Palm Court :

Year of worst CFA violations

by Ananth Palakidnar

"Agonizing and Disgusting"were the very words expressed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Chief Hagrup Haukland when he was contacted over the attack on the Navy personnel who were killed in a mine attack on Friday in Mannar.

The comment of Haukland indicated the arduous task of the SLMM in implementing the Ceasefire Agreement in the battle hardened North and East.

It was from the middle part of this December the situation in the North and East has worsened with the two claymore mine attacks one after the other killing 14 army personnel in the Jaffna Peninsula and the attacks again one after the other on the Navy personnel in the seas and on the land in Nadukkuda,in the Mannar region last week where altogether sixteen sailors had perished.

Following the attacks on the army men in the Peninsula and in Mannar on the sailors around five persons have been killed in the heart of the Jaffna town where the civilians were busy with their Christmas Shopping.

The army claim that the persons who were shot by them were planning to stage an attack and some weapons were also captured from them.But the Jaffna sources said that the five persons who were killed in the army shooting were innocent civilians and one of them was a watchman of the Jaffna Central College.

The principal of the Jaffna Central College was also shot dead a month ago by unidentified gun men while S. Rajadurai was coming towards the Jaffna Veerasingam Hall to attend a function. Last Saturday from 6pm onwards till next day morning within eight hours eight persons have been killed in various places in the Peninsula.

The SLMM Chief commenting on the deadly situation in the North said that the SLMM has reduced its patrolling in the Peninsula due to the escalation of mine and grenade attacks in the region.However he added that the monitors were continuing with their inquiries over the incidents.

K.Manoharan,a Jaffna Tamil attached to the Australian Railway, domiciled in Brisbane was in Jaffna last week on a holiday. He visited the place with his wife and children after about two decades to see his mother.

He went to Jaffna thinking that he could go around in his push bike recollecting his old school days and meeting his relatives and friends.But the two consecutive claymore attacks one in Kondavil his neighbouring village and in Irupalai in the Peninsula had shattered his holiday plans and made him and his family to confine within their home."Don't know where our people are heading" were the comments he made when he rushed back to Colombo cutting short his stay in Jaffna.

Since the CFA was signed in February ,2002,like Manoharan from Australia several thousand expatriate Tamils were returning to Jaffna every month from various parts of the world thinking they could enjoy the peace which emerged after the signing of the CFA.Some of them even made investments in various types of small industries and new buildings were also coming up with the flow of foreign money into the Peninsula.

However in the current situation in the North with the obstacles filled in the path of the Peace Process has made the innocent Jaffna civilian to think whether Jaffna is going back to the dark era which was haunting the North as well as the East before 2002.

As the ceasefire violations escalated in Jaffna and in Mannar in the past weeks the Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingam was gunned down at the St.Mary's church in Batticaloa while he was attending the x'mas midnight mass.

Joseph Pararajasingam was shot dead at point blank range by unidentified gun men soon after he received the communion from the church priest.

His wife Sugunam was also shot on her neck and was later admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Batticaloa general hospital.

Though Parliamentarian Pararajasingam remained in Colombo for most of the time due to security reasons,every year he made it a point to attend the x'mas church service in his home town Batticaloa.

Joseph Pararajasingam was a devout Catholic and was tirelessly working towards reaching a durable and a honourable settlement to the North and East crisis. He entered Parliament as a Tamil United Liberation Front member from the East following the assassination of Sam Thambimuttu of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation party in 1990.

Pararajasingam was the second Tamil Parliamentarian to be assassinated this year after the assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. The assassinations of these two legislators had one thing in common has both were assassinated in the night after 10.00 pm.

Joseph Pararajasingam's one of the last important meetings was with President Mahinda Rajapakse a week ago.Along with his other Tamil National Alliance Colleagues he urged the President to take measures in strengthening the Ceasefire.

At the end of the formal meeting with the President , Pararajasingam had a long chat with President Rajapakse on expediting measures in resuming the peace process.

So the brutal killing of TNA Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingam on a silent night when the x'mas midnight mass was in progress highlights the gravity of the horrific situation currently prevails in the North and East. The SLMM chief on summing up his observations on the departing year 2005 says that this year could be rated as the year of worst ceasefire violations with the assassinations of two prime politicians Lakshman Kadirgamar and Joseph Pararajasingam.

Therefore how the year 2006 is going to be ? is the question which brings fears into the hearts and minds of the countrymen.