Sri Lanka was plunged into crisis last night as the country’s president suspended parliament, sacked three ministers and brought the army on to the streets of the capital Colombo, in a move criticised by her own prime minister as seeking ”chaos and anarchy” as well as imperilling the 20-month peace process with Tamil separatists.
Chandrika Kumaratunga sacked the defence, interior and information ministers — who had led peace efforts with the separatist army of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) — and took control of the ministries, claiming it necessary for the security of the country.
Troops were sent to the state TV and radio stations, and to the capital’s main power plant.
There were no reports of panic in Colombo last night, a city of 1,2-million people. But Jehan Perera, an analyst with an independent thinktank, the National Peace Council in Colombo, said President Kumaratunga’s decision came ”as a great shock”. He added: ”She wants to show that she is supreme and can take decisive action.”
Fears were raised that England’s cricket tour of the country, meant to start this month, would be cancelled. But John Read, the English Cricket Board’s director of corporate affairs, would only say that the ECB would be ”keeping in close contact with the Foreign Office on the matter and we will see how it develops”.
Kumaratunga’s actions, which are within the executive’s authority, come three days after the Tamil Tigers released a plan for power sharing which her party said would lead to a divided country.
Her sudden attempt to destabilise her political rival and prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, while he was in Washington to meet the US president, George Bush, took the world by surprise.
The conflict between the government and the Tigers, who claim to represent the aspirations of the island’s three-million Hindu Tamils, claimed 64 000 lives in 20 years before a ceasefire in February 2002.
Wickramsinghe’s government had been negotiating with the Tamil Tigers under Norwegian-brokered peace talks. Significantly, the Tigers had dropped their demand for independence for the first time — saying they would settle for regional autonomy — during six rounds of talks.
The peace process, which had spluttered to a halt in April, was restarted this summer by a new government proposal for a provisional administration for the area.
With parliament suspended for at least two weeks and the prime minister not due to return until he has completed his Washington visit, western diplomats warned that the actions seemed ”set to provoke a major political crisis that would impact on the peace process”.
Kumaratunga, who lost an eye after a bomb attack by Tamil rebels four years ago, said she would be prepared to talk to the LTTE to find a ”just solution to the ethnic conflict within the framework of a united and sovereign Sri Lanka”.
There was no immediate word from the Tamil Tigers, who would only say that they were monitoring the situation. But a pro-Tamil Tigers website, Tamilnet, said the president’s action had ”dimmed” the prospects for peace.
Many analysts wonder if the peace can last, given the president’s negative response to previous Tamil’s demands. The LTTE had sought wide powers allowing its administration to collect taxes and control security and finances in the north-east region where most of the island’s Tamils live. They also want authority over part of the seas and marine resources in the area.
Many point out this would only be making legal what already happens in areas controlled by the Tamils. But the big change would be that the LTTE could decide how to spend the £400m in aid pledged for rehabilitation of the country’s north-east.
Others warned that the situation could easily spiral out of control. ”This could be the excuse to go back to war for the Tamil Tigers,” said Mick Moore, a professor at Sussex University. ”They simply could take the position that there is no longer someone to bargain with.”
20 years of violence and tension
Sri Lanka is a lush land the size of Ireland, which was ceded to the British empire from the Dutch in 1796. As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948 and its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.
A country of palm-fringed beaches and picturesque tea gardens, its 19-million people have been engulfed for the past 20 years in a vicious civil war between the the majority Sinhalese Buddhist population and the minority Tamil group, who claim they have been discriminated against.
Tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil separatists erupted in violence in 1983. Two decades of fighting have claimed 65 000 lives and spawned a lethal separatist fighting force: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The country has been a parliamentary democracy since independence with a separately elected executive. President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s six-year term began in 1999. Her Peoples’ Alliance coalition lost its majority in 2001 to prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s party.
In December 2001 the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE called a ceasefire, with Norway overseeing the peace negotiations. Scandinavian diplomats brokered a truce in February 2002 that halted the war and then guided both sides through six rounds of peace talks, during which the LTTE notably dropped its demand for independence. These talks collapsed in April.
The peace process was resuscitated in the summer when the government presented its own proposal for limited self-governance. The Tamil Tigers responded at the weekend with a proposal for a form of autonomy which Sinhalese nationalists view as ”virtual independence” for Tamils. The prime minister has come under heavy criticism for making too many concessions to the LTTE. – Guardian Unlimited Â