KAMALIKA PIERIS

REVISED 15.8.21

Scratch below the surface of any civil war and there is usually a foreign sponsor to be found, said analysts.   Almost all civil wars have an external dimension. It is necessary to be alert to such interventions.

These interventions hide under the   term ‘Terrorism”. Terrorism is the perfect tool to exert pressure upon government. It provides the perfect cover up for hidden agendas, said analysts. Terrorists are armed and supported by foreign countries. Nothing is done against the terrorists but international humanitarian laws are used against sovereign states that challenge these terrorists.

 The Eelam wars of Sri Lanka clearly fall into this category. The Eelam war was not a local war, if so it would have only lasted a couple of years.  Eelam wars were initiated by a liberation movement” that was powerful enough to take on the elected government, said analysts.  The LTTE possessed powerful weapons and good combat training. They had enough funds. How did they acquire all this? It is obvious that the international community gave them arms, motivation and funds and watched the scene for 30 years, analysts said.

The first foreign country to support the Eelam movement was India. India’s Intelligence  branch, known as  Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), which was directly under the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,  ,provided arms, training and money to six Sri Lankan Tamil insurgent groups including the LTTE.

Thirty two camps were set up in India from August 1983 to May 1987    to train 495 LTTE insurgents, including 90 women. They were trained in 10 batches. The first batch of Tigers were trained in Uttarakhand. The second batch, including LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman, trained in Himachal Pradesh.  Eight other batches of LTTE were trained in Tamil Nadu. Instructors included retired Indian Army officers and non-commissioned officers   RAW had earlier trained the Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh.

Then in 1987, the Indian army came into Sri Lanka to settle the Eelam issue.  Indo Lanka Accord of 1987 made provision for an Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to monitor a cease-fire in the north. But instead of peace keeping, the IPKF became embroiled in war with the LTTE. The IPKF took Jaffna in Operation Pawan using tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery. Since the LTTE had been trained by the same army, IPKF did not have an easy time in Pawan. The IPKF was heartily disliked and eventually became the common enemy of both sides.  IPKF left Sri Lanka in 1990. Critics called it India’s Vietnam moment.

Then it was the turn of Norway. Norway had a presence in Sri Lanka long before the Eelam wars started and were using this to push Eelam. The Cey-Nor Development Foundation, funded by, Norges Godtemplar Ungdoms Forbund (NGU) an NGO, had established a fishing boat project in Jaffna in 1967.This gave Norway a foot hold on the northern seafront.

 It appears that in 1967 a group of Sri Lankan, youth living in Norway got in touch with a Norwegian youth organization Norges Godtemplar Ungdoms Forbund (NGU) in order to start a fisheries development project in Karainagar, Jaffna. With the monies raised by NGU through a fund raising campaign and supplemented by NORAD, the Sri Lankan youth purchased .land in Karainagar. They began their boat building operations at Karainagar around 1968/69.  This was closely watched by the rest of the country. Cey-Nor was taken over by the government later on and made to expand beyond Karainagar.

Then there was Redd Barna, the Norwegian Save the Children fund. Redd Barna, was active in the 1980s in Sri Lanka. Instead of helping children it was helping Eelam. Redd Barna was directly involved in settling estate Tamils, who were to be sent to India, in the border areas round Vavuniya, said critics.  This colonization project was successful. Those estate Tamils are today settled in the Vanni, they are not in India.

Norwegians were surreptitiously helping the LTTE to settle Tamil families of Indian origin in the strategic area of Weli Oya, in order to link the Northern Province to the Eastern Province with a continuous land mass inhabited by Tamils. The funding for this project was made available through Redd Barna by its head, Jon Westborg, analysts said.

 Vijitha Herath, Chairman, the Select Committee of Parliament for Investigation of the Operations of NGOs and their Impact said in 2008 that Redd Barna has carried out a programme of resettling estate Tamil people   in Vavuniya in 1985, to alter the ethnic composition in the Wanni.

Lalith Athulathmudali told Anil Ameresekera how it was done.  one or two families of estate Tamils  who were being deported to India under the Sirima-Shastri Pact , were off loaded at the Madu Road Railway Station each time the train made its journey from the upcountry to Mannar, (from where they were taken by ferry to India.)

The off loaded Indian Tamil families were smuggled to the Manik Farm in Cheddikulam and kept there for a week or two. If the police failed to locate the missing families, they were next transported to Weli Oya, where Tamil businessmen had taken a massive stretch of land on lease, under the pretext of helping the government in its food production drive. The Dollar, Kent, Ceylon Theatre and other farms owned by Tamil entrepreneurs were on this massive stretch of land in Weli Oya.

Athulathmudali later got these special leases cancelled. The farms owned by these Tamil entrepreneurs were taken over by the state and handed over to the Prisons Department to run open prison camps.

Norway fancied itself as a skilled peace facilitator. Norway    fondly said it was a small power without geo-strategic interests and colonial baggage. They were not   motivated by self-interest, and were not seen as a threat.  However, Norway is known internationally for its high profile meddling in peace negotiations. .

Norway has been actively engaged in promoting peace and reconciliation in dozens of countries, said the government of Norway, very proudly. These countries are Afghanistan, Colombia, Guatemala, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippine, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Venezuela.

 In addition, Norway has also provided financial and technical support for peace processes in Aceh, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Syria and Uganda.  Norway has also been engaged in dialogues in several other countries, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Timor-Leste, the Government of Norway concluded.

Norway was not always successful in these efforts. The best known failure is the Oslo agreement between Israel and Palestine. Negotiations for Israel and Palestine were conducted secretly in Oslo, Norway, hosted by the Fafo institute and the agreement was signed in Washington.  Israel and Palestine are fighting even harder today.  Oslo is forgotten.

The second best known failure is that of Sri Lanka ,where  the  government  crushed the  LTTE militarily, and decisively won the war, leaving no room for Norway to negotiate and create Eelam.

Norway had offered its services to Sri Lanka as a peace facilitator, as soon as the IPKF quit Sri Lanka in March 1990.   In June 1990 President Premadasa sought Norwegian help to establish contact with the LTTE. Norway started to function as a facilitator in 1991.

In 1994 President Chandrika invited Norway to help monitor a truce agreement. In 1995 LTTE also invited Norway to act as a  go between. The LTTE wanted a powerful mediator, not just a facilitator,   observed Michelsen Institute when in 2011, it reviewed Norway’s performance.

In May 1999, the Kumaratunga government confidentially provided Norway with a
formal mandate to initiate a dialogue with the LTTE, still a banned organization
under Sri Lankan law. Norway had several secret meetings with President Chandrika, where the President had asked Norway to bring the LTTE back to the negotiating table.    Norway had also met with Kadirgamar and GL Pieris, mostly in Switzerland.  

 In 1999 President Chandrika had asked the LTTE the third parties they wanted, for the  peace talks and of the list of five countries they gave, Chandrika selected Norway.   In the mean time, Erik Solheim, Norway’s Minister for Foreign affairs had initiated several secret talks with LTTE through the Norway ambassador in Sri Lanka. He said he was acting on representation made to him by Tamils in Oslo.

Norway’s role in Sri Lanka has been criticized in  Norway by Norwegian National Assembly, the Norwegian media and by academics.  These groups have been critical of the Norway peace keeping role in general. Critics point out that positive results seem few and far between. Norway’s idealist intentions are not matched by achievements in terms of lasting peace, said critics, citing the Middle East and Sri Lanka as examples.

Thorbjørn Jagland former PM of Norway had said in 2008 that nearly all the peace processes that the Norway had been involved in lay in ruins. Also that some studies have shown that wars that end in military victory produce a more stable peace than negotiated settlements.

It is Sri Lanka’s good fortune that Norway failed as a facilitator as they may have created another South Sudan, said Gomin Dayasri. The credit goes to the people of Sri Lanka who did not allow its government to be manipulated by a foreign hand. (Continued in 23B)