Tigers the Indian army UR ES FE
Sri Lankan President JR Jayewardene has announced presidential elections this year, a general election (the first in 11 years to take place early next year, regional elections for the northern and eastern provinces, and his own resignation as President. The 82 year old president (also known as 'UR' or the old fox") leaves his proposed successor, the Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, a more divided Sri Lanka. cannot tame
When the Portuguese first landed on the island in the beginning of the 16th century. they found two ancient kingdoms, Tamils in the north and castern provinces and the Sinhalese in the south. The Portuguese, and the Dutch who came after them, governed Two nations in one island. the Tamil nation as a separate kingdom without violating its territorial integrity. In 1833 the British imposed a unified stale structure amalgamating the two nations is- respective of ethnic differences - laying the As elsewhere in the world, the British changed the coonomic structure of the colonies lo hencfit the interests of the ruling class in Britain. A plantation economy was introduced in Sri Lanka, which forced hundreds of thousands of Tamil labourers to migrale to the Sinhalese south of Sn Lanka, In the 1840s and 1850s a million Tamils were importod from Tamil Nade in the south of India. A Sinhalese nationalism emerged under the banner of Buddhist revival. which attacked both the European colonialists For more than a century this million im- ported Tamils lived without any human or With the Citizen Act of 1948 and the Indian Pakistani Citizen Act of 1949 only about 130,000 out of more than a million Tamils were situation for them. The Sinhalese ruling class has over the years done everything possible to pendence from Britain did not improve the Pogroms against the Tarils in 1956, 1958. 1961, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983 and since. have taken thousands of lives. Sinhalese colonists moved into Tamil areas in the north and cast, confiscated Tamil property and drove The national oppression penetrated into the empty promises The situation did not change political rights, in conditions similar to slavery. able to acquire citizenship. Sri Lankan inde- them away from their traditional homeland. sphere of language, cducation and employ The racial attacks increased Tamil national sentiments. In 1961 the (Tamil) Federal Party launched a civil disobedience campaign demanding federal autonomy, but won only genis party of Mrs Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 11 December 1988/January 1989 when an alliance between the national bour destroy the national identity of the Tamils. foundation for the national conflict. Tamil resistance ding September 26) after the LTTE proposed a permanent cense fire, The LTTE has proposed high level talks with India on the provincial elections in the northem and caster provinces, but these did not take place because India demanded that the L.TTE should hand over al! weapons before talks could start, and arrested The day after the cease-fire ended, India militant, leaving the LTTE with no choice but fourth biggest any in the world. A million rupees was promised to anyone who could get LTTE leaders in Madras, who are still in jail. resumed military operations, killing an LTTE The Indian troops had expected a quick sur- render of the LTTE. After all India has the Velupilai Prahakaran, the leader of the LTTE. dead or alive. Prabakaran has not heen caught yet, and the LTTE has still not surrendered. The mander-in-Chief of the Indian Peacekeeping Force when on 30 March 1988 he said that 90% The war against the LTTE has also created rowing opposition and brought 300 arrests in India itself. In the Tamil Nadu province in the south of India the united opposition will make the withdrawal of the IPKF a main plank in the So why has the indian goverument got itself into such a mess? To understand the situation reason for this was admitted by the Com in Sri Lanka one has to understand its history: to continue the war and boycott the elections, of the Tamil population are pro LTTE next general election. Tamil guerrillas to a Provincial Governor, appointed by a Sin For the last year a war between the 50,000 strong Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eclam (LTTE): has prevented elections from taking place. The war has cost the Indians 500 dead and 1,500 wounded, while the I.TTE has lost 300 soldiers casions the IPKF has declared that the back of and 3,000 civilians have died. The war con- tinues with no end in sight, though on nine oc- the LTIE had been broken. Cities and towns- even hospitals - in the norther and eastern Young Tamil men have been executed on suspicion of support to the LTTE and Tamil The LTTE has proposed a cease-fire since tober, 1987, and on August 9 1988 proposed a referendum to determine whether the Tamils accept the Indo Sri Lanka Accord, whether the IPKF should be withdrawn and replaced by an International Peace Keeping Force and whether or not the LTTE are the representatives of the defcated in the referendum. But the proposals provinces have been bombed by Indian planes. the arrival of of the Indian troops on 10th Oc- Tamil people'. The LTTE further state that they are prepared in accept the accord if they are India agreed tn a five-day cease-fire in Sep- tember 1988. This was extended to 10 days (en- have boen rejected by the Indian govemment. women have been mped by Indian soldiers. Not only is the Tamil population (25 deeply split, with the JVP (People's per cent of the total population) con- tinuing its fight for independence, but the Sinhalese community is Liberation Front) launching armed attacks on the ruling United Nation- al Parts, claiming that the Sri Lanka government has sold the island's sovereignty to the 50,000 Indian The presence of the Indian troops in Sri Lanka and the call for elections in the northern and caster provinces are a result of the accord signed between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments on July 29. 1987. The accord was followed by the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Council Act, passed by the Sri Lankan parliament in August 1987. But neither give any real autonomy - let alone independence - for the Tamil people. The real power is given troops now fighting the Tamils. Page 32
S FE tional old left LSSP and the Com- Freedom Party (SLEP) and the tradi-
premature insurrection, which was porters were killed and another mutist Party came to power in 1970. Radicalised Sinhalese youth or ganised in the JVP (People's Liberation Front) organised a drowned in blood by the govern- The Tamil youth also radicalised in those years: but neither the Tamil ment. More than 10,000 /VP sup 15,000 imprisoued.
offered them any concrete political Tiger Movement was bom, under United Front nor the left movement altemative. So in 1972 the Tamil the leadership of Velupillai tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam - Belar being the name for the northern and Prabakaran. In 1976 the organisa- tion changed its name to the Libera-
blackout on events in the occupied Tamil arcas: The Indo-Soi Lunka accord was rejceted by the LTTE 'bocause it fails to meet the minimum aspirations of our people'. This accord fails to recognize the Tamils of Eclam as a gation and categorises us unly as ethnic in a multiracial sel Thus accord does not identify the tradi- tional homeland of Tamils and the right of unification of all Eelam Tamils into one nation." The Tamil people's fight for self-determina- tion and for an independent Tamil Eclam is a just and progressive fight, which also under- mines the reactionary Sn Lankan and Indian governments. All forces in Sri Lanka fighting for the right of self-determination for Tamil Belam should therefore be supported in that This should he done irrespective of what one thinks about their political programmes and tae- ties: this is especially the case since the news makes it impossible to assess the actual tactics ofthe Tamil (or Sinhalese) groups involved, or even ascertain basic facts. Defending liberation fighters against repression does not commit ing force - politically and military - in the fight for a liberated Tamil Eclam. Part of the intema- tional solidarity with the Tamil people should therefore he to give the LTTE a platform, so Finn Jensen Page 33 There is no doubt that the LTTE is the lead. International solidarity marxists to defend their tactics. their voice can be heard. Sri Lankan president Jayewardene with Gandhi in 1986 fight. Liberation Front guarantees the Muslims' right Tess than 359 in the Eastern Province, not less Than 30% in the Mannar district and not less After Jayewardene came to power in 1977, and an "It was agroed that in all future land distribu- Lion, the Muslim people will be entitled to not than 5% in other areas. The Muslim people will be entitled to job opportunities in the public sec- for in proportion to their population in each dis- India walched with concern as Sni Lanka's foreign policy became more and more inde- pendent from India's interests in the region. To force Sri Lanka back in line, India made an open intervention, conducting negotiations for peace in Sri Lankan capital Colombo, while giving military training and ans to Tamil militants to step up the armed struggle, The ulterior motive was to pile military pressure on the Sri Lankan government and force the Jayewardene regime to bow to the regional ambitions of the Indian India got the Sri Lankan government to sign an agreement, which guaranteed the unity of the Sri Lankan state under Sinhalese rule, but gave some limited autonomy lo the northern and Peacekeeping Force was left to fight the LTTE, Lankan army has not had one soldier killed castern provinces. For a year the Indian with the result that the 30,000 strong Sri agreed share of land and job opportunities. India's role in Sri Lanka to security, equality and freedom" since the arrival of the Indian troops. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 11 December 1988/January 1989 trict." against the LTTE. Large contingents of trops sent in for the "Tiger hunt" brought the Tamil solute power and gave the Sinhala language and The LTTE sees itself as the political and military Icadership of the Tamil people's fight for national independence. The Icadership of the LTTE has a marxist political programme that is very close to the strategy of permanent *The political objective of our movement is to advance the national struggle along with the class struggle, or rather, our fundamental objec- sition of our social formation'. "The Liberated ally of the oppressed Sinhalese masses to fight extremely difficult with 50,000 Indian troops In order to stop the Sri Lankan government rest of the (Hindu) Tamils, an April 1988 agree- launched against the Tamils, particularly nation under total military occupation. A new constitution gave President Jayewardene ab- tive is national emancipation and socialist tran- socialist Tamil Eclam would be a revolutionary and destroy the bourgeois state apparatus." (Liberation Tigers and Tamil Eelam Freedom ing all its time to military operations, the LTTE understands the need for political work among the Tamil masses. This has of course become from heing able to exploit divisions between the Muslim people in the Eastern province and the ment between the LTTE and the Muslim United Far from heing a terrorist organisation devot Buddhist religion extraordinary status. nation'. The 1977 general elections Also in 1976 the renamed Tamil reconstitution of the free, sovercign, gave a majority in Parliament to the right-wing United National Party, A new wave of repression was United Liberation Front (TULF) called for the restoration and secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam based on the right to self- determination inherent to every with the TULF as the leading op eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The LTTE occupying Tamil Eclam. Struggle, pp 41-42). position party. revolution:
ment which stands irreconcilably opposed to all solutely unprecedented persecutions all over reality. He shows that this weakness is in part the distorted outcome of the exteral pressures vival agninst the rising repressive tide of Stalinism and against social democratic and 'How could an element of sctarianism have failed to manifest itself in an ideological move- the dominant organisations in the working class, and which is subjected to monstrous, ab- on the isolated, minority forces of the intera- tional Left Opposition as they battled for sur- The