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The commitment of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party to a political solution to the ethnic problem in this country has continued to keep it alerted to the ground situation both in the North and the East. We have at all times found the reports issued by the University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna) authentic and perceptive.

The latest report is very disturbing and reflects on the bona fides of parties involved in the peace process. It mentions the misery of the Tamil people too when it reports its perception that the LTTE orders its cadres "to drag children away from their parents and to torture the public with gigantic extortions." These are complaints that have been repeated time and again but neither party to the process nor the facilitator has seen these as what has to be ended in order to win the confidence of all people involved, states LSSP General Secretary Batty Weerakoon in a press release.

"The UTHR (J) reports indicate that the LTTE's scattered outfits are in operation regardless of the MOU to which they should consider themselves too as parties. The report says, "a small tightly controlled guerrilla band has become an oligarchy with all the vices inherent in such a body." That the outfits should be a law unto themselves once the tight controls are gone is not unusual. This concession would certainly release the leadership from blame. But the UTHR report does not permit us to do so. It states its perception of the LTTE leader's role too. It says, "even as he uses the peace process to strengthen his grip on the North-East he will go on fishing for events such as the unrest at Hartley College, in a bit to make his case - that he is the only answer to the Sinhala polity."

That the "oligarchies" are busily at work reducing the Muslims in the Batticaloa district in particular to a state of intense trauma is evident from the very recent incidents in this district and in Trincomalee. It is not suggested that any sensible government would fail to recognize the reality that the political and democratic rights of the Muslims in these regions should be comprehensively addressed in any final solution to the overall problem. But what happens between now and then? This is the question to which the government must urgently address itself.

The Muslims of these districts have been excluded from the MOU which is solely between the government and the LTTE. The Monitoring Mission could take note of a complaint only if such complaint is that of one of these two parties. There is therefore not the communicational means of drawing the Monitoring Mission's attention to the complaints the Muslims may need to be looked into. This is specially so, in Muslim perception, when the State machine in the area appears to walk on its toes for fear that it would disturb the LTTE. The Kanchikudah incident and the embroilment with the STF camp which followed so closely on the heels of the Hartley College involvement with a security camp gives credence to the perception that the LTTE is using what the UTHR calls the "light brigade" for its objective of getting the security forces out of the key points of security. This it is that reduces the Muslim community in the more vulnerable areas to the conclusion that the contemplated Joint Task Force which does not include the Muslims would not have Muslim community interests on its agenda.

The LSSP has right at the commencement of the present peace process advised the government to put in place the means for civil society in these areas to involve itself through its representatives and community leaders. The LSSP is of the considered view that this objective should be pursued and that for this purpose there should be obtained, as a first step, the commitment from the LTTE to ensure peaceful local government elections which though scheduled had been cancelled at the request of the TNA. The fears of the TNA are understandable. Hence the need for commitment from the LTTE.

The LSSP urges the government to take all steps to dispel the fear in the Muslim community in the East that it is left to fend for itself. These Muslims need to get over the fearful prospect that the security forces would be compelled by the Task Force to quite their present vantage points. This adds to the anxiety created in the presently highly charged situation in which the LTTE remains armed and its cadres have access to caches of arms that are at their disposal. Security for the Muslims in these vulnerable areas needs to be reinforced and the machinery put in place for purposeful and diligent monitoring," the release states.

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