The government faces a growing crisis
Throughout the month of August and the beginning of September, the
Northern province of Jaffna in Sri Lanka has been in a virtual state of
Following renewed activity in early August by groups representing Sri Lanka's 2.6 million Tamils, the Sinhala-dominated army has gone on the rampage - looting, burning down shops and killing Tamil civilians. On August 4, government patrol boats shelled a fishing village. On
August 21, about 300 young Tamils were rounded up by the army sup-
This brought the total held in the month
These young people have been taken to unknown destinations without relatives or friends being informed. It is suspectec by some that the army is already being trained in these counterinsurgenc methods by Israeli advisers, newly arrived in the country.
As the violence continues with further incidents taking place on September 12 and 13, the Jayewardene government's initial stance of blaming it all on the Tamils has become increasingly absurd. The government have had to announce that 36 soldiers have now been confined to barracks pending investigations into the burning of shops in Mannar and
It is clear the state of emergency in the country is being used by the army as a pretext for harassment and intimidation of the Tamil population. The repressive activity also extends to the South of the country where many Tamils work on the vast tea plantations.
ment has brought in Israelis to train a lim areas. But with the announcement
SRI LANKA siege.
posedly looking for terrorists.
of August to
Point Pedro.
The case of the
Balangoda 18, accused of subversive activity is an example of this.
On June 15, 18 workers from the Rye Estate tea plantation, a leader of the Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International amongst them, were rounded up and detained by police. To this day formal charges have not been put but the 18 were held on suspicion for three weeks before being released on bail.
The workers were discussing legal problems concerning a strike they had been involved in the previous April, when the arrests took place.
Upali Cooray, a barrister, was with them. Upali is a leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International.
The 18 were taken into custody after police burst in and accused everyone present of taking part in an illegal meeting. They were forbidden to see either lawyers or relatives.
After several applications, the 18 were only finally released on bail because of an error by the police as to what section of the Emergency
Powers Act they could be arrested under.
The new trial date is October 4. It is vital that a campaign of internaabuse of emergency powers and the suppression of democratic rights which this case symbolises
Letters of protest should be sent to the President, Democratic Socialist
Republic of Sri Lanka, President's House, Sri Lanka.
of support and donations to Balangoda 18, 53 Rajamalwatte Road,
Colombo 15, Sri Lanka.
Upali Cooray spoke to Mogens Pedersen about the situation in Sri
Lanka on June 6, 1984.
Question.
It appears that an Israeli interest section is to be opened up in the
American embassy in Sri Lanka - amongst all the other problems facing the country - what is the significance of this?
Answer. There is, in addition to this, an agreement made with the
Israeli government to obtain the services of the
Mossad, the Israeli secret service, as well as commando-training.
It has been known for some time that the govern-
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Please send messages special, elite commando, apparently to protect the president himself. that this shows both the desperation of the government and the contradictions within it. This will only alienate the Muslim community, who has hitherto been either pro-government or in any case not generally leftist. The Muslim community has a reputation of being conservative. If you look at the elections of 1977, in the Eastern province, most of the seats the UNP (1) won were in Mus-
Demonstrators protesting against massacres of Tamils bu of an Israeli interest section being opened up, already there has been a tremendous amount of opposition from the Muslim community. Apparently the Israeli flag has been burnt and there have been demonstrations inside the mosques.
It is likely that this could provoke some anti-Muslim feeling amongst some sections of the Sinhalese, particularly the pro-government section who might be encouraged to oppose this Muslim protest. I think that this would be an extremely unwise move from the government's point of view. Firstly, it could endanger jobs and trade in the Middle East. (2) Already tea prices are falling 1. UNP - United National Party. The elections in 1977 gave the UNP more than two thirds of the seats in parliament. J. R. Jayewardene became prime minister and later president. 2. Because of the bad employment situation and very low wages, many Sri Lankans are going abroad - for instance to the Middle East — to find work.
International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
not a direct dictatorship relying on the
Within the government there_is a division of opinion. any longer of a government policy because there are so many different opinions. But certainly one section is of the view that if one pursues a militaristic policy, it will be more popular among the Sinhalese and that it will be possible to retain support of a section or majority of the Sinhala people. But that is doubtful, because in any event the UNP is not the only one that takes that position the SLFP (4) also supports that militarist policy. !. But the real reason is that in the government there is no statesperson ready to take a strong stand on the national question, that is to come out and say *Here is a political solution, we must implement that because it is acceptable to the Tamil people and at the same time we can maintain a unitary state'. instance, Annexe 'C' to the Round Table talks (5) gives that kind of solution but having presented it, the government then
The government is frightened to come out and support an initiative which would resolve the problem through peaceful negotiations. On the other hand, it feels that in order to maintain its dwindling support amongst the masses it must pursue this kind of militaristic, jingoistic, anti-indian policy. But in the medium and long term it is going to be counterproductive. More and more people are get alienated and, sooner later, the Sinhalese will not be fooled by these continuous attempts to whip up
Q. If we look at the situation in the North where the government is carrying out its main attacks what kind of repression is going on? What are the activities of the armed
We have a new Minister of Na-
They are then subjected to inhuman torture. Some of the soldiers who come to the South on leave boast about the kind of torture they use. They hang people by their feet, cut them with knives and blades. They put ballpoint pens on the ear and hit so hard that it pierces from the outside. They push pipes up anuses
This brutality goes hand in hand with another new development. The army, like the police, is trying to make a fast buck out of these arrests. If a young person is arrested they will be asked for a certain sum of money to pay for their release. But none of this is actually publicised. The government is refusing to say how many have been arrested. It - must be a large number of people. Recently, for instance, in Batticaloa, in one incident, more than six hundred youth were arrested. Luckily, a Catholic priest intervened and got most of them re-
The prisoners are detained in all kinds of places, no longer only in prisons or police custody, but even in army custody, in private houses and various other places. Very few people up to today, have been brought to trial as a result of these arrests. What has been happening is that a large number of people have been killed. The official explanation is that they have been killed while trying to escape from army or police custody. This cannot be so considering that in each of these cases a large number of army or police were present - it would be insane to try to escape under these
The other point is that in of these cases will the government hold an inquest in order to ascertain
What are the main demands that should be raised to try to develop a struggle against this repression of the Tamil minority? What is your solution to
As an immediate set of demands we will demand an immediate drawal of the army from the North and tional Security. His policy is, on the one 2 Past and the establishment of civilian an effigy of Jayewardene (DR) and there is a big drop in tea sales to Middle Eastern countries which will effect the economy very badly. But I think this also shows the kind of desperate mood the government is in. Because even before the armed youth in the North (3) had really started fighting, they had been engaging in preliminaries such as punishing informers, attacking torturers and collecting money. As yet, except in one case when 13 soldiers were killed in reprisal for a number of rapes, there has not been any general attack. Nevertheless the government are really panicking because they know they will not be able to
Q. Do you think that this decision to have the Israeli interest section reflects that the government is getting less and less interested in maintaining popular support, that it is going towards a more and more openly repressive regime, if International Viewpoint 1 October 1984 hand, to create the impression to the world that they are trying to deal with the terrorists in a firm way, but at the same time to be fair to the rest of the Tamils and deal with the problem in the most civilised way possible. He has even gone on record as saying, "We must remember tgat Tamils are not our enemies, even the terrorists are only temporary adversaries' But this contrasts with what is actually happening in the North and East, which is not publicised. The only newspaper that is willing to publish material about the nature of the repression, Saturday Review, which is published in Jaffna, is heavily censored so that it cannot publish anything. government-owned press and capitalist press have a self-censorship and conceal what is happening
But what is going on is frightening. The army is going from village to village, from block to block, arresting all young people and most of them are locked up - unless they have good connections.
We must also call for the abolition of The Prevention of Terrorism Act which permits the government to hold people in custody for more than 18 months, without trial, anywhere they like. further part of the campaign is to whatever steps are possible, both legal and political, to get the people who have been arrested and released to take action against torture so that we can push the government to retreat on these ques-
The militant groups of the Tamil minority, struggling for an independent state - called Eelam - in the North and East of the country where the Tamils are in a majority. 4. SLFP - Sri Lankan Freedom Party, a bourgeois opposition party. Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike was prime minister for several years, but lost governmental power in 1977, following a big electoral defeat. 5. Conferences with participation of different parties and organisations to discuss how to resolve the problems related to the existence of two main groups and nationalities; the Sinhalese (some 74 per cent of the population) and the Tamils (18 per cent).
15
tions.
last the text of secede.
people.
standing.
It is
Liberation Front).
16
If it were serious,
The Tamil political
-
All in resolving the economic crisis
So you have the in
That was the causing problems in the South.
includes historically reformist formations, the Communist Party and the LSSP, and
Q. Has the UNP leadership strengthradical split-offs from the Sri ened its capability to turn the anger and
Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
dissatisfaction of people in the South
The SLFP has begun to move right in the so-called terrorists the last period.
Their latest split-off is
North or is the UNP leadership as a whole
Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP)
being weakened?
which seems to have won most of the
Terrorism in the North could be organising cadres of the SLFP in many used to get passive support from large numbers of people in the South. But that
The SLMP today is attracting many is not really a test of UNP popularity.
people, especially young people.
Because, while the bourgeois parties have for two reasons.
taken an extremely racist line, the reyoung people who supported the UNP ir formist left has not countered it with a
1977 have now become disillusioned and forceful alternative position.
are looking for some alternative. Secondthis, more and more people are beginning ly, the collapse of the JVP (9) and its to see through the UNP line.
shift to more and more parliamentarist stance, Colin da Silva (6) in his May Day positions has meant that some do not statement on militarism tried to make now see the JVP as a real alternative the point that the government is seeking when compared to the SLMP.
The problem, however, for the SLMP to use the situation in the North to develop a police-military state and that people is that, although verbally radical, it is get together to combat this parliamentarist and dominated by a bourgeois party. Moreover it is very un
In addition, in January you had the likely that the government in the present elections.
situation of the kidnapping. (7)
will hold
So the made the government look stupid. One
SLMP has a parliamentary perspective section of the people thought that the without any immediate prospect of an whole thing was organised by the government; others saw that the govern-
The next elections are due to be held in 1989. What this means is that sooner or later (and I would say sooner) some of the youth who are now behind the SLMP will begin to get demoralised, begin to see that it is not going to get them anywhere and that it will be necessary to find some
By this, I mean, thing else that will really organise extra- parliamentary struggles.
The question is whether the Four
Party Bloc (although now the NSSP (10)
wants to join, it would be the fifth party)
will organise extra-parliamentary strug gles. The leader of the SLMP during the last mini-election, or by-election, stood up to UNP thuggery and resisted it in
But the Bloc they are in, which includes the Communist Party (by far the most conservative party in the
Bloc), is very unlikely to do anything that would be considered illegal, unconstituwould only eft.
This change if there arose, on the horizon, something to the left of this Bloc which could begin to take the initiative in a number of situations and then compel the Bloc to join it, to link up with it or
Concerning the Four (or Five)
Party Bloc and the new party, the SLMP.
One of the coordinating secretaries
W. A. Abeyasinghe, is quoted as saying that both the capitalist UNP and SLEP which support capitalism, should be defeated, and the need of the hour is not government.
6.
Leader of the LSSP, Lanka Sama Samaja
Party, a reformist, class collaborationist party.
of Tamils
7.
A group on hunger strike were kidnapped on January 19 by armed men.
the Communist Party
8.
Besides the
LSSP, of Sri Lanka, the SLMP and the MEP (Mahajan level.
Eskath Peramuna) are involved in the so-called
Four Party Bloc.
- Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna.
9.
JVP
10.
NSSP -
Nava Sama Samaja Party, part of the international current to which the "Militant" in Britain also belongs.
International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
an anti-UNP front. Defeating UNP is meaningless unless capitalism is wiped out. quoted in The Island, June 5, 1984). What is your reaction to this statement?
A. This is not the first time they have said this. In fact, one of the key people who has been repeating this quite often is the wife of the SLMP secretary (the popular leader and film star, Vijaya Kumaranatunga) _ whose name is Chandrita Bandaranaike. This woman is the daughter of Mrs Bandaranaike (the former prime minister) and a student of Althusser. She has also said that our fight is anti-capitalist. But we have to look at this from a historical standpoint. If they said the fight was against the UNP only, it would pose the question - why did you split from the SLFP and form another party? You are now also dividing the anti-UNP forces. That is one of the reasons why they keep posing this question.
The second point is made demogogically. That is, today the more political people see that the sort of alternating of capitalist policies of the UNP and SLEP parties has not resolved anything. So if another party comes forward with similar policies, it will not cut much ice. That is why the SLMP uses anti-capitalist rhetoric. But the problem for them is that they do not have a clear policy of their own. It does not say exactly where it stands on the question of private property, imperialist investments, workers rights, the national question. They say general things like, •We are against racism', "We are against capitalism', 'We are for socialism', but it does not specify what they are going to do.
There is another more important aspect too. If we look at the SLMP at a local as well as at leading levels, we can see that the key elements of this party are the same local capitalist elite which the SLFP have. It is just that one section has shifted from the SLFP to the SLMP. They are still determining the party delegations, party representations and so on, and they back this party with their finances. They are therefore an important element. This is not to say, that in a new period of generalised struggle, the youth elements of this party will not take to the streets. But that is only in the context of extra-parliamentary struggle. In a parliamentarist perspective, which the party has, it is the other way around. It is then the local elites that will determine who is going there and who will hold parliamentary seats and so on.
Q. Despite the vagueness of their political line, what is their general view on the national question?
I have heard two statements which, in my view, are designed to conceal, rather than clarify their real position. In the first, Vajaya Kumaranatunga made a speech saying, 'We are against racism' But that can have many meanings. If it has the best meaning, it is that, We are against Sinhala racism or chauvinism.' - This would be fine as far as it goes, but then there are several other questions. What is their attitude to the armed youth which the government calls terrorists? What is their attitude to the stationing of the army in the North and East? What is their position on the de. mand for a separate state and what is their position on the right of self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people? This has not been spelt out. The SLMP has stated that it is the government that has brought about terrorism. It is seeking to pinpoint the responsibility with the government and say, 'We are nice people.' We do not want racism.' But beyond that they keep their options open, to determine whatever policy they want. This is typical, of course, of all
Q.
A.
This includes us, munist Party. parliamentary recognises the of the tions is a dead one.
gin to pose some demands around which mass struggles can be mobilised. If the
Four Party Bloc participates, then the objective effects of that struggle will be bigger than the far left could much
So we have to seek ways and achieve.
means of compelling them and any others who join them to participate in mass actions which will be either initiated, proposed or promoted by the far left.
they reject mass action, then very soon they will be exposed, which is some-
A.
demands velop struggles.
response.
during the they shot
He did not die,
Today it the people see anger, reaction.
Q. What are
Party Bloc today?
the
We also have
Then
League.
For instance,
There a left alliance.
17
INDIA tion, We two and our two'; on the other side a Muslim family showing a husband, 4 wives and 25 children with the caption, "We five and our 25'. Finally, the poster warned that it was time to act before the Muslims overtook the whole country. (3) Immediate action from the authorities