Military offensive 'disrupted deal with LTTE’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 21:42 GMT]
Sri Lankan military’s offensive in Trincomalee disrupted an agreement which had been reached with the Liberation Tigers to open the closed irrigation canal at Mavil Aaru, the Daily Mirror quoted the Chief Priest of a local Buddhist temple as saying. The ongoing confrontation which has claimed scores of lives could have been avoided, the venerable Saranakeerthi Serunuwera Thera also said. His comments comes days after the chief international truce monitor criticized the Sri Lankan government for launching airstrikes near where he was negotiating with local LTTE leaders to defuse the situation.

Serunuwera Raja Maha Viharaya Chief Priest the venerable Saranakeerthi Serunuwera Thera told the Daily Mirror he was informed the LTTE was preparing to re-open the Maavilaru anicut just hours before the military operation was launched and believed the confrontation could have been avoided.

The same charge was leveled last week by other Buddhist monks.

Ven. Neelapola Thera, who was among Sinhala protestors demanding the water supply be restored. He charged that the LTTE leadership was ready to open the sluice gates but had changed its mind after the Air Force began bombing LTTE-controlled areas in Trincomalee.

“[LTTE Political head for Trincomalee S.] Elilan had decided not to open the anicut after the Air Force bombed some of the areas on Wednesday night. We are dying because of this, so something has to be done fast or we will take matters into our own hands. The people will not be patient anymore,” the priest said last Thursday.

Last Saturday, Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, who heads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), also questioned the government’s launching of a major offensive.

“It is definitely the wrong method. It is definitely overkill if you want the water,” Henricsson told Reuters in an interview.

Also last week SLMM officials had met the chief priest of the Serunuwara Raja Maha Vihara, Ven. Serunuwara Saranakeerthi Thera and separately met with local LTTE leaders to try to resolve the water crisis.

But even as Henricsson sat talking Friday with local LTTE leaders, the Sri Lanka Air Force, continuing its airstrikes, dropped a bomb on 750 metres away from where the meeting was taking place.

“We sat talking and got clearance from the government and tried to convince the LTTE to have confidence in the government,” he said. “[Then] they dropped a bomb in the vicinity. That's not the right signal.”

The Daily Mirror this Wednesday also quoted Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) as saying the government’s military intervention had aggravated the water crisis.

UNP assistant general secretary Tissa Attanayake “charged that the Government wavers on the peace issue talking about both war and peace at certain times with extremist elements,” the paper reported.

Attanayake was referring to ultra-nationalist JVP and the hardline Buddhist monks’ party, the JHU, which have been demanding a military destruction of the LTTE.

President Mahinda Rajapakse is in negotiations with the JVP about the latter joining his ruling coalition.

The Mavil Aaru crisis began with the closing of an irrigation channel at Mavil Aaru on July 20.

The Sri Lankan government has blamed the LTTE for the closure and subsequently justified a major offensive in which thousands of Sri Lankan troops have massed and are attempting to slog their way towards the sluice gates.

The LTTE says that protesting Tamils in LTTE-controlled areas had closed gates blocking the canal after the government decided to go ahead with and a project to build water tanks only in government-controlled areas. The project is funded by the ADB.

The Trincomalee Government Agent had this week put forward some proposals to address the grievances of the villagers but Mr. Elilan said the ongoing military operation would have to stop before other things could be considered.

“Even if we are to open the anicut how can we go there with a military operation going on. They will first have to stop the military operation and only then can we discuss other issues,” Mr. Elilan told the Daily Mirror.

Government defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella however said the LTTE must first give an assurance it will re-open the anicut and not close it in the future if the government was to stop its ongoing military operation.