groundviews » The Abrogation of the CFA

The Abrogation of the CFA

January 25, 2008 at 9:42 am · Categories: Colombo, English, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by raja

R.M.B. Senanayake

Those who justify the abrogation of the CFA point to the numerous violations of the truce by the LTTE. They point out that it was a dead letter. They are right. But the CFA did not prohibit re-arming by either side and while the Government did so openly the LTTE did so covertly.

Those who believe in a military solution argue rightly that Prabakaran will never agree to anything less than Eelaam or a separate state. They hope to defeat the LTTE and re-conquer the territory which they held at the time of the Ceasefire. The government has already re-conquered the East. The Government hopes to dictate a political solution which it thinks will be accepted by the Tamils. The Government hopes to vanquish the LTTE and perhaps kill or capture Prabakaran.

Thos who argue against a military solution say even a military occupation of the north and east will not bring about peace but only drive the LTTE underground to the jungles where they will wage a guerrilla war and also unleash a terror campaign in the south, blowing up economic targets and killing civilians, adversely affecting the economy. These people also point out that in any war even the victor has to sacrifice troops and I am told 15% is about the figure of soldiers that will die or be maimed. These people argue that a political solution which includes the LTTE is the way out to end the conflict. But they realize that Prabakaran will not accept a peace agreement and a political solution short of Eelaam. He doesn’t seem to care about the loss of civilian life that is bound to ensure when waging war in highly populated areas. In the past civilians were not caught up in a war unless the enemy occupied the territory. But with the extension of war to the air and the use of aerial bombing it is now possible to kill civilians without occupying territory. So civilian casualties seem to be inevitable as argued by hawks.

Ranil realized that Prabakaran was not genuine and that a peace agreement (not even a CFA) could not be left to the good faith of Prabakaran. But he could not have involved an International Peace Keeping Force to monitor the ground situation as in Kashmir and Palestine earlier, since the public would not have accepted it. So he wove an international safety net involving the big powers as part of an eventual political solution. He obviously wanted the big powers or the Co-Chairs to underwrite any political solution and peace agreement. India did not join in and this weakened the strategy. Without a political solution and a peace agreement underwritten by the International Community it is very unlikely that the LTTE will honor any agreement. Of course the LTTE can point to violations of Agreements by the GOSL from the B-C Pact onwards. Anyway it is not possible to sustain a peace agreement only on the good faith of the two parties. So these people argue that the conflict will drag on taking the form of a guerilla war and a terror campaign even if the Armed Forces conquer the North and dictate a political solution. The only eventual solution will then be a two state solution and not even that for a permanent state of hostility between the two states could arise.

The abrogation of the CFA will also make the position of Tamil moderates untenable. They will have to accept a political solution which continues majority community hegemony which is desired by hawks like the JVP and JHU. The JVP perhaps wants to destabilize the south. Didn’t they oppose the Indo-Lanka Pact and take to the streets? The Tamils in the South will also face an awkward future. They will have to endure the present status quo. The attitude of the Tamil Diaspora is also likely to harden in favor of the LTTE. The future will show whether the abrogation of the CFA was a case of our burning our boats

832 have read this this article so far. You may also find these articles interesting:

Abrogation of cease-fire, a triumphant moment of a vicious conspiracy We all know that a Cease-fire between the two contending parties by itself is no solution to our national conflict. A cease-fire provides only an opening for a tedious journey that we have to undertake to reach a lasting solution. In other words, it is an intermission in the brutal communication carried out by the... Gamini Viyangoda, January 7, 2008
The subterfuge called All Parties Representatives Committee Deception has two extreme poles at each end of the untruth. One end is witty, subtle, astute and artistic. A magician, for example, perplexes us with pleasant surprise, tickling our innocent perception of truth as something illusive, though the deceptive role involved in the trick is taken for granted by everyone, magician and spectator alike.... Gamini Viyangoda, January 27, 2008

Permalink | Share this article on Facebook

Jos David said,

January 25, 2008 @ 2:48 pm

Can any person who has commented against the LTTE explain as to why the LTTE and Prabakaran are targetted always dragged into criticism? Even Mahinda Rajapakse appears to be waking up every day with a comment to satisfy his inner ego.

Let me list the reasons;

1. LTTE is the only movement that speaks for the liberation of the people of North and East who are oppressed by rebel state established unilaterally in 1972.

2. Prabaharan is the embodiment of the aspiration of Tamils of the North East to obtain their legitimate right to sovereignly rule themselves.

3. Mahinda Rajapakse, JVP, JHU and other Sinhala extremists in the South wrongly think that by killing Prabakaran, the freedom movement would also be killed. They like to make the Sinhalese also believe in this falsehood. They are really day dreaming.

If the reasons stated above are not the reasons for angry criticism but genuine human rights violations, why are the same commentators silent about the murder, bombing and killing, displacements, torture, arbitarary arrests and disappearances carried out plentifully by the soldiers in the North East?

JustMal said,

January 25, 2008 @ 5:59 pm

1. If the independent Sri Lankan state established in 1972 is a rebel state, then those loyal to the British Queen must then leave Sri Lanka. We are willing and able to facilitate their journey. Perhaps you should contact Keith Vaz, MP of the All Party Committee for Tamils.

2. The Tamils’ “right to sovereignty” in the Northeast is not legitimate. Tamils are essentially a minority in the East, which was a part of the Kandyan kingdom until European invasions. The North could certainly be given away to the Tamils, provided all Tamils in the South are relocated to their new homeland. We are willing and able to facilitate this. A separate exclusive Tamil homeland in the Northeast, and the rest of the country being multi-ethnic is not a desirable prospect for us, however legitimate you may think it is.

3. What we believe is that the Tamil militant movements did not arise out of real discrimination, but were created by India and Tamil Nadu in order to destabilise our country. Prabhakaran’s death also means LTTE’s death. We are willing able able to negotiate with the remaining ragtags as we did with Karuna.

Murder, bombing and killing, displacements, torture, arbitrary arrests and disappearances are not the cause of the war, but our response to it. Once the war is over, so will be all these. Post 89 normalisation of the South is the perfect example.

nihal pathirana said,

January 25, 2008 @ 7:13 pm

I totally disagree with Jos davids comments that Prabhakaran speaks of soverenignty of the Tamils of the North and East, he is more interested of all Tamils living in other countries in the world who does not have a country including the Tamils of TamilNadu. His annual heros day adress shows how he laments with the Tamil diaspora for help mostly in dollers to build a empire for the Tamils in foreign countries. He is not sorry to see his poor people in refuge camps
why he didnot accept the Indo lanka accord in 1987 signed by Rajive Ghandhi where all the other groups accepted including EPRLF ENDLF TELO Etc. Who was Anton Balasinghem was he not agent planted to look after the interests of the west
Living in utopia of a seperate state for Tamils is a distant dream,well Tamils live abroad as refugees would not like to see this war ends thinking that they would have to go back to Srilanka and continue with misinformations and misconceptions and play this old music with Keith Vaz who is only interested in their votes.

ealem boy said,

January 25, 2008 @ 7:57 pm

The CFA violations by LTTE were the reaction for the GOSL`s (DPU) targeted killings of the senior members like Nizam and Sankar. Prabaharan knows what Tamils have been going through since the independence and there is not one single party in the south that has the courage or guts to come up with an acceptable solution for Tamils. The one thing GOSL mastered is putting up a good show for International community by saying things they love to hear. YOU CAN FOOL SOME BODY SOME TIMES BUT YOU CAN`T FOOL EVERY BODY ALL THE TIME.
Justmal, LTTE was the response for the Sinhalese cleansing of Tamils in Ceylon. Come out of it justmal, who are you going to blame for atrocities committed to Tamils since independence to 1983, that’s when Tamils gave a response to you`s in the form of LTTE.

Eye of the Tiger said,

January 26, 2008 @ 5:22 pm

QUOTE “They hope to defeat the LTTE and re-conquer the territory which they held at the time of the Ceasefire. The government has already re-conquered the East.”

This is an error. This is suggesting that the LTTE captured new territory during the ceasefire. The SLMM have not mentioned any violations of LTTE capturing new territory. In fact on the contrary the Sri Lankan army has captured large swathes of the East from the LTTE which is a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The fact that the LTTE were prepared to play the waiting game and get the irate Sri Lankan government to loose patience and unilaterally trash the ceasefire agreement says much of LTTEs political maturity. Remember the LTTE have not yet captured new territory. They have only mounted defensive operations. The blame game of post April 1995 talks can’t be repeated against the now.

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI