Jaffna yearns for elusive peace

By Nirupama Subramanian

JAFFNA, NOV. 28. More than a year has passed since the big guns stopped booming outside the capital of Sri Lanka's northern peninsula. Barring sporadic incidents of violence, there has been a lull in fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers after September 2000, and it shows.

The people seem more relaxed than before, the shops are bustling with commerce, the streets are full, and even the number of army checkpoints has been reduced. But everyone is only too aware that this is a fragile peace that can be shattered by the military ambitions of either of the two warring sides.

``We have had more than our share of suffering. I pray that there should be a permanent end to this war. I pray for peace,'' said Ms. Thavanandini Paramanandan, an early morning worshipper at the Nallur Kandasamy Temple.

After nearly 20 years of armed conflict, the cry for peace is louder than ever before. Ms. Paramanandan considers herself fortunate that she and her parents could return to their home in Tirunelveli after less than a year of forced displacement in 1995.

But thousands of others are much worse off. The UNHCR estimates that there are 130,000 displaced people in the peninsula, most of them living in refugee camps, some of them for as long as a decade. Even now, five years after the Government took control of the peninsula from the LTTE, the scars of war are everywhere. Essential commodities are in short supply and prices remain high. Most aspects of civilian life are regulated by the armed forces.

``The people of Jaffna are very resilient but the bottomline is they just want to go back to normal life,'' said Ms. Morgan Morris, Chief Field Officer of the UNHCR in the peninsula.

Many believe the answer to their prayers lies in negotiations with the LTTE. With less than two weeks to go for the December 5 parliamentary election, politicians promising to force the next government to hold talks with the LTTE hold a powerful appeal.

``We are getting a very good response from the people to our campaign,'' said Mr. V. Anandasangaree, a candidate of the Tamil National Alliance(TNA), a four-party coalition whose main demands are that the Government must stop the war against the LTTE, declare a ceasefire, lift the ban on the group and immediately commence peace talks with it.

The TNA, which comprises the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and a ginger group of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), are confident that together, they will sweep the peninsula in this election.

In the 2000 parliamentary election, the four parties contested separately. The TULF won three and the ACTC just one out of the nine parliamentary seats in the peninsula. The UNP got one, while the TNA's main rival, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), won four.

While the TNA is riding high on the confidence of its pro-LTTE platform, the EPDP, which is part of the People's Alliance Government, seems to have equal appeal.

As the Minister for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North, a portfolio that carries a multi-million dollar budget, the EPDP leader, Mr. Douglas Devananda, started several development projects in the peninsula. He has given out thousands of jobs, financial grants and loans.

``There are many people in Jaffna today whose jobs and the welfare of whose families are dependent on the EPDP,'' said Rev. S.P. Nesakumar, a leading cleric of the Anglican Church of Ceylon in the peninsula. Mr. Devananda is the first Cabinet Minister from the peninsula. Not only that, he actually functions out of here.

``It's a new experience for Jaffna people, to see a senior government functionary living among them,'' Rev. Nesakumar said.

Like the Ceylon Workers Congress that represents the Indian Tamil tea workers in central Sri Lanka, the EPDP has declared it will back any party, PA or UNP, that forms the government, as that was the only way to bring state benefits to the peninsula.

The TNA, on the other hand, has said it will remain in the Opposition, which means state patronage might dry up. There are also real fears that a strong TNA might force the next government to hand the Jaffna peninsula back to the LTTE. Most people do not want that to happen as it will mean reprisals for many and raises the prospect of renewed fighting.

The avowedly anti-LTTE EPDP has said it is also for peace talks with the LTTE but has it own formulation for a political settlement: a merged north-east Tamil homeland that will form an independent administrative unit within a united Sri Lanka. ``We are giving equal weight to the two most important issues facing the Tamils - a political solution to the ethnic crisis and the promise to meet their day-to-day needs,'' said Mr. S. Thavarajah, a party candidate.

There are six lakh registered voters in the peninsula, but less than half that number reside here. The voter turn-out in the 2000 election was 132,000. There have been no serious incidents of election- related violence in the peninsula as yet though the weapons carried by various political parties have been cause for concern.

``It is 100 per cent safe,'' remarked the district's top civilian administrator, Mr. K. Shanmughnathan, predicting a higher voter turn-out in this election. The people of Jaffna can only hope that it will be safe not just for the elections, but all the time.

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