Tamil Perspectives on Post-War Sri Lanka, the LTTE and the Future

10 November 2010 Tamil Perspectives on Post-war Sri Lanka, the LTTE and the Future Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe FDI Associate After nearly two decades of suppression of dissident Tamil parties by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the re-emergence of plurality in Tamil politics since the May 2009 defeat of the LTTE has altered the political landscape for Sri Lankan Tamils. In a series of exclusive interviews conducted in Sri Lanka in June 2010, FDI Associate Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe speaks with Mr Thirunavukkarasu Sridharan, leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, Padmanaba faction (EPRLF-Naba) and Mr Dharmalingam Siddharthan , leader of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and, by correspondence in October 2010, with Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan , Principal Researcher at the Point Pedro Institute of Development, about the general situation facing Sri Lankan Tamils after the civil war, the implications of the LTTE’s demise and Tamil aspirations for the future. FDI: Following its defeat in May 2009, what is the general sentiment of the civilian population towards the LTTE or, for that matter, the Government of Sri Lanka? Muttukrishna Sarvananthan: There is deep resentment towards the LTTE among a significant share of the population, due to their callous disregard for human life, recruitment of children and the immense misery that befell the general population during the final stages of the war. There is a lot of antipathy towards the LTTE, which will last for a long time. The LTTE forced civilians to flee along with them – as human shields – right up to the beaches of northern Mullaitivu. Once the civilians vacated their homes, the LTTE cadres looted the household goods and building materials such as asbestos sheets, roof tiles, window and door frames. Civilians, particularly women, were forced to part with the jewellery they were wearing. General Sarath Fonseka revealed in Parliament recently that, during his tenure in 2009, about 200 kilograms of gold belonging to the LTTE was unearthed in the Vanni region after he retired from service, although he does not know what has happened to it since. The young and old were randomly conscripted to work for the LTTE: either to fight or do subsidiary duties such as manning sentry points or carrying arms, ammunition and cargo. For the first time, the LTTE deployed male and female cadres together in the same bunker and that resulted in underage pregnancies. There are numerous underage single mothers in the North as a result. Unfortunately, the Rajapakse Government has failed to capitalise on the resentment of Tamil civilians towards the LTTE. The priority of the Rajapakses1 was the consolidation of political power, rather than winning the broken hearts and minds of northern Tamils. The Rajapakses were more interested in pandering to the parochial euphoria of the majority community – playing to the gallery – rather than bonding a fractured nation. The bitterness towards the LTTE has not, therefore, translated into goodwill towards the Government, partly due to pampering of the likes of Douglas Devananda 2 and the remnants of the LTTE hierarchy, such as Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (alias Karuna Amman), Kumaran Pathmanathan (alias KP), Velautham Thayanithi (alias Thaya Master), and others, by the Government. While the bulk of the returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in squalor and some are expected to be given 500,000 rupees ($4,512.00) at the most under the World Bank’s North-East Housing Reconstruction Project (NEHRP) or the Indian Government’s 50,000 Houses project, those who were complicit in crimes against humanity, such as the recruitment of child soldiers, forcible displacement of civilians, the conscription and killing of civilians attempting to flee the clutches of the LTTE, are pampered and living in relative luxury. “What justice is this?” is the thought lingering in the minds of the population. Thirunavukkarasu Sridharan: The LTTE is a fascist organisation which dismantled Tamil society, which hates Sinhalese and Muslim people and even hates other Tamil parties that hold a different view. Now, most Tamils realise that confrontational politics is not good. The Tamil people, particularly in the Vanni [in northern Sri Lanka] utterly hate the LTTE, as do Jaffna people. Generally, this is what the people are thinking. I do not think the LTTE can revive; I doubt even in 15 years from now that there will be any form of Tamil militant movement. There might be political violence, but I doubt there will be militancy. The extremists are a small minority. In Sri Lanka now, only about 15 per cent of Tamils would support the LTTE. The Vanni people, in particular, are very angry and wary of the LTTE, as they were exposed to their brutality at the end of the war. I was told by a number of Tamil civilians who escaped from the LTTE in the final months of the war, that the LTTE were forcibly recruiting and shooting Tamil civilians. When civilians were put into IDP camps more than 8000-10,000 people escaped and a number of LTTE fighters, about 500 hardcore members, also ran away. The pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora reported about these camps in a very exaggerated way. We know this because we visited the camps much earlier. Some people in the Tamil diaspora said that the IDP camps were like concentration camps; this was an exaggeration of the conditions. The pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora have a different psychology from the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, our 1 Mahinda Rajapakse, President of Sri Lanka; Gotabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary; Basil Rajapakse, Minister of Economic Development and Chamal Rajapakse, Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament. 2 Douglas Devananda is the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and is Minister for Traditional Industries and Small Enterprises in the current government of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Page 2 of 10 people are more worried about their children’s education, housing and employment. But the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora thinks about separatism and militancy – while their children are being educated. Dharmalingam Siddharthan: At the beginning many Tamil civilians were unsure whether to complain about the LTTE, because LTTE top rankers were co-opted by the army. The Tamil civilians are very angry with these people because the men who forcibly conscripted their children are free, but many of the children are still in detention; because of this they are very angry with the Government. These LTTE people put them [child soldiers] in the frontline, and a large number of them were killed as a result, so that makes them very angry. Whoever goes there asks, “Can’t we get our child out?” That is their main demand. That is why they did not want to complain to the army because they know that those people are now close to the army, so they might get into trouble. The LTTE cadres who are working with the Army might purposefully identify the people who were opposed to them previously. There was one girl who was forcibly recruited by the LTTE and, when released, took refuge at someone’s house. She didn’t go to her own village because the man who recruited her is working with the army and is going around and identifying child soldiers; because of the fear she has for him, she is now in hiding. Recently in Vavuniya district, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) [the largest Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka, which has pro-LTTE affiliations] won the Parliamentary election by only 4000 votes. Even in Jaffna North, the Government lost only by 20,000 votes. So a large number of Tamils voted for the Government. If the Government committed serious war crimes, as some suggest, many Tamils would not have voted for it. When [President] Mahinda Rajapakse speaks the Tamil language some people criticise him. I say, ‘No. At least that man had the courage to learn. We must appreciate that. He is not very good at speaking Tamil, but at least he tries.’ We realise that is at least a good gesture. FDI: There have been reports that thousands of Tamil-speaking police officers have joined the Police in the Northern and Eastern Provinces To what extent do Tamils in Sri Lanka have confidence in the restitution of law and order and good governance in Sri Lanka after the civil war? MS: According to my knowledge, 500-600 Tamil-speaking police officers have been recruited from the Jaffna peninsula this year and are currently undergoing training in Kalutara Police Training College, which is commendable. In the Eastern Province this has been going on for a while, but I do not know the number. This does not mean that the law and order situation or governance in general has improved in the North or beyond. Deteriorating law and order and poor governance have been hallmarks of the Rajapakse Government in the past five years throughout the country, which continues even after the end of the war. For example, a journalist went missing in Homagama (a suburb of Colombo) a few days before the Presidential election and remains “disappeared”. One Batticaloa Municipal Council member belonging to the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) political party (a constituent of the ruling alliance), is reported as missing since late-August 2010. In spite of the public appeal by the Chief Minister of the Page 3 of 10 Eastern Province for his release, the police have not been able to trace this person. A couple of months ago, two young married ladies – resettled IDPs – were gang-raped by uniformed army personnel in Visvamadu (in Mullaitivu district). Though the local police have apprehended the culprits and produced them in court, the military police have been trying their best to get the suspects released on bail.

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