Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05COLOMBO1052
2005-06-13 12:17:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

SRI LANKA: FASTS AND FURIOUS: MONKS AND MARXISTS

Tags:  PGOV PTER CE OPIC LTTE 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001052 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR BELL
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER CE OPIC LTTE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: FASTS AND FURIOUS: MONKS AND MARXISTS
OPPOSE TSUNAMI RELIEF COORDINATION

REF: COLOMBO 1044

-------
SUMMARY
--------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001052

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR BELL
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER CE OPIC LTTE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: FASTS AND FURIOUS: MONKS AND MARXISTS
OPPOSE TSUNAMI RELIEF COORDINATION

REF: COLOMBO 1044

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) President Chandrika Kumaratunga continues to face
staunch opposition from Marxist coalition partner Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Buddhist nationalist Jathika
Hela Urumaya (JHU) over her plans to sign an agreement on
tsunami relief with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

SIPDIS
(LTTE). On June 10 monks and Buddhist laity, whose four-hour
protest had snarled traffic in the heart of Colombo, were
turned back by tear gas and water cannon from the President's
House. Although Colombo was quiet on the weekend, police
used tear gas to disperse another protest near the
President's House on June 13; another protest is planned for
June 14. One hunger-striking monk ended his five-day fast
June 10 after the President promised not to sign the
agreement without further consultation with chief monks;
another monk, as well as members of a JVP-affiliated student
group, began their own protest fasts over the weekend. A
June 12 meeting between the President and the Tamil National
Alliance (TNA) ended inconclusively; meetings between
Kumaratunga and representatives from the two largest parties,
including her own, are scheduled for June 13. The President
appears to remain determined to go ahead with signing the
joint mechanism. End summary.

--------------
WATER CANNON, TEAR GAS TURNED
ON PROTESTING "PATRIOTS"
--------------


2. (U) The afternoon of June 10 monks and Buddhist laity
opposed to President Chandrika Kumaratunga's plans to sign an
agreement on tsunami aid coordination with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Reftel) held a four-hour
protest march, paralyzing traffic in downtown Colombo at the
heart of rush hour. The protesters, with several hundred
venerable monks in the vanguard, were turned back in their
attempts to storm the President's house after police
dispersed them with water cannon and tear gas; three monks
were hospitalized with minor injuries in the fracas. POL
FSN, who watched part of the protest, reported seeing some
monks carrying cans of gasoline as they marched toward the

President's house. According to press reports, some of the
monks had threatened to immolate themselves unless the
President reversed her decision to sign the controversial
document. None of the clerics acted on this threat, however.



3. (U) The Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thero, the Buddhist monk
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) MP who had begun a
"fast-unto-death" against the so-called "joint mechanism" on
tsunami relief on June 6 in Kandy, ended his hunger strike on

SIPDIS
June 10 after the President pledged not to sign the agreement
without consulting the four chief Buddhist prelates, or
"Mahanayakes." No sooner had the JHU monk abandoned his fast
than another religious leader--Ven. Dambara Amila Thero, the
Joint Secretary of the National Patriotic Front--began one,
however. Members of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP) student wing at Kelaniya and Peradeniya Universities
reportedly are joining him in the fast. Although the streets
of Colombo were quiet over the weekend, on June 13 university
students and monks held another protest near the main railway
station in downtown Colombo. Anti-riot police dispersed the
protesters with water cannon and tear gas. The JVP plans
another protest at town hall in Colombo on June 14.


--------------
TALKS WITH TNA:
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
--------------


4. (SBU) With her JVP coalition partner still threatening to
leave the government by June 16 unless the President promises
to give up the joint mechanism (Reftel),Kumaratunga is
reportedly casting about for other allies. She met with
representatives of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA),which
holds 22 seats in Parliament, on June 12 in a bid to gain
their support. The meeting appears to have ended
inconclusively, with the TNA MPs saying they would support
the President on the joint mechanism--but not until she has
actually signs it. The TNA also stopped short of pledging a
cross-over to help fill the JVP void, according to MPs who
attended the meeting, stipulating that the party would extend
its support to the government only on the issue of the joint
mechanism. TNA MP Suresh Premachandran told POL FSN later
that evening that his party cannot extend support to the
Government as long as the Government extends support to the
dissident "Karuna" group. TNA MPs traveled to LTTE
headquarters in Kilinochchi on June 13, presumably to brief
the LTTE on their discussion. (Note: If the JVP quits the
government, the President will lose her slender majority in
the 225-seat Parliament. Right now the President's alliance
commands a total of 119 seats. If the JVP walks out,
presumably taking with it one other small party as well, the
tally drops to 78.)


5. (SBU) The President was scheduled to meet Opposition
Leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on June
13 to seek his support as well. (The meeting was originally
scheduled for 3:00 p.m. local time, but appears, in typical
fashion, to have slipped.) As of COB June 13 we had no
reports that the meeting had even begun.

--------------
DRAFT DEMYSTIFIED
--------------


6. (U) The President's efforts so far to keep the substance
of the text out of the press had been criticized by many
observers as fueling JVP-generated speculation that the
mechanism (now restyled the Post-Tsunami Operations
Management Structure or "P-TOMS") gave the LTTE the authority
to handle funds and/or awarded tacit recognition to a
separate state. Over the past few days, however,
Kumaratunga, apparently responding to accusations that she
was trying to hide the contents of the agreement from the Sri
Lankan public, took several steps to clarify its main
elements and to rally support for it. In a lengthy interview
on state-owned radio on June 12, the President described the
joint mechanism as "an administrative arrangement," rather
than a political agreement, intended to ensure equitable
distribution of aid resources to tsunami victims in
LTTE-controlled areas of the north and east. According to
the official English translation of the broadcast, she said
the proposed agreement "clearly manifests that the LTTE is
ready to enter the democratic mainstream (since) they agreed
to support the Government proposal (for the joint mechanism)
instead of pursuing the Eelam (homeland) goal." Local press
reports on June 13 carried a summary of the main features of
the draft agreement--the first-such synopsis available to the
general public since the President announced last month her
support for the agreement--stressing in particular that the
mechanism would operate only in areas 2 km from the coastline
in the north and east. Responding to complaints from her own
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs that they had been kept in
the dark about the specifics of the agreement, she reportedly
promised to give each a written summary at a meeting on June

13. After the discussion with her MPs, she next held a
lengthy meeting with SLFP district organizers--reportedly to
give marching orders to hold P-TOMS awareness campaigns at
the local level.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


7. (SBU) With neither side modifying its position over the
weekend, the President and her JVP coalition partner seem
headed on a collision course. For the President, the scales
appear tilted. The opposition is organized and intense,
while those who presumably support the mechanism--including
the TNA and her own SLFP MPs--seem to biding their time to
see how things turn out. Long-time rival Ranil
Wickremesinghe is an unlikely savior--especially since
Kumaratunga's own machinations brought down his last
government. The President's attempts to demystify the
much-vilified mechanism may be coming too late in the day to
counter the highly emotional propaganda campaign mounted by
the JVP and JHU. Moving the debate moved out of the realm of
the rational to the histrionic, the JVP/JHU appeal to
chauvinism and communalism may, unfortunately, prove more
persuasive to the general public than the facts. At this
point, however, Kumaratunga has said nothing to suggest that
she has changed her determination, as she told the Ambassador
on June 9, to conclude the joint mechanism.
ENTWISTLE