however only confirmation the reporter is able to offer is one from unofficial “senior officer of Sri Lanka Telecom Jaffna branch”. however slt still deny any such blocking as anybody can still confirm by calling them.

sunday times also say “Surprisingly, the TRC consumer complaints division has not yet received even a single complaint on the matter. ”
this is not surprising if the lines were/are in fact working. as anybody can check by dialing the numbers.

Jaffna cut off, but who is responsible?

By Nadia Fazlulhaq

More than 8000 Sri Lanka Telecom internet and telephone lines in the Jaffna peninsula have gone dead from January 28 while the authorities disclaim responsibility for the stoppage.

An officer of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) media unit said the main duty of the TRC was linked to policy implementation and looking into consumer complaints regarding any transmission problems.

“Sri Lanka Telecom is a licensed telecommunication company under the TRC, so if there are any customer complaints we will definitely inquire from the parties responsible and urge them to continue investigations” he said.

Surprisingly, the TRC consumer complaints division has not yet received even a single complaint on the matter. According to a senior officer of Sri Lanka Telecom Jaffna branch, the switching off has been a defence decision.

“There are two telecommunication links to Jaffna – one from Anuradhapura via Kilinochchi and the other from Anuradhapura via Mannar. We have a huge number of data and landlines linked to the first one and the security forces have decided to block the link through Kilinochchi,” he said.

He said the switching off had been done from the base in Anuradhapura and the SLT is hoping to discuss this issue with the officials to restore the communication facilities.

Media Centre for National Security spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the interruption was not a defence decision and SLT has been requested to resolve the matter soon.

“This blockage of telephone lines is definitely a transmission shortcoming and has no connection with any defence decision. SLT should look into it immediately” he said.

However a large number of telephone and internet users in Jaffna are inconvenienced by the stoppage.

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2007, 20:36 GMT]

Telephone lines to Vanni and most of Jaffna have remained cut for more than four days since Saturday 10:55 p.m. Financial transactions in many branches of the banks have been paralyzed, fundamental services such as hospital ambulances, civil services and media, dependent on telephone communication have been severely affected. Vanni, without celluar link, remains completely cut off for communication. A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers who visited Vavuniya Telecom Saturday evening had instructed the technicians to accompany them towards the communication exchange at Madukanda, 4 km southeast of Vavuniya town, and shut down the telephone link to Vanni.

All the numbers with the +9421228 format (Kilinochchi lines) and in the range between +942122240000 and +94212229000 (Jaffna and Vanni), were not working.

Sri Lankan military establishment has earlier cut off telephone links during military operations.

Since Saturday, only a section of telephone numbers, numbering around 1500 of around 8000 lines, were working in Jaffna.

Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for the banks were unable to be operated resulting in long line of people standing at the banks to attend to their needs.

Overall, banking activities in the North have been crippled by the present crisis.

The main telephone tower base functioning at Pannai, within the Jaffna municipal council was responsible for communication services in Valigamam area.

Though the service is available to certain extent in Valikamam, it is only the phone lines beginning with the digits 2 and 3 that are operational while all other phone lines in the area have been dead for over three days.

With the only land route to the peninsula being severed for the past many months, telephone was the only means of communication within Jaffna as well with the rest of the country and international community. The current disruption of services has sparked a severe crisis throughout the peninsula.

A similar situation arose in August 11 after clashes erupted between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and the Liberation Tigers in Kilali-Nagerkovil Forward Defense Lines(FDL) running through Muhamalai.

More than 40,000 people who had mobile telephones in the Peninsula lost the facilities when the Sri Lankan Military cut-off the services without prior notice on 11 August.

The cellular service returned to Jaffna, a month ago, on 24 December.

Internet was not accessible at browsing centres.

Although a source at the SLT gave an official explanation that the reason for failure was a technical failure, no reason was provided for the delay or inability to fix the problem.

The new Japanese CEO of the SLT, Shoji Takahashi, addressing the audience at South Asia’s Network Operator’s Conference (SANOG), last week, had claimed that the domestic core network of SLT consisted IP based Multi Protocol Label Switching (IP-MPLS) which made it easy to manage a network for Quality of Service. He added that the SLT was no longer a traditional telecom company, but a solution provider.

As for Non Violent Communication (NVC) I think it’s a useful area of research and practice – thanks for the link. The organisation you’ve mentioned seems to have trainers on the ground in Sri Lanka – http://www.cnvc.org/people.aspx?continent=2&country=26.

I was concerned about the word “blocked” in the FMM statement because it can convey judgement, and while understandable, in the context of concerns over Jaffna human rights, may nevertheless have triggered some readers.

A fairly new field NVC is exploring the language of communication. Those who are interested can check out http://www.cnvc.org, though the website itself won’t shed much light on it.

What I find amazing is how FMM could publish such a blatantly exaggerated statement, blame our military for everything, and get away with its credibility intact.