Sunday, 3 November 2013

Sri Lanka Perspectives - October 2013



 Col R Hariharan

Highlights
  • The swearing in of CV Wigneswaran as the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) chief minister in the presence of President Rajapaksa and his selection of ministers against objections from a section of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders heralds troubled times for the TNA government.
  • The passing of a resolution by the TNA-run Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha requesting the newly elected NPC to rebuild LTTE cemeteries in the Northern Province sparks off a controversy.
  • Indian minister for external affairs visits Sri Lanka and reiterates India’s expectation from the Sri Lanka President to fulfil his promises on devolution without much success. Apparently he expects the newly elected NPC government to politically take up these issues forward. He   has confirmed India’s participation to attend the CHOGM summit in Colombo despite the Tamil Nadu assembly’s resolution asking the Centre to boycott it. However, the Prime Minister seems to be undecided about his attendance though a media story on Oct 31 said the Congress core group has decided the PM should attend.
TNA’s troubled start at NPC

CV Wigneswaran who was sworn in as the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) chief minister in the presence of President Rajapaksa appears to be facing a tough time from within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). It started with some of the TNA leaders objecting his choice as the chief ministerial candidate. One of the reasons is that he was an “outsider” as he lived in Colombo. The other unstated reason could be his son is married to the daughter of Sri Lanka minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, a Sinhalese.

President Rajapaksa is reported to have assured “fullest support” to Wigneswaran at the swearing in ceremony. He is said to have added, “I expect you to reciprocate…I am not the President of one community. I am President for all communities.” The new Chief Minister assured him the NPC would work with the government. This bonhomie probably irked those who did not like the swearing in ceremony to be held in the presence of the President. Issues came to a head when Wigneswaran insisted on selecting his team of ministers rather than accepting those suggested by Alliance’s constituent parties.

Nine newly elected NPC members belonging to the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Peoples Liberation Organisation for Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in a show of defiance decided to be sworn in as members at Mullivaikkal (where Prabhakaran died) rather than at Jaffna. However, good sense seems to have prevailed when they gave up the idea thanks to the mediation of Mannar Bishop Rayappu Joseph.

On the other hand, the NPC chief minister speaking at the NPC’s inaugural session in Jaffna, said that the army must be confined to barracks. He said the mandate the Tamils gave his party included working towards withdrawing the army from the area."Our people will not work in a way which makes it necessary for the army to remain in full strength in the North," he said. Earlier he has reminded that his government would pursue the TNA demand for the creation of a unified North-eastern province as well as securing police and land powers for the NPC. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary and brother of President Rajapaksa, was quick to condemn all the three demands of the chief minister. He said for reasons of strategic security 15,000 troops would be permanently stationed in Jaffna and police powers would never be given to provincial councils.

The NPC chief minister and the TNA leaders appear to have different views on Sri Lanka’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as well as the question of India’s participation in it. Initially Wigneswaran said it would better for India to attend the CHOGM. On the other hand, even moderate TNA leaders like national list parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran said that the coalition was against the CHOGM in Sri Lanka. They wanted India to boycott the CHOGM. In view of this, Wigneswaran has agreed to go by the Alliance consensus on this subject and stay away from CHOGM. However, he has invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Jaffna. 

Controversy over restoring LTTE cemeteries

Apart from controversial issues like the implementation of the 13th amendment, police and land powers for provincial councils and the unification of Northern and Eastern provinces, issues from the LTTE past have started appearing in the horizon. The TNA-run Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha in a resolution has requested the NPC to rebuild LTTE cemeteries that were destroyed by the Sri Lankan army after the rout of the Tamil insurgent group in the Eelam War.

Suresh Premachandran, leader of the EPRLF, commenting on the demand has said that though the desire to remember those who died for the Tamil cause was genuine, this was not an appropriate time to take up this initiative as it would be considered a provocation by the army.

As expected the demand has raised the hackles of Sinhala right wing elements as well as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has threatened to arrest any former LTTE cadres who raise the issue. Former LTTE leader and former arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP) said the move was an obvious attempt by hardliners to provoke the government and trigger angry reaction from the military. He urged the government to be extremely cautious in handling the issue as it could be a rallying point for both northerners and easterners.  

CHOGM Controversy

The Indian Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid returned from his maiden visit to Colombo after vainly trying to persuade the Sri Lanka government to implement its promise on 13A in the first week of October 2013.

Even his plea to treat Indian fishermen humanely appears to have had little effect Sri Lanka called India’s High Commissioner to protest against continued large scale fishing by poachers from Tamil Nadu which was depriving the livelihood of Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka had been rounding up and prosecuting large number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu found poaching in Sri Lankan waters. This has caused a lot of unrest among the people in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa has been writing letters to PM seeking severe action against Sri Lanka without taking any worthwhile measures on her part to resolve the issue.

This climate of confrontation resulted in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly’s unanimous resolution on October 24 asking India to boycott the CHOGM. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa who moved the resolution wanted India to take steps “to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth until Tamils are given rights on par with the Sinhalese and live freely.” She drew attention to the failure of the Centre to respond to Assembly’s 2011 resolution asking the Centre to prevail upon the UN to take action against war criminals responsible for attacks on Tamils and to impose an economic embargo on Sri Lanka until Tamils were fully resettled and rehabilitated.

However, the MEA has confirmed that India would participate in the CHOGM in the larger interest of India-Sri Lanka relations and in order to continue to engage with Sri Lanka. Though a media report has said the Congress core committee has decided that the PM should attend the CHOGM, as of now no firm decision appears to have been taken on the issue. Petrol bomb attacks on two post offices in Chennai by pro-Tamil Eelam fringe elements in protest against Indian participation in the CHOGM highlights the danger of politicians turning this issue into an emotional rather than adopting a pragmatic approach in the larger interest of Tamils and India. 

Written on October 31, 2013 
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, October 2013, Vol 7 No.9
URL: www.security-risks.com

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