The press coverage of a suicide bomb attack in Colombo on June 14 provides a graphic example of the way in which events are seized upon and distorted by the Sri Lankan media to justify the government's prosecution of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the racist treatment of Tamils. As this story reveals, literally anyone can become grist for the mill with catastrophic consequences.
At the end of last month the Sri Lankan Supreme Court effectively overturned the stringent media censorship imposed by the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. On the following day the Peoples Alliance (PA) government restored the censorship measures. Both the court decision and its reversal reveal sharp divisions in ruling circles over the government's emergency regulations promulgated on May 3 following the army's defeats at the hands of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The ruling Peoples Alliance (PA) and opposition United National Party (UNP) in Sri Lanka ended their talks on constitutional changes last Friday proclaiming that they had reached “broad agreement” on a devolution package aimed at establishing the basis for ending the country's bitter 17-year civil war. The proposals provide for limited autonomy for the regions and the establishment of an interim council for the northern and eastern provinces where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate Tamil state.
According to a report in the Sunday Times, an English-language weekly in Sri Lanka, three US diplomats, including the deputy head of the US Mission, Andrew Mann, held a meeting on June 23 with members of the Sihala Urumaya (Sinhala Heritage) Party—an extreme right-wing organisation based on virulent Sinhala chauvinism, directed against the country's Tamil minority.
The Peoples Alliance (PA) government in Sri Lanka has been forced to postpone the introduction of its postal corporation bill into parliament. The legislation aims to reconstitute the existing government postal department as a profit-making corporation—the first step towards the complete privatisation of the postal service. Two weeks ago postal workers defied emergency regulations and instituted a work-to-rule campaign. When the postal unions threatened to relaunch a work-to-rule campaign from midnight last Thursday, the legislation, which had been scheduled for debate on July 5, was shelved for a fifth time.
The following interview was given by a Tamil doctor from Jaffna who currently serves in the Colombo National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Due to the Sri Lankan government's emergency regulations and political censorship, we cannot disclose the doctor's identity.
The plantation trade unions in Sri Lanka have called off a campaign of two-hour stoppages and go-slows by 450,000 tea and rubber plantation workers who were demanding a wage increase. The unions reached a compromise with the Employers Federation of Ceylon on June 20 in a situation where the campaign was threatening to develop into an all-out struggle of workers.
B.A. Sarath Kumara, a long-standing member of the Socialist Equality Party of Sri Lanka, has been suspended and threatened with dismissal by Elastomeric Engineers Company Ltd (EECL).
Facing a military disaster in the north of the island, the Sri Lankan government is setting up an extensive network of “civil defence committees” in workplaces, villages and neighbourhoods with the co-operation of the trade unions. Under conditions of growing popular opposition to the government's attacks on living standards and democratic rights and the continuing war against Tamil separatists, the task assigned to these committees is to help the government place the entire country on a “war footing.”
The Peoples Alliance (PA) government in Sri Lanka is seeking to exploit the June 7 terrorist killing of C.V. Gunaratne, a senior cabinet minister, to whip up an atmosphere of war fever and build popular support for its onslaught against the Tamil population in the north and east of the country.
After the June 7 bomb attack in Sri Lanka that killed Industrial Development Minister Gunaratna and 22 others, the police launched a racist witch-hunt campaign against Tamils living in and around Colombo. Search operations have been conducted in the areas where Tamils live and scores of Tamil youth have been detained at various police stations in the city and suburbs.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh arrived in Sri Lanka on June 11 for talks with the government and other political leaders about the ongoing war in the north and east of the country. The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has made significant military advances against the Sri Lankan military over the last two months.
A letter sent by Josep Rayeppu, the Catholic bishop of Mannar (an area in northern Sri Lanka), to foreign missions in Colombo has accused the military of causing 500 civilian casualties in fighting with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Chavakachcheri area of the northern Jaffna peninsula. It appealed to the diplomats to “prevail upon the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to rectify the situation.”
Fighting has again flared on the Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka between the beleaguered army troops and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) scuttling any immediate possibility of negotiations. Sri Lankan forces have attempted to go on the offensive for the first time since the loss of the key Elephant Pass base in April in a bid to push LTTE forces back from positions threatening Palaly air base and the seaport of Kankasanthurai (KKS).
A series of price hikes announced in Sri Lanka over the last week are certain to fuel the already widespread resentment to the Peoples Alliance (PA) government. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration is placing the burden of its military expenditure for the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam squarely onto the backs of working people.
The 3,000-strong picket held on May 25 at Colombo's Lipton Circus to protest against the Sri Lankan government's emergency war regulations was significant in a number of respects.
In the midst of Sri Lanka's deepening military conflict in the North and political crisis in Colombo, a longstanding postal union leader has been suspended from his post on charges of collaborating with the Peoples Alliance government in implementing its restructuring plans. The incident not only reflects a deep hostility to the union bureaucrat in question, but a combative mood among sections of workers to the government and its attempts to use the war as a means of making drastic new inroads into living standards.
Sri Lankan employers, with the assistance of the trade union leaderships, have already begun to use the government's extensive new emergency regulations to force an end to industrial disputes, victimise workers and impose a tougher work regime in the factories.
Amid continued fierce fighting in Sri Lanka between government troops and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), hectic discussions have been underway in New Delhi and Colombo over how to establish a ceasefire and bring the two sides into negotiations. Both the US and the European Union are pressing the Indian government headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to intervene more directly into the conflict following a series of LTTE victories on the northern Jaffna peninsula.
The Sri Lankan government shut down two of the country's widest-circulating weekly newspapers on Monday, accusing them of publishing articles without permission. Officials declared that the English-language weekend paper, the Sunday Leader, and the Sinhala-language Sunday Peramuna had violated recently-imposed censorship laws.
