Lanka Citizen

By Gihan de Chickera

On the day before the Presidential Elections a horrific incident took place in Jaffna which failed to make news in the rest of the country, where last minute preparations were being made for the following day’s elections. On Wednesday November 16, a youth accused of being a thief was brutally tortured and beaten to death in public at Jaffna Hindu College. His body was displayed in public, and a sign over it read – “This is the robber. He has been caught and has faced the justice of the People”.

Citizens of Jaffna who gathered around the battered body of the victim - 20 year old Mekansi Dinesh - knew exactly who the so called ‘people’ mentioned in the sign were. They also knew who was responsible for carrying out this brutal form of ‘justice’. Dinesh, a petty thief, had been brutally killed by none other than the LTTE. The people of Jaffna knew even better to keep quiet about the incident- lest they face the wrath of the Tiger.

The funeral procession and final rites of Dinesh took place along the empty streets of Jaffna the following day while the rest of the country was busy going to the polls to vote in the next Executive President.

Jaffna town, which had grown into a bustling Northern hub after the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE three and a half years ago, on Election Day, was a virtual ghost town. No one was around - traders had pulled up their shutters. The Jaffna-Karainagar bus was stoned, and the driver badly injured. After the incident, public transport came to a complete standstill and the bus depot was deserted. People stayed indoors preferring to enjoy a series of Tamil movies on TV rather than defy the LTTE by venturing out to vote.

The killing of Dinesh clearly demonstrates the power wielded by the LTTE in the Peninsula and also exposes the terror methods adopted by the outfit to operate in Jaffna. The LTTE was free to brutally kill a man, place his body out in public and proclaim that what had taken place was a form of ‘people’s justice’. The obvious message projected through this was that laws of the South are unimportant to the people of the North. The people of the North have their own way of dealing with criminals, and the police, judiciary or government can do nothing to stop it. However it was the LTTE and not the people of Jaffna who killed Dinesh. Dinesh was killed in the goriest possible manner by the Tigers to send a message out to both the government and the people of Jaffna that they are the undisputed rulers of the North.

Such dastardly crimes continue to be committed by the LTTE with impunity primarily due to the aggressive extremist political activities of the organisation which has enabled them to make massive inroads into the social fabric of Jaffna. The CFA allowed the LTTE to engage in political activism outside their areas of control and the present situation in Jaffna proves they have exploited this situation to the maximum - with observable dangerous results. As a result the Tigers now command de facto control in the Peninsula – although according to the CFA, only the southern tip of the Peninsula below Muhamallai and Pallai is under LTTE control.

If until now anyone had doubts as to how effective this political network of the LTTE was, then the recent boycott of the presidential election should put all such uncertainties to rest. The highly sophisticated and sinister strategy of the LTTE to garner political power in the North received its first public showing through the election boycott. Without making a single ‘official’ statement calling for the boycott the LTTE successfully kept hundreds of thousands of people indoors and neither the government nor the armed forces could do anything to stop them.

So what is taking place right now is that officially the LTTE says one thing, while their several front organisations give a different message (or threat) to the people. Furthermore, an illusion is created that the demands made by these LTTE front organisations actually reflect the true thinking of the Tamil people. There is no way of showing concrete evidence that these organisations are linked to the LTTE, although everyone in the North knows this for a fact.

The LTTE has made inroads into several social organisations in the North such as the Federation of Fishermen’s Association, the three-wheeler drivers’ association, the University Students’ Union, the traders in the market place etc.

“It’s very simple. There were anyway several community based organisations in Jaffna even before the ceasefire. Now if a person wants to be the president of such an organisation they must be LTTE supporters if they want to be able to work. So the LTTE controls the leaders of these groups and in this manner controls the organisations,” said one man in Jaffna. The media in the North is also totally controlled by the LTTE. Apart from the traditional civil organisations, the LTTE also operates through separate front bodies such as the ‘Peoples Army’ and the ‘Organisation for protecting culture’. Some estimates indicate that a total of 57 such community based organisations run by the LTTE exist in Jaffna alone. The danger is the people know that if they defy these LTTE proxy organisations they would be harmed or even killed.

Most of these LTTE front organisations in the run up to the elections issued statements through the press and through the distribution of leaflets calling for the people of Jaffna to boycott the elections. The overriding message in these campaigns was that the Election was an affair for the South, and the Tamil people should show no interest in it because they have their own leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran in the North. Therefore not only were people told that they have a duty to refrain from voting for a leader of the South – but they were also told that casting such a vote would be a vote against Prabhakaran.

In addition to the poster and leaflet campaign carried out against the election, a group of LTTE backed University Students burnt effigies of the two candidates Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapakse on the day before the polls – projecting a message that they opposed both Sinhala leaders.

Election Day was termed a ‘day of mourning’ by the LTTE front organisations and people were told to remain indoors. On the day before the elections the Peoples Army issued a severe statement warning that polling agents would be shot and killed if they engaged in their duties. This was a direct threat at the EPDP, and as a result EPDP polling agents refrained from going to polling booths for fear of being killed. Only a very few people voted – among them were the supporters of the EPDP who in the Kayts island voted under army protection- which is also a violation of election laws. But then again they had no choice. There were also reports of elderly people being slapped in the face by young LTTE supporters for casting their votes.

Also on the day before the elections, LTTE political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan made a statement saying that the election was only for the Sinhalese to decide on their leader. Head of the LTTE peace secretariat Pulidevan made a separate statement saying they were not concerned with the elections. On Election Day three grenades were lobbed on to the polling booths in Chavakachcheri, Chundikuli and near the Nallur kovil. Of these only the grenade in Chavakachcheri exploded. However the message to refrain from voting was being made crystal clear to the people of Jaffna.

Ultimately just 8524 people from a total 701,938 registered voters cast their ballot in Jaffna, amounting to just 1.5 percent. Even this pathetic figure surprised people and election observers who initially estimated no more than 2000 votes coming from the peninsula – due to the tense situation that prevailed.

Even though the LTTE made people feel that both Sinhala candidates were their enemies, this sentiment was not held by the Jaffna people when the Presidential election was first announced. At the time, it was clear that most people in Jaffna were ready to support Ranil Wickremesinghe. “We wanted to vote for Ranil. We thought even the LTTE will want him because he was willing to give a federal solution to solve the conflict,” said one Jaffna resident. In reality this feeling never died, as was evident from the few votes that were cast in Jaffna of which over 75 percent went to Ranil Wickremesinghe. The LTTE however had a different agenda to that of finding a permanent peace and as a result preferred having a President who could not offer them a concrete solution. Prabhakaran knew this would serve to further strengthen the LTTE politically.

The criticism levelled at Wickremesinghe by the LTTE in order to validate their stance on the UNP candidate was irrational, to say the least. The organisation blamed Wickremesinghe for dragging the peace talks and not discussing the core problems faced by them. The chilling fact is that such opinion of Wickremesinghe was echoed by the people in Jaffna in unison – and it is clear the people were parroting this out due to the fear of challenging the views of the LTTE. The fishermen’s Federation which is a wing of the LTTE also complained that their situation had not improved despite the ceasefire.

And so an overall sinister atmosphere prevails in Jaffna. The feeling that the LTTE has eyes and ears everywhere runs strong. People are afraid to disapprove of the LTTE for it is never clear if the person you are speaking to is a supporter of the LTTE or not. People are constantly looking over their shoulders. The EPDP, police and armed forces are largely confined in their movements, and no one ventures out after eight o’clock in the night.

How deeply the people of Jaffna fear the LTTE can be proven from an event in recent history. In 1997 The LTTE openly opposed the local government elections being held in the North and East as they saw it as one of the government’s publicity stunts. They ordered people not to vote and even shelled the Jaffna peninsula on the morning of elections. However despite such violent overt opposition by the LTTE, 50% of voters in Jaffna went to the polls on that occasion.

The people on that occasion were not afraid of being identified and picked on, when they went to cast their vote. The difference now is that the LTTE is seemingly all over the place – and people don’t know when they are being watched and even how severely they would be dealt with if they dare to resist the LTTE. This is the power the LTTE wields right now. It is a power derived from gun point. What the future holds for the country in such a context is forbidding – particularly for the people of Jaffna who above all crave to live in peace and freedom.

courtesy Daily Mirro