{"id":117047,"date":"2021-08-13T00:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117047"},"modified":"2021-08-15T15:56:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T22:56:24","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-23-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/13\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-23-b\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 23 A"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

REVISED 15.8.21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scratch\nbelow the surface of any civil war and there is usually a foreign sponsor to be\nfound, said analysts.   Almost all civil\nwars have an external dimension. It is necessary to be\nalert to such interventions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These interventions hide under the   term \u2018Terrorism\u201d. Terrorism is the perfect\ntool to exert pressure upon government. It provides the perfect cover up for\nhidden agendas, said analysts. Terrorists are armed and supported by foreign\ncountries. Nothing is done against the terrorists\nbut international humanitarian laws are used against sovereign states that\nchallenge these terrorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Eelam wars of Sri Lanka clearly fall into\nthis category. The Eelam war was not a local war, if so it would have only\nlasted a couple of years.  Eelam wars\nwere initiated by a liberation movement\u201d that was powerful enough to take on\nthe elected government, said analysts.  The LTTE possessed powerful weapons and good\ncombat training. They had enough funds. How did they acquire all this? It is\nobvious that the international community gave them arms, motivation and funds and\nwatched the scene for 30 years, analysts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first foreign country to support the Eelam movement was India.\nIndia\u2019s Intelligence  branch, known as  Research and Analysis Wing (RAW),\nwhich was directly under the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,  ,provided arms, training and money to six Sri\nLankan Tamil insurgent groups including the LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty\ntwo camps were set up in India from August 1983 to May 1987    to train 495 LTTE insurgents, including 90 women.\nThey were trained in 10 batches. The first batch of Tigers were trained in\nUttarakhand. The second batch, including LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman<\/a>, trained in Himachal Pradesh<\/a>.  Eight other batches of LTTE were trained in\nTamil Nadu. Instructors included retired Indian Army officers and\nnon-commissioned officers   RAW had\nearlier trained the Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nin 1987, the Indian army came into Sri Lanka to settle the Eelam issue.  Indo Lanka Accord of 1987 made provision for\nan Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to monitor a cease-fire in the north. But instead of peace keeping, the IPKF\nbecame embroiled in war with the LTTE. The IPKF took Jaffna in Operation Pawan\nusing tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery. Since the LTTE had been trained by the same army, IPKF did not have an\neasy time in Pawan. The IPKF was heartily disliked and eventually became\nthe common enemy of both sides.  IPKF\nleft Sri Lanka in 1990. Critics called it India\u2019s Vietnam moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nit was the turn of Norway. Norway had a presence in Sri Lanka long before the\nEelam wars started and were using this to push Eelam. The Cey-Nor Development Foundation,\nfunded by, Norges Godtemplar Ungdoms Forbund (NGU) an NGO, had established a fishing\nboat project in Jaffna in 1967.This gave Norway a foot hold on the northern\nseafront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Then there\nwas Redd Barna, the Norwegian Save the Children fund. Redd Barna, was active in\nthe 1980s in Sri Lanka. Instead of helping children it was helping Eelam. Redd\nBarna was directly involved in settling estate Tamils, who were to be sent to\nIndia, in the border areas round Vavuniya, said critics.  This colonization\nproject was successful. Those estate Tamils are today settled in the Vanni,\nthey are not in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norwegians\nwere surreptitiously helping the LTTE to settle Tamil families of Indian origin\nin the strategic area of Weli Oya, in order to link the Northern Province to\nthe Eastern Province with a continuous land mass inhabited by Tamils. The\nfunding for this project was made available through Redd Barna by its head, Jon\nWestborg, analysts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Vijitha Herath, Chairman, the Select Committee\nof Parliament for Investigation of the Operations of NGOs and their Impact said\nin 2008 that Redd Barna has carried out a programme of resettling estate Tamil\npeople   in Vavuniya in 1985, to alter the ethnic\ncomposition in the Wanni. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lalith\nAthulathmudali told Anil Ameresekera how it was done.  one or two families of estate Tamils  who were being deported to India under the Sirima-Shastri\nPact , were off loaded at the Madu Road Railway Station each time the train\nmade its journey from the upcountry to Mannar, (from where they were taken by\nferry to India.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The off\nloaded Indian Tamil families were smuggled to the Manik Farm in Cheddikulam and\nkept there for a week or two. If the police failed to locate the missing\nfamilies, they were next transported to Weli Oya, where Tamil businessmen had\ntaken a massive stretch of land on lease, under the pretext of helping the\ngovernment in its food production drive. The Dollar, Kent, Ceylon Theatre and\nother farms owned by Tamil entrepreneurs were on this massive stretch of land\nin Weli Oya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athulathmudali\nlater got these special leases cancelled. The farms owned by these Tamil\nentrepreneurs were taken over by the state and handed over to the Prisons\nDepartment to run open prison camps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway fancied itself as a skilled peace facilitator. Norway    fondly said it was a small power without\ngeo-strategic interests and colonial baggage. They were not   motivated\nby self-interest, and were not seen as a threat.  However, Norway is known internationally for its\nhigh profile meddling in peace negotiations. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway has been actively engaged in promoting peace and\nreconciliation in dozens of countries, said the government of Norway, very\nproudly. These countries are Afghanistan, Colombia, Guatemala, Israel, Myanmar,\nNepal, Philippine, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In addition, Norway has also provided\nfinancial and technical support for peace processes in Aceh, Burundi, the\nDemocratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Syria and Uganda.  Norway has also been engaged in dialogues in\nseveral other countries, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and\nTimor-Leste, the Government of Norway concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway was not always successful\nin these efforts. The best known failure is the Oslo agreement between Israel\nand Palestine. Negotiations for Israel and Palestine were conducted secretly in\nOslo<\/a>, Norway,\nhosted by the Fafo<\/a> institute\nand the agreement was signed in Washington.  Israel and Palestine are fighting even harder\ntoday.  Oslo is forgotten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second best known failure is\nthat of Sri Lanka ,where  the  government  crushed the  LTTE militarily, and decisively won the war, leaving\nno room for Norway to negotiate and create Eelam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway\nhad offered its services to Sri Lanka as a peace facilitator, as soon as the\nIPKF quit Sri Lanka in March 1990.   In June 1990 President Premadasa sought\nNorwegian help to establish contact with the LTTE. Norway started to function\nas a facilitator in 1991. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1994 President Chandrika invited Norway to help monitor a truce agreement. In\n1995 LTTE also invited Norway to act as a  go between. The\nLTTE wanted a powerful mediator, not just a facilitator,   observed Michelsen Institute when in 2011,\nit reviewed Norway\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nMay 1999, the Kumaratunga government confidentially provided Norway with a
\nformal mandate to initiate a dialogue with the LTTE, still a banned organization\n
\nunder Sri Lankan law. Norway had\nseveral secret meetings with President Chandrika, where the President had asked\nNorway to bring the LTTE back to the negotiating table.    Norway had also met with Kadirgamar and GL\nPieris, mostly in Switzerland.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In 1999 President Chandrika had asked the LTTE\nthe third parties they wanted, for the  peace talks and of the list of five countries\nthey gave, Chandrika selected Norway.   In the mean time, Erik Solheim, Norway\u2019s\nMinister for Foreign affairs had initiated several secret talks with LTTE\nthrough the Norway ambassador in Sri Lanka. He said he was acting on\nrepresentation made to him by Tamils in Oslo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway\u2019s\nrole in Sri Lanka has been criticized in  Norway by Norwegian National Assembly, the\nNorwegian media and by academics.  These\ngroups have been critical of the Norway peace keeping role in general. Critics\npoint out that positive results seem few and far between. Norway\u2019s idealist\nintentions are not matched by achievements in terms of lasting peace, said\ncritics, citing the Middle East and Sri Lanka as examples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorbj\u00f8rn\nJagland former PM of Norway had said in 2008 that nearly all the peace\nprocesses that the Norway had been involved in lay in ruins. Also that some\nstudies have shown that wars that end in military victory produce a more stable\npeace than negotiated settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Sri Lanka\u2019s good fortune that Norway failed as a facilitator\nas they may have created another South Sudan, said Gomin Dayasri. The credit\ngoes to the people of Sri Lanka who did not allow its government to be\nmanipulated by a foreign hand. (Continued in 23B)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2018Terrorism\u201d. Terrorism is the perfect tool to exert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}