Fighting
In Eastern Sri Lanka Spreads To The Town Of Muttur
By Wije Dias
04 August 2006
World
Socialist Web
Fighting
is intensifying between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). As the government calculated from the outset,
the army’s provocative attempt to seize the Mavilaru irrigation
sluice gate is leading to a broader war for control of the eastern province
as the LTTE retaliates against the offensive and seeks to block supply
lines.
The army has failed so far
to capture the sluice gate, despite throwing thousands of soldiers into
the operation and repeatedly bombing LTTE positions since July 26. Over
the past two days, a battle has been raging for control of the town
of Muttur, which lies on the road between the major port of Trincomalee
to the north and the Mavilaru sluice gate to the south.
While media reports are limited,
it appears that at least 200 LTTE fighters entered the government-held
town on Wednesday and fought their way to the town centre. While the
military has denied that the LTTE has control of Muttur, its denial
was only issued 36 hours later and the situation remains unclear.
Abdul Rauf told the BBC Tamil
service on Wednesday that hundreds of LTTE cadres could be seen in all
parts of Muttur. He said army troops had retreated to camps located
at the four corners of the town, which were under LTTE siege. Other
eyewitnesses told the press that the LTTE had seized the Muttur jetty,
making it difficult for the military to bring up reinforcements.
The Colombo-based Daily Mirror
quoted the defence ministry as saying that “police posts located
in the central bus depot, telecommunication department and the town
centre were vacated due to Tiger attacks”. In plain language,
the police deserted their posts without putting up any resistance.
In desperation, the military
began to indiscriminately shell the town in a bid to retake control.
As the shelling from the Trincomalee naval base intensified, civilians
in Muttur fled their homes to take refuge in churches, mosques and schools.
Even though these places
were clearly marked as refugee centres, several have been hit. An artillery
shell struck the Arabic College where hundreds of Muslim men, women
and children were sheltering. At least ten were killed and scores were
injured. Mortar fire also hit St. Anthony’s church, killing an
eight-year-old boy. An ambulance ferrying the injured to a nearby hospital
was attacked—two people died on the spot and the driver later
succumbed to his injuries.
J.H. Faris, a public servant
from Muttur, told Reuters: “Most of the houses are damaged. There
is no electricity or water. There are dead cattle in the streets. The
people at the mosque told us to go to the Muslim College to be safe.
We were outside when the shell fell.” His son was wounded in the
attack.
Government and military representatives
have attempted to blame the shelling on the LTTE. However, Sri Lankan
Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem yesterday accused the military
of firing shells on schools and other refugee centres in Muttur, which
has a predominantly Muslim population. Hakeem, who is hostile to the
LTTE, said: “The government must take responsibility for the killing
of civilians... The people were killed in attacks carried out by the
security forces.” He called for an immediate end to the hostilities.
Between 15 and 20 civilians
have died in the clashes in Muttur over the last two days. Military
casualties are unclear. The LTTE claimed yesterday to have killed 40
soldiers and announced it was prepared to hand over the bodies. The
military dismissed the claims, saying it has killed more than 70 rebels
over the past week for the loss of only a few soldiers. Media estimates
put the total number of dead since the government launched its offensive
at more than 150.
Despite the efforts of the
Colombo media, the government and the military to paint as bright a
picture as possible, it is clear that the offensive is not going as
planned. Having failed to immediately take the Mavilaru sluice gate,
the army now confronts concerted LTTE counterattacks on its positions
elsewhere. The shelling of civilians in Muttur is a sharp warning that,
far from backing off, the government intends to press on regardless
of the devastating consequences.
Despite his claims to be
a man of peace, President Mahinda Rajapakse has been pursuing a policy
of war ever since he narrowly won last November’s election with
the backing of the Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)
and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). The army and allied anti-LTTE paramilitaries,
such as the Karuna group, have been engaged in a campaign of provocations
and murders aimed at weakening the LTTE and goading it into retaliating.
For months the JVP, JHU and
other Sinhala extremists have been pressing the government to launch
a military offensive against the LTTE, particularly in the eastern province.
These communalist layers, who are adamantly opposed to any renewal of
peace talks, have insisted that the army take advantage of the weakening
of the LTTE in the east, following the breakaway of the Karuna group
in 2004.
The closing of the Mavilaru
sluice gate simply provided a convenient pretext for the military to
pursue this long-discussed strategy. From the outset, the LTTE insisted
that local farmers had closed the gate to protest their grievances over
the government’s broken promises and that the issue should be
settled through negotiation. Rajapakse rejected any talks and ordered
the military to undertake an urgent “humanitarian” mission
to provide water to thousands of farmers downstream.
In a back flip yesterday,
defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella declared that the door was open
to a negotiated settlement to the Mavilaru crisis. He said the military
would withdraw from the area as long as the LTTE opened the sluice gate
without any conditions attached. “If the Tigers are ready, we
are ready too to start talks immediately,” he declared. “[W]e
do not want to go back to war.”
No one should place any credence
in these cynical comments. More than a week and 150 deaths after Rajapakse
ordered an offensive to retake the sluice gate, the government’s
representative now announces that it does not want war and the matter
can be solved by negotiation. One obvious reason for this abrupt change
of heart is the arrival in Colombo today of Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer
in an effort to end the fighting. Rambukwella’s remarks are a
crude attempt to pin the blame for the current conflict on the LTTE.
As farmers and the rural
poor throughout Sri Lanka know only too well, the Rajapakse government
has not the slightest interest in their well-being. A recent Census
and Statistic Department report found that the average income in the
districts of Matara, Matale, Hambantota, Kurunegala, Badulla and Monragala
is below the official poverty line of about $US21 a month. It is to
divert attention from this deepening social crisis that the government
is stirring up communal tensions and plunging the country back to war.
The attitude of the Rajapakse
government is revealed more clearly in the statements of its Sinhala
chauvinist allies. Addressing a public rally on Wednesday, JVP parliamentary
leader Wimal Weerawansa praised the use of military power to seize the
Mavilaru sluice and denounced comments this week by Norway’s top
facilitator Erik Solheim, who called for an end to offensive operations
and a return to the status quo established by the 2002 ceasefire. Pushing
for all-out war against the LTTE, Weerawansa declared that the ceasefire
agreement was a dead letter and called for the government to formally
withdraw from it.