.

The Presidents of Sri Lanka— why they all failed

On January 1st 1989, Ranasinghe Premadasa was sworn in as the second executive President of Sri-Lanka. He quickly got into his stride and established his own style of governance. Indeed he was an indefatigable worker and the unquestioned champion of the poor, the stratum of society he was born into in 1924. Since Independence no Prime Minister or executive President endeavoured so much as he did to help in the upliftment of the poor. His vision of two hundred garment factories in rural areas including remote areas gave employment to tens of thousands of the rural poor.

Like President Jayewardene, President Premadasa saw great virtue in the private sector as engines of growth. With extensive privatisation programmes the frontiers of socialism began to recede and prosperity came in its wake. In the modern world an executive President is not a master leader but a master broker. President Premadasa was neither. He perceived himself to be an autocrat within the multi-party system in Sri-Lanka which had stood the test of time since Independence. Of course he tolerated the opposition in Parliament, led by former Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike. However he tolerated no dissent within the Government Parliamentary Group.

He preached the enlightened philosophy of consultation, compromise and consensus. He practiced the antithesis, the one man show. Thus President Premadasa reduced his Cabinet of Ministers to a farce, the Government Parliamentary group to impotency, Parliament to a rubber stamping device and reduced senior public servants to Palace servants. Above all he created a fear psychosis which permeated through society with people not knowing when and how the wrath of a President would descend on them mysteriously or otherwise.

Part of that mystery was that those who opposed the President either mysteriously disappeared into thin air like Lakshman Perera MMC (UNP-Dehiwela- Galkissa) or were mysteriously murdered like Richard De Zoysa the well known actor and playwright of course President Premadasa was one of. the first to pay his last respects to that dead actor and to pontificate that the murderers would be brought to justice. His piety was confined to empty rhetoric in this instance and in the numerous disappearances of those who opposed him, be it in leading industrial disputes, strikes at our Universities or the murders of those who were a threat to him wherever they be even on the battlefront. To this date who the murderers were remains a mystery.

President Premadasa had twenty four years of experience in Parliament, serving two-thirds of that time in Government and one third in Opposition. Twenty four years is a long time, long enough to be habit forming. President Premadasa entered Parliament in March 1960 and his ascendancy began in 1965 when he returned to Parliament and was appointed Deputy Minister for Local Government, Housing and Construction. He took on that portfolio with Cabinet rank in 1968. From 1970-77 he was the Chief Opposition Whip and from 1978-88 the Prime Minister.

Thus his distinguished career was steeped in a wealth of Parliamentary experience. Therefore the natural expectation was that as President he would strengthen the Parliamentary system. What he did was the very antithesis. In the short space of twenty four months he undid everything he held as sacrosanct for twenty four years. He equated dissent to treason, and considered himself to be the fount of all wisdom. Barring directing a surgeon on how to perform surgery, he directed everybody else in every conceivable profession serving the Government of Sri Lanka. Truly that was a reflection of the educational background of the President. He was a high school dropout without any professional experience whatsoever’. Indeed he publicly ridiculed the educated and extolled the virtues of the uneducated. Nobody within the Government dare tell him that be was courting disaster well knowing that the wrath of the President would descend on them mysteriously or otherwise.

Of the dissenters, Gamini Dissanayake a senior Cabinet Minister and a Presidential aspirant in 1988, was suddenly dropped from the Cabinet. Lalith Athulathmudali, another senior Cabinet Minister and another Presidential aspirant in 1988, nearly suffered the same fate. While the President was isolating himself from the intelligentsia he became friendly with all manner of nefarious characters. For example common criminals like Soththi Upali and Mora Sunil, who had the identical educational qualifications as the President and who were born in slums like the President, became increasingly influential. his valet Mohideen was another such example. According to the President that was the social revolution he was spearheading, a transition from Kurunduwatte to Kehelwatte. For example he appointed a Sanitary Inspector as an Ambassador. A few of us Ambassadors do have experience with the underground. The only experience his Ambassador to Kuwait and the Maldives had with the underground was confined to the sewerage system!

I was then his Ambassador to the European Union and a particularly good friend of mine in Brussels was the Ambassador of the Philippines. A son of a famous Foreign Minister, he was educated at Harvard. He saw in President Premadasa another President Marcos. He saw in our Constitution so many similarities with the then Constitution of the Phillipines and an amazing similarity the way President Marcos emasculated the Congress and his Cabinet and the way President Premadasa emasculated Parliament and his Cabinet. The night Lalith Athulathmudali was assassinated he telephoned me from Manila (I was then back in Colombo) and exclaimed, "Jungle, remember what I told you when we were in Brussels Senator Aquino the principal rival of President Marcos was assassinated. Your friend Athulathmudali who was the principal rival of President Premadasa is now assassinate."

Indeed the similarity between President Marcos and President Premadasa was very striking. President Marcos had his Palace Guards who were up to all manner of nefarious activities. President Premadasa had his Presidential Security Division who would do anything for him. It is common knowledge that the Presidential Security Division had a hand in the abduction and murder of Richard De Zoysa. President Marcos had retired Police Generals to pry into the income tax files and foreign exchange transactions of his political foes. President Premadasa had two retired Deputy Inspectors-General of Police performing the identical functions.

From every platform President Marcos lavished praise on the democratic system. President Premadasa did precisely the same. President Marcos mowed down one group of terrorists and negotiated for peace with an- other group of terrorists. President Premadasa mowed down the JVP and he negotiated for peace with the LTTE! President Marcos perfected the role of State - owned vehicles sans number plates operating with his goons running amok during elections. President Premadasa achieved the same degree of perfection when he introduced it to Sri Lanka for the Presidential Elections in December 1988!

Many a fool in Sri Lanka equates President Premadasa to President Abraham Lincoln of the United States. I cannot think of a better method of insulting one of the greatest Presidents of the United States.

President Lincoln went from the log cabin to the White House, President Premadasa from a slum to the President’s House. President Lincoln was an orator in English, President Premadasa in Sinhala. President Lincoln was assassinated. President Premadasa was also assassinated. The similarities stop there.

President Lincoln championed the cause of democracy and preached and practiced the sophisticated doctrine, the Government of the people, by the people, for the people. Whatever President Premadasa preached, he practiced the evil doctrine of the one-man show. Even in the midst of the Civil war President Lincoln had an impeccable Human Rights record. During our Civil war President Premadasa had the worst Human Rights record of all nations wedded to democracy, President Lincoln was a highly educated man. He went to Springfield College in Massachusetts because he could not afford to go to the nearby Harvard University. As President of the United States, he instituted a number of scholarships so that the poorest of the poor could go to Harvard if they had the requisite high grades. President Premadasa was a high school drop out. He made a virtue of being ill-educated and ridiculed the well educated.

When Ranasinghe Premadasa adorned our Parliament for twenty four years, he served with distinction both in Government and in opposition. Indeed he was held in high esteem by both sides of the House. His being elected President of Sri Lanka was a logical concomitant. Yet once elected President he all but negated the role of Parliament and supplanted it with his one-man show. To say the least, his governance was a disaster. Consequently he was a failure as a president of Sri Lanka

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The fourth executive President of Sri Lanka was President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Her father was one of the two truly liberal Heads of Government in Ceylon. He was educated at Oxford. The other was Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake who was educated at Cambridge. They were indeed a credit to Oxford and Cambridge respectively, two of the most famous and liberal Universities in the world. (Incidentally both were distinguished products of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia.) President Kumaratunga was educated at The Sorbonne also one of the most famous and liberal Universities in the world. Not surprisingly she took a courageous stand on the issue of Human Rights and vowed to set right our Human Rights record after years of shameless abuse. Her success in those noble endeavours earned her the respect of the nation and the world at large.

As of January 1st 1999, four years into a six - year term as President, she towered over President Jayewardene and President Premadasa on the issue of Human Rights. That would indeed be her trump card at whatever elections the People’s Alliance may have to face in 1999 and 2000.

On most other issues her performance was anything but good. Her string of broken promises are even more indefensible than her being perpetually late. In my perception her basic problem is that her ability does not match her aspirations. She just does not have the executive ability to match that of her famous mother who was a high school drop out. The exact parallel in the UNP was Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake, the Cambridge educated intellectual who just did not have the executive ability his famous father had though he was a high school drop out.

I well remember interviewing Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 1994 when I was writing "Politics of Sri Lanka" Volumes (I and II). She was a liberal to a fault. It brought back to me happy memories of my interviews with Dudley Senanayake in 1972 when I was writing my first book "Dudley Senanayake of Sri Lanka" (1973). I was amazed at the similarities in their liberal views. Such liberal thinking was indeed deeply ingrained in each of them.

Democracy is a many splendoured thing. Those who support the Government of the day that is duly elected serve their nation well. By the same token, those who support a duly elected Opposition serve their nation even better. To the best of my knowledge, both President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake freely subscribed to these views, so eloquently expressed by President John. F. Kennedy of the United States. He was a distinguished product of Harvard University, one of the most famous citadels of liberal education in the world.

Therefore I was distressed how President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga deceived the people of Sri Lanka after winning the Presidential Election of 1994. She had sworn from every platform while campaigning as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

"The Presidential system of Government was thoroughly unsuited for Sri Lanka and it will be abolished as a matter of priority and no later than June 15th l995. "

That was indeed an unconditional statement and stated in no uncertain terms and given in writing at the request of the JVP who then withdrew their Presidential candidate.

During the campaign for the Presidency she was more than aware that her voting strength in Parliament was at best 124 - 99. That was the voting on the election of the Speaker in September 1994 when the contestants were K. B. Ratnayake MP (People’s Alliance - Nominated list) and Anura Bandaranaike MP (UNP- Nominated list). That voting was not adequate for a two-thirds majority in Parliament, necessary to amend the Constitution. However after the UNP was soundly beaten in the Presidential Election of

November 1994, Ranil Wickramasinghe the new Leader of the opposition and the new President of the UNP in succession to Gamini Dissanayake who was assassinated, openly stated both within and without Parliament, that the UNP would now support the abolition of the executive Presidency.

Thus President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was assured of more than 200 votes in a Parliament of 225. She now had a two-thirds majority to change the Constitution and all she had to do was to direct the Legal Draughtsman to prepare a new draft Constitution and thereafter present it to Parliament. For certain the new Constitution would have been operative well before the deadline she set herself.

Regrettably she took no such action. Instead she displayed the same capacity for machinations and intellectual dishonesty that President Jayewardene did, whenever he deviated from the standard practices of democracy. She then claimed that the new Constitution abolishing the Presidency and her Devolution package to appease the Tamils must be woven into one new Constitution. That was indeed a supreme example of her sophistry. Not surprisingly both the new Constitution and the Devolution package have yet to be approved by Parliament. Therefore President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga stands exposed as one who wilfully deceived the nation.

Incidentally, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was not the first member of the illustrious Bandaranaike family to deceive the people of Sri Lanka on the issue of the new Constitution. Her mother Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike had the dubious distinction of doing so when she ushered in the first Republican Constitution in 1972. In 1970 she was elected for a five year term as stipulated in the Soulbury Constitution of 1946. The United Front, which was a SLFP-led Coalition, had won 117 seats in a Parliament of 151 and thus had a two-thirds majority necessary to amend the Constitution. Misusing that two-thirds majority the new Constitution stated that the Government of the day would be for five years commencing 1972. Thus the people of Sri Lanka were denied electing a new Government in 1975, as a result of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike placing her party interests above national interests .

Of our four executive Presidents, who have ruled us since 1978, two had both proven ability and experience, one was a historical accident, and the other had much in idealism and little in experience. All four advocated the open economy which has turned out to be a blessing as opposed to that curse, the socialist economy of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike. On the other hand the governance by all four executive Presidents was disastrous because all four placed their party interests above national interests.

Therefore the irresistible conclusion is that the executive Presidency is thoroughly unsuited for Sri Lanka.

Final instalment next Sunday

"The politics of Sri Lanka" (Volume III) is scheduled to be released on May 31st 1999.

L E G A L W A T C H
Constitutional reforms ignore police independence

by Nayana
Political interference with, and influence over, the Police has been a visible feature Sri Lankan society for at least 20 years.

At its mildest, it takes the form of undue influence being used to secure transfers of individual officers. At its worst it can include the use of collective police power to oppress an entire community or opposition group.

At recent elections, political pressure or fear of political victimization is believed to have been the cause for the Police in many areas remaining inactive while acts of thuggery were committed and ballot boxes stuffed.

While the usual instigator and beneficiary of such political pressure is the ruling party at any given time, it is also possible for the Police in a particular area to be influenced by the dominant political force of that area

In racially mixed towns or districts this could also create communal tensions, as happened in Nuwara Eliya at the end of last month when senior members of the Ceylon Workers Congress reportedly prevailed on the Police to restrain the display of anti-LTTE banners and posters by the National Movement Against Terrorism prior to a rally for which the NMAT had obtained permission.

Interference

It is thus clear that political influence that interferes with police work can become potent cause of disaffection both in society at large and within the force.

It could be argued that police officers are under a duty to enforce the law and should not bow down to political pressure in the execution of their duty. However that will only work if there is collective solidarity within the force, and experience has shown that solidarity can be broken down in many ways, not the least of which is that police officers themselves tend to use whatever political "pull" they have in order to secure favourable transfers, avoid service in conflict areas, etc.

It is also true that police officers victimized for doing their duty can, and often do, obtain redress through fundamental rights applications. However this may not be practical in all cases, especially for the lower ranks. A fundamental rights action also may not obviate the more subtle forms of harassment or discrimination that can be inflicted on an individual officer by hostile colleagues or superiors.

Likewise, citizens who are prejudiced as a result of wrongful police action or inaction have recourse to the courts including the fundamental rights jurisdiction, and can also seek compensation against improper use of the Police by outside parties.

However, here too, individual legal action may not always be practicable, as for instance where there is a general failure by the Police to apprehend criminals of a certain type due to political pressure.

In any event, the State is hardly entitled to tell the taxpaying public that, in addition to footing the bill for the maintenance of a police service, they must also spend time and money going to court to ensure that the Police do their job properly.

The public therefore have a right to demand that a system be put in place to keep political interference out of the Police and ensure proper performance of duty by the force.

The focus of such public demands as have been articulated in this regard are centred on having a politically impartial authority to control such matters as police recruitment, promotions and transfers.

An independent "National Police Commission" on the lines of the old (1948) Public Service Commission has been recommended by the UNP sponsored "Citizens Consultation on Free and Fair Elections and Depoliticization of Key Institutions". Heavy penalties are recommended against anyone who interferes with the work of this Police Commission.

The Citizens Consultation also recommended independent Provincial Police Commissions along the same lines. This proposal stems from the fact that under the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution there is supposed to be a Provincial Police Division in each province, parallel to the National Police Division.

This provision, like much else in the Thirteenth Amendment, has not been implemented, but before anyone rushes to do so, they should look carefully at the relevant sections.

Recruitment to the National Division, as well as transfers, are to be carried out by the National Police Commission which comprises the Inspector-General of Police, a person "nominated by the Public Service Commission in Consultation with the President" and a nominee of the Chief Justice.

There are two observations to be made here: Firstly, one wonders whether the Chief Justice should or would wish to get involved in recruitment to any posts outside the court sector, especially as any arbitrary action by such a commission could be challenged in the Supreme Court under the fundamental rights jurisdiction. Secondly, the idea of the Public Service Commission making its nomination "in consultation with the President" is a negation of everything that an independent PSC should stand for.

All pretence of acting judicially is dropped in the case of the Provincial Divisions, where the three-member Provincial Police Commission is to comprise the D.I.G. of the Province (who is appointed by the I.G.P. with the concurrence of the Chief Minister), a person nominated by the Public Service in consultation with the President, and a nominee of the Chief Minister.

The Thirteenth Amendment contains no measures aimed at any kind of police accountability to the public. The Citizens Consultation referred to above has recommended a Police ombudsman with quasi-judicial power to whom the public can make complaints.

The last published version of the Government’s draft new constitution likewise ignores the issue of public accountability but increases the degree of control exercised over the regional police force by the regional political authority.

The Regional Police Commission which is to supervise recruitment, transfers, etc., will consist of the following: A Regional Police Commissioner who is to be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister (the I.G.P. will no longer have any say); another member who will be a direct appointee of the Chief Minister, and three members representing the three major communities "who shall be appointed by the Governor of that Region upon being nominated by the Constitutional Council acting in consultation with the Board of Ministers for that Region."

The idea of a local or regional police force designed to serve, and be representative of, the people of the area is generally considered acceptable and indeed is the norm in many democratic countries.

Ethnic tension

However the issue is whether such a force should by subject to political control and interference, either by national or local level politicians. Such political control in fact ensures that the force will not serve the people of the area equally. Given the pluralistic population in most of our provinces and districts, this is a recipe for ethnic tension as well as political disaffection.

By contrast a democratically mature society - even if grappling with a communal problem - knows that independence, professionalism and accountability are the keys to good relations between police and public. Nowhere was this better illustrated that in the 1998 Northern Ireland Agreement which was once commended to this country by the British High Commissioner as proof that there was "light at the end of the tunnel".

One year later that light may have grown a little dimmer even in Northern Ireland, its section on the police is still worth quoting:

"The participants [to the Agreement] believe it essential that policing structures and arrangements are such that the police service is professional, effective and efficient, fair and impartial; free from partisan political control; accountable, both under the law for its actions and to the community it serves, representative of the society it polices, and operates within a coherent and cooperative criminal justice system which conforms to human rights norms. The participants also believe that those structures and arrangements must be capable of maintaining law and order including responding effectively to crime and to any terrorist threat and to pub]ic order problems. A police service which cannot do so wi11 fail to win public confidence and acceptance."

NMAT sounds clarion call to save motherland

By a Special Correspondent
At the packed Open Air Theatre of the Vihara Maha Devi Park the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) on May 20th expressed its vehement opposition to peace talks with the Tigers. At a protest rally presided over by the Ven. Madihe Pannasiha Maha Nayaka Thero of the Amarapura Nikaya, Patali Champika Ranawake, a leader of NMAT made an impassioned enunciation of the theme of the rally: No peace talks with the Tigers; no foreign mediation; wipe out terrorism in this country; join NMAT.

The rains came down rather heavily at 1.45 pm on Thursday. It looked like a disheartening damper on the NMAT’s plan to launch its most decisive protest rally. But the weather gods smiled and a reluctant sun did a peep and even as it continued to drizzle the people gathered at Horton Place in Colombo. They came from many parts of the country including Nuwara Eliya, where NMAT clashed with Thondaman followers.

Some 200 odd bhikkus marched at the head of the procession which wended its way towards Liptons Circus and came round to the Open Air Theatre. It was a startling assortment of people of whom a very large majority were young people. University and other students, employed and unemployed young men and women, girls from garment factories, employees from business enterprises, and boys who said: We have come to the end of our patience.

Girls who said: This is our country. We are worried about its future.

Young men and women who said: We like this movement. It is non-partisan.

So it was indeed relevant that between speeches well-known singer Srimathi Tillekaratne made a captivating call to the young: Kirikati puthunuwane, ruwa athi duwaniyane (adorable sons, beautiful daughters) the future is yours. She was preceded by the seething chant of Madumadawa Aravinda who called upon the Sinhalayas to wake up.

Women in Kandyan sarees grey hair on their heads (one wore a straw hat), younger women in Indian sarees, dresses, trousers and men, old and young walked in the demonstration carrying little pennants which said: We will win our motherland.

The battlelines were drawn and the large banners and posters screamed: Stop Tiger terrorism; No peace talks with Tigers; Stop colonisation of Colombo by Tamil migrants; Defeat the foreign mediators and the NGO mafia; Defeat Thondaman’s Malayanadu. Thondaman almost beat all the rest as the target of attack.

The Ven. Madihe Pannasiha Maha Nayaka Thero called for unity among the Sinhalese. Unity among the Sinhalese is the foundation for harmony between Sinhalese and Tamils. He condemned outright what he called the `kabal paksha desapalanaya’ (the rotten party politics), the cause of all our troubles.

The Ven. Athuraliye Ratana Thero classified the Sangha as `Jathiye mura devatavo’ (protective deities of the nation). We are non-violent, and place great store on it, but we have to win an honourable peace. We do not want to go down on our knees and become slaves. There is now a continuous front from Jaffna to Colombo. In the past the Sinhalese never had an organisation to speak for them. Now, in the NMAT they have one, he said.

S.L. Gunasekera, Attorney-at-Law targeted the bhikkus and bishops who are again on the move to open peace talks with the Tigers, with the blessings of the President. They want to talk peace with the most murderous, barbarous criminals in the world. Who in his right mind would want to give a part of this country to these criminals, he asked.

The Tigers are not fighting for the rights of the Tamils. How, he asked can they free Tamils from the so-called oppression by the Sinhalese, by killing Muslims in the Eastern province and chasing them away from Jaffna.

Their greed for power will feed on itself and they will want to capture the whole country. He then went on to delineate the deadly consequences of peace talks in the past.

Champika Ranawake said that there were three groups gathering their foremost to give the beleaguered Tigers a respite with a peace deal: 1. The inter-religious Peace Alliance. 2. The business community. 3. The PA, the UNP and the Left parties.

The Tigers have opened a third front running southwards from Negombo to Colombo. They have installed 400,000 Tamils in and around Colombo. They have blasted 21 transformers in the area. 100,000 Tamils have been settled in the Vanni, 40,000 in Ampara with the help of SEDEC, Sarvodaya and Redd Barna. Not a single Sinhalese or Muslim allowed to live in Jaffna.

The `madaa\ pata koti’ (brown Tigers) are operating in Colombo and the Vanni. But we have no quarrel with the Tamil people, he emphasised.

Ranawake had what could be interpreted as a threat to the business community. He said: We buy your goods and services. If you betray this country to the terrorists we can declare economic war on you.

Both Gunasekera and Ranawake detailed the military setbacks, deaths of security personnel after past peace talks. After Thimpu the whole of Jaffna was over-run. The Riviresa operation had do be fought ten years later to win back Jaffna.

The Indo-Lanka Accord swallowed up 72,000 lives - security services people, civilians, politicians from the UNP, SLFP and JVP activists. Did the government of J.R. Jayawardene take responsibility for these senseless killings, Ranawake asked.

But the greatest devastation was after the Premadasa peace talks. Over l,600 policemen were massacred in the jungles of Tirrrukkovil. A chain of small camps including Mankulam and Kokkavil fell and the road to Jaffna was closed for the first time, said Gunasekera.

But for the idiocy of the Premadasa government the wretchedly expensive Jaya Sikuru operation would not have been necessary, Mr. Gunasekera commented.

60,000 tons of explosives were brought in three ships by the Tigers during the Kumaratunga-Tiger talks. These explosives blew up the oil tanks, the Central Bank building, the Dalada Maligawa, the trains, the World Trade Centre, said Mr. Ranawake.

Negotiations have only fed their greed for power, he continued. DDCs, PCs and now Regional Councils. Meanwhile 10,000 have died during the last five years. Since the 70s 14,000 security services personnel, 3,500 Sinhalese, 5,500 Muslims and 4,000 Tamils have died.

One innovation of NMAT was the presentation of awards to national heroes.

1. For heroism: Lieut. Colonel W.J. Chandima Gunaratne who sacrificed his life during Jaya Sikuru in a heroic feat.

2., The nation’s most heroic mother: She has allowed all of her five sons to join the security services. This unique woman is Rupaswarage Dhanawathie.

3. Gamini Keerthichandra : He set up the Sinhala organisation and then built up the Sinhala Bala Mandalaya with branches all over Britain to counter Eelam propaganda. The continuous agitation and protests of this organisation finally led the British government to take the first steps to curb Tiger activity.

4. Dr. Anula Wijesundera: An untiring worker and President of SUCCESS, Colombo in bringing relief and succour to the thousands of displaced Sinhalese in the north and east.

5. Sampathi Sensai Kumara Wijeratne: The fearless citizen working to counter Eelam activity in the hill country. Leader of several Sinhala organisations, he fights to help the Sinhalese in these areas to retain their rights as citizens.

As the meeting began with the chanting of pirith, there followed a long solemn moment of silence to the poignant wail of the Last Post for the war dead. At the end of the meeting the entire gathering stood up, held up the closed fist of their right hands and vowed to give the greatest support to the fighting forces and direct their maximum efforts towards the preservation of the unity, sovereignty and integrity of this country.

The tragedy of Vanni civilians and total militarisation

The following is the UTHR (J) Information Bulletin released on May 19:

The Vanni has been the focus of war news from Sri Lanka ever since the LTTE importuned a large number of civilians in Jaffna into the Vanni at the end of 1995 and engineered a humanitarian crisis. As the result of effective lobbying no doubt, the UN Secretary General, Mr. Boutros Ghali expressed his concern about the situation there and the Vanni was thrust into international attention. The Government therefore was obliged to be seen as caring for the people there by providing food and medicine, while the LTTE tried all means to mould the civilians and civilian life to service their military needs. The Vanni became thus the last fortress of the Liberation Tigers. The Government on the other hand while verbally espousing concern for the civilians, has been subtly applying pressures to make life difficult for them, forcing scores of thousands to leave the Vanni and move into refugee camps. For example essentials for a farming community such as kerosene, rope, fertiliser and basic medicines for a malarial region and even panadol were either banned or always in short supply. The LTTE for its part always administered supplies sent by the Government keeping its military needs in view and profited from encouraging black-marketeering, artificially aggravating shortages.

On school-children and the young there was always heavy pressure to join the LTTE. The LTTE’s military successes at Mullaitivu and Killinochchi and even halting the northward military advance had nothing in them for the civilians. Their children were turned into cheap cannon fodder in a war that was only bringing progressive ruin on the Tamil people. In the so-called cleared, liberated or Government controlled areas, an oppressive and debilitating regime has been imposed on the Tamils on the pretext of security considerations. The Government has evaded world-wide censure only by not having these offending regulations on the statute book. They are imposed covertly, illegally and administratively. By so doing they are made all the more worse by being arbitrary, while making legal redress impractical for the ordinary man.

A graphic illustration of the fate of Vanni folk is the refugee camps in Vavuniya. Confined to these camps the inmates are allowed out for a few hours at a time after obtaining a pass. They cannot leave Vavuniya for another part of the country as the means of obtaining clearance are way beyond them. These once hard-working farmers are now idling in camps, living on meagre government handouts, with no proper schooling for their children, under conditions utterly ruinous to both community and individuals. This has now gone on for close upon three years. The camps being under government control with a police guard, the NGOs are not allowed to intervene directly. At Poonthottam camp with 500 inmates for instance, the thatch was in tatters. A refugee said that he did not bathe for three days as he had been sitting in the rain. To the rest of the country and to the Tamils abroad vocally supporting the LTTE, these people have by now become ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Where the State is concerned, subjecting Tamils to such a regime has meant rampant corruption and a degradation of state functions and state machinery. It is a worrying comment on the Sri Lankan State that by its inability to address security concerns imaginatively and intelligently, keeping democratic ideals in view, it has been moving in the direction of conjuring up images of apartheid, an arbitrary form of it without legal sanction.

When the Vanni saga began in November 1995 with the UN Secretary General’s expression of concern, it passed off as a false alarm after it became widely known that the LTTE had forced the people out of Jaffna. But today the alarm is a very real one and it should not be too late for the people when the world reacts.

RECENT DEVELOPMENT

The Army halted its northward advance along the A9 trunk road and changed tactics after losing Killinochchi last September with heavy casualties to an LTTE onslaught using cannon and suicidal waves of fighters. The losses among the LTTE too were heavy at 700 or more killed, and were comparable with the Army’s losses of considerably more than I,000. Both sides were in crisis and the LTTE launched an ambitious and somewhat heavy-handed recruitment drive. But its success was very limited.

Each of the two sides had lost between 2000 and 4000 killed during engagements in the Vanni. In deploying about 4 to 5 thousand cadre for the attack on Killinochchi, the LTTE thinned down its defences at Mankulam, which it had defended for several months, enabling the Army to capture it with ease. Such indications suggest that the present strength of the LTTE is below 10,000.

In the meantime from last December the Army adopted tactics where it had surprise on its side and has by now taken control of considerable territory on either side of the A9 between Vavuniya and Mankulam. By taking over the famed Roman Catholic shrine of Madhu which also functioned as a UNHCR supervised refugee camp and the surrounding agricultural region, a large segment of the Vanni population has been brought under Army control.

It is now estimated that about 125,000 civilians in the Vanni have come under Army control and 150,000 to 200,000 live under LTTE control. A number well above 50,000 have gone to India and a smaller number to Jaffna, over the last 3 years.

The recent operations have been conducted with hardly any loss of life. In villages people woke up to find themselves among the Army. Farming villages not under Army control too hope that the Army would move in, in a like manner. The immediate reasons for them are economic and the protection of children. Under Army control they hope to obtain Rs. 1,200 for a bushel of paddy instead of the Rs. 500 the LTTE pays them. Apart from drastic reductions in prices of food and fuel, the cost of hiring a tractor to prepare an acre of land for sowing would drop from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 2,500. Even rope for tying cattle has presently to be purchased in the black market for smuggled goods. Their present disposition is to do with tiredness from what both sides have very unreasonably imposed on them and has nothing to do with any love for the Government.

On the whole the civilians are relieved that the recent military operations passed without causing them much hurt or damage. But there is anxiety about future uncertainties. They were tired of the regime to which the LTTE had subjected there. Food rations to displaced families though inadequate, became regular after the Army take-over. Necessities such as batteries, milk food and medicines are available at normal cost. But for the refugeese who were displaced from Killinochchi, Jaffna and other areas where military operations are taking place, it is going to be rising frustration with oppressive regimentation of a different kind.

These refugees are now without means, living on dry rations. Earlier many of them formed the mainstay of farm labour in the surrounding areas. For example Adampan was a flourishing agricultural area which had its harvest in mid-April. But the refugees from Madhu who used to work in those fields have this time been prevented from going there by the Army because it is still under LTTE control. Apart from them those who ran small shops, were involved in the fish trade, or used to fetch items for sale from the Government controlled area, are now out of work.

Out of sheer desperation many children and even teenage girls started queuing up with plates outside the Army camps at mealtimes. This gave room for rumours placing individuals at risk. When the Army took over Madhu in late March, the civilians had to register for dry rations. The Army made an announcement calling upon ‘Maaveerar’ (Great Heroes - LTTE men and women who died in action) families to register first. Taken in an unguarded moment, several of them went forward and were casually registered without anything being given away. Today the Army is said to be getting much information from persons who once had ties with the LTTE.

DERIVATION, HYSTERIA AND SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION

With large sections of the Vanni population coming under Army control, the LTTE took measures to retain some of the weaker sections under its control. Recruiting among them is easier and their presence ensured relief supplies. Many of the fisherfolk from Jaffna who were displaced to the Vanni during the 1995 Exodus had settled comfortably over the years at Vidatthalthivu and Pappamoddai on the Mannar mainland coast. Early this year the Army indicated its new strategy by a westward move from A9. Just before the second move towards Madhu in late March, the LTTE asked the refugee fisherfolk in Vidatthalthivu and Pappamoddai to remove themselves northwards to Kalliady, Illuppaikkadavai, Vellankulam and further north.

The LTTE is thus squeezing them into a smaller area where conditions are difficult. Their earnings have dropped as they now face increased risk and harassment from naval patrols operating out of Karainagar. There is also a water problem in their congested new habitations in the villages mentioned above. Along with an inadequate supply, water has to be purchased at Rs. 2/= for a pot. For a variety of reasons including a reduction of supply by the Government, the LTTE taking a share and disruption of administrative arrangements, the provision of dry rations to the displaced in several areas is very irregular. The people have heard the Government claiming over the radio that they are being given rations monthly. But in the Adampan/Parappankandal area for example, rations have been given only once since the beginning of this year.

Vast numbers of people in the area north of Illuppaikkadavai/Kalliady are suffering from repeated bouts of malaria. The proportion is more than 50% according to some observers. This condition can be overcome with proper medical care. For permanent relief from the commoner ‘Vivax’ variety, a commonly used treatment involves a supervised dosage of ‘Chloroquin’ and ‘Premaquin’ taken over a cycle of 8 weeks. These drugs too are in short supply. But these people, in addition to not having had proper nutrition for 9 years and having undergone displacement for 4 years, are made to endure malaria on top of their vastly reduced resistance. Almost everyone is physically very weak, having a skeletal appearance.

Amidst this deprivation there are shocking events, the like of which have not been heard of in this country for more than 150 years. These have followed the new displacement into the Illuppaikkadavai, Vellankulam areas. The parents of a new born babe quarrelled over the father’s inability to find the money for purchasing milk food for the infant. Then they, together, killed the baby. In another incident the parents became so desperate without cash, that they poisoned themselves and the children to death.

There have been several cases, two of them well-established, where even in a generally impoverished environment, persons have been killed on lonely jungle tracks for their money. In one incident it was made to appear that the murdered person had hanged himself.

In Jeyapuram, close to Mulankavil, a displaced family originally from Jaffna arrived, desperately hungry and without money. They sought relief by digging up some wild yam, which they did not know was poisonous. The entire family perished.

Medical and educational services are in a state of breakdown. Even in a relatively better off area such as Adampan, there was only one clinic served by an RMP (Registered Medical Practitioner) who was trying to leave. Antibiotics are not available. There is no panadol in hospital, but it is available in the black-market for Rs. 5 a tablet. Due to the absence of refrigeration facilities: infants have not been given their routine vaccine that are given in the rest of the country. It has been suggested that the MOH Mannar could arrange for monthly visits to the area with the vaccines carried in boxes of ice.

An incident which illustrates the attitudes of both the Army and the LTTE took place at Uyilankulam on 17th April. An ICRC convoy carrying food was crossing into the LTTE controlled area. Some policemen at the final checkpoint may have moved forward a little into no-man’s land as the convoy passed. The LTTE opened fire and killed three of them. Technicalities aside it was an ungracious gesture, considering that it was government food coming to them. The Army closed the entry point for about 12 days preventing all movement, demanding a guarantee that the LTTE will not do it again. It is understood that agreement was reached.

But recently the ground situation has changed and the LTTE has removed its permanent establishments in the area. Consequently it has become easier for civilians to cross over into the Army controlled area. The LTTE sentries withdraw north and come to their checkpoint near Uyilankulam (i.e. Kattankulam) only at 11.00 AM. Many civilians get to the Army point before then.

THR DRIVE FOR Militarisation: THE GENERAL TREND

Amidst this anarchy of crime, starvation, sickness and hopelessness the LTTE intensified its recruitment drive. There was full-day propaganda blaring through loudspeakers, street dramas and interruption of schools, playing on despondency and hopelessness. The Vanni become anything but the pride and glory of the Tamil people the LTTE said it would be when it attempted to evacuate wholesale the citizens of Jaffna into the Vanni in November 1995. It used to-be the boast of LTTE propaganda that areas under its control were virtually free of crime and discontent. Now in the Vanni the tragic, inhuman reality behind fascist rhetoric was being laid bare and the LTTE could not care less.

The LTTE had some success in Vidaththalthivu where in the prevailing confusion amidst evacuation and uncertainty, some joined its ranks out of frustration and desperation. But recruitment was not so successful in the Adampan/Parappankandal area because the people were not so despondent and the LTTE had evacuated everything of theirs some weeks ahead in anticipation of the Army moving in.

In a school having classes up to the O Level (Year I ) in Mulankavil, a teacher took his whole class of about 20 and joined the LTTE. The children were quickly removed away from the area so as to put off distraught parents.

During April the LTTE moved towards militarisation of the civilian population. All shop keepers, teachers and students were compelled to take compulsory training. The first few days involved physical exercises. In the Mannar mainland area the training was staggered. After Mulankavil and Puthukkudiyiruppu, the training of shop keepers in the Adampan/Parappankandal area began towards the end of April. Training in this area was disrupted by the LTTE pulling out its structures.

The purpose of those who received the first stage of their training in the Mannar area appears to be that of posting them as sentries to inform the LTTE of fresh military advances. This would help the LTTE to direct its artillery. Rumours had been afloat that the compulsory training will be implemented at all levels to include village headmen and AGAs. These new orders were received with widespread resentment. For shop keepers who absented themselves, it meant closure of their shops as punishment. The LTTE told those who resisted verbally that they do not deserve to live in Tamil Eelam and should move out of the Vanni.

A fisheries society in Vidaththalthivu was told by the LTTE that they must all come for training. One member objected on grounds of personal conviction. The LTTE replied that he must then leave Tamil Eelam. The member said that the LTTE must then give him a letter saying that he was forced to leave, if not, when he returns, he may like the expelled Muslims find it difficult to prove his claims. The situation then becoming unsettled due to Army movements, the LTTE left them alone for the present.

These moves to forcibly induct civilians made them apprehensive of coming under Army control. That the LTTE is anxious is clear. In his May Day speech in Mallavi, Karikalan, a senior leader, said that their Leader Prabhakaran would surely find a strategy to push the Army all the way south to Vavuniya. In Koddadichcholai in the East, a woman leader said that they are proud to observe May Day despite all the difficulties.

Signs of disillusionment within the LTTE have also been evident for some time. When LTTE cadre in the Vanni visit their homes during a break riding a motor cycle or driving a pick-up, it poses an attraction for the children to join up. But the older intimate friends in the village of the visiting cadre are often told, "Don’t come into this organisation. What you see from outside is not the reality inside. We too are waiting for a chance to leave".

Because of attempts to induct school children into the LTTE’s military machine, parents are reluctant to send their children to school and school attendance had dropped to an estimated 20%.

Except for trying to move the refugees and their equipment out, the LTTE’s attentions in what was left to them of the Mannar District were half hearted, as the Army had started reconnaissance moves and were expected to bring the entire district under their control. Their more systematic and far-reaching attentions were in North Vanni - the Killinochchi and Mullaitivu areas.

NORTH VANNI: TOWARDS TOTAL Militarisation

Although the Army was pushed back about 3 miles north from Killinochchi town last September, it took control of the Oddusuddan sector in December and is now within 14 miles of Mullaitivu town. This also entailed enormous displacement northward. For many it meant loss of livelihood and great difficulty in getting rations. Farmers who fled from their homes and fields in the area around Oddusuddan got into very desperate straits. One family for example sowed on rented land in Murippu and the crops were destroyed by floods. Closer to the Army controlled area, there is occasional shelling by the Army, such as in Tharmapurarri, where several displaced schools are also situated. Those travelling out of the eastern sector have to pass through Vattakachchi, which is subject to shelling to Murikandy and then to Uyilankulam near Mannar. They are advised not to travel alone in case of shell injury. A traveller met a seven year old girl pushing a bicycle and her father walking behind. He bad no strength from having starved the previous day. For these once prosperous people, even a cup of plain tea has become a luxury. Although education is in disarray, some schools have done unexpectedly well due to displaced teachers from Jaffna, with one student in Mullaitivu scoring 4 As at the A Levels.

Amidst this anarchy and hardship which would only increase with time, the LTTE has launched an ambitious programme of militarisation. We describe below the first stage.

To be Continued

Russian President survives impeachment vote
Boris Yeltsin — Russia’s real problem?

by Dr. Stanley Kalpage
There is never a dull moment with an ailing and embattled Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. Prime Minister Yevgeney Primakov served as Yeltsin’s fourth prime minister only to lose his job after eight months. And it was done in typical Yeltsin style when the move was least expected. Only a month earlier, Yeltsin had denied that he was about to fire Primakov.

Yeltsin appointed Primakov as prime minister in September 1998 when the State Duma refused to approve the appointment of Victor Chernomyrdin three times. Primakov had restored some measure of political calm and helped to stabilise a foundering economy but had failed to turn the economy around. That was how Yeltsin explained Primakov’s dismissal on 12 May after a twenty minute meeting with Primakov in his office at the Kremlin.

"Today I made a difficult decision," Yeltsin said in a statement announcing Primakov’s dismissal. "We have no right to put off making decisions that are necessary for the revival of the economy for another six months. Delays and procrastination, I am sure, are the most serious blow today to stability in the economy and the social sphere".

Unlike Primakov’s predecessor Viktor Chernomyrdin, Yeltsin considered Primakov was "clean," without links to political parties or the often corrupt industrial managers (or oligarchs) and bankers who dominate Russian business.

The real reason for Primakov’s dismissal was not clear. Some observers felt that Yeltsin wanted Primakov, who was popular into the State Dumas, out of the way before the impeachment proceedings began on the day after Primakov’s dismissal. At the same time, the impression prevails that Yeltsin never likes to stand in the shadow of his subordinates. Primakov had counted broad political and popular support. Openly, Primakov is said to have been loyal to Yeltsin. He had urged the leaders of parliamentary factions to drop the impeachment motion and had said Yeltsin must serve out his term, which ends in the summer of 2000.

Boris Berezovsky

The name of Boris Berezovsky keeps appearing in contemporary Russia. Many Russians look this prominent business tycoon with holdings in oil, the media and airlines, as a sinister figure, a master manipulator who uses his wealth, his Kremlin connections and his closeness to the Yeltsin family to run the country from behind the scenes.

Berezovsky spent freely to ensure Yeltsin’s re-election victory in 1966 and was thereafter appointed to Russia’s Security Council. He was also asked to oversee the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose association of former Soviet republics, but was later dismissed from that post.

Berezovsky had run foul of Yevgeny Primakov who promised to find room in Russia’s jails for oligarchs like Berezovsky. In April he was named in an arrest warrant on charges of money laundering and corruption.

Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of parliament’s lower house, said he saw the "clear political intrigues of Boris Berezovsky behind the dismissal of Yevgeny Primakov."

Duma rejects impeachment charges

With Primakov’s dismissal Yeltsin’s popularity plummeted further. It seemed as if the impeachment motion pending for some time in the State Duma would succeed. Russia’s first presidential impeachment began on Thursday 13 May. According to the constitution approved in December 1993, impeachment of a Russian president for "high treason or another grave crime", is a complex multi-stage process.

The communist-dominated Duma was keen to proceed with the impeachment proceedings and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was confident that impeachment would succeed at least on one count — the war in Chechnya.

That of course would not have been sufficient to remove Yeltsin from office. Removal of a president requires a two-third majority vote in the Duma as well as two-third majorities in the Federation Council, parliament’s upper house, and in the two highest courts — the Supreme Court and the High Court. In the latter three institutions, Yeltsin’s supporters are in a majority.

Yeltsin faced five impeachment charges including: instigating the 1991 Soviet collapse, improperly using force against hard-line lawmakers in 1993, launching the botched 1994-96 war in Chechnya, ruining the nation’s military, and waging genocide against the Russian people by pursuing economic policies that impoverished the country.

After three days of acrimonious debate, the Dumas rejected all five impeachment charges when they failed to muster the minimum of 300 votes required for approval. A majority of legislators felt that the charges were too broad and that Yeltsin alone could not have been held responsible for the events over which he presided. Many deputies argued that although Yeltsin could be faulted on many counts, he did not have any conscious intent to destroy or liquidate anyone.

Furthermore, there was much opposition to the communists. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, often a Yeltsin critics, opposed impeachment and called on Yeltsin to "deliver the country from the Red dope," meaning the Communists.

Confirmation of Sergei Stepashin

With the end of the impeachment debate, another divisive contest loomed ahead in the Duma — the confirmation of Yeltsin’s choice for prime minister. Yeltsin had replaced Primakov with Sergei Stepashin (47), interior minister and a deputy foreign minister, who was in charge of the federal police forces. Stepashin was selected because of his unquestioning loyalty to Yeltsin over the years.

Initially, it was thought that the Duma was likely to turn down the nomination. If that were to happen three times, Yeltsin would be forced to dismiss parliament and this would set off another political crisis. And that could trigger off a major crisis as in 1993 when the Duma members refused to vacate their seats and Yeltsin ordered Russian army tanks to shell the parliament building. Sergei Stepashin canvassed actively for support for his candidature.

He urged the members of the Duma to avoid a confrontation with president Yeltsin and to approve his candidature, warning that "Russia needs urgent and courageous policies to rescue its battered economy and stave off social unrest".

Stepashin told the Duma as the debate on his nomination began: "There is no room for half-measures and compromises any longer. Time demands courageous and thoroughly verified steps." He warned lawmakers they had better approve a package of economic bills required for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund.

And finally, he drove home the punch line. If the Duma rejected Yeltsin’s nominee for prime minister three times, the president could dissolve the chamber and call parliamentary elections. Communist lawmakers preferred to keep their jobs and approving Stepashin, who is seen as low key, offered them a face-saving way to do so.

Eventually, to everyone’s surprise, the Duma confirmed Stepashin’s appointment by 293 votes to 55. Yeltsin had won yet another unexpected victory.

Stepashin’s promises

In canvassing the Duma for support, Stepashin made some crucial points. He promised to crack down on crime and to decriminalise the national economy, protecting it from the powerful shadow players outside the government. He would revive the military-industrial complex supporting advanced technological industries and increasing defence spending. He would revise the domestic economy by continuing with market reforms. He would follow IMF prescriptions.

A further significant point that Stepashin made was that he would work towards ending the war in Yugoslavia and thereafter promote the formation of a Slavic Union consisting of Russia, Yogoslavia and Belarus.

Consequences of Russia’s political crisis

The full consequences of Yeltsin’s decision to dismiss Primakov cannot yet be gauged, and will only unfold in the coming weeks. But Russia’s crisis will not be quickly resolved, and could possibly aggravate.

On the international arena, the crisis at home will drastically reduce Moscow’s ability to play a constructive role on Kosovo. The chances are that Kosovo will become a pawn in domestic politics, where being seen as serving American interests is a distinct disadvantage.

Again, Russia is in dire need of assistance from the International Monetary Fund. The Duma has to pass the legislation the IMF is demanding as a condition for disbursing the loan. Getting that legislation passed was going to be a tough fight even with Primakov at the helm of the government. Now, it will only delay any hopes of rebuilding the Russian economy and this could hasten economic decline.

Moreover, it was likely that the current crisis would strengthen the regional elite. As they have in the past, regional leaders will now undoubtedly exploit disarray in Moscow to consolidate their hold on their respective regions.

The real problem

In the final analysis, the impeachment and confirmation crises demonstrate what has been clear for some time, that the real problem in Russia is Boris Yeltsin. He has lost whatever ability he might once have had to play a constructive role in Russian domestic politics. With his frail health, erratic behaviour, lack of vision and deep unpopularity (his approval rating hovers around 2 percent), he cannot forge the coalition needed to design and implement a program that addresses Russia’s pressing needs.

Moreover, his jealous protection of his own power prerogatives and his entourage’s general disregard for the country’s welfare, retard the formation of such a coalition. The transfer of power from Yeltsin to a successor is a pre-condition for Russia’s recovery. But there is no immediate guarantee of that. Yet the sooner that happens, the better for Russia and the world.

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