PRESS RELEASE
A female suicide bomber blew herself up near the Sri Lankan Prime
Minister's office in Colombo on January 5, killing 13 and injuring 22.
Hours later, unidentified gunmen shot dead the leader of the All Ceylon
Tamil Congress, Kumar Ponnambalam in a Colombo suburb. A group calling
itself the 'National Front Against Tigers" later claimed responsibility for
the assassination.
Not long after this, the Sri Lankan government imposed a snap curfew in
Colombo and launched a massive search for LTTE suspects, rounding up nearly
3,000 Tamils for questioning.
The recent incidents in Colombo are only the latest phase in the recent
escalation of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. In early November, the LTTE
overran large tracts of previously government held terrotory in northern
Sri Lanka and just before the Sri Lankan presidential elections, launched
an attempt on the President's life. The government responded by vowing to
eradicate terrorism "once and for all" while at the same time calling upon
Tamil people to persuade the LTTE to enter into negotiations with the
government.
The recent events in Colombo should be viewed in the context of this
apparent hardening of positions on both sides. There is no reason to
believe that the suicide bombing was the work of any group other than the
LTTE, just as it is quite clear that the Tigers had no reason to murder
Ponnambalam, an outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government's appraoch to
the ethnic conflict and a staunch support of the cause of a separate state
and the LTTE's leadership in the struggle for Tamil Eelam. More
significantly, Ponnambalam was played a prominent role in defending the
civil rights of the Tamil residents of Colombo who have often come under
'scrutiny' from Sri Lankan security forces in their search for LTTE
suspects and sympathisers.
The claims of the "National Front Against Tigers" may not have any
substance, but Ponnambalam was clearly targeted by somebody who wished to
send a strong signal to the LTTE in general and the Tamils in Colombo in
particular.
Clearly, the ethnic war in Sri Lanka is entering a new and more sinister
phase. The LTTE is showing all signs of intensifying its campaign of terror
in the south while the anti-LTTE drive is poised to take an extremely
alarming turn, targetting Tamil civilians and activsts who are considered
"soft" on the LTTE. Such a response to the LTTE's terror is likely to lead
to extremely repressive measures that has the potential to suppress all
basic human rights. Disturbingly, the government's 'tough talk' against the
LTTE is beginning to sound very similar to the rhetoric of many Sinhala
Nationalist fringe groups that call for an all out war against the LTTE and
its sympathisers. These groups that threw their weight behind the President
during the recent elction campaign, call for such drastic measures as
putting a stop to "Tamil colonisation of Colombo", special identifications
for Tamils and severe punishments for family members of those accused of
being LTTE cadres or sympathisers, that bring to mind the notorious Nazi
measures against the Jews that preceded the Holocaust. If the present
escalation of the conflict is allowed to proceed unchecked, there is the
very real possibility that such sentiments will become mainstream opinion
and even official policy rather than the ravings of the lunatic racist fringe.
Sri Lanka cannot afford this!
We have already been through a period of unimaginable horror when the Sri
Lankan government launched a crackdown on the leftist JVP in 1987-90. The
government responded to the JVP's terrorism by a counter-terror which took
the form of the brutal suppression of all basic human rights. All
opposition to the this brutal 'anti-terroristic' crusade that was used to
crush the democratic rights of the masses was branded as "anti-government"
and as such, an offence often punishable by death. The counter-terror took
the lives of tens of thousands of Sri Lankans and left a generation scarred
for life.
If the recent developments in Colombo are any guide, we may well be seeing
the beginning of another reign of terror in the name of fighting the LTTE.
The "unidentified gunmen" who stalked JVP sympathisers in 1987-90 may now
reappear and takeover the streets again, this time hunting all political
opponents of the war and the increasingly authoritarian rule of the
government under the guise of eliminating "LTTE sympathisers". Speaking
against the "war on terrorism" will become a terorist activity itself and
as such, punished with the utmost severity. The press will be muffled, the
jails will be packed and the air will be choked with the stench of burning
flesh. The death squads of the Preamadasa era will once again unleash their
own brand of 'Sinhala' terror.
We do not want this. Not because we have any sympathy for the LTTE's
senseless terror but because we are convinced that the answer to the LTTE's
terror must be to address the issues that spawned that terror. This cannot
be achieved by permitting the voices of unreason from the lunatic fringe
to set the one of political life in the South. The sinister forces of
darkness and terror are moving from the sidelines to the centre of
political life again. This must be stopped.
Here we reiterate in the strongest terms that the LTTE should immediately
stop the indiscriminate violence against non-military targets. Such acts
run counter to the interests of the Tamil people whom it seeks to defend
and liberate. They play into the hands of the racist terrorists among the
Sinhalese, and provide excuses for those forces to justify acts of terror
and violence against Tamil civilians and all democratic anti-war forces in
the South.
We call upon to both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to take all
necessary measures to ensure that the interests of the people they are
pledged to protect rather than bloodlust dictate their policies. We call
upon all peace-loving people in the world to take all possible steps to
prevent the violence in Sri Lanka from spiralling into mayhem and carnage.
signed
Channa Wickremesekera
President,
People for Human Rights and Racial Equality
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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