| SRI LANKA WATCH |
| War clouds spark fear in Sri Lanka's northeast
By M.R. Narayan Swamy New Delhi: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas are preparing for war, telling people living under their control that the internationally-brokered peace process cannot resolve the dragging ethnic conflict. Civilian sources in the island's turbulent east say guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are beefing up bunkers and checkpoints in the areas they administer. 'People coming from LTTE areas have seen sandbags being piled up and frontline positions being strengthened,' a resident in the eastern town of Batticaloa told IANS over telephone. 'The Tigers are also telling people in small functions and gatherings that the peace process will not achieve anything and that war is the only solution,' the resident added. Coupled with reports of Sri Lankan military build-up, Tamil and Muslim sources said, fear and uncertainty had gripped the island's northeast that a war was all set to break out. 'The fear is real,' another Batticaloa resident said. 'Everyone here thinks there is going to be fighting.' The residents spoke in the wake of the collapse of the talks in Oslo that were aimed at resolving a row over the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), a Nordic body that monitors the 2002 ceasefire between Colombo and the LTTE. A frustrated Norway, the peace facilitator, has blamed the Tigers for the impasse and asked the government and the LTTE to clarify if they wanted to abide by the 2002 truce or not. Tamil sources in Colombo complained of fuel shortages and rising sugar prices in the northern district of Jaffna, where moneyed families were beginning to hoard essential commodities. 'There are no such shortages here,' the Batticaloa resident said. 'You must also remember that ours is a poor town compared to Jaffna. You need money to hoard.' The LTTE controls the whole of Mullaitivu and Killinochchi districts and parts of Mannar and Vavuniya districts in Sri Lanka's north. It also controls sections of Batticaloa and Trincomalee in the east. There is a regular traffic of civilians - teachers, traders and government employees - between the government- and LTTE-held areas in Batticaloa district. Many also come from LTTE territory to Batticaloa town for medical treatment. Explained the Batticaloa resident: 'Earlier we had only two sides to fear: LTTE and the government. Now there is the (LTTE's breakaway) Karuna group too.' Tamil sources say that the fear of war is more evident in Trincomalee, which lies to the north of Batticaloa and from where thousands of Tamils have already started to flee to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. According to one source, about 5,000 families have been displaced from both government- and LTTE-controlled areas, the former due to violence for which the largely Sinhalese security forces are blamed. 'Recently, after soldiers shot a Tamil man and assaulted a girl, many Tamils went over to the LTTE zone. There have been other provocations too. A fishmonger was shot dead at Irruthaiyapuram in the Muthur area. The Parish priest tried to see the body but the military did not permit him... Most people are somehow convinced that now a war cannot be avoided.' There have also been skirmishes between Tamils and Muslims in Trincomalee, adding to the tensions. Killings and counter-killings, blamed mainly on the LTTE, the Karuna group and security forces, have increased at an alarming pace in recent months in the east and north of Sri Lanka. The number of Tamils who have taken shelter in India as refugees is nearing 3,000. Asked what the ordinary civilians in the north and east felt, a Tamil activist in Colombo said: 'They just want to live and die peacefully. They don't want any war. This is their only prayer to god.' IANS, 11.6.2006 |