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War and Peace

The Defence Diary by Ranga Jayasuriya

The LTTE has a tradition of bending rules of negotiations in its favour. That is one lesson learnt from past negotiations with the LTTE. And once again history is repeating itself. The latest being the LTTE's unilateral withdrawal from the scheduled sea movement of its cadres yesterday.

The LTTE had been insisting on sea transport for its Eastern area commanders to attend a meeting with the Wanni leadership, making it a pre condition for its participation at the next round of peace talks.

The government last week gave the greenlight to sea transport and the date was fixed for April 15. Then the Tiger leadership demanded the postponement of talks till May, citing that it needed to negotiate with its local leadership before it goes to Geneva.

This made talks on the previously proposed dates- April 19 to 21- a non event and the Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer, after a hectic telephone diplomacy, secured April 24 and 25 as fresh dates for the second round of ceasefire talks.

The agreement for sea transport was on the premise that unarmed LTTE cadres should be transported by civilian ferry in the presence of truce monitors.

The initial agreement for the sea transport of LTTE cadres between the East and Mullaitivu was agreed upon in 2003 by the then Wickremesinghe Administration and the LTTE. The agreement stipulates that LTTE cadres should be unarmed, that the SLMM should be present in the vessels transporting LTTE cadres, which should be escorted by the Navy keeping to a certain minimum distance away from the LTTE vessels.

The ferry with the SLMM chief, Ulf Henricsson on board arrived in Mullaitivu last morning for the scheduled sea transport.Three boat loads of LTTE cadres got in. Then the LTTE demanded the vessel to be escorted by armed LTTE boats.

The request was flatly rejected by the SLMM chief who maintained that only the Sri Lanka Navy could escort the vessel.

The LTTE cadres then disembarked the vessel and the sea transport was cancelled.

The unilateral cancellation of the sea movement by the LTTE which earlier linked it to its participation at the next round of ceasefire talks has now raised doubts as to whether the Tigers would go to Geneva. The LTTE was expected to issue a statement last night on its participation at the next round of talks.

Within hours after its withdrawal from the sea transport fiasco, suspected LTTE cadres blew up another claymore mine at Mundimurippu at 12.45 pm, targeting an Army convoy killing four soldiers. Eight soldiers were injured, of which four were in critical condition.

This is in addition to the wreck caused in the Eastern port city of Trincomalee on New year's eve. Ethnic relations in Trincomalee have always been uneasy, but it never went to a miserable high as in the aftermath of the bomb blast in the Vegetable market.

The parcel bomb explosion directed at the vegetable market, considered a Sinhalese dominated area, though generally seen as tit for tat by the LTTE for the killing of the pro Tiger activist V.Vigneshwaran, is also a well orchestrated attempt to unleash a communal backlash in the ethnically mixed town. (the explosion occurred a day after the burial of Vigneshwaran)

The death toll of the explosion and subsequent communal violence has reached 19 and over 50 persons were injured.

The communal riots saw Tamil owned shops being torched and scores of people killed, some hacked to death and some burnt alive. At least three persons travelling in a three wheeler were burnt alive.

Through a curfew and deployment of security forces restrained the orgy of violence, sporadic incidents were reported till Friday. Violence reignited in Mihindupura following the murder of a Sinhala youth who was suspected to be killed by Tamil mobs. Enraged crowds burnt a Kovil and set ablaze an NGO office.Police enforced a dusk to dawn curfew as reports suggested certain Tamil villages had been vacated by people moving to uncleared areas.

The swift response by the Security Forces and the government, obviously helped to curtail an orgy of violence which would otherwise bleed the port city. The Three Forces Commanders and Police chief flew to Trincomalee along with the government's special envoys, Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and North Central Chief Minister Bertie Premalal Dissanayake.

But, the situation in the town remains volatile though the local peace committees consisting of local community leaders had an initial success in bringing down tension.

But, in the face of increasing LTTE violence against the Security Forces and, of course, stepped up attacks by the Karuna loyalists on the LTTE targets, the East is literally a ticking time bomb. Unconfirmed intelligence reports from the East said ten LTTE cadres had been killed in an attack by the Karuna loyalists yesterday.

What is further disturbing is the statements made by the LTTE, subtly warning that it would take sides,as announced by LTTE Trincomalee political chief Elilan.

Army Commander Gen Sarath Fonseka, ordered fresh cordon and search operations last week after the Tigers stepped up attacks against the security forces.

Renewed violence since the murder of Vigneshwaran has cost the lives of over 20 security forces personnel.

Vigneshwaran, a known LTTE activist was honoured posthumously by Tiger supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Earlier on Tuesday, eleven sailors going home for the Avurudu holiday were killed when their bus was caught in a claymore explosion. Two policemen were killed and two injured in another explosion in Kumburupitty on Wednesday morning in another claymore mine explosion using a remote control device as an detonator.

On new year's eve, two soldiers and two civilians were wounded when an Army truck transporting new year goodies to the security forces camp was hit by a claymore mine attached to a bicycle. The stepped- up patrol and clearing operations have proved effective.

Troops arrested an LTTE cadre along with two claymore mines, each weighing 15 kg, when he was planting explosives on Friday night, five km South of Omanthai. In another incident, The Security Forces recovered two more claymore mines in Sathurukondan on the Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa road.

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