By K.Govindan ON OCTOBER 17 the Sri Lankan army launched its bloodiest assault yet on the northern Jaffna stronghold of the Tamil separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), codenamed Operation Riviresa or Sunshine.
Three days later the LTTE took the war into the capital city Colombo, when it destroyed the main oil storage depots causing damage estistriking fear into the heart of the political and business establishment.
That bombing campaign has continued Until now the Sri Lankan army has controlled the outly.
ing islands and perimeter of Jaffna, leaving the LTTE in control of most of the peninsula and running a parallel ad. ministration there. While the LTTE and indeed Tamils reWayne part of their traditional homeland. LTTE control has been weakest in this ethnically Atrocities Tensions hetween the three main communities in the East, Sinhalese. Muslims and Tamils have been raised by the appalling atrocities commitco by the kild against non-Tamils. In recent weeks 150 mainly Sinhala civilians were killed by the LTTE in their customary brutal and callous way.
These attacks, which outrage all decent opinion, have two objectives. They aim to drive away Sinhalese and Muslims from their lands. "ethnic cleansing" - and also keep the political pressure on the army to maintain some I DISAGREE with Joe Auciello's view on the Na. tion of Isiam (NOI). We must remember religion is a tool used by the ruling class to divide the working class.
The NOI was involved in carrying out the assassina. tion of Malcolm X because he posed a political threat to of an anti-capitalist strategy women and their working class allies.
Islamic fundamentalists are in no way a progressive Icing theme against de LTT SUCH It abo symbolines the ideEclam. They are exclusivist Tamil is fair game. Letters force in society and deserve no support from us, whether critical or otherwise.
Sure the NOI mobilises the masses; but so did Enoch Powell mobilise the East End dockers to march with reac- ternative. tionary slogans.
So do the fascists and the communalists in India, Ire. AT A MEETING in Dublin on November 11, with Billy Abour! Hutchinson of the PUP by their side, Militant Labour they unveiled their new policy - building a work- the Falls Road. ing class party with sections of the UVF!
Unfortunately for Militant, chirteen year long war neither side has respected non-com. have consistently bombed and shelled civilian targets like places of worship, schools and hospitals. However people congregate there because the Air Force drops leaflets urg. ing them to leave their homes and seck sanctuary in these neutral places. Quite recently on 22nd September, a crowded schoolyard was bombed killing thirty four children and seri ously injuring dozens more. There is no way that chil. dren in their white uniforms could nave been mistaken for LTTE cadre who favour dark green military fatigues. will of a defiant population ers of rival Tamil groups and sence of electricity and basic However regardless of its been forced by the LTTE to Tamil people that it claims to be. Its forces, though now unis half the total population of emment in which the ex-Troe.
to move have remained.
are represented, continue to be Amy pokespence tripade racist and repressive of Sarath Munasinghe seriously when he said, "The operation Army terror While foreign newspapers Bast, they have not reported Thenmarachchi tured and "disappeared" had to abandon its main base hope that the large displaced Navaly killing sixty five and Relief agencies have ap. tand, Algeria and elsewhere. and reactionary ideas, winBecause we see the masses ning ground amongst the opof oppressed moving, we pressed. In getting our need to intervene to win the message across, we must leadership of those masses be tactically flexible, but to a secular and socialist al- more politically aware than Joe Aucellio obviously is.
We need to stop the religlous freaks, who represent Mr Hutchinson did not play by ing themselves and many their script. He announced other working class activists that he had killed Catholics. and helping to legitimise a farhad been a member of the UVF right Loyalist group and the and had no apologies to make death squads behind them. to anyone - to applause from Peter Hadden of Militant the 'socialists" of Militant La. claimed there are 'many roads"
to socialism. Socialists and reWhen asked about his so- publicans will be interested to cialist policies, he said he was know that one route is sectar. in favour of zebra crossings on lan murder!
John McAnulty Blind and deaf to reality.
Irish Committee for a Militant rush towards the Marxist Programme abyss - physically endanger- PO Box 40, Belfast and food provision. There is a long running economic embargo on the North and though food is sent with govemment permission from the south, the quantities are never sufficient and at military checkpoints there are orten long delays due to extortion and hostility of soldiers.
"There is now censorship of the press, so Sinhala people in the south receive information filtered by the military, but little news of armed forces atrocities. Hard statistics are not easily available nor reliable but it does look as if the LTTE have lost at least fourof its cadre (male, female and children) for every govern.
ment soldier. Furthermore the LTTE have under 10,000 troops while the Armed Forces have around 60,000.
many car that we have yel to see the worst of the figheing.
The LTTE has retreated from Jaffna town which the Army ยป nestant to chich, suspecane it is booby-trapped and mined. However the LTTE can open up new fronts against the military in other parts of the peninsula Pyrrhic victory a psychological blow for the LTTE it may prove to be a ananovemen point is there in conquering a LTTE recapture? Neither has hegemonic military and po. litical force in the Tamil comand in the diaspora. Can ka Presiden nounced a radical set of conthe Tamils to secession regions giving Tamils conAside from some details accepts the case for extensive Bernie Hynes Leicester However since it was anhala mainstream opinion parThe LTTE has maintained a cal parties and the Nava Sama The proposals are no SuCC nouncement. According to the goverment they must go before a Parliamentary Select Committee and then before Parliament as a whole and fi.
dum.
The problem is that even the President's own Sri Lanka Freedom Party which cominaies the cosation goyemment doesn't support it, a two-thirds majority in Parliament is required. which the opposition United National Party is unlikely to offer.
Finally it gives the Sinhala people a veto over granting sell-povernment to the mi nority Tamil nation which has been oppressed by the Sni Lankan state for nearly fifty years Worthless At each stage of the way it will be weakened and diluted vinist clements within the majority Sinhala community who have nothing on offer to stop the war. Thus it will be yet another worthless document toll or good snications but failing to meet the expectations of the Tamils.
This suits the LTTE's necas, giving prool that there is no alternative but a under LTTE domination and that no Sinhala politicians can be trusted.
The People's Alliance one was swee inio office in August last year promising to respect media freedoms and to end the bloody war.
Its censorship of military related news has destroyed its free media credentials and its win war and dithering over speedy implementation of its fast eroding its other major promise Illusory The current military offen. sive may win popularity for the govemment in the south but it is only creating disaffection among the Tamils.
It is illusory to believe that the LTTE can be uprooted in this way. Its influence can only wane waen te greyances of the Tamils are redressed and their aspirations have been met. The tragedy of this war is that both sides conclusive defeat of the other.
Our role is not to choose octaeen ine nval aachoas of two parties neither of whom represent the aspirations of the Tamil peopie. It is to articulate and take forward the demands of the trapped people in between. They want an end to the war - and self-govSOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 94, November 25, 1995, Page 11
Which side?