The Hindu Editorial-Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

IRA'S REALITY CHECK, THE LTTE'S TOO

ARMED GROUPS FIGHTING political battles must not be allowed to get away with criminal violence by legitimising it in the name of the cause. This is the strong message from the mess in which the Irish Republican Army now finds itself following the murder of Robert McCartney, a Catholic, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Public anger against the group for its alleged involvement in the crime refuses to go away. Instead, the gruesome killing has prompted others to come forward with their own experiences of the IRA's criminality, ranging from murder and "justice" beatings to extortion. This is unprecedented in a place where the IRA commanded fearful respect until recently. The public reaction forced the group to make a statement admitting that some of its men were directly involved. But its apparently conciliatory offer to shoot the men responsible only ended up incensing people, all the more. The murder, and a $50 million bank robbery last December in which the IRA is the prime suspect, have silenced even the most vocal supporters of the group. Its refusal to renounce the armed struggle for a united Ireland and resistance to decommissioning its weapons remain the main obstacle to the peace initiative in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, has tried to distance itself from the murder. But the identities of the two are so blended that the party cannot duck blame for the recent happenings. Sinn Fein aspires to be accepted as a modern, democratic party but its failure to bring sufficient pressure on the IRA to disband and give up arms prevents it from being recognised as a credible force. The cool reception to the Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, in the United States, where the Republican cause counts on the support of a number of Irish-American politicians and the vast Irish immigrant community, was a reality check for the party that the IRA is more a liability than an asset. For the first time, the White House disinvited Mr. Adams to the traditional party for St. Patrick's Day, an Irish Catholic feast, and instead invited the family of the murdered man. Senator Edward Kennedy, one of Sinn Fein's strongest supporters, cancelled a meeting with Mr. Adams. The IRA declared a ceasefire in its armed struggle against the British in 1997, and a year later Sinn Fein signed the Good Friday agreement to share power in Northern Ireland. In December 2004, a renewed effort at power-sharing between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Union Party came close to striking a deal but fell through over the disarmament issue. Will the constructive pressure from across the Atlantic in the wake of the McCartney killing finally oblige the IRA to give up arms? Nobody can answer the question with any confidence at this point.

There is a lesson from the IRA's current troubles for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This Pol Potist organisation rules over the Tamils in much of North-East Sri Lanka as their self-proclaimed "sole representative" through a campaign of terror that has featured dozens of killings since the February 2002 ceasefire, intimidation, extortion, and plain gangsterism. Matters are far worse in LTTE-controlled areas in Sri Lanka than in the IRA's patch of Northern Ireland. For one thing, the subservience of the `moderates' — constituents of the Tamil National Alliance — to the LTTE is in a class all by itself; this cannot be compared with the relationship between Sinn Fein and the IRA. Tamils actively canvassing international support against the LTTE's criminal violence do not carry as much clout as the McCartney sisters. But their voices are stronger than they used to be. Some day in North-East Sri Lanka too, the worm will turn.

Details sought from Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)

A human rights watchdog group has requested Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) to provide details about tsunami relief aid provided by their Tamil Diaspora in cash, kind and services for the information of the people here. TRO is an NGO registered with the Government of Sri Lanka and works exclusively in the North East of Sri Lanka.

We are concerned about the plight of the affected people in this country. As we have seen news reports about funds pledged and handed over by Tamil Diaspora in the aftermath of the disaster this particular news item has come to us as a surprise. We are an international movement committed to uphold that the international powers maintain principles of equality and justice.

Therefore we would appreciate if Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) could enlighten the general public regarding the following:

• What assistance rendered towards emergency relief? Cash or Material or services?
• If cash donation was made when and how?
• Did you give the funds to the LTTE Fund? How much?
• Did you make contributions elsewhere? If so to whom?
• What is your pledge? When do you except to deliver the same?"

(Thenee.com)

LTTE must halt recruitment of child soldiers

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, have long been known for recruiting children to take up arms in their 22-year independence struggle against the Government of Sri Lanka. With a truce in early 2002, many hoped the illegal conscription of minors as child combatants would cease. In the wake of the tsunami, which devastated Tamil majority areas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, new reports of abductions and missing children have reaffirmed concerns of international human rights organizations of continued recruitment.

The LTTE has responded effectively to the emergency needs of the population in the aftermath of the tsunami. The group maintains administrative control of large portions of the northern and eastern districts of the country and in these areas LTTE administrators are coordinating an impressive relief and reconstruction effort.

New buildings, businesses and government facilities are quickly rising amid the rubble of the war-torn region as the Tamil rebels oversee a flurry of infrastructure development. The LTTE saw the tsunami as a political opportunity and made a point of reaching out to international donors with promises of full access to monitor assistance.

The effective LTTE relief response, however, has not been accompanied by any lessening of their commitment to armed struggle should negotiations with the Sri Lankan government continue to be stalemated. The LTTE has long been known for the forced recruitment of child soldiers, which is a war crime, and the evidence suggests that recruitment has continued. Reporting 40 verified cases of child recruits in the month following the December 26th tsunami, UNICEF has highlighted the forcible recruitment of three young girls from relief camps.

The underage girls, as young as fifteen years of age, disappeared from relief camps in Ampara and Batticaloa, two northeastern districts. While they have since been found and returned to their families, the whereabouts of countless other children remain unknown and they are suspected to be under the control of the rebel forces.
Contradicting repeated denials of illegal recruitment, the Tamil rebels freed 23 child soldiers on February 3rd to the North East Secretariat on Human Rights.

The LTTE tried to explain the presence of these underage combatants by asserting that children often hide their true age in order to join the insurgency. In a released statement, the rebels maintained that the freed minors were found through "a process of identifying underaged kids among those volunteered for enlistment with the LTTE." The internal process of identifying child combatants, however, is a ploy to gain favorable publicity. Human Rights Watch has previously repudiated similar actions of the LTTE, contending that, in fact, "forcible recruitment of children has intensified and new recruits outnumber those released."

When confronted with allegations of Tamil recruitment of child soldiers in the wake of the natural disaster, R. Sampathan, the elected leader of the Tamil National Alliance, argued that the Tigers are merely supporting children left destitute by the tsunami and that their charity should not be the basis of accusations. However, since the Norway-sponsored truce agreement between the government and insurgents took effect in 2002, UNICEF has estimated that 1,400 children have been abducted or recruited by the Tamil rebels. Over the same period, Human Rights Watch estimates the LTTE has enlisted more than 3,500 underage children to fill the ranks of the insurgency.
With armed conflict against the Sinhalese-dominated government dating back to 1983, the Tamil rebels have adopted guerrilla warfare techniques, terrorist acts and suicide bombings as their primary means of promoting the establishment of an independent Tamil state. To date, more than 60,000 have died as a result of the fighting, and an estimated 800,000, one-third of whom are children, have been displaced by the internal armed conflict.
Today, more than 250,000 children fight as child soldiers in more than 30 armed conflicts around the world. Beyond the injury and death of thousands of these children every year, the exploitation, sexual abuse, physical stress and emotional trauma of war robs them of the childhood they deserve as a human right.

Refugees International therefore recommends:

- The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cease efforts to illegally recruit children in the group's effort to establish an independent Tamil state.
- Donor governments increase financial commitments to local and international human rights organizations to enable them to their expand efforts to trace missing children who have been abducted or recruited into conflict and to build their capacity to provide reintegration programs.
- The Government of Sri Lanka strengthens its efforts to protect children from abduction within areas under its control by, for example, increasing the police presence near schools and at temple festivals.
- Norway, in its position as facilitator of peace talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, advocate for the immediate demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of child combatants as a requisite component of any new peace agreement.
- The International Criminal Court affirm the exploitation of child soldiers as a war crime, pursuant to the Rome Statute, by pursuing the prosecution of leaders responsible for allowing the conscription and exploitation of child combatants in conflict.
- The United Nations Security Council act upon its commitment and continued condemnation of the illegal recruitment and use of children in armed conflict by establishing a formal, structured monitoring, compliance and enforcement regime, as proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Keegan Kautzky is an intern with Refugees International.
Contact: Keegan Kautzkyri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110

EPRLF urges SLMM to take action to stop killings in East

Mar 22, Colombo: The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), urged the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to immediately intervene and take urgent actions to stop the continuous killings in the Eastern Province.

"Within the last month the LTTE has carried out 30 murders." - EPRLF

In a letter to the SLMM, EPRLF Batticaloa-Ampara Wing Leader, R. Thurairathnam said that within the last month the LTTE has carried out 30 murders and a large number of innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire between the two LTTE factions' fighting.

“There is substantial evidence to believe that government sponsored flights for the LTTE top brass are reconnoitering maneuvers by LTTE death squads to assassinate their rivals,” the party said.

35 LTTE terrorist refused admission to areas under sovereign control

An official request of the LTTE to permit 35 terrorists to move across the terrorist unoccupied areas from Karadiyakaru to Wakare, was refused by the Sovereign Government of Sri Lanka.
This application had been made by the Wanni faction - Tamilchelvem group to the Peace Secretariat of the Government of Sri Lanka.

In a crafty manner Tamilchelvam had used a letter head of the so called “Tamil Peace Secretariat” which is only a cover to hide the split of the LTTE in to three factions namely Karuna faction, Soosai faction and Tamilselvem faction. Tamilchelvam by this move has misled our Jayantha Danapala (who had won the favor of the United States of America for similar conduct in the United Nation).

The Government of Sri Lanka is been fooled again, we say this because the so called Tamil peace secretariat is representing the smallest LTTE faction of Tamilchelvam, it is also the faction that had committed 99% of the violations of the Cease Fire Agreement.

The President and the Cabinet of Ministers of Sri Lanka are guilty of violating the Cease Fire Agreement, because neither the so called Tamil peace secretariat nor Tamilchelvam faction can be regarded to represent the LTTE. The Peace secretariat of the Government of Sri Lanka is also not a party to the Cease Fire Agreement.

Therefore the Government of Sri Lanka should re-read the Cease Fire Agreement, in English; or the Cease Fire interval (Viramaya) in Sinhala language, and then think of the terms therein and try to understand that the Cease Fire Agreement is between two parties and that it is not between one party and a faction of the other party. The Government Peace secretariat is also not a party.

The public of Sri Lanka can take action against the cabinet of Sri Lanka for violation of the Cease Fire Agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka.

-SN-

Tigers abduct women!

Wanni tigers have abducted two women from Valachchena. They had been abducted after they had come to a controlled area to get themselves registered to receive tsunami aid and while going back to an uncontrolled area Though Wanni tigers had tried to abduct another person who had been with the two women, he had struggled and escaped to a controlled area where he had told the whole story to the police.

Meanwhile, a Muslim was murdered at Ottamawadi in Batticaloa. He had been shot dead by two people who had come to plunder a house say the neighbours. They had identified the two assailants as members of Wanni tiger organization. Valachchena police is conducting investigations.

LTTE’s attempt to abduct teenager thwarted

An LTTE attempt to abduct a seventeen year old boy from the general area of AKKARAIPATTU for conscription has been foiled when the boy escaped the LTTE arrest and ran to the nearest Special Task Force (STF) camp for protection on 21 March 2005 around 5.00 p.m.

The teenaged boy was being forcibly taken to an undisclosed destination by two unidentified LTTE cadres who came on a motorbike at the time the victim managed to escape from the LTTE and reached the KANCHANAKUDA STF camp.

However, the two LTTE cadres have escaped the Police arrest during initial investigations. The victim was to be produced before the AKKARAIPATTU Magistrate soon. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission was to be informed. Name & particulars of the teenager are withheld for obvious security reasons and questions of human rights.

Tsunami victim’s aid robbed by LTTE

A tsunami affected Tamil fisherman who was returning from VAKARAI area after collecting tsunami aid has been assaulted and his money has been robbed by the LTTE at the LTTE roadblock in the general un-cleared area of PANICHCHANKERNI on 21 March 2005 around 8.20 a.m.

The victim named MUTTU YOGARAJA, a resident at VAKARAI in un-cleared area, was reportedly traveling in a private bus in order to go to PUTTLAM where he is temporarily settled along with his mother, MUTHALA THIWAWARI and wife, NALLATAMBI KERISHWARI, after receiving his tsunami aid when their vehicle was stopped by the LTTE

According to the complainant, LTTE men at the roadblock have snatched Rs. 3500/- of his tsunami aid and their National Identity Cards before he was subjected to LTTE harassments in the presence of his mother and wife for reasons best known only to the LTTE. It was further revealed that he was fired upon by the LTTE when he fled the location in fear leaving his mother and wife behind.

However, he has managed to reach the KAJUWATTA Army detachment safely seeking protection and report the incident to the troops. The troops in turn have instructed him to lodge a formal complaint at the Police. Whereabouts of his mother and wife are yet to be revealed. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was to be informed.