No “military” solution, departing peace monitors warn

The 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA) between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) showed its first serious cracks almost three years before its eventual demise.

The former eastern military head of the Tamil Tigers, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, rebelled against the Tiger leadership in April 2004. That defection is seen by many closely associated with the truce as the beginning of the end.

“The success of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) [international CFA monitors] depended on the commitment of the parties to the ceasefire and on a basic mutual confidence that the other party was serious and committed,” Susanne Ringgaard, who was stationed in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka, as the district head of the SLMM soon after the Karuna rebellion, told IRIN. “With Karuna’s defection that situation changed and caused in the long run the breakdown of the ceasefire.”

The defection was one of many factors, including the breakdown of peace talks, that caused the truce to fail, other monitors said. “Lack of progress on critical issues nurtured distrust between parties, leading to setbacks in the peace process,” outgoing head of the SLMM Lars Solvberg said on 16 January 2008, the day the truce formally ended.

“Gradually the conflict level increased, involving more military activities, more violence affecting civilians, more signs of insecurity, and more displacement of people,” he said.

The ceasefire signed on 22 February 2002 ended on 16 January 2008 when the government pulled out, blaming the Tigers for a string of recent attacks in the south.

International concern

Gradually the conflict level increased, involving more military activities, more violence affecting civilians, more signs of insecurity, and more displacement of people.

The pullout came despite calls by the international community to continue the truce and restart negotiations with the Tigers. Among those who called for a return to dialogue were Japan, facilitators of the 2002 truce, Norway, the European Union, the UK and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“The decision between war and peace is one of the most important that a sovereign government makes,” Yasushi Akashi, Japan’s special peace envoy to Sri Lanka said 24 hours before the truce ended, “and its cooperation with other governments is a factor it takes into account.”

Akashi, who met President Mahinda Rajapakse during his recent visit to Sri Lanka, said he conveyed his government’s grave concerns and added that the Sri Lankan conflict could only be resolved through negotiations.

“We will continue to observe closely the political, military and human rights situation in Sri Lanka,” Akashi said, adding that Japanese aid commitments to Sri Lanka would depend on future assessments of the situation on the ground. But he stopped short of confirming that Japan, Sri Lanka’s largest donor, was contemplating aid cuts or similar sanctions.

Departure of ceasefire monitors

The end of the ceasefire also meant the departure of the truce monitors, who were deployed in six districts to oversee its implementation. SLMM head Solvberg said the SLMM had played a meaningful role.

“The effect of being around, compared to the effect of nothing being around, is immense,” Solvberg said.

“We will miss out on the opportunity to further adapt and contribute in the present situation… We would like to believe that Sri Lanka misses out on something valuable, too.”

Solvberg also echoed Akashi’s belief that peace was only possible through negotiations: “The SLMM is absolutely convinced that this complex conflict cannot be solved by military means.”

More deaths since end of ceasefire

With their departure and the end of the truce, civilians are already paying a heavy price in violence and death - a concern that many international and local observers had been expecting.

Photo: Sri Lankan Government Information Department

The final day of the Sri Lanka truce on 16 January 2007 was one of the bloodiest: 32 civilians were killed and over 50 injured in attacks in Buthala, about 250km southeast of Colombo

In the first three days after the end of the ceasefire 43 civilians and over four dozen combatants were killed. Most of the civilian deaths came in a string of attacks in the southeast. Twenty-seven died when a bus was targeted with a claymore mine on 16 January in Buttala, 240km from the capital. A day later 10 more civilians were shot and killed at Tanamalvilla, about 270km southeast of the capital. The government blamed the attacks on the Tigers.

The Tigers said government jets had carried out air raids close to a school under Tiger control in Kilinochchi on 17 January, endangering the lives of over 700 students. One adult had been killed in the attack and six others, including a student, had been injured, the Tigers said. Schools in the Kilinochchi District remained closed for a week after the air attacks due to fears of further assaults.

The government said, based on accurate intelligence, the raid had targeted a meeting of senior Tiger leaders.

“Both the government and Tigers must be conscious about the human cost of this violence,” Ishbel Matheson, head of communications and policy at the London-based Minority Rights Group, told IRIN. “Thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands, mostly Tamils and Muslims, have been displaced,” she said.

Matheson warned that international patience on both sides may wear thin if the violence continues and the civilian toll keeps rising. “If the situation in Sri Lanka continues to worsen then the international community may take stronger action through various UN mechanisms,” she said, adding, “Sri Lanka is certainly high on the international agenda.”

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