TAMIL GUARDIAN No. 335 ISSN 1369-2208 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 01, 2006 free fortnightly The Tamils are in a familiar predicament. PAGE 6 Child Protection The LTTE’s administration outlaws child labour and Peace recruitment of minors into the military and police. NEWS 4 Offensive planned process Sri Lanka’s military is mass- ing troops and weaponry and conducting exercises outside LTTE controlled areas. NEWS 4 turns on A9 PROSPECTS for further negotiations Demerger difference to end Sri Lanka's conflict rest pri- marily on one thing: the Colombo Sinhalese celebrate amid government's willingness to open the Tamil rage after the Supreme A9 highway and lift the blockade on Court ruling. NEWS 5 the northern Jaffna peninsula, home to over 600,000 Tamils. The crunch came over the week- International Paradox end as negotiators of the government The more successful of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Sri Lanka's Army is, the less Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam international support there (LTTE) met in Geneva to end the spi- will be for a negotiated ralling violence that has claimed up to solution. COMMENT 6 3,000 lives this year. The LTTE took up the humanitari- an crisis confronting Tamils in many Humanitarian Crisis parts of the Northeast, but particularly Jaffna faces starvation as the the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled de-facto blockade continues. Jaffna peninsula which is cut off from the rest of the island. NEWS 8-9 But the government flatly refused to do so, arguing there were security Doubtful tie implications. Sri Lanka’s two main parties The talks promptly broke down seal a pact. But few are despite the efforts of Norwegian facil- itators to cajole and reportedly even convinced. NEWS 10 strong-arm the protagonists into agreeing to meet again. Aanivaer touches "We took up the humanitarian cri- A new Tamil film sets new sis in Jaffna as the urgent priority standards for professionalism issue," the LTTE's political chief, Mr. in production - and the tackling S.P. Tamilselvan, said after the first of of the conflict. CINEMA 11 the two-day talks, the first formal meeting between the two sides since February. "The Sri Lankan government was not prepared to relieve the population from the unfolding humanitarian cata- strophe," Mr. Tamilselvan said. "Not enough food is moving. It is A woman holds the photograph of a ‘disappeared’ family member during a demonstration in an extremely vulnerable situation," No panacea Colombo. Hundreds have disappeared. Report p2. Photo Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images Continued on page 2 ‘The Indian constitutional model did not have to address strong secessionist sentiments’ NEWS 15 GENEVA TALKS COLLAPSE IN FIASCO PAGE 3 tg335friday.qxd 11/3/2006 9:04 PM Page 2 2 TAMIL GUARDIAN Wednesday November 01, 2006 FROM PAGE ONE Peace process turns on A9 ... Continued from page 1 with sea-borne supplies. Firstly, a sea route cannot the head of the UN's child agency, match the capacity of the A9 road: UNICEF's mission in Sri Lanka, before it was closed, up to 200 Joanna Van Gerpen, told Reuters. lorry loads passed along it each The LTTE has said it is ready day to meet the needs of Jaffna's to resume negotiations as soon as people. the government opens the A9, "Can the government supply allowing the movement of people, all the requirements of Tamils by food and other supplies into and ship?" Vethanayagam asked. "That out of the northern peninsula. is totally impossible." Since the signing of the now Secondly, Jaffna residents say frayed truce in 2002, Jaffna had ship-delivered supplies are mainly been supplied through the A9 being diverted to the military gar- highway, which passes through the rison in the peninsula. huge swathe of LTTE-controlled "The government does not territory the Vanni. seem to understand the hardships The road was closed mid the people of Jaffna are facing August when heavy fighting every day," schoolteacher Saratha erupted between the two sides' Selvakumar told Reuters at a across their frontlines at Jaffna bus stop. Muhamalai. The Sri Lankan gov- "We know that airlifting and 1,000 people protested on Nov 1 against the terrifying daily abductions in Sri Lanka. Photo TamilNet ernment has since refused to shipping food for so many people reopen the road. will not be a success. Half the stuff Analysts say this is because the goes to the (armed) forces," she military wants to recapture the said. LTTE-held southern part of the Corruption meant the other Spectre of adbuctions peninsula and doesn't want to dis- half was not distributed properly mantle its substantial military by the fixed-price ration shops, buildup in the middle of the penin- she added. sula astride the highway. Some traders are also hoarding returns to Sri Lanka Indeed, the SLA has already supplies to drive prices up, other launched an abortive offensive residents said. against the Elephant Pass area. Prices of milk powder, rice, Over 130 soldiers were killed and soap and sugar have more than tre- over 500 wounded before the bled in private grocery stores after Somini Sengupta house. A trader at the fish market abuses in this country. A-9 road was shut, Reuters report- was also bundled into a white van For nearly a quarter of a centu- ‘We know that ed. The New York Times as he returned home from work in ry, the Sri Lankan state, dominated There is an acute shortage of September. by the majority ethnic Sinhalese, airlifting and petrol, with government-held The latest abductions echo the has been locked in battle with the shipping food stocks being taken over by the mil- LIKE a revisiting ghost, a rash of terror of years ago. In the late ethnic separatist Liberation Tigers for so many people itary and, in many cases, those of mysterious abductions have come 1980s, Sri Lanka suffered tens of of Tamil Eelam, known as the private resellers. On the black to haunt Sri Lanka once more. thousands of disappearances. Tamil Tigers. will not be a success. market, petrol is now about four Men and women are being Many are still unaccounted for. Lately, a third party has com- Half the stuff goes times their normal prices, UN snatched from their homes, some- For the most part, the latest plicated the conflict: a rival rebel agencies say. times after dark, sometimes in victims have been Tamil, the coun- faction, which the Tamil Tigers to the armed forces.’ Reuters quoted witnesses in broad daylight. Ransom is try's main ethnic minority, and allege to be operating with gov- the town as saying residents must demanded in some cases. In oth- many of the abductions have been ernment support. The government wait for seven to eight hours to ers, political intimidation seems to carried out in government-held rejects the charge. receive their rations, often getting be the point. A few have been territory - sometimes in the heart That breakaway faction, up before dawn to line up. freed, but corpses have also turned of this highly fortified capital, at known as the Karuna group, has offensive, which came barely two Correspondents in Colombo up. With rare exceptions, the other times, in towns in Sri surfaced repeatedly in the testimo- weeks before last weekend's talks, say even a cabinet minister on the crimes remain unsolved. They are Lanka's north and east, close to Sri ny of the kidnapped. So has the was called off. GoSL delegation to the Geneva among the most terrifying Lankan military installations. political nature of some abduc- Meanwhile hardships and frus- talks is profiting by subletting sideshows in Sri Lanka's ever The white van appears repeat- tions, even in cases where the kid- tration have been worsening ships to the government. more terrifying ethnic conflict. edly in the recollections of the vic- nappers' identities are hard to pin amongst the 600,000 Tamils who The hardships are worst It is difficult to know who is tims. Some have won release only down. live under the domination of amongst those who fled their responsible and exactly how many after their families appealed to the Faced with calls for interna- 40,000 Sinhala troops. homes amid the heavy fighting in people have been seized. The highest echelons of the state. tional monitors, the president has "If the government delays the peninsula since August. International Committee of the White vans are an iconic sym- offered a counterproposal: a Sri reopening the A-9 road, I tell you More than 50,000 people have Red Cross says it has received bol of the late 1980s, when Sri Lankan commission, aided by there will be riots ... more killings, been displaced across the peninsu- more than 350 reports so far this Lanka experienced a wave of international observers, to look violence and kidnappings," la by renewed fighting, UNICEF year of people who have disap- abductions as its government into human rights cases. Samuel Vethnayagam, a retired said in a recent report. peared. The Sri Lankan National fought a violent insurrection of But questions linger about land surveyor, told Reuters in the "The majority have squeezed Human Rights Commission leftist groups in the ethnic whether this proposed panel Jaffna last week. into the houses of relatives and logged 419 such complaints from Sinhalese-dominated south. would meet international stan- To Vethanayagam, who came friends," the agency said. "Others last December to September. A The kidnappings have brought dards, including whether the gov- from Colombo in August to visit have gathered at temporary private advocacy group, Home for a new cloud over the administra- ernment would be obliged to fol- his ancestral home in Jaffna and accommodation centres." Human Rights, has documented tion of President Mahinda low the commission's recommen- has been stuck there ever since due Meanwhile the LTTE has 203 cases of missing people in the Rajapakse of Sri Lanka.