Monday 26 December 2011

Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East


Colombo/Brussels, 20 December 2011: Women in Sri Lanka’s predominantly Tamil-speaking north and east are facing a desperate lack of security in the aftermath of the long civil war.

Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, warns that the heavily militarised and centralised control of those areas – with almost exclusively male, Sinhalese security forces – creates serious problems for women’s safety, sense of security and ability to access assistance. They have little control over their lives and no reliable institutions to turn to. The Sri Lankan government has mostly dismissed women’s security issues and exacerbated fears, while the international community has failed to appreciate and respond effectively to the challenges they face.

“More than two years after the end of the war, many women still live in fear of violence by the state and from within their own communities”, says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst and Sri Lanka Project Director. “The conflict has badly damaged the social fabric and has left women and girls vulnerable at multiple levels. A concerted and immediate effort to empower and protect them is needed”.

Thirty years of civil war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has resulted in tens of thousands of female-headed households in the north and east. They struggle daily to cope with the detention or absence of family members, continuing displacement and desperate poverty. Militarisation and the government’s refusal to devolve power or restore local civilian administration in those areas have directly contributed to complex societal distress, which comes on the heels of the collapse of the preceding repressive regime run by the LTTE.

The consequences for women and girls have been severe. There have been alarming incidents of gender-based violence, and many women have been forced into prostitution or coercive sexual relationships. Fear of abuse and the reassertion of patriarchal norms within the Tamil community have further restricted women’s movement and impinged on education and employment opportunities. The fact that women must rely on the military for everyday needs not only puts them at greater risk of gender-based violence, but also prevents them from building capacity within communities.

The current situation comes in the wake of serious accusations of sexual violence by the military against Tamil women at the end of the war and in the months thereafter. The long-awaited report of the government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), delivered to the president on 20 November 2011 and released to the public on 16 December, largely ignores the issue of sexual violence except to recommend yet another "independent investigation" into video footage that shows what appears to be Sinhalese soldiers making sexual comments while handling the dead, naked bodies of female suspected LTTE – footage that government officials repeatedly have said was “faked”.
 

Women in Sri Lanka’s predominantly Tamil-speaking north and east are facing a desperate lack of security in the aftermath of the long civil war. Today many still live in fear of violence from various sources. Those who fall victim to it have little means of redress. Women’s economic security is precarious, and their physical mobility is limited.

The heavily militarised and centralised control of the north and east – with almost exclusively male, Sinhalese security forces – raises particular problems for women there in terms of their safety, sense of security and ability to access assistance. They have little control over their lives and no reliable institutions to turn to. The government has mostly dismissed women’s security issues and exacerbated fears, especially in the north and east. The international community has failed to appreciate and respond effectively to the challenges faced by women and girls in the former war zone. A concerted and immediate effort to empower and protect them is needed.

Thirty years of civil war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has resulted in tens of thousands of female-headed households in the north and east. Families throughout those areas experienced many waves of conflict, displacement and militarisation. In the war’s final stages in 2008 and 2009, hundreds of thousands of civilians in the northern Vanni region endured serial displacements and months of being shelled by the government and held hostage by the LTTE, after which they were herded into closed government camps. Most lost nearly all possessions and multiple family members, many of whom are still missing or detained as suspected LTTE cadres. When families eventually returned to villages, homes and land had been destroyed or taken over by the military. There was less physical destruction in the east, which was retaken by the government in 2007, but those communities have also suffered and now live under the tight grip of the military and central government.

These events have left women and girls vulnerable at multiple levels. In the Vanni in particular, their housing is inadequate, and they have limited means of transportation and employment opportunities. Many do not have sufficient funds to feed their families, let alone to care for those who were maimed or disabled in the war. The continuing search for the missing and the struggle to maintain relations with the detained are further strains. Children’s education was severely disrupted for years, and many are only slowly returning to school. The trauma of the war, especially the final months in 2009, is evident in every family. The conflict has badly damaged the social fabric.

The consequences for women and girls have been severe. There have been alarming incidents of gender-based violence, including domestic violence within the Tamil community, in part fuelled by rising alcohol use by men. Many women have been forced into prostitution or coercive sexual relationships. Some have also been trafficked within the country and abroad. Pregnancies among teenagers have increased. Fear of abuse has further restricted women’s movement and impinged on education and employment opportunities. The fact that women must rely on the military for everyday needs not only puts them at greater risk of gender-based violence, but also prevents them from building their own capacity within communities. The island-wide spate of attacks on women by individuals labelled “grease yakas (devils)”, which reached the north and east in August and into September 2011, and the lack of serious response by the security forces (except to brutally crack-down on protesters across the north and east, and especially in Jaffna), exposed the near-complete collapse of trust in law enforcement.

Militarisation and the government’s refusal to devolve power or restore local civilian administration in the north and east have directly contributed to this complex societal distress, which comes on the heels of the collapse of the repressive regime run by the LTTE. Over decades, the Tigers created an elaborate coercive structure around which people organised their lives. The absence of this structure has left many adrift. While this has had some important positive consequences, including for women, the devastation of the final year of war and the replacement of the LTTE in effect by the military and its proxies negate the gains for these communities. The experience and perception of pervasive insecurity are having profound harmful effects on women’s lives.

Instead of recognising these vulnerabilities and taking steps to protect women and girls, the government has largely ignored them. The heavily militarised and centralised systems of control in the north and east exclude most residents, but especially women from decisions that affect their security. While there are some female civilian officials and some programs nominally directed at women, all activities occur within a male, Sinhalese, military structure. The government has constrained access for international humanitarian organisations and even more so for local civil society. The vision of security the government has pursued is a masculine, militarised one. Human security is lacking.

The current situation in the north and east comes in the wake of serious accusations of sexual violence by the military against Tamil women at the end of the war and in the months thereafter. There is credible evidence to support some of these accusations. Yet cultural stigma, decades of impunity, and the government’s refusal to allow any independent investigation of the end of the war and its aftermath make it impossible to determine the full extent of misconduct. In a well-known rape case in the north in June 2010, criminal prosecution has been pending for eighteen months against four soldiers following concerted pressure from local women’s groups. But this is a striking exception.

The government’s overwhelming response to allegations of sexual violence has been to reject them, as it has done with video footage that shows what appears to be Sinhalese soldiers making sexual comments while handling the dead, naked bodies of female suspected LTTE fighters, some of whom have their hands bound. The long-awaited report of the government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was delivered to the president on 20 November 2011 and released to the public on 16 December. Among its recommendations is one that the government initiate yet another “independent investigation” into the footage, which officials repeatedly have said was “faked”. Another government assessment of it now – without a complementary international one focused on alleged sexual violence – risks further feeding Tamil fears of such violence and the exploitation of those fears by some diaspora activists.

The international response to women’s insecurity has been unnecessarily muted. Not only have Sri Lanka’s international partners, including the United Nations, failed to speak out publicly and clearly about threats to women and allegations of abuse, but they have agreed to work within militarised structures that have amplified vulnerability and reduced transparency. Unless they do more to demand changes to those structures and to target funding and assistance at initiatives that can help protect and empower women, their engagement will be ineffectual, at best.

RECOMMENDATIONS


The following recommendations supplement and complement Crisis Group’s continuing calls – as set forth in Crisis Group Asia Report N°209, Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Harder than Ever, 18 July 2011 – for an international inquiry into the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both the LTTE and government forces in the final stages of the war, as well as for the restoration of the rule of law and an end to corruption, impunity and authoritarianism throughout the country. While the government has promoted the LLRC as the cornerstone of its post-war accountability process, serious deficiencies in its independence, mandate and witness protection capacity have crippled it. The LLRC’s report, which acknowledges important grievances and makes a number of sensible recommendations, ultimately fails to question the government’s version of events with any rigour. Thus, in terms of accountability, the question remains: is the government willing and able to hold accountable those responsible for alleged crimes? To date it has failed to demonstrate that it is.

To the Government of Sri Lanka:


01. Acknowledge that women and girls in the north and east face serious threats to their economic and physical security and commit to reduce those threats, including by:

a) reducing the military presence in those areas substantially by closing military camps and checkpoints, returning all property seized by the military to rightful owners, ending the military’s involvement in commercial activities, fully demobilising troops – including investigating and prosecuting alleged abuses – and reintegrating soldiers with their families and into their communities;

b) devolving power to provincial and local government structures and officials in the north and east, including by expediting elections for the Northern Provincial Council and decentralising decision-making on economic development;

c) reforming the police presence in those areas by recruiting male and female Tamils and Muslims at all ranks and giving them real authority to better reflect the populations served, and by training the police to anticipate and respond to the security needs of women and girls, including as regards gender-based violence; and

d) prioritising reconstruction and development projects that will protect the rights of and empower women in those areas, including by committing government funds (see Recommendation 5 below for suggested projects).

02. Revise government policies that are increasing women’s vulnerability in the north and east, including by:

a) ending what is still in effect a state of emergency and military rule and ensuring anti-terrorism laws and practices are brought into line with international legal standards;

b) making available to family members the names and locations of all individuals detained for suspected involvement in the LTTE, including those in rehabilitation centres; providing detainees with access to lawyers and ensuring basic due process rights; and allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to monitor conditions of detention and facilitate family visitation and communication with detainees in all parts of the country;

c) stopping all ad hoc visits by the military to women’s homes as well as all surveillance of alleged former LTTE cadres unless it is demonstrated through a credible judicial process that they pose a threat to public safety; and otherwise ending the exercise of civilian functions by the military;

d) issuing accurate death certificates or declarations of absence for those who were killed or went missing in the conflict, without compromising the rights of family members to seek further information or remedies;
e) permitting full freedom of movement and assembly in the north and east, including for local women’s organisations; and

f) reducing restrictions on and improving access for humanitarian and civil society groups, and allowing them to increase levels of assistance – including to address psycho-social issues, reproductive health and gender-based violence – with input from local communities and local women’s groups.

To Sri Lanka’s International Partners, including China, India, Japan, the U.S., UK, EU and UN:


03. Evaluate all aid, investment and engagement in light of the risks of a return to conflict and of increasing women’s insecurity in the former war zone, and insist on meeting international standards and ensuring the highest levels of transparency, external monitoring and non-discriminatory community participation in setting priorities.

04. Highlight consistently in public and private communications the issues that affect all of Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities, including growing authoritarianism, militarisation, weak rule of law, impunity, corruption and repression of dissent, as well as gender-based violence and economic inequities for women.

05. Convene a high-level meeting of donors and other development partners, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, as well as community leaders and activists knowledgeable about women’s issues in the north and east, to agree upon and ratify with the government a strong set of principles for the delivery and monitoring of assistance – including accountability for past and continuing human rights abuses; and to fully fund a concrete set of reconstruction and development projects to be completed in 2012 that will help protect and empower women in the north and east, such as:

a) a comprehensive, independent assessment of the needs and vulnerabilities of this population;

b) expedited construction of safe, permanent housing and sanitation facilities for those at greatest risk of violence;

c) training, equipment and professional support for mobile health clinics staffed in part by local female residents;

d) support to and protection for local women’s groups to establish women’s centres for meetings, training and collective work spaces;

e) a nationwide program led by ICRC and local non-governmental partners to register and trace missing persons and facilitate family access to detainees;

f) initiatives to start collecting comprehensive data on, and better respond to, gender-based violence, including a nationwide violence-against-women help-line, the appointment of judicial medical officers (JMOs) for every district, and the establishment of women-friendly desks in all police stations so women can make complaints in their own language and in the presence of female officers;

g) training on gender-based violence and national domestic violence laws for all government officials and police officers in the north and east; and

h) training on gender-based violence and national domestic violence laws, reproductive health education and support, psycho-social support and demobilisation counselling for current and, as needed, former members of the security forces – provided by qualified local or international experts, not by other national militaries.

To the UN and Member States:


06. Endorse the findings and recommendations of various UN bodies regarding Sri Lanka, including the forthcoming report of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Conflict-related Sexual Violence; the Secretary-General’s upcoming review of UN actions during the final stages of the war, as announced in September 2011; the November 2011 report of the Committee Against Torture; the April 2011 report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability, and the February 2011 report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women – and ensure that the UN system, including the country team in Sri Lanka, works toward fulfilment of these recommendations.

07. Take action on these findings and recommendations, including at the Human Rights Council session in March 2012 and during Sri Lanka’s second Universal Periodic Review in September 2012.

08. Ensure, in particular, that the UN country team in Sri Lanka takes a strong stand to demand access and speak out about protection concerns, including for women and girls in the north and east, and that all UN staff and staff for UN-funded programs working in the north and east are adequately trained on the post-war needs and concerns of women in those areas and to engage the expertise of local women’s groups.

09. Review Sri Lanka’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations and refrain from accepting new participation of its troops until there is a credible investigation of the allegations against the military in the UN panel of experts report. (ICG)

Download PDF full report from here>>>

Thursday 22 December 2011

Sri Lanka: Thousands of farmers protest against new law

Tens of thousands of rural farmers and small traders in almost every region of Sri Lanka protested early last week against a newly introduced government law making it compulsory to use plastic crates to transport vegetables and fruit.

Vegetable supplies to markets and state institutions such as hospitals, the army and the police came to standstill as a result of the widespread protests. Prices soared 300 to 400 percent for several days.

Police attack protesting farmers in BandarawelaThe protests revealed not just mass discontent over the new law, but broad disenchantment among the rural poor with the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse. The additional transportation costs threaten to compound the already serious economic problems facing farmers.


The trade ministry justified the law with the claim that 5 to 40 percent of vegetable and fruit production goes to waste after harvesting due to poor transport methods, which could be prevented by the use of plastic crates. It arbitrarily introduced the requirement last year but was compelled to shelve it in the face of widespread opposition from farmers and small traders.

The government re-imposed the new system as of December 12. Immediately, 40 lorries transporting vegetable and fruit in sacks were taken into custody by trade ministry authorities and subjected to fines of 2,000 rupees ($US18) per vehicle.

As news of the fines spread, small vendors and transporters took to the streets in their thousands and the angry scenes lasted for three days. The protests took place at main collecting centres for vegetables and fruit such as Dambulla, Tambuththegama, Kandapola, Bandarawela, Norochcholai and Ranna. More than 4,000 farmers, transporters and traders demonstrated and blocked roads around the central Manning Market in the capital Colombo.

Participants shouted slogans such as “To whom the commissions for crates”, reflecting their suspicions that government officials will profiteer from the new laws, and “Mahinda Chinthanya (Mahinda vision) represses farmers”. In Dambulla, people angrily tore down huge billboards displaying Rajapakse’s portrait.

Violent clashes erupted in Dambulla and Bandarawela when the police tried to disperse the crowds. Police attacked protesters with tear gas and people in return pelted stones at the police.

Some 83 protesters, including 28 from Dambulla and 38 from Bandarawela, were arrested on December 13-14. They were later released on bail due to police fears of more protests. Twenty-four people were injured so severely they had to be hospitalised.

The government immediately deployed hundreds of troops to control Dambulla and Bandarawela, signalling that it will not hesitate to use the same military methods advanced during the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to suppress social unrest.

Speaking at the parliament on December 12, trade minister Johnston Fernando hysterically attacked protesters as a handful of thugs and insisted that the new law would not be withdrawn again. On December 14, however, Rajapakse called a meeting with representatives of farmers and traders to deflect the anger. He announced a so-called one-month grace period while warning that the new system would inevitably be introduced.

Wewala peasant in discussion with WSWS reporterWSWS reporters visited Dambulla and Bandarawela to speak with farmers, traders and truck drivers about how the law would place an intolerable extra burden on them.


The plastic crates cost two to three times as much as sacks to transport produce. One sack, for example, holds 50 kilograms of vegetables but at least three plastic crates are now required.

A small trader from Galle, who transports vegetables from Bandarawela, said: “I have to spend about 1,600 rupees when I use gunnies [sacks]. If I used plastic crates, I have to spend more than 15,000 rupees per trip. How can I continue my business in such a situation? If the government imposes this law, traders like me will be thrown on the streets.”

A farmer from Bandarawela said: “We have to make a big struggle to bring vegetables to the road. We have to come through small paths in the fields. It is very difficult as the area is hilly. However, when we take vegetables in gunnies, we can change the bag from one shoulder to the other. But if you use crates, you can’t do that.”

Another farmer explained that on top of the cost of the crates, they also had to pay to bring the empty ones back. He said: “If we add the cost to the produce, the consumers will have to pay more to buy things. The government says that the law is to restrict wastage of vegetables but you come and see how peasants are destroying vegetables during harvesting season in February and March as they cannot get a good price.”

According to farmers, sometimes the price of tomatoes falls as low as 3 rupees [$US.03 cents] per kilogram and a 50 kilogram bag of cabbage to 50 rupees. Unable to sell at a reasonable price, farmers have destroyed their harvests in frustration or set fire to their fields. During last week’s protests, some farmers dumped large quantities of vegetables in the streets to express their anger.

A farmer at Wewala, 32 kilometres from Dambulla town, commented: “I am a small farmer. I take two or three sacks of vegetables to the market in one trip on a push bike. If this law is imposed, I’ll have to use at least two or three plastic crates to transport vegetables that pack into one sack. I’ll have to use 9 or 10 crates and then hire a vehicle to transport them. They charge 50 rupees to hire a container. Then I have to pay 150 rupees to transport the crates from my garden. Is there any profit remaining for me?”

Farming family outside their Welwala homeThe farmers of Wewala make their living by growing vegetables and papaw. They do not have a proper irrigation system and most of them depend on rain or water pumped from canals or wells. The road to Wewala from Dambulla is scarred with pit holes and becomes muddy during heavy rain. There is no adequate bus service.

Most of the village houses have only one or two small bedrooms and a kitchen and are built with cement blocks or bricks. Some are unfinished. There is a small hospital, but it has inadequate medical supplies and only one doctor, who is not available at night as there are no residential quarters for him. When people get ill at night or suffer with a serious condition, they have to be taken to Dambulla or Kandy hospital—some 60 kilometres away.

According to local farmers, they spend around 150,000 to 175,000 rupees per acre (0.4 hectares) to cultivate vegetables. The prices for seeds and chemicals have gone up rapidly in last two or three years. People insisted the new system would further eat into their income.

A farmer at Wewala said: “As there is no stable price it is difficult to get a profit. I cultivate about three acres but it is only enough to maintain our lives. I have two children and they are still at school. So I have to spend money for their education. As I cannot earn enough income from farming, I hire my three-wheeler taxi to earn an extra income.”

Many farmers and traders in Dambulla said that they voted for the government in last elections. One said: “We did so as the government ended the war and we thought that we would get some relief. But now everything has gone up and the government is going to ruin us with the new law. We say the government should now call an election and see what will happen.”

The peasant protests reveal the deep-going problems in rural Sri Lanka. The rural poor are burdened by the lack of land, inadequate irrigation and transport, the inability to get a guaranteed price for produce, indebtedness, lack of access to modern farming techniques and the control over seed, fertiliser and chemicals by agribusiness corporations. The crate system imposed by the Rajapakse government is one more intolerable burden.

The arbitrary manner with which the new transporting method was implemented, and the deployment of police and military against farmers, has shattered the government’s pretensions to be a “friend” of the rural masses. It has provided a fertiliser subsidy not because of sympathy for farmers but to try and stem rising discontent. As Rajapakse implements IMF austerity measures, it will not be long before even this limited concession is scrapped.

The opposition parties, the United National Party and JVP [Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna] have sought to exploit the anger of the rural poor by demanding the withdrawal of the compulsory crate system and calling for further protests. Neither, however, are any more “friends” of the peasant masses than the government. When in power, the UNP implemented major free market restructuring, including slashing agricultural subsidies. The JVP was previously in coalition with Rajapakse and supported its previous measures undermining the conditions of small farmers.

Only a workers’ and peasants’ government can address the problems of the rural poor, who require cheap credit, technical assistance and guaranteed prices for their produce. That necessarily involves the nationalisation of the banks and agribusinesses as part of the reorganisation of society to meet the social needs of the majority, not the profits of the wealthy few. Only the Socialist Equality Party fights for this perspective as part of the struggle for socialism internationally. (WSWS)

Sunday 4 December 2011

Sri Lankan government boosts military spending

The Sri Lankan government presented its 2012 budgetary estimates to parliament on October 18, unveiling a nearly 7 percent increase in military expenditure. The boost to already high levels of defence spending indicates that the government, facing a deep financial crisis, is preparing for violent confrontations with working people.

Such is the extent of the fiscal crisis that total budget expenditure for 2012 is estimated at 2.22 trillion rupees ($US20.1 billion), which is double the expected income of 1.1 trillion rupees. President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also finance minister, will announce proposals on November 21 to meet the trillion-rupee deficit. The government is already imposing new taxes and resorting to foreign and local borrowing, imposing even greater burdens on the backs of workers and the poor.

Almost half of the military allocation of 230 billion rupees will be spent on the 200,000-strong army. Military spending will be almost double the combined expenditure on health and education. At 74 and 57 billion rupees respectively, they constitute only 3.3 percent and 2.5 percent of total spending.

In addition, every year the government routinely increases military expenditure above the budgeted allocation. The 2011 allocation was recently supplemented by another 5 billion rupees. Sri Lanka’s military is one of the largest per capita in the world.

According to the government, part of the 2012 allocation will pay off weapons bought during the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was defeated in May 2009. Nevertheless, the massive amount allocated for the armed forces in “peace time” shows the extent of the government’s dependence on the military to maintain its rule.

Rajapakse’s regime is not only deepening its military occupation of the island’s north and east, where the majority of Tamil people live. It is also keeping its military machine well oiled for use against the working class and youth. The government said it expected to obtain advanced intelligence gathering technology, expand military intelligence to all six divisions of the army and establish more police stations.

This month Rajapakse renamed the defence ministry as the ministry of defence and urban development. The urban development authority was placed under the control of the defence ministry control last year as the government prepared to evict 75,000 families from Colombo shanties in order to clear the way for developers and investors. The security forces have already been used to forcibly evict some families.

Debt repayments will consume 914 billion rupees next year. Together, military spending and debt repayments, will account for more than 50 percent of total budget expenditure, and more than the expected government income for 2012. To help fill the budget gap, the government is planning to borrow 15 percent more in 2012 than this year. Government debt rose to 4,872 billion rupees by the end of June 2011, up 12 percent from the previous year.

The government is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to cut the fiscal deficit to 5 percent of gross domestic product next year, which is half the figure for 2009. The huge allocations for debt repayments and the military mean that savage cuts will have to be made from social spending to meet the IMF target.

Rajapakse was forced to obtain a $2.6 billion loan from the IMF in July 2009 to overcome a balance of payments crisis produced by heavy foreign borrowing for war spending, compounded by the international financial crisis that erupted in 2008. Since obtaining the IMF loan, the government has implemented austerity measures, slashing subsidies, increasing taxes on essential items and freezing workers’ wages.

Last month, the government imposed further taxes and price increases. Import taxes of about 10 percent were placed on chillies, chickpeas and cowpeas, and the cigarette excise duty was increased by about the same amount. Last Sunday, the government raised petrol and diesel prices by an average of 10 percent and kerosene prices by 16 percent. Petrol and diesel price hikes will trigger higher transport charges and costs of living, while the kerosene rise will severely affect plantation workers and the rural poor.

Foreshadowing further tax increases, finance ministry secretary P.B. Jayasundera told a pre-budget meeting with exporters’ groups on October 3 that the country had “a large amount of imports and now we must look at producing these goods ourselves.”

During the first eight months of 2011, the trade deficit rose to almost $6 billion, 88 percent higher than the corresponding period last year, and is predicted to reach $9 billion for the whole year.

Amid the deepening financial turmoil in Europe and the US, and a re-emerging global recession, the IMF is demanding a devaluation of the rupee, citing impending balance of payment problems. The IMF is also pressing the government to bridge the heavy losses of the state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation by raising prices and restructuring them in preparation for privatisation.

To enforce its demands, the IMF has withheld the final $800 million of instalments of the 2009 loan. The government has been reluctant to carry out a currency devaluation, fearing that it would trigger abrupt price increases, deepening popular discontent. In the past, however, the government has toed the IMF line, despite rhetorical declarations that it would not yield to IMF pressure.

Speaking to ministers during a pre-budget meeting, Rajapakse declared: “The government has achieved a major victory by maintaining the country’s economic growth rate at 8 percent and bringing down inflation from 11 to 7 percent during the last two years.”

Rajapakse and his ministers are fully aware, however, that this economic growth, which is based primarily on the service sector and infrastructure developments, is fragile. On October 20, Jayasundera told a pre-budget business gathering: “The global economy is in turmoil and we are not free from those vulnerabilities in the global financial capitals. We are preparing this budget in much more uncertain surroundings.”

The official inflation rate reached 6.4 percent in September, but this understates the unbearable increase in the cost of living for ordinary people. For a second time, the government recently changed the base year for the inflation statistics, with some economists declaring the figures unreliable.

Rajapakse next budget which will intensify the hardship caused by the wage freeze inflicted on government and private sector workers since 2006, is likely to provoke rising social unrest. That is why the government is maintaining and boosting the country’s huge security forces.

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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Sri Lankan government imposes austerity budget

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also the country’s finance minister, presented the budget for next year to parliament on November 21. Following the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he has maintained the current wage freeze and imposed new burdens on workers and the rural poor, while making further tax concessions to big business.

The government plans to lift revenue by nearly 20 percent over the next year to 1.1 trillion rupees ($US10 billion) through a series of new taxes on essential items that will contribute to higher inflation. There will still be a budget deficit of 469 billion rupees, to be funded by increased borrowing from foreign and local banks.

The new taxes have been imposed on a range of imports, including dried fish, wheat flour, coriander, onions and saffron, in the name of protecting local industries. These imposts come on top of pre-budget price increases of about 10 percent for petrol, diesel and cooking gas.

Rajapakse also proposed to increase local and international phone charges by 25 percent and annual licensing fees for vehicles, including motor bikes and three-wheelers, by 25 to 50 percent.

The budget announced a 3 percent devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar—a move that will contribute to higher prices on a range of goods and services.

The government is maintaining an effective wage freeze that has been in place since 2006. Rajapakse announced a 10 percent rise in monthly allowances for public sector employees, which will increase to between 1,000 and 1,500 rupees next year. Retirees will get even less and no mention was made of private sector workers. The increased allowances will not compensate workers for projected price rises.
Rajapakse did not cut the small welfare payments of 250 to 750 rupees for poor families nor reduce the limited fertiliser subsidy for farmers. He is well aware that such steps would provoke greater disenchantment and opposition in rural areas.

The budget handed out generous tax cuts to the corporate elite. It reduced taxes on profits in the banking and finance sector by 7 or 8 percentage points and in export industries and tourism by between 12 and 15 percentage points. Foreign and local investors will enjoy tax holidays of 4 to 12 years for investments ranging between 50 and 2,500 million rupees.

Speaking to Bloomberg.com, IMF residential representative, Koshy Mathai cautiously praised the budget, saying “the exchange-rate adjustment was a step in the right direction.” He said the IMF’s “initial impression of the budget” was that it was “broadly consistent with the authorities’ earlier articulated plans” and thus in line with IMF demands.

An IMF team will visit Colombo in January to review the economic situation. The government received a $2.6 billion loan from the IMF in July 2009 in order to avert a balance of payments crisis produced by the global financial breakdown and the huge military expenditure on the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The IMF halted its last two loan instalments, citing the government’s reluctance to devalue the rupee and failure to meet fiscal deficit targets. According to Rajapakse’s budget speech, the deficit for this year will be 7 percent of GDP and 6.2 percent next year—well above the IMF’s targets.

The government’s decision to devalue the currency provoked criticism from the Central Bank, which has spent at least $1 billion in recent months on the foreign exchange markets to maintain the rupee’s value. The Central Bank has been selling rupee-denominated sovereign bonds and is concerned that a falling rupee will result in investors attempting to withdraw their money.

However, Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera, who prepared the budget, told the media that value of the rupee should be “driven by market forces except in calamity.” His comments reflect the view of sections of big business that the rupee is overvalued by about 20 percent and must be devalued to boost exports.

By far the largest portions of government expenditure went to maintaining the country’s military machine and to pay off debt. Defence spending of 230 billion rupees and debt repayments of 914 billion rupees amount to more than 50 percent of budget expenditure.

Speaking at the Defence University after the budget, President Rajapakse justified the military spending by claiming that there was “no end to the challenges confronted by Sri Lanka despite the obliteration of LTTE terrorism two years ago.”

The military maintains a permanent occupation of the island’s North and East to suppress any opposition from the country’s Tamil minority and is also being prepared to crush any resistance from working people to the attacks on their living standards. The defence ministry has taken over what were previously civilian powers such as urban development and is in charge of evicting 75,000 families from shanty areas in central Colombo.

Big business has indicated its approval for the budget. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) declared that it was “pleased to note that the tax reforms announced in the last budget have been upheld in this budget with additional incentives to promote investments and a few further simplifications to the tax structure.”

At the same time, the CCC called for “further steps to improve the investment climate”. Its concern is falling foreign direct investments, which reached just $500 million last year—well short of the government’s target of $1 billion. The shortfall is another indicator of the impact of the worsening global economic turmoil, particularly the debt crisis in Europe.

Rajapakse boasted that despite “global uncertainties the country has been able to sustain 8 percent growth momentum.” The figure, reduced from an earlier forecast of 9 percent, is largely the product of high infrastructure spending and the provision of credit for services such as telecommunications, banking and retail. The economy is unlikely to keep growing at this rate as export markets in Europe and the US contract, and the EU financial crisis worsens.

During the first eight months of 2011, the country’s trade deficit rose to almost $US6 billion, 88 percent higher than the corresponding period last year, and is set to reach $US9 billion for the whole year. While the government is hoping that foreign remittances will bridge the gap, the IMF has expressed concern about a new balance of payments crisis.

The opposition parties have attempted to exploit widespread anger among working people over rising prices and declining living standards. United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe denounced the government for bringing down an “IMF budget,” but his remarks are entirely hypocritical. The conservative UNP insisted in 2009 that the government had to seek IMF assistance, knowing that austerity strings would be attached.

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian Vijitha Herath declared: “People in this country hoped that the government would provide some kind of relief through this budget to ease the sky-rocketing cost of living.” JVP union leader K. D. Lalkantha threatened to call a general strike.

The JVP has no fundamental opposition to the government’s pro-market agenda and was part of a coalition with Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 2004 that imposed austerity measures. Its trade unions have been instrumental in sabotaging any struggle by workers to defend their jobs and living standards.

The budget is a sharp warning that the whole political establishment in Sri Lanka will impose the burden of the deepening global crisis onto working people. Only by mobilising independently of all factions of the bourgeoisie on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program can the working class defend its class interests. (WSWS)

Tuesday 29 November 2011

A meeting on JVP crisis in Sri Lanka

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Student for Social Equality (ISSE) held a public meeting in Colombo on November 17 on the political crisis of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and the SEP’s struggle for socialism. More than 100 people attended, including workers, intellectuals and students from several parts of the country.

The JVP was founded in the 1960s on the basis of a mixture of Maoism, Castroism and Sinhala populism. In the 1990s, it abandoned the “armed struggle” and has been thoroughly integrated into the Colombo political establishment. Amid plummetting electoral support, it is currently headed for another split.

K. Ratnayake, a member of the SEP Political Committee, chaired the meeting. He explained that both the JVP leaders and the new-emerged dissident faction declared that they had made “mistakes” over the past decade by entering into alliances with various bourgeois parties. These opportunist arrangements, however, were the product of the JVP’s politics from its inception.

“The emergence of a dissident faction is a response to the sharp erosion of the party’s social base of support and the radicalisation of the workers and youth in Sri Lanka and internationally. The dissidents are trying to pose as socialists to set up a new trap for workers and youth,” he said.

Ratnayake quoted a recent speech by JVP dissident Chameera Koswatte, who cited the late JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera as saying no political formula was supra-historical. “For the JVP, this truism is used to justify its pernicious role and lack of any principles. The dissidents are also making room for future alliances with bourgeois parties with such references.”

Ratnayake explained that the JVP had been opposed to scientific Marxism from the beginning. It had become increasingly mired in Sinhala communalism and supported the island’s 30-year civil war. The SEP and its forerunner, the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), which was founded in 1968 on the basis of struggle for socialist internationalism, had analysed all the JVP’s twists and turns. He urged workers and youth to study the lessons of this political struggle for the independence of the working class from all factions of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie.

ISSE convenor Kapila Fernando told the meeting: “The JVP student leaders attacked us in the past for opposing the war in the north and east [against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] which was to suppress the Tamil masses and the entire working class. They physically attacked their political opponents, including the ISSE, which advanced socialist policies to defend free education.”

Fernando pointed that these same student leaders now declared, “yes we made mistakes, we are correcting them,” but refused to take responsibility for the disasters they had helped create for the masses.

Fernando also noted that various ex-radicals had described the JVP dissident group as a “welcome progressive development.” This included university teachers association president Nirmal Ranjit Dewasiri, who had betrayed the recent pay struggle by university lecturers. “The ex-lefts are attempting to boost the JVP dissidents to prevent youth from turning to the SEP’s struggle for Marxism and taking a socialist road.”

Wije DiasSEP General Secretary and WSWS International Editorial Board member Wije Dias delivered the main report. He began by emphasising the need for a scientific approach to the JVP break-up. “Two factions of the JVP are roaring subjective accusations against each other,” he said. “But as Marxists, our task is to make a serious historical examination of the political and economic conditions fuelling their crisis as part of our struggle to build a genuine revolutionary party.

“The SEP has always emphasised two fundamental points in educating the working class: First, what is the objective economic and political state of the world? Second, what are the strategic lessons of the historical struggles of the working class as the guide to the present-day revolutionary tasks?”

Dias explained that the origins of the JVP lay in the serious crisis of bourgeois rule in the 1960s. “In 1964, Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike publicly stated that she was facing an uncontrollable situation where a massive wave of workers’ strikes was paralysing the country’s economy. Out of fear of a backlash from the working class, she rejected advice to call out the military and turned to the ‘left’ leaders for help.

“The leaders of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Stalinist Communist Party (CP) readily agreed with Bandaranaike, and the LSSP joined her capitalist government. This great betrayal of the working class created profound confusion among the workers and a deep crisis of leadership.

“Various groups of youth looked for an alternative. With the intervention of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), we realised that the only way to overcome this crisis was to undertake the struggle for Trotskyism, which was abandoned by the LSSP under the influence of Pabloite opportunism. We joined the ICFI and formed the RCL in 1968 to fight for international socialism.”

By contrast, Dias said, all the other groups, including the JVP, were bogged down in nationalism. The JVP had turned to the petty-bourgeois political currents of Castroism and Maoism. It had turned its back on the working class, the only consistently revolutionary social force on the planet.

Dias explained that the JVP had built a relatively big movement but only to lead it into the 1971 adventure that resulted in ferocious suppression by the Bandaranaike government. “That was no small price that the JVP paid for turning its back on Marxism,” he said.

Recalling the JVP’s fascistic attacks in the late 1980s against workers, political opponents and union activists, Dias said: “The JVP activities, particularly during that period, were a grave attack on the political culture of the working class. This was underscored by the cold-blooded murder of three members of the RCL by those JVP gangsters.”

Dias referred to a pamphlet written by the late JVP leader Wijeweera published in 1978. The JVP dissidents had written a preface for a new edition of the book. But, Dias explained, it repeated the same fundamental theoretic errors. “For them, workers and peasants represent the same class. This is Wijeweera’s trap to turn the youth away from the working class and bring them under the wing of the bourgeoisie via the petty-bourgeois peasant movement.”
Dias explained that the RCL’s founding general secretary, Keerthi Balasuriya, had analysed the reactionary positions of the JVP at the beginning of the 1970s in his work entitled The Politics and Class Nature of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Balasuriya had warned that the JVP’s communal politics, as evidenced by their hostility to Tamil plantation workers, could eventually take fascistic forms.

Dias pointed to the growing dangers of war, and the international offensive underway against the living standards of working people. He urged workers and youth to draw the necessary political lessons from the crisis of the JVP, and join the SEP and the ISSE to fight for international socialism based on the theory of Permanent Revolution.

After the meeting, WSWS correspondents spoke to a number of those who attended.

Ajith, an unemployed youth, said he had been to a meeting of the JVP dissidents and wanted to hear what the SEP had to say. “I had to drop out of the school halfway through because my parents couldn’t afford it any longer. But I believe you can’t win anything by collaborating with the government. It is attacking every right of the people.

“I agree with the SEP that there needs to be an international organisation of the working class against these attacks but this message should reach workers. I agree that there are lots of difficulties, as the media doesn’t provide any space for this perspective.”

Several youth from the JVP dissident group also attended. One of them commented: “It is Keerthi Balasuriya’s book that forced us to come to this meeting. But I still think that JVP has done a good job by introducing politics to people in remote villages like me.

“I wanted to clarify a number of political issues. One is the war [against the LTTE]. In that I agree with your position that the military should be withdrawn [from the North and East]. If you get an opportunity to go to war-torn Jaffna you can see that there is not much difference in the situation facing people even after the end of war.”

Some of the JVP dissidents were evaluating Trotsky “from a new angle” and he had wanted to know about the role of Trotsky in socialist politics. In fact, amid the continuing confusion about Trotskyism created by the LSSP’s betrayal, the JVP dissidents are seeking to distort Trotsky to justify their own opportunist politics. (WSWS)

Thursday 29 September 2011

Sri Lankan military attacks Tamil villagers

The Sri Lankan army brutally attacked villagers at Navanthurai in northern Jaffna on the night of August 22 after tensions broke out between the army and local people. It was the first major assault on Tamil civilians by the military since the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in May 2009.

At around 9.30 p.m. villagers chased some strangers, some of whom ran toward a nearby army camp. The military denied that the individuals ran into the camp. Hundreds of people gathered near the camp and protested, blocking a military vehicle that attempted to take away some soldiers in civilian clothes, an eyewitness told the WSWS.

The army attempted to force people away but failed. Soldiers, backed by police, then fired shots into air to disperse people.

After midnight, Navanthurai’s population was rounded up by hundreds of soldiers, who shot in the air and entered houses, breaking doors and dragging men away. The round-up recalled the wartime repression carried out by the military. Wives, mothers and children were also attacked when they tried to stop people being taken away.

Later, all those arrested were taken to a nearby playground and physically attacked until 3 a.m. Among them were patients suffering from paralysis and back pains. Some were undressed and assaulted. Balathurai Syagayarasa was naked in front of his mother when he was beaten. Detainees were later brought to a police station and subjected to another round of beatings.

More than 100 people were admitted to Jaffna Hospital under police custody. According to the judicial medical officer, S. Sivarooban, 22 people had bone fractures and many had internal injuries and head wounds. He said the injuries were caused by rifle butts, iron clubs, wires and shoes.

There has been widespread panic across the country during the past three weeks, caused by mysterious people intruding into villages, towns and plantations, sometimes breaking into houses. Residents have complained that these persons attacked them, particularly women, with sharp nails or blades and ran away.

According to eyewitnesses, some of these strangers wore masks, and some had applied grease to their bodies so residents could not catch them. For that reason, the intruders have been dubbed “grease devils.”

The police have been informed about these incidents but brushed them aside, saying people had succumbed to rumours. Many incidents have taken place in areas where Tamils live, including the North, East and the central hills plantation districts. After arousing suspicion, some intruders fled to the nearest military camps or police stations when people tried to catch them. About three people have died in these incidents, including a police officer, and several have been injured.

After the attack at Navanthurai, the military and the police imposed a curfew for two days and deployed heavily-armed soldiers. The market did not function, shops were closed and fishermen stayed at home. No one was allowed to move on the roads. Many villagers crowded into the hospital to see their relatives and neighbours.

Several incidents in Jaffna point to the military’s complicity in creating tension. On the same night, a stranger was caught by villagers entering a house at Aalangkaddai. He claimed to be from army intelligence. Soldiers arrived in a white van and fired warning shots to rescue him from protesters.

Similar events were reported in the villages of Karaveddy, Polikandi and Karahaththanpulam, where three thugs appeared with their faces covered with cloth. Such people cannot move around without the knowledge of the security forces. The military occupation of the North and East has only intensified since the LTTE’s defeat. The checkpoints, sentry points and mini-camps are still functioning in these areas.

At Navanthurai, Broon, a mechanic who suffered a fractured leg and internal injuries, told the WSWS: “I heard gun shots and people shouting. Just as I felt signs of danger, the door of my house was broken. They arrested me and my cousin and assaulted us indiscriminately. They did not care about weeping women but attacked them as well. Both my cousin’s hands were fractured. Many soldiers attacked me at the playground too.”

Ninety-one detainees were produced before the courts after four days and released on bail. They had to pay sureties of 5,000 rupees. Even so, the court imposed conditions, requiring them to report to the police once a week. Ten people who were still hospitalised were ordered to be detained until September 6.

The police opposed bail, accusing the prisoners of damaging state property and mobilising people to wage war against the government. More than 30 lawyers appeared in support of the victims.

Addressing the parliament on August 23, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sridharan insisted that people had enough evidence to say that the mysterious individuals were military men. He added that two armed people had entered houses in military-occupied town of Parathipuram at Kilinochchi and when people tried to catch them, they were saved by the military.

Responding to Sridaran, Dinesh Gunawardane, a cabinet minister, ridiculously asked him to name the mysterious persons, if they were from the military. Addressing a public meeting, Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem blamed the media for spreading such rumours.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse had encouraged the use of military repression, by warning that people “who take the law in to their hands will be severely punished.” After the Navanthurai incident, he declared that those “who carried out campaigns about the ‘grease devils’ will be considered as terrorist groups.” He insisted that “severe action will be taken against the people who carried out attacks against the army camps and police stations.”

Jaffna security forces commander Mahinda Hathurusinghe went further. He warned: “Those who were armed with clubs, stones, swords, knives, sand and petrol-filled bottles for the purpose of attacking law enforcement officers will be branded as terrorists and no mercy will be shown to them.” He went on: “We [the army] will never allow anyone to take the law into their hands” and “fulfil the ulterior motives of frustrated war mongers.”

The Island newspaper seized on the issue to whip up communalism, branding the protesters as “LTTE members”. Its headline stated: “Army thwarts ‘Pongu Thamil’ style raid on Jaffna detachment—Students among attackers.” The Pongu Thamil (Tamils Rising) slogan had been displayed by the LTTE and its supporters when they occupied some areas in the North and East.

Speaking to the WSWS, a lawyer explained: “The ‘grease devil’ has been created by the government. They attacked the people and then tried to charge them and show that protesters will be suppressed in such a way.” He pointed out: “Political critics can be murdered by the so-called grease devils without any evidence.”

Interviewed by the WSWS, a woman from Navanthurai asked why the mysterious individuals should run to the military camp if they were not sent by them. “The government does not allow us to live peacefully. We explained our problems to the government ministers who came during the election campaign. They are now silent. Only about 100 from Navanthurai were admitted to hospital but most are staying at home with their injuries, fearing they will be arrested if they go to hospital.”

It appears certain that the government and the military are creating these incidents to terrorise and intimidate Tamils, whose anger is growing against the continued military occupation, the curbing of democratic rights, the devastation left by the war and the continued detention of thousands of Tamil youth. (WSWS)