Sri Lanka Fortnightly News Bulletin - 12 - 26 July
Sri Lanka Fortnightly News Bulletin - 12 - 26 July 2001
Air force base attacked, Political crisis in Sri
Lanka deepened, Massive anti-government protests, Divided
opinion on referendum, Catholic delegation to meet LTTE,
Sri Lanka to allow media access to war areas, Other
news
A news bulletin on Sri Lanka produced by Australian
and New Zealand activists working for peace in Sri Lanka.
contact:
Australia - Willie mailto:willie@apex.net.aumailto:willie@apex.net.aumailto:willie@apex.net.auwillie@apex.net.au
New
Zealand - Malathy mailto:malathy@ihug.co.nzmailto:malathy@ihug.co.nz
1. Air force base attacked
==========
In
the early hours of Tuesday 24 July, the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) carried out a daring suicide attack on
Sri Lanka's heavily
guarded international airport and
adjoining air force base, destroying
13 aircraft and
causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.
At
least 20 people, including 15 suspected rebels, were
killed and many
more wounded in the assault that struck
at the heart of the island's
military and civil
establishment. An estimated 15 to 20 guerrillas of
the
LTTE penetrated the military air base and later went on to
bomb
aircraft at the International Airport. The airport
reopened on
Wednesday. The Voice of Tigers claimed on
Tuesday that the LTTE
commandos who attacked the
Katunayake air base had destroyed eight Sri
Lankan Air
Force planes. The break-up given is as follows: Two
Kfir
fighter bombers, two MIG-27s, one MI-24 helicopter
gun ship and three
fast trainer aircraft. It is believed
the LTTE attack is to commemorate
18 years since
thousands of Tamils were killed and persecuted in
race
riots that rocked the country in July
1983.
Analysts believe the final figure of losses,
including losses in the
tourist industry, will be much
higher. In addition to the immediate
damage done to
aircraft and airport installations, it will take
Sri
Lanka a long time to erase the image of violence and
chaos from the
minds of potential tourists. Arrivals in
the first four months of the
year were up about 7 per
cent over the same period in 2000 when Sri
Lanka earned
about $375 million from tourism.
British Foreign
Secretary, Mr Jack Straw condemned the suicide attack
by
LTTE. In a statement released in London, Mr Straw
called on the Sri
Lankan government and the rebels to
cease hostilities, and said Britain
was ready to help in
the peace process. The US State Department
warned
Americans to defer non-essential travel to Sri
Lanka and cautioned those
living there to be careful in
the wake of a deadly suicide attack. "The
attack
demonstrates the rebels' ability and willingness to
select
targets without regard for the safety of
civilians, including tourists,"
the State Department
said.
Sri Lankan air force launched retaliatory air
strikes on Tamil Tiger
positions in the north of the
country, hours after a rebel attack
crippled the island's
only international airport. Military spokesman
Brigadier
Sanath Karunaratne, told Reuters news agency: "I can
confirm
some planes have taken off for the air
strikes."
2. Political crisis in Sri Lanka
deepened
==========
President Chandrika Kumaratunga
addressed the people of Sri Lanka on
television on
Thursday 12 July, following her decision to
prorogue
Parliament until September 7 and to conduct a
referendum on August 21
for a new constitution. Sri
Lanka's opposition parties vowed to pursue a
"civil
disobedience" campaign to protest against the
President's
decision to prorogue Parliament and to
conduct a referendum. A number of
civil society
representatives, including the National Peace
Council
(NPC), also expressed concerns over the
President's decision.
Opposition parties also requested
Speaker, Mr Anura Bandaranaike, to
reconvene the
parliament. On Sunday 15 July, Speaker rejected
the
request by the opposition parties. He said, in a
letter to the Leader of
the Opposition Mr Ranil
Wickremasinghe, that as the Speaker he had no
authority
to reconvene a parliament suspended by the President.
On
Monday 16 July, opposition parliamentarians forced their way
past
police barricades and entered the suspended
parliament, defying the
Presidents order barring them
from the parliamentary building. The joint
opposition
group decided to hold protest rallies and to file
an
impeachment motion against the President. The Peoples
Liberation Front
(JVP) was the only opposition
parliamentary party which did not attend
the meeting.
3. Massive anti-government
protests
==========
On Thursday 19 July, thousands of
opposition activists led by the UNP
defied a police ban
to protest against the suspension of parliament.
Police
used tear gas and live bullets against the demonstrators,
and two
persons were killed and over 70 were wound with a
number of people in a
critical condition. Demonstrators
fought running battles with the police
in various parts
of Colombo city. Police spokesman Senior
Superintendent
of Police, Mr Rienzie Perera, admitted
that police fired live bullets
and not rubber bullets at
the protestors. The postmortem examination of
the two
people killed during the demonstration has revealed that
both
were killed by gun shot injuries.
The opposition
parties condemned President Kumaratunga for
ordering
police to use live ammunition against
anti-government demonstrators. The
leader of the UNP, Mr
Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused the government of
trying to
assassinate him by firing at his jeep, but said he was
saved
by his bodyguards who pushed him to the floor and
whisked him away. In a
Statement issued on 20 July,
Amnesty International condemned the police
action against
demonstrators and the invoking of the 1981 Referendum
Act
by the government. The AI statement is at
http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/news.nsf/WebAll/561EF603AC3B895D80256A8E005DD454?OpenDocument
The government expressed its sorrow over the
death of two protesters in
Colombo, saying that this is
something that UNP has anticipated.
However, according to
media reports, the government was sharply divided
on the
high-handed police action under instructions from the
defense
ministry to suppress the opposition protest
campaign. Among the
ministers who were critical of the
action were Fisheries Minister
Mahinda Rajapakse,
Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris,
Public
Administration Minister Richard Pathirana, and Aviation
Minister
Jeyaraj Fernandupulle.
The JVP, which did not
take part on Thursday's protest, held a number of
protest
rallies outside Colombo on Monday 23 July.
4. Divided
opinion on referendum
==========
The Sunday 'Island' of
22 July reported that 16 political parties
including the
Peoples Alliance and its constituents had indicated
that
they would campaigning for a 'Yes' vote at the
forthcoming referendum.
Seventeen parties including the
UNP, Tamil United Liberation Front
(TULF), Sri Lanka
Muslim Congress (SLMC) will be campaigning for a
'No'
vote. Thirteen parties including the JVP, All Ceylon
Tamil Congress,
Muslim United Liberation Front and the
Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP)
have said that they would
be neutral, the commissioner said. As the
country moves
into greater political instability and while the
economy
continues its downward trend, the government has
yet to inform the
public about the new constitution. The
Catholic Bishop's Conference in
Sri Lanka criticised the
government's decision in their weekly editorial
of "The
Messenger" and asked what format the new constitution
would
take.
5. Catholic delegation to meet
LTTE
==========
Almost three hundred individuals from
the Catholic missions on the South
West region, headed by
the Catholic hierarchy and other religious
leaders will
stride into the Vanni area on August 2, for a three
day
visit to persuade the LTTE leaders to think peace.
Rev. Fr. Basil
Wickremasinghe, Director of the Seth
Sarana movement, a peace promoting
wing of the Catholic
community, told journalists yesterday at a
press
conference at the Bishops House, Borella that the
LTTE was favourable
toward their visit according to
information received by the
Administrator of the Madhu
Church. He said that the LTTE had confirmed
that they
would be nominating some of their leaders for a
discussion
with the clergy members. Full military
protection too had been assured
by the Army up to areas
controlled by the military, Fr.
Wickremasinghe
said.
6. Sri Lanka to allow media
access to war areas
==========
The state-run Daily
News reported on Tuesday 17 July that the government
has
lifted restrictions placed on media personnel to travel to
the
war-torn north and east of the island. The Special
Media Information
Centre said in a statement that
journalists who intend to report
activities and civil
life in the war areas are now free to travel
there.
Earlier, approval from the defense Ministry had to
be obtained to enter
these areas. The Free Media Movement
(FMM) welcomed the decision by the
government and
requested the LTTE to reciprocate the
government's
decision by allowing journalists to visit
areas under its control
without hindrance.
Because of
the very severe restrictions, only a few local and
foreign
journalists have managed to travel to war torn
areas in the north and
east of the Island. The last issue
of Asia Times published an article by
a journalist who
recently visited Jaffna
http://atimes.com/ind-pak/CG19Df03.html
7. Other
news
==========
President Kumaratunga has named the
members of a three man commission
which will inquire into
the 1983 anti-Tamil riots in Colombo and other
parts of
the island. The commission will be chaired by former
Chief
Justice S.Sharavananda, Mr.M.M.Zuhair PC, and
Mr.S.S.Sahabandhu PC. The
commission, which has been
directed to submit its report within three
months, is
expected to find out what led to the pogrom and the
killings,
who all led and organised them, what kind of
damage they caused to
property and how the victims could
be compensated now, what the riots
did to the
multi-ethnic social fabric of Sri Lanka and what could
be
done to prevent such a catastrophe in the future.
In
a statement on 20 July, The Director general of the United
Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) urged the LTTE to live
up to its commitment not
to recruit children into its
ranks, and urges the Government of Sri
Lanka to ease
restrictions on humanitarian activity and address
the
critical shortage of teachers in conflict-affected
areas. The UNICEF
statement is at
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr61.htm
The
Jaffna University Undergraduate, Mr Krishnasamy Thivviyan,
detained
by the Sri Lanka army and Police since 2 July
was produced before a
judge in Jaffna on Tuesday 17 July.
The student told the judge in open
court that he bled
from his nose and mouth when he was severely
assaulted in
detention. The judge remanded the student until 24
July.
The judge directed the Police to admit Thivviyan to
the Jaffna Teaching
Hospital and to obtain a medical
report about his condition.
The Director General of
Census Mr D.G.W.Nanayakkara said that no census
related
work could take place in Jaffna and other LTTE controlled
areas
because the government staff engaged in the work
were threatened by the
LTTE. The non-LTTE Tamil parties
too had opposed the census operations
in the North. Even
the Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP), which is
part
of the government, opposed the census in the Jaffna
peninsula. An
EPDP spokesman had told the press that
President had agreed to exempt
Jaffna from the
operations. The final census count has shown that
the
island has 3.5 percent fewer people than the
authorities had
originally thought. The July 17 census
showed the island's population
was 18.66 million, down
from an original estimate made at the end of
last year of
19.35 million.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said last
week that it has planned to
lend Sri Lanka around $25
million to help civilians displaced by the
ongoing war.
"Information has been gathered through an
ADB-financed
technical assistance grant, and the project
loan, for $25 million,
should be discussed by ADB's Board
of Directors in October," the bank
said in a statement.
The project will focus on the northern and eastern
parts
of the country, which have borne the brunt of the 18-year
war.
Other war casualties according to government sources:
On July 14 three
soldiers and an LTTE militant have been
killed in the east. On July, 16
Tamil Tiger rebels set
off a landmine in the heart of the northern town
of
Jaffna wounding nine soldiers and a civilian. 10 more people
were
killed in fighting elsewhere. On July 20, Tamil
Tiger rebels shot and
killed four women members of a
government-supported village militia in
northern Sri
Lanka. On July 23, one Policeman and a Home guard
were
killed by the LTTE pistol group in the east.
Tamilnet
reported that villagers living 12 km. south
of
Batticaloa, are being forced to carry out hard labour
by the
elite Special Task Force troops stationed in the
village. The
troops summoned 25 villagers to the camp on
Sunday and
ordered them to clear jungles and shrubs along
Manmunai
lagoon.
ENDS