BY MARNIE KENNEDY
SYDNEY, Australia - After a fierce 50-day offensive, the Sri Lankan army captured Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil rebels, December 5.
Located in the northern peninsula, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's second-largest city and has been at the center of a 12-year struggle for an independent state, known as Eelam, in the country's northern and eastern provinces. The city and surrounding areas have been administered by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the last five years. The group has been fighting for independence from Sri Lanka.
The army assault began October 17. Some 2,000 people were killed by Sri Lankan troops fighting to take control of Jaffna.
The government was forced to pull thousands of troops out of eastern provinces to mount "Operation Rivirasa" (Sunshine) and recently announced a one-month recruitment campaign for 10,000 new troops. The Independent reported November 27 that 20 government soldiers, one day out of training, had been ambushed and killed near Batticaloa, in the east.
Four hundred thousand refugees fled the offensive, which involved a reported 40,000 troops, backed by recently purchased tanks and armored personnel carriers. F-7 fighter jets and mobile artillery provided support. The military campaign began in July when 10,000 troops secured the route between the Palaly Air Base in the north of the peninsula with the Karainagar Naval Base in the west. The battle for Jaffna is described in the press as the government's largest ever military action. More than 500 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed.
Following the fall of Jaffna, Tamil rebel leaders stated they will mount new attacks on the occupying forces. Lawrence Thilaker, a Paris-based spokesperson for the Tigers, said many of the refugees won't return to Jaffna. "They have past experience of military control," he told Reuters. "No Tamil with dignity will like to live under a Sinhalese military army. For the people to get back, the army must withdraw."
The refugees are crowded alongside roads and in villages and towns that have no resources to cope with them. In Chavakachcheri, one day's walk from Jaffna, the population has swelled from 40,000 to 150,000. Food and medicine are scarce. Many are living outside and seasonal rains have made appalling conditions worse.
Malaria and viruses are spreading and outbreaks of cholera and other epidemics are feared. There are reports that the Sri Lankan army is blocking relief supplies to stop them being taken by the LTTE. The government has prevented international aid agencies from functioning independently of its control. The Belgian agency Doctors Without Borders has appealed internationally for aid for 500,000 refugees. K. Ponnampalam, the peninsula's civil administrator, was fired by the government November 7 for "exaggerating" the number of refugees.
Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga stated, "We are fighting a war we don't want," and claimed she aims for a negotiated solution rather than a military one. But she rejected the LTTE's call for foreign mediation in the days before the assault on Jaffna.
In Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, harassment of Tamils has increased. More than 1,000 have been jailed since April. In Tamil areas roadblocks have been erected and security personnel have cordoned off sections of the city. Government forces are conducting house searches and imposing penalties for accommodating unregistered visitors. All schools were closed in early November. Two Catholic priests were arrested for smuggling banned goods and money to the Jaffna peninsula. There are also reports of Tamil priests being dragged from Hindu temples and jailed, and of arrests of dozens of Tamils at cinemas.
Tamils make up 12 percent of Sri Lanka's population of 21 million. They have faced institutionalized discrimination and periods of government-sanctioned pogroms and have been at the receiving end of broader attacks on democratic rights.
While Tamils have lived in Sri Lanka for centuries, the British colonial rulers in the last century ensured their division from the majority Sinhalese population. English- speaking Tamils were brought into the British administration in large numbers. Other Tamils were brought in from southern India in the 19th century to work as virtual slaves on British tea plantations, which antagonized the previous landholders - Sinhalese peasants. The British crown fostered these divisions to maintain control of the country.
As part of periodic anti-working-class onslaughts since Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, a succession of governments have perpetuated and exacerbated the oppression of Tamils. Colombo has removed citizenship and voting rights for some Tamils, and made Sinhalese the only official language and Buddhism virtually the state religion. Tamils are mainly Hindu or Muslim.
A previous military campaign to recover Jaffna in 1987 resulted in the Indian army being brought in by the rightist government of President Junius Jayewardene. In the upheavals that followed, government-sponsored death squads slaughtered tens of thousands of Tamils. Some 50,000 people have died in the 12-year conflict.