning Issue,
At no stage in my evolution did I support or practise the murder of unarmed innocents. That’s because every person has a conscience. And I’m not quite a ‘self proclaimed political scientist’, I have three degrees and a designation that say I am…none of them ‘honorary’.
Agnos,
Kindly read the new study ‘How Eelam War 4 was Won’ by Gen Ashok Mehta, published as Manekshaw paper 22 for the Centre for Land warfare studies, New Delhi. It is confirmed by the recent essays by Col Hariharan and veteran journalist PK Balachandran. None of these objective and independent professional studies (including the first, which is painstaking piece of research) bear out the story of ‘war crimes’. Which is why not a single state has bought the ‘war crimes’ story.
Agnos,
“If Sri Lanka and India had jointly found ways, using whatever technological advances possible, to eliminate the LTTE’s top leadership without visiting this catastrophe on the Tamil people, it would have been hard for even the hardcore LTTE people to complain.”
If even the US does not possess this technology, how do you think 3rd world India and SL would have it?
DJ,
Let me get this right: the fact that hundreds of Tamils were blown apart by SLA is a cause for celebration by Tamils?? GREAT!!! So Ashok Mehta’s turned out to be an “objective” analysis just because he didn’t care to write about war crimes. Hey if somebody doesn’t write about war crimes, then NO WAR CRIMES took place! GREAT ANALYSIS! By the same logic, a lot of people don’t talk about LTTE “terrorism”, but only about Freedom fighting.That means no terrorism from LTTE ever took place. LTTE “terrorism” was a story sinhala masses invented! [Edited out]
Wijayapala,
You seem to believe that mass atrocities against civilians are justified if the state doesn’t have the technology or the competence to handle insurgencies without killing a large number of civilians.
That is something I fundamentally disagree with. There are always alternatives if a state stipulates that a certain line cannot be crossed. Deliberately disregarding the distinction between civilians and combatants is a crime for which Sri Lanka will pay a heavy price.
The US problems in Afghanistan have to do with a lot of other factors like lack of intelligence, collaboration with Pakistani intelligence, which ironically nurtured–and segments of which still support–the Taliban. It is a war in a faraway country with a lot of logistical problems. The US has the technology but it is not enough when other factors don’t align. You can’t compare that to Sri Lanka’s war in Mullaithivu/Puthukudiyiruppu. And Sri Lanka had the Karuna group, with its rich intelligence on the LTTE, on its side.
Despite being a third world country, India has good satellite technology. I have heard from remote sensing experts here in the US that Indian satellite programs come pretty close to those of the US and Canada.
DJ,
I don’t need to read Indian military types, who had unfinished business with the LTTE, or journalists. I have my own sources on the ground, and the UTHR has produced several reports. These are far more credible. Now AI, HRW and ICG, all credible organizations, are coming out together with war crimes charges.(In this forum you once told Pearl Devanayagam that AI hadn’t accused SL of committing war crimes; now they have reiterated it, you are running to Indians to support your position).
All available evidence, from multiple sources, points unmistakably to war crimes by Sri Lanka. Given India’s technological capabilities, let Sri Lanka ask India to produce real-time satellite imagery to prove there were no war crimes by SL forces.
“You seem to believe that mass atrocities against civilians are justified if the state doesn’t have the technology or the competence to handle insurgencies without killing a large number of civilians.”
But there haven’t been any mass atrocities as you suggest, Agnos. The war was conducted within the laws set by the Geneva Conventions. If you somehow think that war can be conducted according to some Enid Blyton ideal where no innocents are harmed, you’re living in some sort of fantasy world. People die in war, and in modern war it’s often innocents. The Tigers chose to fight in the most callous and cynical manner, selecting a strategy which would be the most harmful to the very Tamils they claimed to represent and defend. In such a situation, the state is obliged to take as many reasonable precautions to minimise loss of civilian life, and I believe the GoSL and the military did so. If these precautions weren’t taken, tens of thousands more would have perished, and while that’s no consolation to the dead and maimed, nor to their families, at least they can rest assure that no more such innocents will die as they did in the last thirty years.
“Deliberately disregarding the distinction between civilians and combatants is a crime for which Sri Lanka will pay a heavy price.”
But there was no such disregard; in fact, the Army lost lives trying to protect and free the civilians held at gunpoint as shields by the Tigers.
“The US problems in Afghanistan have to do with a lot of other factors”
They may be different factors to the ones here in SL, but that doesn’t mean that the factors here can be dismissed as you do. The war in SL had its own unique factors that prevented it being finished off quickly and efficiently; and the fact that it lasted thirty years is pretty much evidence of those difficult factors. In the circumstances, the conclusion of the war in a mere two years by this regime and its military commanders is testament to its competence.
“like lack of intelligence, collaboration with Pakistani intelligence, which ironically nurtured–and segments of which still support–the Taliban.”
A lack of intelligence cannot be used as an excuse, it is a failing that must nevertheless be surmounted, and the Pakistani factor is a result of a failure of US foreign policy in the ’80s and ’90s. No general is provided with a perfect battlefield; you do the best with what you have, and try to win. That’s war.
“It is a war in a faraway country with a lot of logistical problems.”
Rubbish. This isn’t the Crusades or the German invasion of the USSR. The US is a global superpower with regional commands more powerful than most nations. The US isn’t supplying their military in Iraq along an ocean-wide logistics chain. There is no shortage of weapons, ammo, food, fuel, or any of the other material needed for making war, so logistics isn’t a factor in its inability to target the enemy top brass.
“The US has the technology but it is not enough when other factors don’t align.”
What other extenuating factors are there in Iraq that are not there in similar form in any war?
“You can’t compare that to Sri Lanka’s war in Mullaithivu/Puthukudiyiruppu.”
So which war would you feel comfortable in comparing our war to?
“And Sri Lanka had the Karuna group, with its rich intelligence on the LTTE, on its side.”
The Karuna group’s usefulness has been widely exaggerated, particularly in the Northern Province. They were quite useful in the East where the fighting was more fluid and the Tigers were maneuvering to exchange territory for manpower. It was a different story in the North, particularly after the Mannar area was captured and the Tigers were falling back to the A9. After that it was a war of attrition, two armies fighting toe to toe with no room for flanking actions. In addition, the SL military didn’t have the airmobile capability to exploit the third flank which would have saved time and lives. Instead, they used infantry and armour in hammer strokes against the anvil of the Navy. After Kilinochchi fell there was no room for finesse, we just hammered them til they collapsed. It was like watching Tyson get an opponent against the ropes. Moments of good fortune, like the cutting off and surrounding of Anandapuram were rare. By the last months, even special forces were useless except as shock infantry.
“Despite being a third world country, India has good satellite technology. I have heard from remote sensing experts here in the US that Indian satellite programs come pretty close to those of the US and Canada.”
Lol, stop watching all those Hollywood movies, Agnos! You can’t fight a war via satellite, as the US is learning in Iraq and Afghanistan. Satellites, UAVs, and aerial recce can only do so much. After that you still have to go in with rifle and bayonet and kill them in their holes.
“I don’t need to read Indian military types, who had unfinished business with the LTTE, or journalists. I have my own sources on the ground, and the UTHR has produced several reports.”</em"
Yes, that's a good idea, Agnos. Don't read anything written by people who've actually been there and done that; just stick to your own "sources". As for the UTHR(J), why don't you actually read their reports and see if there's any accounts of widespread atrocities as you claim. Please give us the quotes too.
“These are far more credible. Now AI, HRW and ICG, all credible organizations, are coming out together with war crimes charges”
There will always be war crimes in war, Agnos. No war is free of them. But you’re talking about widespread atrocities, a policy of disregarding civilians or even intentionally targeting them. AI, HRW, or anyone else has been unable to show any evidence of such things; which is why there are no war crimes charges being formulated against the GoSL, nor are there any sanctions, UN resolutions, or anything else.
“All available evidence, from multiple sources, points unmistakably to war crimes by Sri Lanka.”
Please tell us what this evidence is.
“Given India’s technological capabilities, let Sri Lanka ask India to produce real-time satellite imagery to prove there were no war crimes by SL forces.”
How can you prove that something doesn’t exist? You can only prove that somethingdoes exist. The absence of evidence is the evidence of absence.
Dear Dayan
I do not presume that u would know this but there is a renowned hindu saying by ‘Pattinaththaar’ who says what is not visible does not mean that is not present! one day ‘war crime’, ‘humanitarian rescue operation’, ‘genocide’ watever nomenclature u may use will surf! That is the history and it will prevail.
u guys make me very optimistic but i know my landing site and wont overshoot for a crash landing!
Aachcharya
“Anyone who understands the basics of negotiations will know, a party articulates its most desired solution so that through compromise you may achieve something less eventually”
This may well work when trade unions ask for pay rises, but in the political process of theTamils the cost of articulating a particular stance was not considered. Many TULF-ers told me in the 70′s that “we should ask for Eelam, then only we get federalism” — but the cost of articulating the Eelam idea was to wind up the Tamil youth to take up arms while simultaneously inviting hatred and feed the sense of insecurity of the South (“Tamils to the north, sea to the south, how do I sleep straight” etc..). Even now, the trans-national jokers are achieving nothing other than feeding such unnecessary paranoia, making it difficult for a new generation of Tamil leadership that can work *with* the Sinhalese to evolve locally in Sri Lanka.
Agnos,
“You seem to believe that mass atrocities against civilians are justified if the state doesn’t have the technology or the competence to handle insurgencies without killing a large number of civilians.”
No. I was just refuting your belief that it would have been possible to eliminate the LTTE leadership without harming any civilians. The LTTE has a long history of using Tamils as human shields going all the way back to 1987 and it intentionally set up this situation once it became clear that it was losing the war.
I have no argument at all with people who say that the destruction of the LTTE was not worth the deaths of the civilians, as long as those people don’t claim that the LTTE could have been finished off without the civilians getting harmed. The LTTE would not have let that happen.
Simple Question to Wijayapala : If VP was hiding in the south among sinhala masses, would GOSL have bombed the heck out of that place the way they did in the North?? OH NO!!! The lives of sinhala civilians is TOOOOOO PRECIOUS…. but Tamils must be killed like flies. That is your philosophy buddy, due to brain washing by Mahavamsa, whether you like to admit or not. Don’t try to fool us with talks of human shields by LTTE blah blah blah….. A few hundred people killed accidentally will be seen as collateral damage. But thousands killed deliberately DAILY was an attempt to wipe out as many Tamils as possible, under the pretext of wiping out LTTE. GOSL thought they have a blank cheque to write anything on it and it will all go unnoticed!
Really? How come then the UNP regime killed 40,000 Sinhalese in less than three years before they defeated the JVP and captured Wijeweera? That comes to 10,000 Sinhalese a year from 1987-90. In contrast, about 75,000 Tamils have died over 30 years in the northern war, which makes it roughly 2,500 a year. So 10,000 : 2,500. How do you think it would have felt if the SL Army killed 10,000 Tamils a year? That would have totaled 300,000 Tamils.
The only reason aircraft weren’t used against the JVP was because they never captured and held territory like the Tigers. There was nothing to bomb.
wijayapala,
“The LTTE has a long history of using Tamils as human shields going all the way back to 1987 and it intentionally set up this situation once it became clear that it was losing the war.”
I was in Jaffna in 1987 and don’t recall the LTTE’s practice of using human shields then. I know from firsthand experience that during “Operation Liberation”, it was the SLA that used human shields; we experienced the terror of random shelling by the SLA. Some of my friends got walked for 8 miles as shields by the SLA before they were all taken to the Boosa camp and kept there by Lalith Athulathmudali.
Though the LTTE might have used some human shields during its fight with the use of human shields started mainly after they became a conventional force.
The GoSL knew that its strategy of boxing in the LTTE along with the people would produce such a situation, but it diden’t care and was baying for blood. The LTTE had been weakened considerably by the beginning of the war, following the Karuna revolt, tsunami, etc. A large percentage of its cadre by then was conscripted and unmotivated to fight. The GoSL had started to dominate the seas with India’s help. At that point, a state that values the lives of its own citizens could have found many ways to accelerate the implosion of the LTTE without committing mass atrocities.
“I was in Jaffna in 1987 and don’t recall the LTTE’s practice of using human shields then. I know from firsthand experience that during “Operation Liberation”, it was the SLA that used human shields; we experienced the terror of random shelling by the SLA. Some of my friends got walked for 8 miles as shields by the SLA before they were all taken to the Boosa camp and kept there by Lalith Athulathmudali.”
Well, we’ll have to take your word on that one. Personally, I have never heard of it. I have relatives and friends who lived in Jaffna throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s, and they never mentioned it. I served in Elephant Pass and Vasavilan in the early ’90s and never saw anything like that. However, I did see the children sent forward by the Tigers to run through our minefields and clear paths for the following adults.
“Though the LTTE might have used some human shields during its fight with the use of human shields started mainly after they became a conventional force.”
The LTTE fought as conventional force against Kobekkaduwa’s Op Liberation in ’87. They also attacked as a conventional force in ’91 against Elephant Pass, and later at Welioya. In the ’90s they became increasingly conventional in their tactics, and when Elephant Pass finally fell, it was in a conventional assault supported by artillery. In the last two years too the Tigers fought as a conventional force, holding frontlines against the Army. So if what you’re saying is true, the Tiger use of human shields would have increased over the last 20 years to what we finally saw in 2008.
“The GoSL knew that its strategy of boxing in the LTTE along with the people would produce such a situation, but it diden’t care and was baying for blood.”
The GoSL boxed in the Tigers; but it was the Tigers that took the civilians with them as shields.
“The LTTE had been weakened considerably by the beginning of the war, following the Karuna revolt, tsunami, etc. A large percentage of its cadre by then was conscripted and unmotivated to fight. The GoSL had started to dominate the seas with India’s help. At that point, a state that values the lives of its own citizens could have found many ways to accelerate the implosion of the LTTE without committing mass atrocities.”
Could you detail some of these many ingenious ways? And while you’re about it, could you also show evidence of “mass atrocities”?
Mr. Wijayapala:
If even the US does not possess this technology, how do you think 3rd world India and SL would have it?
The US possesses enough nuclear weapons to vaporize Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and other hostile locations, many times over. The fall-out from the radioactive waste alone would be enough to make those regions inhospitable for habitation. If the US threw all its resources into the war effort, the opposition would simply be non-existent (literally). Luckily it does not resort to the use of such brute force. That is the price tag that comes with being a world leader. Unfortunately, little known Sri Lanka can get away with all of its dirty work, since the world has a lower set of expectations for Sri Lanka.
The US needs to capture Iraq intact [Edited out.] Nuking it will be useless because then they couldn’t go back in and steal the oil without radiation poisoning. The only reason the US is there is because of the oil. So the lack of nukes isn’t because the US feel warm and cuddly about the Arabs, but because restraint is to their advantage. Whereas in Japan it didn’t matter, and so they killed hundreds of thousands of civilians for no reason.
Dr. Jayatilleka,
Ideologically, there are times when I agree with your sentiments, and there are times when I strongly disagree. However I do respect your views as that of a prominent Sri Lankan public intellectual. Having said that, I must confess that I find some remarks you make to be a bit too cheap to be congruent with your scholarship.
Just my Rs.0.02, you are bound to disagree.
Not “Tiger sentiments”. It is sentiments of Tamil Eelam, soon will be a reality.
Can Tamils live with a regime of war criminals who are against justice and rule of law.
If Tamils have TE they will have rule of law and justice let alone indpendence.
R Veda,
“If VP was hiding in the south among sinhala masses, would GOSL have bombed the heck out of that place the way they did in the North?? OH NO!!! The lives of sinhala civilians is TOOOOOO PRECIOUS…. but Tamils must be killed like flies.”
Over 60,000 Sinhala youth perished during the 2nd JVP uprising from 1987 to 1989. 10,000 were killed in the 1st uprising in 1971.
Agnos,
“You seem to believe that mass atrocities against civilians are justified if the state doesn’t have the technology or the competence to handle insurgencies without killing a large number of civilians.”
I didn’t say that. You made the point that SL could have found the technology to kill the LTTE leadership without harming anyone else, and I responded that the technology didn’t exist. If your point was that the SLA’s tactics were unjustified regardless of whatever technology was available, you should have said so.
“I was in Jaffna in 1987 and don’t recall the LTTE’s practice of using human shields then.”
I got that from Broken Palmyra. While retreating, the LTTE told the local people to slow down the SLA. Was UTHR lying?
“The US has the technology but it is not enough when other factors don’t align.”
Dayan asked: “Did any of our critics call for Sri Lanka to be given the satellite intelligence and equipment that would have allowed us to prevail more surgically?”
“And Sri Lanka had the Karuna group, with its rich intelligence on the LTTE, on its side.”
How would Karuna have known the exact locations of the LTTE leaders? And what insider knowledge did he, an easterner, have on the Wanni LTTE?
In my last post, some lines I typed are missing in the second para. It should read: “Though the LTTE might have used some human shields during its fight with the IPKF (I was not in Jaffna by then and cannot speak from personal experience), the use of human shields started mainly after they became a conventional force.”
By the way, wijayapala, I just read a previous thread where you had asked me a couple of questions.
1.On forgetting the burning of Jaffna library–I was there when it was burnt; I didn’t forget it, but I tend to focus more on loss of lives; a library can be reconstructed somehow, but lost lives and loss of sight or organs are permanent.
2. On what happened in 1965– I recall reading in some sources that there was some violence against Tamils in the 1960′s as well, though not on the scale of 1958, 1977 or 1983; but I am not exactly sure if it was1963 or 1965.
“I got that from Broken Palmyra. While retreating, the LTTE told the local people to slow down the SLA. Was UTHR lying?”
I respect Rajan Hoole and the UTHR, but their information and interpretation are not always accurate. Once they falsely accused a little girl in Delft who was raped and killed– and her body dumped into a well– by SL Navy personnel, as having indulged in prostitution. They apologized for it later but the damage was done.
On the Operation Liberation, they were probably talking about the people who lived close to the SLA camps from where the Army broke out and then massacred people. Of course the LTTE knew the SLA would go on a rampage and massacre people but didn’t care. But strictly speaking it was not human shield. The LTTE knew it didn’t have the manpower or the heavy arms to hold onto territory at that stage. They were nowhere near to being a conventional army at that time, so they simply mined the areas close to the camps and then withdrew with minimal casualties to their cadre. But the SLA rampage resulted in heavy civilian casualties.
For most of the people who lived at a distance from the camps, the manner in which the SLA asked civilians to gather in temples and then shelled randomly, including the same temples where they had asked people to gather, killing many, was the more critical issue. The SLA took nearly all youths who had gone to the temples to Boosa after making them walk as human shields. I can point you to at least 3 of my friends currently in Australia and 1 friend in the US who experienced it . So it depends on whom the UTHR spoke to—the people close to the camps had every right to feel they were being used by the LTTE as human shield, but my firsthand experience fills the gaps in UTHR’s version.
Let us look at the logical extension of the question you quote from DJ: “Did any of our critics call for Sri Lanka to be given the satellite intelligence and equipment that would have allowed us to prevail more surgically?”
By the same logic, the hardcore LTTE people would ask: “Did any critic of the LTTE provide us with the arms, the anti-aircraft missiles, or even the nuclear bomb, to liberate the Tamil people and establish Tamil Eelam once and for all?”
After all, the LTTE’s conscription of children and suicide bombings were a result of its lack of manpower and more advanced military hardware. And in view of all that I have told you about the SLA, the language of ‘finishing off’ the SLA would have been valid.
This is the kind of drivel that DJ writes; he has zero credibility, I don’t know why anyone would take his writings seriously. But we are talking about Sri Lanka where someone who has blood-stained hands from his association with Premadasa and is baying for more blood, is thought of as an intellectual as long as he can hide his racism and moral turpitude with good prose.
Dear Agnos,
Sorry I didn’t reply. I lost track of the thread. My thanks to eeurekaa for resurrecting it.
“This is the kind of drivel that DJ writes; he has zero credibility,”
DJ’s credibility can be questioned, but what do you think about the credibility of the voices screaming about war crimes that were dead silent when the LTTE was conscripting Tamil children and butchering Tamil dissidents?
“Once they falsely accused a little girl in Delft who was raped and killed– and her body dumped into a well– by SL Navy personnel, as having indulged in prostitution. They apologized for it later but the damage was done.”
Could you please show me which report this was?
The fact that UTHR acknowledged making mistakes sets them apart from practically everybody else who has reported on the war and gives the UTHR much more credibility. Unless you can show a more credible source?
“They were nowhere near to being a conventional army at that time, so they simply mined the areas close to the camps and then withdrew with minimal casualties to their cadre.”
Very interesting. Since you were there, could you please explain how the LTTE was able to withdraw “with minimal casualties” but the civilians were not??????
You were in Jaffna when the LTTE started destroying the other militant groups in 1986-7. How did that make you feel to watch Tamils massacring other Tamils? Did it occur to you that if the LTTE had not done this, there would have been enough fighters to slow down the SLA without forcing civilians into that task?
“By the same logic, the hardcore LTTE people would ask: “Did any critic of the LTTE provide us with the arms, the anti-aircraft missiles, or even the nuclear bomb, to liberate the Tamil people and establish Tamil Eelam once and for all?””
Dayan was asking specifically about how to minimise civilian deaths. You seem to be asking how to maximise these deaths.
“the LTTE’s conscription of children and suicide bombings were a result of its lack of manpower and more advanced military hardware.”
If lack of manpower or weapons were really an issue, the LTTE would have ended the war in 1987 when the IPKF pulled the plug on Operation Liberation. The result would have been the defeat of the SL govt since it would never have beaten the Indians. As it turned out, the LTTE conscripted Tamil children because it (and its supporters) viewed these children’s lives as worthless.
“I recall reading in some sources that there was some violence against Tamils in the 1960?s as well,”
The 1961 Satyagraha?
What sort of fishing restrictions are there now for Tamils and Muslims in the Northeast please?
The whole country and world knows that Tamil civilians lost their lives due to SLA action to free 300,000 civilian hostages and destroy the LTTE. I don’t know why GoSL persists in its ridiculous stance of ‘zero’ civilian casualties. That may’ve been the intention, but it wasn’t the reality. (Apologies if this echoes what David Blacker & Wijayapala have already stated.)
Key principles when facing civilian casualties during a military assault/conflict.
1. A military target remains a legitimate military target, even if it is located in a civilian area. The LTTE hid their mortars and heavy artillery amongst Tamil civilians to prevent the SL govt from legitimately destroying these assets.
2. The use of civilians as shields to try to prevent attacks on military targets is prohibited. Further comment on this aspect of the LTTE’s strategy is futile.
3. “The presence of a protected person [i.e. civilian hostages] may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.”4th Geneva Convention, Article 28.
4. The armed forces are not liable where injury to civilians results from unavoidable collateral damage, provided it is proportionate to the military gains expected of the attack.
5. “Civilians do not enjoy absolute immunity. Their presence will not render military objects immune from attack for the mere reason that it is impossible to bombard them without causing injury to the non-combatants.” Oppenheim’s ‘International Law’
Fact 1: The LTTE used the Wanni civilians as a shield to prevent attacks on their forces by SL govt forces. Yes or No? Yes.
Fact 2: The LTTE intermingled their fighting positions amongst the civilians in the ‘No Fire Zone’. Yes or No? Yes..
All of the above conditions existed during the last phase of the crushing of the LTTE. The SL govt did what they could to minimise civilians casualties during the final assault, but they were acting entirely within legal limits noted above.
@ [Edited out.] Heshan: The West has definitively beaten Sri Lanka in the war crimes/human rights abuses game.
http://thecarthaginiansolution.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/sri-lanka-can-never-beat-the-west/