The Hindu : PA supporters take out protest march in Colombo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002

International

International

PA supporters take out protest march in Colombo

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Aug. 12. Thousands of supporters of Sri Lanka's main Opposition, People's Alliance (PA), took to the streets here this evening protesting what they termed "the anti-people'' policies of the Government led by the United National Party (UNP).

The procession comes as the first major effort by the Opposition to rally public support against the UNP Government.

But the organisers emphasised that the rally was to highlight economic issues only and avoided reference to the ethnic crisis. It was held to mark a similar rally in 1953, over the increase in price of rice, which subsequently led to the fall of the then UNP Government.

However, there has been a significant departure from political mass mobilisation efforts over the past decades. While previous attempts at conflict resolution led to mass protests against the efforts of the governments of the day, that tendency has waned over the past few years.

The reasons for such a change in the political attitude are not too far to seek. Amal Jayawardana, Head of the Department of History and International Relations, University of Colombo, said that unlike the past "there is a basic recognition'' that "war is not a solution'' to the ethnic crisis. As the public perception "has changed, any mass mobilisation campaign is likely to be on the details — for instance, interim administration, human rights — rather than the broad issues.''

LTTE sea travel

Marking a new development on the operational aspects of the current ceasefire between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government, an agreement has been reached between the two parties on the sea transport of the LTTE cadres going on leave.

The Peace Secretariat said in a statement today that according to the agreement, the LTTE would inform the Sri Lankan Navy through the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) details of the travel 48 hours in advance.

The Tigers and the Government have also agreed that the SLMM "will inspect and verify all LTTE vessels used to transport cadres going on leave'' and "at least one member of the SLMM will be on board every LTTE vessel'', which ``will be required to fly SLMM flags.''

Today's agreement assumes importance given the vulnerability of the peace efforts to ceasefire violations on the seas.

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