LTTE attacks a naval installation, resulting in resumption of hostilities and collapse of peace talks. LTTE resumes bombing campaign. Government launches a major offensive in response.

Extracts from statement of the LTTE, 26 May 1995
Why these double standards?

Sri Lanka government propaganda has seen to it that the truth behind the disruption of the peace process has been effectively concealed from the world . Firstly, a government that keeps on affirming that the Tamil people were equal citizens of the country, carried on a policy that means by implication:

That the Tamils living in the north were an exception. That supplying their basic human needs like food and medicine, and fuel and kerosene, fertiliser and urea, torch and radio batteries depending on many factors:

Their good behaviour;
The good behaviour of the Tigers;
The military implications to the government in permitting such items;
The given mood at given times of the military minions who man the checkpoints at Vavuniya.

In short, caring for the daily living needs of a section of what the government claims its own people was for the Sri Lanka government a matter for bargaining! The very fact that the Chandrika government treats basic human rights of the Tamil people as ‘concessions’, is in itself a throwback to the Sinhala-Buddhist hegemonic approach that the Tamils have been resisting for the Past 40 years. … If one were to talk of concessions, the only meaningful concession that came, was from the side of the Tigers. Having come down from their declared goal of a separate Tamil Eelam they were prepared to consider political accommodation on a Federal basis that would ensure a measure of self-rule for the Tamils in the north-east. This they did from a position of growing military strength. But what has been the response of the Chandrika government until now?

In a recent interview given to India Today, this question was asked from President Kurnaratunga: “The Tigers have complete control of the place. All they need is foreign recognition, but you can’t help them with that. So what can you offer them as a bargain?”. President Kumaratunga’s reply is very revealing. She says:

“The first thing is that they can live peacefully. Without getting bombarded from the air and sea and shot at from the ground. And I think that this is a strong, very strong point in favour of peace.”

Strange, but there it is in her own words. The only quid pro quo that the President could think of, was not a political alternative, but the stopping of actual bombardments and shelling from the sea and land!

The fact is, that the government is up to now keeping the whole country in the dark as to the political package that it has in mind. Why this hesitancy? Why this procrastination over a period of six months? Why cannot the international community ask the Sri Lankan government to spell out the details of the autonomy that it keeps saying it is prepared to offer the Tamil people?”

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