Col R
Hariharan
Highlights
- Northern Province issues: With the proposed Northern Provincial Council elections scheduled for September 2013 getting closer, the political situation in the province is getting ugly. A recent public outcry against the military acquiring prime land of displaced persons in Valikamam North has snow balled into a political issue.
- Energy tariff and rising costs: Revision of electricity tariffs during the month has triggered widespread protests in all sections of society. And the President is expected to announce some concessions on May Day.
- CHOGM Summit: It seems certain that Sri Lanka will be hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit in November 2013. At the recently meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) has clarified that the heads of Commonwealth governments had already chosen Sri Lanka as the venue. This should come as a relief to Sri Lanka.
- Sri Lanka refugee outflow: Australia’s strong action repatriating Sri Lanka refugees who had illegally entered the country from Sri Lanka is likely to stem the outflow towards Australia. South India had become the transit point for this outflow and the police had been cracking down on such illegal activities.
Northern Province issues
Attack on opposition media and politicians
and foisting of cases against them appear to be the flavour of emerging
political preparation as the Northern Province for the provincial council
elections in September 2013. According to a report in the Colombo Telegraph
fearing the certainty of TNA winning the NPC election, the Rajapaksa Government
was “now mulling an amendment to the Constitution to take away some of the
powers of Provincial Councils. Quoting Government sources, it said the proposed
amendment would make far reaching changes to the 13th Amendment,
particularly those relating to police and land powers allocated to the
provincial councils.
The government’s reluctance to allow TNA a
political role at the provincial level was vocalised by Defence Secretary
Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a rejoinder to the U.S. ambassador Ms Sison's statement
that it was crucial for the government to resume the dialogue with the TNA on
devolution of powers. Tracing the political background of TNA, Rajapaksa said
the US should realize the TNA simply acted as the LTTEs mouthpiece both here
and abroad till the LTTE was eliminated in 2009 and had benefited from the LTTE
unleashing violence on other political parties in the fray in the 2001
parliamentary elections.
It seems certain that the opposition would
face violent attacks in the run up to the elections. Attack on a meeting of
opposition TNA at Kilinochchi on March 31 has raised this suspicion. Four MPs
attending the meeting were among those attacked in which 13 persons suffered
minor injuries. TNA MP MA Sumanthiran has this could be the beginning of a
government campaign to scuttle his party’s election campaign. He alleged the
three involved in the attack including a police officer attached to the
Criminal Investigation Department were released by the police when handed over.
The Jaffna-based Tamil daily Uthayan
which had taken a strong stand against the government has become the target of
repeated attacks by thugs. On April 2, a seven-member masked gang attacked the
newspaper’s Kilinochchi regional distribution office located a kilometre from
the police station. Five employees including the branch office manager were
injured in the attack. In a second attack on April 13 four unidentified gunmen
stormed the Uthayan newspaper office in Jaffna and set fire to the printing
machine. The police guard outside was sleeping at that time. According to the
Chairman of the newspaper, one of the gunmen fired a shot to scare away an
employee. He felt the recent reports about the cases of land grabbing or the
upcoming provincial elections published in the paper might have prompted the
attack.
In this charged atmosphere, the
government’s decision to acquire over 6000 acres of prime land in Valikaman
North in the Jaffna peninsula to set up a regional military headquarters has
drawn wide public protest. The acquisition will affect 25 villages and
thousands of displaced persons who were deprived of the land during the war.
Though the military had said that this land was being acquired under
relevant law, it has sent a strong signal that the government would like to
keep a tight hold on the population. The TNA has
decided to take legal action at the against the Army takeover of the lands with
the support of 5000 of the people displaced from Valikamam North.
had been A protest demonstration was held by the people of
Valikamam North in Tellippalai, Jaffna against the takeover of the lands. This
issue is likely to gather more political momentum in the coming weeks.
Power tariff and rising costs
Steep increase of electricity tariff by
the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has divided the ruling coalition and drawn
protest from all sections of society. Allegations of massive corruption in the
CEB have added to the unpopularity of the revision that came to effect on April
20.
The increase in power tariff comes after
diesel and petrol prices were increased twice during the last four months. This
had a cascading effect on cost of living setting off demand for increase in
wages from various sections. The Co-ordinating Committee for Trade Union Alliance,
representing more than 600 trade unions representing public and private sector
and estate workers, has asked President Rajapaksa to roll back the increases by
May 20. If he does not revise the hike, they have threatened to go on a
countrywide strike on May 21. There is a general expectation that the President
would announce some concessions in the tariff in his May Day address.
CHOGM Summit
It seems certain now that the CHOGM summit
would now be held in Sri Lanka in November 2013. A meeting the Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) held at London on April 26, 2013 has clarified
that it was not its business to decide the venue for the CHOGM summit in
November 2013. It clarified that heads of Commonwealth governments had already
chosen Sri Lanka as the venue. The meeting chaired by Bangladesh was attended
by Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Maldives, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad &
Tobago, and Vanuatu. Confirming this at a press conference, Commonwealth
Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma highlighted the Commonwealth’s positive
engagement in assisting Sri Lanka with media policy, press institutes, election
commission, human rights, the issue of the independence of judiciary etc.
This has come as a disappointment to Tamil
Diaspora activists spearheaded by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) as well as INGOs
like Human Rights Watch who had vigorously campaigned for shifting the CHOGM
from Sri Lanka. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird who attended the meeting
said that he was appalled that Sri Lanka would have the honour of hosting the
Commonwealth summit meeting. Canada had wanted to see meaningful progress on
accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka but the situation had got even
worse now. The TNA had also been campaigning against holding the summit in Sri
Lanka. The GTF has said it would vigorously campaign in India, the U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Malaysia against holding the CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka.
Almost all the political parties,
including the Congress, in Tamil Nadu have demanded that India should ask for
shifting the CHOGM summit from Sri Lanka. However, the Union government
response has been muted so far. When the GTF raises the pitch it is likely to
gather momentum in Tamil Nadu once again.
Stemming the refugee outflow
Sri Lanka’s efforts to stem the out flow
of illegal migrants from the country seem to be paying some dividend. Sri
Lankan naval patrols had arrested 3,286 people between January 2012 and April
2013 period. Those arrested included 2,403 Tamils, 455 Sinhalese and 142 Muslims.
Media reports said the arrests were made in 59 apprehensions of boats in the
seas almost all along Sri Lanka coast. Australia, which was one of the favoured
destinations, had been closely cooperating with Sri Lanka navy in its bid to
break human smuggling operations. Since August last year, Australia had
deported 1029. It included 819 persons who were sent back forcibly. South
India has become a favourite transit route for the refugees fleeing for
political and economic reasons.
Written on April 30, 2013
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, Vol 7. No.4 - May 2013
www.security-risks.com
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