N & E comes under US spotlight ahead of impending PC poll

Ambassador Sison accompanied by several Colombo based US diplomats

April 27, 2013

A smiling US ambassador Sison carrying a Muslim child entering the venue of a meeting with Muslim representatives in Trincomalee on Friday

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces are under close US scrutiny ahead of forthcoming first Northern Provincial Council election with US ambassador Michele J. Sison touring Trincomalee and its suburbs on Friday (April 26) to inquire into the wellbeing of Tamil speaking Muslims.

Ambassador Sison was accompanied by several Colombo based US diplomats.

During meetings in Trincomalee with representatives of Muslim association, the US delegation had discussed about land issues, destruction of Muslim places of religious worship, setting up a security forces base at Kinniya in spite of protests due to the site being a place of religious worship, sexual molestation of children and whether the Sinhalese caused trouble to the Muslims, sources told The Sunday Island.

Referring to various website reports, the US team had also queried whether fundamentalist groups were active in the Eastern region, sources said, adding that those attending the meeting cleared many misconceptions.

The delegation also visited the Tricomalee Bishop’s House, Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC which is the social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference as well as Trincomalee Mayor K. Selvarasa of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).Sources said that ambassador Sison’s visit to Trincomalee took place in the immediate aftermath of a delegation from US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour for South and Central Asia visiting the Jaffna peninsula on a fact finding mission.

The visitors had inquired about High Security Zones, post-war resettlement as well as land issues. During discussions in Jaffna, the participants had agreed that the HSZ were a hindrance to restoration of civil administration in the peninsula, sources said.

Meanwhile, Opposition and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe during an interaction with the media in Jaffna last Thursday said that the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council election should be subject to international scrutiny; hence deployment of foreign election monitors was of pivotal importance.

Wickremesinghe insisted that the government couldn’t claim that having the Northern PC election was a domestic affair as it gave an undertaking to the international community with regard to the election.

The opposition leader announced four prerequisites for the conduct of a free and fair election. He called for the establishment of independent commissions, including one responsible for running the election secretariat. His second condition was President Mahinda Rajapaksa taking action in May to set up independent commission so that the process could be finalized in June with the Opposition making nominations.

The UNP leader called for the immediate removal of retired Major General G.A. Chandrasiri from being the Governor of the Northern Province to pave the way for a civilian administrator.

Wickremesinghe said that international scrutiny by way of polls observers was a necessity not only during the final week of the election now scheduled for September but throughout the campaign to ensure a level playing field.

He expressed confidence that implementation of his four proposals would pave the way for a situation acceptable to all.

Political sources said that the opposition would officially call for international observers to prevent the government from taking undue advantage of heavy military presence in the North.

Responding to opposition criticism, a senior government official told The Island that the UNP had conveniently forgotten how the LTTE and its mouthpiece, the TNA had interfered in previous elections. A glaring example of the LTTE/TNA combine high handed actions was the unprecedented directive issued a week before presidential election on Nov 17, 2005 prohibiting Tamil speaking people of exercising their franchise, the official said.

The EU Election Observer Mission following the Dec 2001 parliamentary polls revealed how the LTTE engaged in systematic malpractices to help the TNA secure the majority of seats in the then temporarily merged North-East Province, he added.

Responding to a query by The Sunday Island, that official said that the EU discarded its own report, which dealt harshly with the TNA as it would have hindered the grouping’s overall strategy in Sri Lanka. The bottom line was that the TNA wasn’t even asked to explain its relationship with the LTTE, he said.

But today, the same TNA was demanding accountability on the part of Sri Lanka, he said, alleging that a section of the international community was encouraging those still pursuing a separatist agenda.

Government sources said that the government would explain ongoing efforts to destabilize the country by those bent on carrying on the LTTE project.