ISSUES

LTTE's allegations unfair "For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We should be careful indeed in what we say" - Confucius By D. B. S. Jeyaraj

The missive sent by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on April 21 has resulted in an inevitable political storm. After citing several reasons the LTTE informed the premier that it was suspending its role in negotiations for the time being. It also announced that it would not be attending the forthcoming donor meeting in Tokyo on June 9 and 10. Later the Tigers said that they will not be attending the SIHRN meetings too.

The LTTE however said that it remained committed to the peace process. A senior Tiger leader, Velupillai Balakumaran (formerly of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation) reassured the Jaffna public that the LTTE would not be going to war. The letter written by Balasingham on behalf of the LTTE leadership outlined some grievances and complaints.

Chief among these was the charge that the government was guilty of excluding the North - Eastern Province in procuring and providing international aid for rehabilitation, reconstruction and development. It accuses the government of ignoring the specific destruction caused in the north east by the war and that it has not formulated any plans for the region.The government's 'Regaining Sri Lanka' development strategy document is confined to the south alone.

Special needs

The tone and tenor of these allegations were severe. Relevant excerpts are - " Your government, in international forums, continues to place poverty as the common phenomenon affecting the entire country. The poverty reduction strategy forms the essence of the document 'Regaining Sri Lanka' which defines the macro-economic policy of your government.

"Though poverty and poverty alleviation constitute the centrality of the new economic vision of your government as exemplified in 'Regaining Sri Lanka,' the document fails to examine the causality of the phenomenon of poverty, the effects of ethnic war and the unique conditions of devastation prevailing in the north east. In our view, the conditions of reality prevailing in Tamil areas are qualitatively different from southern Sri Lanka. The Tamils faced the brunt of the brutal war.

"Twenty years of intense and incessant war has caused irreparable destruction to the infrastructure in the north east. This colossal destruction augmented by continued displacement of the people and their inability to pursue their livelihoods due to military restrictions and activities have caused untold misery and extreme poverty among the people of the north east. Continued displacement has also depleted all forms of savings of these people, disabling them from regaining their lives on their own. The war-affected people need immediate help to regain their dignity.

"They need restoration of essential services to re-establish their lives. Reconstruction of infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools and houses are essential for them to return to normal life" Balasingham stated. " The poverty that is prevailing in southern Sri Lanka is a self-inflicted phenomenon, caused by the disastrous policies of the past governments (both the UNP and the SLFP) in dealing with the Tamil national conflict. In its fanatical drive to prosecute an unjust war against the Tamil people, the Sinhala state wasted all national wealth to a futile cause.

"The massive borrowings to sustain an absurd policy of  'war for peace' by the former government caused huge international indebtedness. The economic situation of the south has been further worsened by the mismanagement of state funds, bad governance and institutional corruption.

"Therefore, the conditions prevailing in the south are distinctly different from the north east where the scale and magnitude of the infrastructural destruction is monumental and the poverty is acute. Ignoring this distinctive reality, your government posits poverty as a common phenomenon across the country and attempts to seek a solution with a common approach. This approach grossly under states the severity of the problems faced by the people in the north east.

"The government's 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document completely lacks any form of identified goals for the northeast. Statistics presented for substantiating the policy totally ignore the northeast and solely concentrate on southern Sri Lanka. However, this has been promoted as the national strategy to the international community to seek aid. It is evident from this that the government lacks any comprehensive strategy for serious development of the north east.

"The poverty reduction strategy fails to address the poverty of the northeast as distinct from the rest. In seeking international assistance your government disingenuously speaks of reconstruction being needed in all areas, thereby masking the total destruction of the infrastructure of the northeast which has resulted from the militarist policies of the past three decades," Balasingham charged.

A responsive chord

 Balasingham's assertions about the north east being overlooked in the government's economic blueprints will definitely strike a responsive chord among most Tamils. It may even trouble the international donor community. It is no secret that a major contributory factor in the intensification of the ethnic conflict was the Tamil grievance about the Tamil areas in the north east region being systematically discriminated against by successive governments after 1956.

This unequal distribution of economic resources and uneven patterns of socio - economic development was of great significance in pushing Tamils towards secession. N. Shanmugaratnam,  Professor of Development Studies, Centre for International Environment & Development Studies, Agricultural University of Norway observes thus in a recent article. "It cannot be denied that the ethnic conflict in Lanka is rooted to a great extent in conflicts over distribution of resources, opportunities and political power - in what analysts regard as horizontal inequalities.

"These conflicts became progressively communalised on the basis of ethnic divisions, which were politically defined in colonial times and subsequently modified and redefined as communalisation advanced into structures of the state and the polity at large."

In recent times the Tamil regions of the north east became the primary theatre of war. As the conflict escalated the infrastructure of the area was destroyed and the economy collapsed. This was due both to the shattering effects of war and also the undeclared 'scorched earth policy' practiced in stages by the armed forces under successive regimes.

Consequentially the Tamil people of the north east have become impoverished and disempowered. As a result tremendous economic initiatives are required to upgrade their lives again. Against that backdrop any Colombo government sincere about peace and reconciliation must necessarily address these particular problems of the north east and remedy them. The Wickremesinghe government relying on economic development as a key strategy in bettering ethnic relations is particularly required to do so. So for such a government to overlook the northeast as Balasingham has alleged is a grave blunder at best and a serious offence at worst.

Stubborn facts

The important question is whether the United National Front government is indeed guilty as charged. Facts are stubborn. Do they bear out the LTTE accusation?

The government and LTTE have publicly declared their commitment to the peace process as partners. There is mutual agreement in pursuing a strategy that places the "development horse before the conflict resolution cart."

A cornerstone of the peace talks has been the rightful focus on the special problems of the northeast. In the absence of a proper, representative democracy in the north  east and a pronounced reluctance by the LTTE to dismantle its authoritative structures in certain parts, an innovative approach was required.

A short - term alternative was the formation of the Sub-committee on Immediate Humanitarian Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN)as an adjunct of the peace process. SIHRN was agreed upon as the vehicle of reconstruction and development for the north east. SIHRN is cochaired by Peace Secretariat Director Bernard Goonetilleke and LTTE Political Wing Head S.P. Tamilchelvan.

SIHRN has been quite active and has engaged in a lot of worthwhile projects related to the rehabilitation, reconstruction and development of the north east. It would be wrong therefore to say that the northeast has been totally ignored.

These projects as well as other efforts underway are by no means sufficient to resolve the magnitude of the task involved in rehabilitating and reconstructing the northeast. Yet these indicate that the Government Of Sri Lanka(GOSL) has not neglected the region totally as alleged. Moreover every such project has been jointly endorsed by the LTTE contingent headed by the "eversmiling" Tamilchelvan.

As such the LTTE is fully aware of all what is going on. Greater reconstruction and development of the north east is possible through a comprehensive, integrated plan only. Is there such a plan? Or is the government focussing only on the south for the Tokyo conference as alleged by Balasingham? Again the position does not seem to be as depicted by the LTTE.

'Regaining Sri Lanka'

The government's own poverty reduction strategy Paper, better known as 'Regaining Sri Lanka' is a detailed strategy for the way in which the government will deal with national priorities across the whole country. The 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document as it is developed so far looks at four key areas:

1. To create two million new jobs over the next few years; 2. To overcome the crippling debt which the government inherited and return the country to a sound economic footing; 3. To find the resources to rebuild the country whether in the war torn north and east or the poverty stricken south; 4. To increase income levels through higher productivity and increased investment.

The World Bank board recently approved support for the 'Regaining Sri Lanka' programme and announced $800 million aid, whilst in a document just handed to the government the IMF board also gives 'Regaining Sri Lanka' a ringing endorsement.

The four key areas are common to the north east too in a united country. But the government wished to commission a separate paper to look at the needs in the north and the east. It was the SIHRN jointly headed by the LTTE that commissioned a "needs assessment study" of the north east The assessment team comprised officials from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Programme.

A 67 page report was compiled and delivered both to the government and to the LTTE on April 7 this year.The Government also released the  'Needs Assessment Document for the North and the East' to the public on April 10. The document has been produced after months of work and covers a wide range of issues relating to the north and east. Both the GOSL and LTTE participated in its formulation.The views and analyses of the GOSL and LTTE "constitute the basic parameters of the overall needs assessment herein" says the report.

Framework for Tokyo

The government and LTTE at this stage are supposedly studying the document. The next stage will be for the government to study the document and to build in the relevant recommendations into a final 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document which will then form the framework for submission to the Tokyo conference.

The input of the LTTE will be invaluable in this regard. LTTE recommendations and suggestions will be given pride of place in the final document.The government has also asked for comments from the public to be submitted to the  Policy Development and Implementation Ministry  by  May 6.

The needs assessment document looks at a number of important areas that are of immediate concern in the north and east. These include protection and resettlement, health, education and housing. It also looks into infrastructure, agriculture and livelihoods as well as capacity development.The document seeks to provide solutions to these areas over the next few years. Projects have had to be prioritised since the list is so long and the ability for both peace parties to implement all the necessary changes immediately would prove impossible.

Needs assessment

If the LTTE instead of keeping away as announced attends the next SIHRN meeting it could make its views known directly to the government. Covering all eight districts of the north east the assessment segments identified needs into eight sectors. It qualifies the needs into two categories.

The immediate need is for projects to be completed in 18 - 24 months. The medium term needs are for projects to be completed in three to six years. some of these could go in as long term projects too. Money required for perceived needs in the immediate category is US $ 691 million and medium term US$ 1150 million.

Actual money to be realised immediately is expected to be around one - third less. So the final figure expected is US $ 459  million for imediate and US$ 921  for medium term needs. This amounts to US $1. 38 billion  to be broken up over a five to six year period atUS$ 250  million per annum.

The eight sectors and estimated allocations for each sector in US$ millions are A. Protection and resettlement-136.3; B.Health-96.0:C. Education- 66. 8; D. Housing - 247.6;  E.Infrastructural development -634.5; F. Agriculture - 107.4; G, Livelihood - 64.7; H. Capacity development -27.3. The overall amount is US$1380. 6  million.

The breakdown for immediate needs in US $ millions for each sector are 56. 8, 35, 3, 20.5, 100.5, 165.1, 50.9, 19. 1, and 11. 1 respectively. The medium term needs in US millions for each sector are 79. 5, 60.7, 46. 3, 147.1, 469. 4, 56. 5, 45. 6, and 16. 2 respectively.

The overall amounts required for immediate needs areUS$ 459. 3 million and medium term needs US$921.3 million. It is certainly a moot point as to whether all money sought would be gained. It is also uncertain whether the projects would be implemented as scheduled. It is also clear that these plans alone are insufficient for uplifting the northeast from the morass it has sunk into.

Not overlooked

Furthermore it is crystal clear that the LTTE through its participation as co - chair of SIHRN has been on par with the government in all this. It has jointly commissioned the needs assessment study and has received the report. Under these circumstances it is nothing other than colossal incomprehension or downright chicanery for Balasingham to charge the government as having sidelined the north east. It seems patently unfair for the LTTE to accuse the government publicly of bad faith when it is actually not so. Whatever the cause of this action by the LTTE it only affects its credibility and casts doubts as to whether the Tigers can effectively fulfil their self - appointed role of being sole representatives of the Tamil people. The LTTE's tragic decision to suspend talks for comical reasons can only decrease international confidence in their bona fides.

This in turn could bring about a reappraisal in allocating funds for a north-east region dominated by the Tigers. Furthermore, the LTTE's obstinacy in boycotting Samurai land can amount to political hara- kiri and could lead to a situation where all aid will be channelled in Tokyo to the south and the north east be deprived of an equitable share of the funds available.

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