Three years after the Tamil Tiger's defeat, the underlying
issues that caused Sri Lanka's civil war are once again coming to a head.
The Diplomat | December 13, 2012
Jaffna,
the capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and once the bastion of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is once again experiencing unrest.
Violent
clashes broke out on November 27, Martyrs' Day for Tamil, between students of
Jaffna University and Sri Lankan security forces. Each year Tamils use Martyrs'
Day to honor friends and family members who were killed in the Sri Lanka Civil
War (1983-2009).
The
civil war pitted the Tamil militant group, the LTTE (often called the Tamil
Tigers), against the Sri Lankan government forces. The conflict was essentially
an ethno-political struggle that had its roots in the early years of Sri
Lanka's independence when Sinhalese leaders effectively transformed
the country into a Sinhala-Buddhist state through a series of laws
such as the controversial Official
Language Act No. 33 of 1956, which made Sinhala the official
language. The excluded Tamil population protested and demanded a government
based on federalism where the Tamils in the east and north of the country would
enjoy greater autonomy. When these calls went unheeded for decades, some Tamils
formed the Tamil Tigers and began taking up arms against the government in
1983.
The
26-year civil war that ensued, which ended with the LTTE’s military defeat in
2009, would come to claim the lives of between 80,000 and 100,000 people,
according to the UN. Some non-governmental organizations like the International
Crisis Group say the number of deaths was actually much higher.
Since
the LTTE’s defeat, Tamils have observed Martyrs’ Day by quietly “lighting
lamps inside their homes.” This year, however, “some Jaffna University students
decided to perform the rituals on campus,” E Saravanapavan, Tamil National
Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament (MP) representing Jaffna district told The Diplomat in a phone
interview. According to Saravanapavan, this prompted Sri Lankan security forces
to forcibly enter the student’s dormitories to prevent them from lighting lamps
for Martyrs’ Day.
Tensions
have always run high in Jaffna peninsula on Martyrs’ Day. Security forces are
put on heightened alert in anticipation of a LTTE attack. These forces equate
citizens observing Martyrs’ Day as them showing solidarity with the LTTE
militant group. For Tamils, however, it is “a day of mourning, not just for
dead LTTE combatants but also for the thousands of civilians, including their
kin, who were killed in the war,” Saravanapavan says.
With
Tamils determined to properly mourn their dead, and security forces equally
determined to stamp out any show of support for the LTTE, it is nearly
inevitable that Martyrs’ Day will be marked with some degree of confrontation
and tension. What made this year’s Martyrs’ Day more complicated was that it
coincided with Karthigai Theepam, a festival when Hindus decorate their homes
with lamps.
“Many
students lit lamps to celebrate Karthigai but were beaten up” a student of
sociology at Jaffna University said. While admitting that he participated in a
meeting to observe Martyrs’ Day, he says it was a “peaceful assembly.”
“Why
are we not allowed to mourn our dead?” he asks.
The
recent unrest is, however, was not just another face-off over Martyrs’ Day.
“Tension has been simmering for a while and burst to the fore,” the student
said, adding that “Martyrs’ Day simply provided the excuse or the context for
the confrontation.”
In
the weeks since the showdown, several Tamil youth have been detained on
terrorism charges. They include ex-LTTE combatants and students, some of who
were arrested for putting up Martyrs’ Day posters.
Events
over the past couple of weeks underscore just how fragile the situation in the
Northern Province is. It was here that the horrific, final stages of the war
were played out. In the past 3 ½ years the guns have been silent but Tamil rage
against the state has deepened.
Successive
governments, but particularly the present one led by President Mahinda
Rajapaksa, have treated the conflict as a “terrorism problem.”
Consequently, their approach has been largely military.
With
the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009, the Rajapaksa government has acted as
if the conflict is over without addressing the larger issues behind it.
“It
has refused to take meaningful steps to address the political issues underlying
the conflict, choosing instead a military-development approach,” observes the
Jaffna University student. The militarization of the Northern Province has
continued unabated since the war has ended. Budgetary allocations to the
military have grown and military bases in the North have continued to expand.
According
to The Hindu's review of a June 2012 internal Sri Lankan
military document, 14 of the country's 19 divisions are stationed in the
Northern Province, for a total of between 84,000 and 98,000 troops. Of that
number, 3 divisions or between 18,000 and 21,000 troops are stationed in Jaffna
alone, according to The Hindu.
The
Sri Lankan military is nearly entirely Sinhalese and its brutal operations in
the Tamil areas have contributed to it being perceived as an “occupation
force.”
Saravanapavan
says that the military’s presence in the North has created a pervasive
“atmosphere of fear.” People are constantly afraid their family and relatives
will be beaten up, arrested, or simply “disappear.”
The
military’s presence is everywhere. Colombo administers the Northern Province
through a governor who is also a major-general. A March 2012 International
Crisis Group (ICG) report drew attention to the military’s domination of the post-war
reconstruction effort. With regard to development and humanitarian projects in
the North, it is the military that determines “how, where and by whom resources
and services are distributed; and who benefits from them,” the ICP report concludes.
Saravanapavan
says that the military forces have confiscated hundreds of acres of land from
the Tamils in order to build bases. Much of this land is fertile and being used
by soldiers to grow crops, he says. Soldiers are running roadside tea shops and
food stalls, the Jaffna student pointed out, adding that while their petty
businesses are resented by locals, the “more hidden involvement” of the top
brass in “big business deals is of greater concern.”
As
the ICG report observed: “The heavy militarization of the [Northern]
province, ostensibly designed to protect against the renewal of violent
militancy, is in fact deepening the alienation and anger of northern Tamils and
threatening sustainable peace.”
Along
with the militarization of the north is the ongoing Sinhalization. With the end
of the war the land route into the Jaffna peninsula opened and Sinhalese are
streaming in from the south and setting up businesses. This is “resented by
some Tamils, who feel this is undermining their livelihoods,” Saravanapavan
says.
The
settling of Sinhalese in the north is inevitably altering the demographics of
the province.
There
is precedent for this. In the past, the state has sponsored the settlement of
Sinhalese in the once dominated Tamil East in order to weaken the Tamil’s
clout.
Tamils
fear that the government is trying to Sinhalize the north in order to weaken
their claims for autonomy and independence. The construction of Buddhist
shrines in a place where no Buddhists live — Tamils are mainly Hindu with a
sizeable Christian population – reinforces such fears.
Mullaithivu,
which was overwhelmingly Tamil, now has many Sinhalese settlers and could
return Sinhalese politicians in the near future,” warns Saravanapavan.
The
Rajapaksa government speaks with great pride about the economic initiatives it
has put in place in the north. Indeed, the war-ravaged province is desperately
in need of infrastructure, jobs and a boost to its economy.
However,
much of the “development” has been appropriated by Sinhalese-owned companies or
Rajapaksas’s Tamil cronies, according to the Jaffna student. Ordinary Tamils
have been excluded from the fruits of the economic development of the north.
Infrastructure has improved but roads have been prioritized to facilitate the
movement of the military, he points out.
For
Tamils in the north, who have borne the brunt of the decades of civil war, the
war's end initially greeted with overwhelming relief. It promised a new
life that was free from aerial bombardment by the Sri Lankan Air Force and
forced conscription by the LTTE.
However,
while the civil war is over another phase of terror and violence has taken its
place.
The
recent unrest in Jaffna is not surprising. It was waiting to
happen. It is not a minor incident that the Rajapaksa government can
brush aside. As the BBC’s Charles Haviland put it, the unrest is the
“biggest overtly political disturbances in the north” since the end of the war
in May 2009.
Deploying
more military or using more force to put down the protests will only fuel Tamil
discontent.
Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is a political analyst based in
Bangalore, India. She writes on South Asian political and security
issues.
