groundviews » Cutting off telecoms in Sri Lanka redux…

Cutting off telecoms in Sri Lanka redux…

January 30, 2007 at 5:06 pm · Categories: English, Human Rights, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict | by foobar

This from the FMM today:

Internet facilities and 8,000 telephones cut off in Jaffna Peninsula

The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply disturbed to learn that basic communications facilities to the Jaffna Peninsula have been blocked from 28th January 2007. Internet facilities and around 8,000 landline telephones of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) are dysfunctional to date. SLT, jointly owned by the Sri Lankan Government and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan, is the sole Internet provider in Jaffna Peninsula with a population of around 600,000 according to official statistics.

The FMM was told that there is no official decision by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority to block communications in this manner in the Peninsula.

However, a number of citizens in Jaffna and journalists confirm that there is no Internet access in Jaffna for the past 3 three days, when contacted through mobile phones.

SLT Jaffna office told FMM that for security reasons SLT link to Jaffna has been disconnected form Anuradhapura, a north central city.

Read the full statement here.

In Seeing mobile phones as a basic human right I noted that disconnecting & reconnecting basic telephony & communications to entire populations in the North & East is perhaps not the best way to win over the hearts and minds of those we seek to “liberate”.

Even from a military perspective, as this post notes, barring communications from conflict zones can actually be counterproductive.

Either way, 600,000 people today in Jaffna are denied the right to communicate with their fellow citizens and the rest of the world.

1,112 have read this this article so far. You may also find these articles interesting:

Mobile Phones Connections Cut In Jaffna Mobile phones are of no use now in Jaffna. The purpose of using mobile phones is to pass on any urgent message, but mobile phone connections are being cut often in Jaffna. Generally for more than half the day, connections are out. More than one lakh mobile phone users are there in Jaffna. addthis_url ... jafrep, May 10, 2007
Seeing mobile phones as a basic human right Communication rights remain for most of the worldâs people a vision and an aspiration. They are not a reality on the ground. On the contrary, they are frequently and systematically violated. Governments must be constantly reminded that they are legally required under the human rights treaties they have ratified to implement, promote and protect communication... Sanjana, January 18, 2007

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JustMal said,

January 31, 2007 @ 7:27 am

So they could be contacted through mobile phones. Wasn’t foobar saying last week that they were all cut off as well. Could the reason be that there isn’t anyone there to maintain the lines and other infrastructure? No SLT employee would want to risk his life working among terrorists. This might be the reason for the SLT link being disconnected. There are many satellite phones in the Jaffna peninsular. Even if all mobiles and fixed lines were disconnected (they are not anyway), those wouldn’t be affected.

The people in the North are faced with an important choice here. They could either support terrorists who want to build a seperate Tamil state for them, and by doing so they would subject themselves to starvation, bombardment, displacement, arbitrary arrests, curfews, forced conscription, lack of communication and all other rights and privileges civilised people take for granted. That’s the cost of their choice. If they want something different, they need to cooperate with the rest of the people in their country who have the power to allow or deny all these things to them and their children. If they stop supporting terrorism/cessation and demanding special rights, the situation would surely change. They had a glimpse of what they could achieve during the ceasefire between 2001 and 2003, and they’ve lost it all by insolently continuing to support the LTTE’s war of terror against the people of Sri Lanka. If they do not understand the carrot, we must use the stick and that’s producing results.

foobar said,

January 31, 2007 @ 8:05 am

JM,

It is quite evident that you haven’t read & comprehended the original post and the link to the full FMM statement. Note that the SLT itself admits that for security reasons the SLT telecomes link to Jaffna has been disconnected form Anuradhapura. It has nothing to do with maintenance of lines and infrastructure, and nothing to do with the lives of SLT employees risking their lives in Jaffna.

“There are many satellite phones in the Jaffna peninsular. Even if all mobiles and fixed lines were disconnected (they are not anyway), those wouldnât be affected.”

An astute observation, but how many of those are in the hands of citizens?

You have also missed the link to the article referred to in the post - with your constitution, I am sure you would revel in the news that mobile phones and telecoms, far from being a hindrance, is in fact a boon for those who seek to eradicate terrorists / terrorism (Banning Cellphones in Conflict Zones Counterproductive)

As Des states in a comment to my earlier post, “in a situation where rights of people come second to perceived security issues, blanket cuts are considered okay. I hope those who are making these decisions keep in mind that it erodes the publicâs faith in government, and in the case of the North and East, reinforces feelings of discrimination by a majority Sinhala government.”

sittingnut said,

January 31, 2007 @ 8:28 am

this is the second time ( about 12 hours first) i am posting this to see if any challenge to this false claim by fmm and unjustified conclusion by poster will be censored by groundview
-

this post is extremely unclear
what exactly is meant by blocking internet access in the statement ?
are you saying that all slt land telephones do not work in jaffna? ( given that adsl was not redeployed there anyway,) if telephones worked dial up connections should work. ( btw if there is a dial tone any dilaup isp can be connected not just slt , it is a lie to claim slt is the only isp in jaffna) or is this only referring to special leased lines etc.?
if all land telephones don’t work why does this concentrates only on internet access? why i wonder are they not saying that no telephone call can be taken is it bc telephones are in fact working?

as for mobiles, the statement itself says “a number of citizens in Jaffna and journalists” were “contacted through mobile phones”.

given the facts in the post itself, one can hardly come to the conclusion that “600,000 people today in Jaffna are denied the right to communicate with their fellow citizens and the rest of the world”. unfounded exaggerations do not result in credibility.

-
lets see whether this will be censored again

JustMal said,

January 31, 2007 @ 8:46 am

That still doesn’t explain how you were able to contact them on their mobiles if they are disconnected as well.

SLT says it’s a “security” issue and I’m sure that includes the security of personnel and infrastructure. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s related to national security or anything like that. Why hasn’t FMM asked the MoD/MCNS for further clarification if they think the military is involved. There is nothing in that statement to blame the government for this. Perhaps SLT decided to halt its operations instead of having to pay the routine commissions/protection premiums demanded by LTTE for doing business in the North. Security is such a vague term.

groundviews said,

January 31, 2007 @ 8:49 am

Dear Sittingnut,

Your claims of censorship are unwarranted and baseless. Comments here are moderated and as noted here http://www.groundviews.org/submission-guidelines, will take some time to appear on the website.

sittingnut said,

January 31, 2007 @ 8:53 am

falseness of this fmm statement can be proved by a simple experiment .
i called several ppl in jaffna i know who have slt telephones and all of them worked. they were not aware that there was any such block. anyone can do this check. pick a jaffna number and call, ask them to call back. if you do not know anyone call a commercial establishment . use the directory, see for yourself the falseness of this fmm statement.
in addition slt in the form of official inquiries line deny that there is any such block and they too point out that jaffna lines are working. it would be interesting to know who at ‘anuradhpura’ confirmed this lie.
pity that poster didi not think to check the facts
-
dear admin
why was my first comment which was posted on 30th ( basically the same as one appearing above) censored ? how exactly did it violate guidelines

groundviews said,

January 31, 2007 @ 10:01 am

Dear Sittingnut,

If you read carefully my comment earlier, you will come across the words “Comments…take some time to appear on the website”.

This means that a comment, once posted by you, may take a while to appear, depending on how often the moderator checks the comment queue.

The point you make regarding the phones now working is interesting - thanks for bringing it to our attention. I am sure the FMM will take note of your discovery and hopefully revert in this forum.

sittingnut said,

January 31, 2007 @ 10:17 am

dear admin
you have not read my comment.
comment queue? exactly my point. as i said my comment was posted on 30th before first two comments here (as well as several in other threads). those two comments were published but mine did not appear. how did they jump the queue?

groundviews said,

January 31, 2007 @ 12:35 pm

Dear Sittingnut,

They jumped the queue because it is not stated anywhere on this blog that comments appear in the order in which they are posted / submitted. The reason we used your last comments (out of the 3 similar ones we received) was that your impatience to see them online was a clear indication of your inability to comprehend the Guidelines to which we have referred to earlier, which states that:

“If your comment or article does not appear immediately, there is no need to submit it again.”

We also note that you have engaged the FMM on the Lirneasia blog - we can only echo Prof. Samarajiva’s observation (http://www.lirneasia.net/2007/01/internet-out-in-jaffna-according-to-free-media-movement/#comment-19945) that the noise you have generated in response to the FMM statement both here and on Lirneasia’s blog is largely based on a misreading of it.

We at Groundviews strongly encourage you to read the statement again, slowly and carefully, in the hope you can & will comprehend it, failing which we recommend that you get in touch with FMM directly for any further clarifications.

Finally, your comments (and indeed, those of any other visitor to this website) may be deleted at the sole discretion of Groundviews in keeping with what is stated here in the Guidelines:

“We are reluctant to impose specific limits on the number of posts by any one contributor, but we ask you to exercise restraint. Discussions dominated by the frequency or verbosity of individual contributors become less interesting and useful for the rest of us.”

sunanda deshapriya of FMM said,

January 31, 2007 @ 1:36 pm

FMM stand by its statment, until now ( 1.30 pm 31st january 2007)no dialup or leaseline internet access is possible in Jaffna. Thinakkural and Sudaroly two Colombo based news paers which has sisiter papers published in Jaffna have not been e mail thier laidout copies or edited news stories to Jaffna by E mail, from Sunday the 28 January. No journalist have been able to send receive any e mail till now. All inernet cafes in Jaffna are closed even this aftrnoon .

FMM talked to TRC as well as Jaffna SlT other than media community to findout the real situation ans reasons, we were told by Jaffna SLT( unoffcially) that for security reasons internet is bolcked and around 8000 SLT land lines cut off.

ATM s of banks HNB, NSB. PB are not wokring, because they are connected thru SLT. Commercial Bank has a Suntel line and it was working this morning.

SLT lines starting with 222 2XXX & 222 3 XXX are working but 222 4XXX/222 5XXX/222 6XXX222 7/222 9XXX are not working. SLT jaffna told FMM by this morning lines to news papers and banks may be restored. But till this time it has not happened.

FMM is in touch with media community and prominet citzens of Jaffna and out statement was based on information provided by them and our own investigation.

Jafrep said,

January 31, 2007 @ 2:17 pm

As a reporter in Jaffna, what I can say is that about 8000 SLT phones were not working and now that number has reduced to about 5000 according to a telecom official there. He did not give a reason why the connections are down.

Des said,

January 31, 2007 @ 2:20 pm

I think the FMM’s assumption that the lines were blocked is what needs to be checked as this could be due to technical reasons. The FMM has not given a source for why they believe the lines were blocked. No doubt it has happened due to security reasons quite often recently, but in this case, with mobile phones running, maybe we can’t just assume that they were blocked.

JustMal said,

February 1, 2007 @ 7:01 am

Surely this means that only a small fraction of the telephones in Jaffna are not working. FMM’s statement implies that all the telephones (aren’t there hundreds of thousands of them) were cut off and insinuates a direct military hand. Now it’s clear that the military had nothing to do with it, and only a small number of phones were cut off. That may well be due to unpaid bills, vandalism or abuse by residents, technical issues that could not be fixed because the security of SLT employees could not be guaranteed or some other reason.

What I find amazing is how FMM could publish such a blatantly exaggerated statement, blame our military for everything, and get away with its credibility intact.

Ashe said,

February 1, 2007 @ 10:01 am

I wonder if you know how many people have read this link since being posted, since it seems to me that although the issue is very relevant and critical, not many people will get to read this link. You must advertise on some frequently visited Sri Lankan website

Des said,

February 1, 2007 @ 10:05 am

From what I know Justmal there are just 9,000 land lines to Jaffna. If anyone has the exact figure, do mention it here.

I was concerned about the word “blocked” in the FMM statement because it can convey judgement, and while understandable, in the context of concerns over Jaffna human rights, may nevertheless have triggered some readers.

A fairly new field NVC is exploring the language of communication. Those who are interested can check out http://www.cnvc.org, though the website itself won’t shed much light on it.

foobar said,

February 1, 2007 @ 10:43 am

Under the so called “Project Hope” SLT created around 4,000 - 5,300 (figures differ) new connections to the Peninsula (Jaffna and Point Pedro). Don’t know how lines were added afterwards, though I suspect that with the breakdown of the peace talk / peace process, infrastructure investment in the peninsula also gradually declined.

As for Non Violent Communication (NVC) I think it’s a useful area of research and practice - thanks for the link. The organisation you’ve mentioned seems to have trainers on the ground in Sri Lanka - http://www.cnvc.org/people.aspx?continent=2&country=26.

groundviews said,

February 2, 2007 @ 8:56 am

Telephone link to Vanni, most of peninsula, cut off

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2007, 20:36 GMT]

Telephone lines to Vanni and most of Jaffna have remained cut for more than four days since Saturday 10:55 p.m. Financial transactions in many branches of the banks have been paralyzed, fundamental services such as hospital ambulances, civil services and media, dependent on telephone communication have been severely affected. Vanni, without celluar link, remains completely cut off for communication. A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers who visited Vavuniya Telecom Saturday evening had instructed the technicians to accompany them towards the communication exchange at Madukanda, 4 km southeast of Vavuniya town, and shut down the telephone link to Vanni.

All the numbers with the +9421228 format (Kilinochchi lines) and in the range between +942122240000 and +94212229000 (Jaffna and Vanni), were not working.

Sri Lankan military establishment has earlier cut off telephone links during military operations.

Since Saturday, only a section of telephone numbers, numbering around 1500 of around 8000 lines, were working in Jaffna.

Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for the banks were unable to be operated resulting in long line of people standing at the banks to attend to their needs.

Overall, banking activities in the North have been crippled by the present crisis.

The main telephone tower base functioning at Pannai, within the Jaffna municipal council was responsible for communication services in Valigamam area.

Though the service is available to certain extent in Valikamam, it is only the phone lines beginning with the digits 2 and 3 that are operational while all other phone lines in the area have been dead for over three days.

With the only land route to the peninsula being severed for the past many months, telephone was the only means of communication within Jaffna as well with the rest of the country and international community. The current disruption of services has sparked a severe crisis throughout the peninsula.

A similar situation arose in August 11 after clashes erupted between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and the Liberation Tigers in Kilali-Nagerkovil Forward Defense Lines(FDL) running through Muhamalai.

More than 40,000 people who had mobile telephones in the Peninsula lost the facilities when the Sri Lankan Military cut-off the services without prior notice on 11 August.

The cellular service returned to Jaffna, a month ago, on 24 December.

Internet was not accessible at browsing centres.

Although a source at the SLT gave an official explanation that the reason for failure was a technical failure, no reason was provided for the delay or inability to fix the problem.

The new Japanese CEO of the SLT, Shoji Takahashi, addressing the audience at South Asia’s Network Operator’s Conference (SANOG), last week, had claimed that the domestic core network of SLT consisted IP based Multi Protocol Label Switching (IP-MPLS) which made it easy to manage a network for Quality of Service. He added that the SLT was no longer a traditional telecom company, but a solution provider.

groundviews said,

February 4, 2007 @ 8:19 am

The Sunday Times
Sunday, February 04, 2007

Jaffna cut off, but who is responsible?

By Nadia Fazlulhaq

More than 8000 Sri Lanka Telecom internet and telephone lines in the Jaffna peninsula have gone dead from January 28 while the authorities disclaim responsibility for the stoppage.

An officer of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) media unit said the main duty of the TRC was linked to policy implementation and looking into consumer complaints regarding any transmission problems.

âSri Lanka Telecom is a licensed telecommunication company under the TRC, so if there are any customer complaints we will definitely inquire from the parties responsible and urge them to continue investigationsâ he said.

Surprisingly, the TRC consumer complaints division has not yet received even a single complaint on the matter. According to a senior officer of Sri Lanka Telecom Jaffna branch, the switching off has been a defence decision.

âThere are two telecommunication links to Jaffna - one from Anuradhapura via Kilinochchi and the other from Anuradhapura via Mannar. We have a huge number of data and landlines linked to the first one and the security forces have decided to block the link through Kilinochchi,â he said.

He said the switching off had been done from the base in Anuradhapura and the SLT is hoping to discuss this issue with the officials to restore the communication facilities.

Media Centre for National Security spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the interruption was not a defence decision and SLT has been requested to resolve the matter soon.

âThis blockage of telephone lines is definitely a transmission shortcoming and has no connection with any defence decision. SLT should look into it immediatelyâ he said.

However a large number of telephone and internet users in Jaffna are inconvenienced by the stoppage.

sittingnut said,

February 4, 2007 @ 9:50 pm

admin did well to post the the sunday times report regarding this on 4th ( today), seven days after the alleged blocking.

however only confirmation the reporter is able to offer is one from unofficial “senior officer of Sri Lanka Telecom Jaffna branch”. however slt still deny any such blocking as anybody can still confirm by calling them.

sunday times also say “Surprisingly, the TRC consumer complaints division has not yet received even a single complaint on the matter. ”
this is not surprising if the lines were/are in fact working. as anybody can check by dialing the numbers.

jafrep said,

February 7, 2007 @ 8:10 pm

Jaffna telephone lines are now back to normal from yesterday. Internet connection also now back to normal.

“The Truth Can Be Adjusted” - Communications and media censorship in Sri Lanka « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) said,

February 5, 2008 @ 12:33 am

[...] In February 2007, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) severely restricted communications to the embattled Jaffna Peninsula and mobile communications were frequently cut off in the Eastern Province. Hans Wijesuriya failed to give me a straight answer to an explicit question I posed to him last year as to why Dialog Telekom (with no written instruction) supinely complied to the Government’s diktat’s to curtail communications. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Director General, Kanchana Ratwatte, as reported here, thinks it is âroutineâ to shut off communications during major military offensives, with absolutely no emphasis on or interest in the full and quick restoration of services.AccessÂ to Tamilnet continues to be blocked by all major ISPs in Sri Lanka and can only be accessed by way of proxies. [...]

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