By Nick Davies and David Leigh | Guardian
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The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.
Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US naval personnel captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday.
The war logs also detail:
• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.
• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.
In a statement, the White House said the chaotic picture painted by the logs was the result of "under-resourcing" under Obama's predecessor, saying: "It is important to note that the time period reflected in the documents is January 2004 to December 2009."
"Wikileaks' story is a softened version" - Watch the report on the Russia Today
The White House also criticised the publication of the files by Wikileaks: "We strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations, which puts the lives of the US and partner service members at risk and threatens our national security. Wikileaks made no effort to contact the US government about these documents, which may contain information that endanger the lives of Americans, our partners, and local populations who co-operate with us."
The logs detail, in sometimes harrowing vignettes, the toll on civilians exacted by coalition forces: events termed "blue on white" in military jargon. The logs reveal 144 such incidents.
Some of these casualties come from the controversial air strikes that have led to Afghan government protests, but a large number of previously unknown incidents also appear to be the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists out of a determination to protect themselves from suicide bombers.
At least 195 civilians are admitted to have been killed and 174 wounded in total, but this is likely to be an underestimate as many disputed incidents are omitted from the daily snapshots reported by troops on the ground and then collated, sometimes erratically, by military intelligence analysts.
Bloody errors at civilians' expense, as recorded in the logs, include the day French troops strafed a bus full of children in 2008, wounding eight. A US patrol similarly machine-gunned a bus, wounding or killing 15 of its passengers, and in 2007 Polish troops mortared a village, killing a wedding party including a pregnant woman, in an apparent revenge attack.
Questionable shootings of civilians by UK troops also figure. The US compilers detail an unusual cluster of four British shootings in Kabul in the space of barely a month, in October/November 2007, culminating in the death of the son of an Afghan general. Of one shooting, they wrote: "Investigation controlled by the British. We are not able to get [sic] complete story."
A second cluster of similar shootings, all involving Royal Marine commandos in Helmand province, took place in a six-month period at the end of 2008, according to the log entries. Asked by the Guardian about these allegations, the Ministry of Defence said: "We have been unable to corroborate these claims in the short time available and it would be inappropriate to speculate on specific cases without further verification of the alleged actions."
Rachel Reid, who investigates civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch, said: "These files bring to light what's been a consistent trend by US and Nato forces: the concealment of civilian casualties. Despite numerous tactical directives ordering transparent investigations when civilians are killed, there have been incidents I've investigated in recent months where this is still not happening.
Accountability is not just something you do when you are caught. It should be part of the way the US and Nato do business in Afghanistan every time they kill or harm civilians." The reports, many of which the Guardian is publishing in full online, present an unvarnished and often compelling account of the reality of modern war.
Most of the material, though classified "secret" at the time, is no longer militarily sensitive. A small amount of information has been withheld from publication because it might endanger local informants or give away genuine military secrets. Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, obtained the material in circumstances he will not discuss, said it would redact harmful material before posting the bulk of the data on its "uncensorable" servers.
Wikileaks published in April this year a previously suppressed classified video of US Apache helicopters killing two Reuters cameramen on the streets of Baghdad, which gained international attention. A 22-year-old intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, was arrested in Iraq and charged with leaking the video, but not with leaking the latest material. The Pentagon's criminal investigations department continues to try to trace the leaks and recently unsuccessfully asked Assange, he says, to meet them outside the US to help them. Assange allowed the Guardian to examine the logs at our request. No fee was involved and Wikileaks was not involved in the preparation of the Guardian's articles.
© Guardian
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation
Monday, July 26, 2010
US FET Marines share experiences with Sri Lankan Armed Forces
Photo courtesy: U.S. Marine Corps Photo
By Corporal Gabriel Velasquez | US Navy
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"We invited them on board the Pearl Harbor to meet with them and discuss differences in our militaries and just in general being a woman in the military," said Marine Corps 1st Lt. Briana Carter, the assistant operations officer for Combat Logistics Battalion (CLB) 15.
During the interaction, Marines explained their roles within the organization, said Sgt. Krystal L. Marshall, CLB 15 communications detachment maintenance chief.
"We explained to them what a FET is and what we do on deployment," said Marshall "We told them that we're trained to go into hazardous zones with the male Marines and do everything from searching females to working security."
Sri Lankan and U.S. medical personnel inquired about different techniques and shared differences in their practices.
"I demonstrated to them what a sucking chest wound was and also what to do with a protruding intestine wound," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Lesheka D. Moore.
A modular tactical vest (MTV) was displayed so the Sri Lankans could see what kind of gear FET members carry.
"They really liked our [MTV]," said Marshall. "They said it was much more comfortable than the ones they wear, but they did say it was heavier."
Some participants were surprised by some of the differences.
"We found out that they do not serve on ships, so they were amazed that we live and work here with the males," said Carter. "It really showed us how different it is for women in other countries."
After their time together aboard Pearl Harbor, the FET members and Sri Lankans joined in the nearby Sri Lankan Naval Academy tug-of-war competition.
For the FET members, it was time well spent.
"It was a really awesome experience," said Marshall. "It was definitely time well spent, and I can't wait to do something like it again."
© US Navy
Monday, July 26, 2010
US 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit become teachers in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy: Michael Russell | US Navy
By Cpl. Gabriel Velasquez | Marine Corps News
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During a Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief demonstration the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit held for the Sri Lankan Navy, Marines from Battery C, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment taught riot control and searching techniques to sailors of the SBS.
“We started by teaching them different formations when in a situation where riot control is needed,” said Staff Sgt. Osman Lima, platoon sergeant, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “We also taught them snatching procedures for an injured person or a high value target,” added the Los Angeles, Calif. native.
The sailors from the SBS listened intently to the Marines, absorbing all the Marines had to teach about riot control. The Marines explained in cases of disaster relief or humanitarian aid, chaos may ensue and safe control of the crowds would be needed.
Eventually, Marines turned over their gear and gave the sailors of the SBS an opportunity to apply their newly learned techniques.
“We gave them our helmets, the shin guards, and batons for some practical application,” said Cpl. Daniel Middlebos, artilleryman, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “They nailed all the techniques we taught very quickly and accurately,” added the 24-year-old artilleryman.
The Marines explained to them the different uses for the gear and the various parts of the weapons system used during riot control situations.
“We showed them our different non-lethal rounds used from the M203 grenade launcher,” said Lima. “We then instructed them on how and when we would use them,” he added.
Another topic of discussion was proper search techniques for any detained persons during a humanitarian operation.
“I gave a class on how to search detainees properly and safely,” said Sgt. Derek Stegall, artillery section chief, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “They were very eager to learn and performed the techniques well during the practical application,” explained the 28-year-old Festus, Miss. native.
With both the SBS and the Marines having an amphibious doctrine, the similarities between the two services were apparent.
“They’re incredibly intelligent and disciplined,” explained Stegall. “They picked up everything we taught and didn’t make any mistakes,” he added.
Overall, the Marines of Battery C agreed that the training was a success.
“I think the training went really well,” said Middlebos. “They were really hospitable, friendly, and the beach environment we trained on was great,” he added.
For one Marine, the experience was one that he will remember for his entire career.
“The camaraderie between the Marines and the Sri Lankan Navy will probably be one of the best memories I ever have in the Marines,” said Lima. “I really hope I get the opportunity to do something like this again,” he added.
© Marine Cops News
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sri Lanka: Six university students arrested
By Sherwani Synon | Daily Mirror Online
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Speaking to Daily Mirror online the spokesperson for the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF), Udul Premaratne said these students were arrested last night in Nugegoda while they were putting up these posters.
While two Sri Jayawardenepura University students were arrested by the Kirulapone police, four students of the Indigenous medical faculty of the Colombo University were arrested by the Welikada police.
The students are placed in remand custody at present. He further said that the police had also removed cut outs placed at the Kelaniya , Sri Jayawardenepura and the Indigenous medical faculty of the Colombo University.
"We will be filing a case at the Supreme court within this week as we think this is a violation to our freedom of expression," Udul said.
Meanwhile, when Daily Mirror online contacted Police media spokesman SP Prishanth Jayakody, he said he wasnt aware of such an incident as he had not recieved any details of these arrests.
© Daily Mirror Online
Monday, July 26, 2010
All things black since Black July
By Kusal Perera | The Sunday Leader
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It was a day when my parental house was cramped full with about 50 men, women and children, wanting refuge and security. All, neighbours and ordinary Tamil families, with whom we grew together from our infancy. With whom we played, went to school, quarrelled and made friends the next day. Long time neighbours in Rathnakara Place, whose houses were being looted and burnt, while my parents were helplessly watching two whole days, trying desperately to find a way out to move them to safety.
They moved out on the third day to Saraswathy Hall, Bambalapitiya and Hindu College, Ratmalana in navy escorted convoys with tears they couldn’t hold on to, in swollen eyes. My father was admitted to the Cardiac Unit of the Colombo General Hospital, the same evening. All that after a belated 48 hour curfew, imposed by President Jayewardene.
That was “Black” July in 1983. There were more horrific incidents acted out without shame and with braggardismo, in broad daylight. Doped heroes in mobs looking for loot and humans to kill. How many heroes have we had since that “Black July”, in this motherland given in custody to the Sinhala Buddhists by Lord Gauthama Buddha himself?
Sinhala heroes they all are. The Rajapaksas right in front, led by President Mahinda R. with brother Gotabaya close on his heels, or close by his side. The architects of the now concluded war and President Rajapaksa honoured as King Mahinda VII by that archaeological scholar, Ellawala Medhananda Thera of the JHU.
Gen. Sarath Fonseka also claims he alone commandeered the army to victory against the Tamil separatist Tigers, paraded as a hero by the JVP and their DNA. Now we have the Honourable Minister Weerawansa who almost starved to death on a saline drip, whose photo went up on city walls with gratitude, for that “heroic” fast.
They are descendant heroes after Kaluwa Dewage Cyril Mathew, a prominent minister in the UNP government of J.R. Jayewardene, who gave Sinhala extremism the modern day hard line brutality. Mathew was conspicuously racist with a vengeance in his call for Sinhala supremacy. He was openly accused for his role in creating mayhem in Jaffna, burning down the Jaffna Public Library and the residence of TULF MP Yogeswaran, during the final days of the District Development Council elections in 1981. Mathew was also accused of the pogrom on Tamil people on “Black” July itself.
The rest is knotted history with a protracted war and a human tragedy that kept heaping more and more complications over the past decades. In between there were All Party Conferences, the Annexe “C” as it was known, the famous Thimpu talks which brought consensus among all Tamil armed groups and the TULF on the concept of a “Tamil Homeland” with three other conditions that laid the basis for any further negotiations. There were also three further attempts at negotiations under Presidents’ Premadasa and Kumaratunga and then under PM Wickremesinghe.
Each failed attempt made it far more complex and brutal to live with and the war crossed seas and geographical borders, bringing in many and varied actors. Some wanting to push geo political agendas and some wanting to live and earn with the war. This war, concluded in May last year, left all the agonies of a never attempted reconciliation in a distraught, divided and a devastated country. It still leaves the decades old, unanswered question, “do we really want peace and reconciliation the decent and honourable way as a modern, democratic, nation state ?”
I would beg to answer in the negative, even after all the blood we’ve shed and lives, infrastructure and environment destroyed. After unaccounted numbers of soldiers, Tiger combatants and even civilians who never wanted this war, have been left disabled for life. They would say an emphatic “no”, though it may insult thousands of young war widows on both sides of the divide, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. And with children — how many exactly none would still not know — who are orphaned, have lost one or both of their parents in the North, Wanni and the East and those from soldier families added.
We yet take pride fooling ourselves that we Sri Lankans are the noblest (loken uthum rata) and we don’t take orders from imperialist Western and international countries, calling them conspirators. We still try to fool ourselves that we do best, our own way, a Sinhala society that has pushed for political hegemony over six decades and in the process have woefully failed to find positive answers to any of our national issues in a decent, democratic manner. We don’t have to listen to or take orders from any, if we are truly working towards solving our own socio economic problems, within democratic politics. But we honestly, DON’T.
Leaving aside all the criticism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LL&RC) established by President Rajapaksa, does not prove the regime is sincere or committed in achieving what is said, it would. The way it is constituted, leaves no trust, no confidence for battered and bruised Tamil and Muslim people in North and East to walk up to the LL&RC, to say what they have to say. Will those people held in barbed wire camps under military guard, ever come up to this LL&RC to say how they were treated, how their relatives went missing and what they now need ?
If there was any serious commitment and a sincere political will for reconciliation in this ethnically divided and polarised society, the proposal for the LL&RC should have been brought to parliament for due consent from all political parties, including Tamil and Muslim members. A serious commitment would have sought a national consensus for honest reconciliation between estranged and polarised communities. But such was not even thought of. The LL&RC was established ex parté by the regime in control, only to counter any investigation, campaigned for in human rights circles.
It was the same with the APRC. As at all times in the past, there was no serious attempt to include democratic Tamil representation. The likes of EPDP were thought of as enough excuse. Dragged on for more than a year, the APRC began deliberating on a draft that is supposed to have spelt out the basis for a new constitution. Two years more and 128 APRC meetings to discuss the chapters of that draft document, produced a final report that was given to President Rajapaksa in June this year, only to be shelved and for other reforms to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers for supposed extension of presidential terms.
That shelved on political uncertainties, Wickremesinghe as UNP and Opposition Leader accepts dialogue with Rajapaksa to bring in an Executive Premiership, totally outside the efforts of the four year old APRC.
It is again only about accommodating the political agendas of the Sinhala South and their post Mathew leaders, Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe, et al. Where are the answers to the crying need of reconciling a nation that bled on either side of an ethnic divide for decades and is numbed for life ? Where are the answers for democratising a society to accommodate all within a secular, plural state ? Where are academics, intellectuals, civil society and corporate leaders, artistes, trade unionists and journalists, who should lead the people in finding answers ?
There are no leaders, no intellectual leaders, for sure. July ‘83 was a cardiac arrest that left us sick like dead. It left all things BLACK beyond that July, for sure.
© The Sunday Leader
Monday, July 26, 2010
A network of permanent bases in North-East with Chinese assistance
By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
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In keeping with the government policy, the army has established the 68 Division headquarters at Sugandirapuram, Puthukudirippu east of the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road. Army Chief Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya on Thursday (22) visited the new headquarters to meet senior officers and men deployed in the area.
Lt. General Jayasuriya told a gathering of men and officers that permanent bases were necessary to move security forces from private and public property currently occupied by them. Although the Jaffna peninsula had remained home to the largest concentration of forces before the outbreak of Eelam war IV in August 2006, today the single biggest deployment is in the Vanni.
The army chief appreciated the Chinese assistance to speed up the re-deployment process by making available what he called pre-fabricated technology. Lt. General Jayasuriya said: "These types of permanent buildings were made possible due to pre-fabricated technology from China. The government wants us to vacate all buildings, belonging to the civil sector, so that owners of those buildings could reclaim them and help bring normalcy to the area. Civil life should be restored and facilitated in the area. In the future, once married quarters of the officers and the other ranks are set up in respective areas, they would be able to live with their families as well while serving the areas."
The Army Chief thanked his officers and men for the ongoing development projects under ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ programme in the sphere of demining, bridge building, constructions, other humanitarian projects, etc.
The newly opened headquarters is the second new command headquarters established in the area controlled by the 59 Division.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ubaya Madawela said that permanent bases were being set up both east and west of the A9 road. Responding to a query by The Island, Madawala said that some of the new constructions would come up at Tunukkai. He emphasized that all new bases would be set up on State land, though some accused the government of taking over private land.
According to him, as part of the re-deployment in a post-LTTE era, a section of the 53 Division had been moved to the South to intensify security and also to assist in development programmes. The 53 Division troops are deployed in Galle, Hambantota and Moneragala, while a section of troops remained at Mankulam. Major General Amal Karunasekera, formerly head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) recently took over the 53 Division.
Brigadier Madawala said that the army was making an effort to vacate private property occupied by troops deployed in the Jaffna town area. He said that due to severe ‘space constrains’ they were finding it difficult to move troops, though they were looking for ways and means of finding alternative accommodation for them.
The army consists of 200,000 personnel. It numbers increased exponentially due to massive recruitment drives carried out during Eelam war IV to strengthen fighting formations.
© The Island
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sri Lanka widows 'under stress'
By Charles Haviland | BBC News
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At the same time a government minister says he believes women in the former war zone, including the widows of former rebel Tamil Tiger fighters, need to be helped in getting employment and compensation.
Father ESC Mariathas, a priest, quoted in the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror, gave a bleak picture of the situation faced by the widows he works with.
He alone gives pastoral care to 625 widows and 25 orphans and said many women just squat by their shelters with their children clinging to them, relating stories of loss, grief and anger.
At times they wake screaming in the middle of the night, he said, and some seem like mad people.
Social stigma
Father Mariathas said social stigma meant few widows could remarry; many were reacting to stress by taking painkilling drugs.
The minister of rehabilitation, DEW Gunasekera, has echoed the priest on the urgent need to help women in the north.
He told the BBC he and his team recently met 8,000 women, many of them widows, in the north to discuss their needs.
He said the government hoped to work with UN agencies as soon as possible to set up schemes for self-employment.
Mr Gunasekera said he’d had “very friendly” conversations with some wives and widows of senior leaders of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels and had told them he was “not worried about their politics”.
The minister said that in some cases he did not know whether their husbands were alive or dead.
There have been conflicting accounts of the status of some senior former rebel leaders, leading some to speculate that they may have died in detention.
The government recently said there were at least 40,000 widows in northern Sri Lanka and 50,000 in the east.
© BBC Sinhala
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sri Lanka against asylum
Daily Mirror Online
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Deputy Minister of External Affairs Gitanjana Gunawardena said that Sri Lanka, has enhanced surveillance in intercepting illegal trafficking in the high seas, especially in curtailing trafficking of persons and goods smuggling by small boats.
He told the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi Vietnam that solutions to the illegal and irregular migration problem should include transparent policies by originating, transit and receiving countries to discourage illegal migration and irregular movement of people.
“Granting asylum or refugee status on perceived claims of persecution would only be a covert encouragement for illegal and irregular migration. Hence, security networks and policing of territorial waters alone may not be able to prevent the illegal movement of people and illicit trade,” he said.
The Deputy Minister also highlighted the ability of terrorist organizations to operate by exploiting cross border linkages, and to have easy access to sophisticated and advanced technologies.
He therefore emphasised the importance of marshalling collective efforts to curtail transnational operations of terrorists, including financing of illicit activities by Diaspora groups and sympathizers.
“No country or region would be entirely free and safe of the scourge of such threats and associated illicit activities” without collective efforts”, he said.
He also reiterated the importance of abiding by the time tested principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another as well as the mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and national identity of all nations.
© Daily Mirror Online
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sri Lanka: Army camps changing demographics?
By Ranga Jayasuriya | Lakbima News
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Four thousand acres of land have been taken over in Murukandi and Kilinochchi to build a new military cantonment. The inhabitants of three villages have been displaced.
When the petition by displaced Tamils was handed over to the president, he promised that Tamils would be resettled in their original lands. But, still, they languish as displaced persons.
The government has formulated a new security strategy of ‘force concentration’ in Jaffna. According to the blue print of the new security strategy in the Jaffna peninsula, the Security Forces Headquarters of Palali, the Naval harbour in KKS and the Palali airstrip, which is part of the Jaffna Security Forces Headquarters would be brought under one complex called the Security Complex Jaffna. The plan also includes the development of the Palali airstrip to enable increased civilian air travel, funded by India. As one military official put it, “the new runway would enable anyone to take a ticket from anywhere and fly to Jaffna.” There will be a separate exit for civilian passengers at Telippalai, circumventing circuitous travel routes that civilians now have to take through the High Security Zones.
However, the new military plan necessitates acquiring land in the KKS area, a fact which has already caused ripples in Tamil circles.
The military says the High Security Zones are shrinking and at the end of the day, HSZ would be confined to KKS and Telippalai DS divisions. The worst fear of the Tamils is a rapid change of the demography in the region, courtesy military expansion. Suresh Premachandran MP recalls that the commander of the army meeting the Malwatte Maha Nayake Thera, had assured that the army would set up permanent cantonments in the North East, which could also accommodate family members of soldiers.
Demography
“There are 100,000 soldiers in the North-East. If everyone comes with their wives and two kids, there will be 400,000 new people in the Wanni. That would change the demography of the North overnight,” he says. Tamils would lose their representation, he adds.
It was under the pretext of the demographic change in the North-East, that old school Tamil agitators opposed the colonization programmes --- and the LTTE massacred Sinhala settlers in those farming villages in the past.
Meanwhile the renovation of ruins of ancient Buddhist places of worship is viewed with suspicion. But, travelling along the A 9 road to Jaffna a couple of months back—during the alleged introduction of Buddhist presence in the form of temples along the A 9 road was in full force, as reported largely by the Tamil media— this correspondent could hardly see any trace of creeping Buddhist influence as was alleged. However, given the strongly held notion, prevalent among articulate sections of Tamils of the homogeneity of the North East as a Tamil homeland, the bitterness of Tamil sentiment could well be understood. However, whether such sentiments would help the Tamils to come to terms with post war reality is open to question.
The government has formulated a long-term security strategy, under which the security forces presence in the North East would be continued and permanent military instalments would be set up. That, according to the government is, in order to face future security challenges. Tamil militancy rose from rag tag groups of youth to a full blown semi conventional army, mainly by strangling military camps and police stations in the North East. By dislodging the military by a series of attacks in the 80s, the LTTE secured a rear base to plan, recruit and execute attacks, a key element in the success of guerrilla warfare. The army has learnt from past mistakes. However, interestingly enough, the architect of the strategy of permanent military camps is none other than the now discarded former chief of defence staff General Sarath Fonseka, who planned to expand the army to 400,000 and instal a permanent military camp in every village. Security concerns apart, logistical imperatives demand permanent camps in the North. The Sri Lankan army has expanded over 200,000 and added with other branches of the security forces, it surpasses 300,000. Since the government has ruled out the option of downsizing the security forces, permanent bases are an imperative to accommodate the increasing numbers of troops.
On Thursday, in line with the government’s security strategy, a new Headquarters complex for the 68 Division at Sugandirapuram, Puthukudiyiruppu was declared open by the commander of the army Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya.
Gen Jayasuriya addressing soldiers said that the setting up of new permanent camps would expedite the resettlement process as it would enable troops to vacate civilian properties they have been occupying.
The commander of the army said: “These types of permanent buildings were made possible due to pre-fabricated technology, donated by China. The government wants us to vacate all buildings, belonging to the civilian sector, so that owners of those buildings could reclaim them and help bring normalcy to the area.Civilian life should be restored and facilitated in the area. In future, once married quarters of the officers and the other ranks are set up in the respective areas, they would be able to live with their families as well while serving the areas.”
However, in contrast to the popular view that the High Security Zones would stay, senior military officials dealing with civil military affairs say they are, in fact, shrinking.
“We handed over (to civilians) Nageswaran Kovil, Thelippalai Government Hospital, Mahajana College (leading school in the are).” He said the Gnanam Hotel was handed back to its owners last week and Subash Hotel would also be handed over in two months time. He said 160 civilian properties in Jaffna are under the control of the military and 40 have already been handed over to their owners since the end of the war. He listed a number of roads which were opened for civilian travel.
Uninterrupted supply of electricity has its success story, he said adding that in two Jaffna schools - Chundikulam Girls School and Jaffna Hindu College - the pass rate at ordinary level examinations surpassed 99 per cent.
Slow pace of demining
According to military figures, he said, the number of internally displaced, who live in camps in Jaffna are 2115 persons (640 families). The delay in their resettlement is attributed to the slow pace of demining in the Wadamarachchi Eastern sector. But, where are those thousands of families who were uprooted from the land now considered as High Security Zones?
He says population data of the district suggests that the majority of them had left the peninsula or comprehensively migrated. According to the population census of 1983, it was predicted that the population in the Jaffna district would hit the one million mark by the year 2000. However, according to current figures, Jaffna population stands at 627,000.
“Majority of those who left Jaffna were the former residents of High Security Zones, who were from well -to- do families, and could afford to migrate,” he said.
Recently a family came from Canada after 30 years and wanted to visit their old house in the HSZ.
“I asked them why now, after so long?” The lady said she buried some gold in the land when she left the house,” said the military official. “We took them to the area; not even they could locate where there land was. The entire area was a thick jungle.”
© Lakbima News
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
These Retrogressive Times
By Tisaranee Gunasekara | The Sunday Leader
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“Stupidity has come back as a king – no; as an emperor, as a divine Führer of all Aryans.”
— Aldous Huxley (Eyeless In Gaza)
Black July, like most disasters which befell independent Sri Lanka, was a preventable tragedy. Had President Jayewardene honoured his 1977 election promise to come up with a political solution to the Tamil question, the Black July and the subsequent civil war could have been avoided. The UNP in 1977 was up to that task, objectively. It had a clear parliamentary majority; the SLFP was in retreat subsequent to its electoral trouncing; the JVP was of negligible import; and in the TULF, the regime had a moderate Tamil partner it could have worked with.
But President Jayewardene’s authoritarian agenda made him equally inimical towards demands for democratisation in the South and devolution in the North; both sets of demands were categorised as ‘subversive’ and handled with unmerited severity. A historic opportunity to settle the ethnic issue in its infancy was thus lost, rendering most subsequent disasters, including the Black July, inevitable.
That failure to solve the Tamil question, together with the unjust proscription of the JVP, was JR Jayewardene’s greatest historic error. (Contrary to public perception, the B-C Pact was abandoned by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike not because of Jayewardene’s infamous Kandy March but because of the protest by Buddhist monks, the first pillar of his Pancha Maha Balavegaya). Those twin and related errors plunged the country into concentric cycles of violence and destroyed Jayewardene’s dream of a third presidential term.
Post-war, Mahinda Rajapaksa could have moved swiftly to devolve and democratise, two necessary preconditions for consensual nation-building. He did not, partly because of his Sinhala supremacist mindset (he does not believe in the existence of an ethnic problem) and partly because he abhors sharing power with anyone outside his family. Just as J.R. Jayewardene’s authoritarian project impeded a political solution to the Tamil question, the Dynastic project of the Rajapaksas are rendering impossible a consensual peace based on reconciliation.
The APRC Final Report
Mahinda Rajapaksa has a completely organic blueprint he can work on, if he wants to seize the moment and settle the ethnic issue. The APRC appointed by the President to come up with a political solution to the North-Eastern problem has prepared a Final Report and presented it to the President. According to Parliamentarian Kariapper, “the APRC expected that President Rajapaksa would commence a dialogue with the main opposition United National Party and the Tamil National Alliance, based on the final report of the APRC with a view to formulating a new constitution” (The Island – 20.7.2010). The President did the opposite; he tucked away the Final Report out of the public eye, to gather dust in the darkness of obfuscation.
Last week several parliamentarians decided to un-closet the Report, releasing it to the media and tabling it in parliament. The regime’s frenzied reaction to the latter action, and its demands that any reference to the Final Report be expunged from the Hansard prove that the Rajapaksas acted with mala fide. The regime interred the APRC Final Report because the Rajapaksas, as non-believers in an ethnic problem, are committed to sabotaging a political solution to the ethnic problem.
The regime waged and won the Fourth Eelam War (launched by the LTTE) on a Sinhala supremacist platform, premised on denying the existence of an ethnic problem (this entailed massive human rights violations which are beginning to haunt us now). When the ethnic problem was reduced to a terrorist threat, a political solution was ruled out, by definition. The APRC was appointed not with a sincere intent but as a time buying devise, to appease Delhi and the West, until the Tigers were defeated. That is why, whenever the APRC produced some concrete result (such as the Majority Report of the Experts Committee), the Rajapaksas moved to negate it, often with the help of their Sinhala supremacist allies.
The APRC Final Report seems a very moderate document, which circumvents controversial issues (such as the nature of the state) and tries to combine devolution with safeguards against separatism. But even such a moderate formula has no place in the vision of an unequal Sri Lanka, in which the Sinhalese are the rulers and the minorities are the ruled, fated by birth to lead a subordinate existence. If the Sinhalese are the hosts and the minorities are the guests, they have no intrinsic rights and no structural grievances. That was the vision which premised our ‘nation-building’ efforts since 1956.
The Rajapaksa Presidency gave a new lease of life to that old vision which was discredited by the war and abandoned after Indian intervention. Post-victory, that vision is informing and propelling the Rajapaksa ‘nation-building’ project. The past has become the present. Before long the majority will feel (again) that this or that minority has too much of something or the other. Economic malaises, caused by Rajapaksa incompetencies and the prioritising of guns over butter, will make the need for scapegoats even more acute. Vocal demands to protect the patrimony of the Sinhalese by tipping the playing field in their favour will follow, to counter either the Tamil Nadu factor or the Middle Eastern factor or the Western factor or some other factor eternally working to undermine Sinhala-Buddhists and promote minorities!
According to this worldview equality is ‘unfair’ because the dice is permanently ‘loaded’ against the Sinhala Buddhists (so we had to have Sinhala Only and standardisation etc, and Black July as a last resort). As the fear of being overtaken and overwhelmed by the minorities consumes us, we will become more irrational and intolerant, more prone to excesses and violence. And when the Tamils or some other minority resist these blatant injustices, they will be branded traitors and treated as such. That was the path to Black July.
A nation-building project premised on Sinhala supremacism (and the hosts and guests concept) will be as unsuccessful the second time as it was the first time. Fortunately a complete retrogression is still avoidable. The mere fact that the APRC managed to produce a Final Report is a minor miracle. The Rajapaksas must not be allowed to bury it, again. The Report must be studied and debated, including in the parliament. The UNP must place it on the agenda in its discussions with the President about constitutional reforms.
India and the international community must be lobbied to put pressure on the regime to implement the Final Report of its own APRC. Here is a realistic cause, an organic solution, for the minority parties to champion (especially the EPDP and the CWC) and the Tamil Diaspora to promote, if they are serious about a just and a consensual peace. If we fail, retrogression will be our fate; the past will return complete with old and new horrors, including the psychological plague bacillus which enabled that abomination, the Black July.
© The Sunday Leader
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