SRI LANKA: COALITION CRACKING, CHAUVINISTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001128

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/26/2015
TAGS: PGOV PTER CE LTTE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: COALITION CRACKING, CHAUVINISTS
LITIGATING OVER JOINT MECHANISM

REF: COLOMBO 1116

Classified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE. REASON: 1.4 (B,D).

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) Three days after the Government signed an agreement
to coordinate tsunami aid with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE),opposition to the Post-Tsunami Operational
Management Structure (P-TOMS),also known as the "joint
mechanism," among President Chandrika Kumaratunga's political
allies is broadening. Following the departure of the Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) from the United People's Freedom
Alliance (UPFA) on June 16, smaller coalition members New
Unity Alliance (NUA) and Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) are
also contemplating quitting. On June 27 Muslim MPs from NUA
and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) staged a one-day
general strike in Muslim areas of the eastern district of
Ampara to protest the P-TOMS' perceived neglect of Muslim
interests. Sinhalese nationalist parties, on the other hand,
like the JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU),are
preparing to challenge the P-TOMS in court. The JHU is also
considering an impeachment motion against the President on
the grounds of "mental infirmity" and treason, among others.
While JVP/JHU opposition is no surprise, the rare consensus
among Muslim parties against the agreement could undermine
GSL efforts to depict the P-TOMS as primarily intended to
help the tsunami-affected of all communities. End summary.

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UPFA COALITION:
CRACKING AT THE SEAMS
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2. (U) A mere three days after the Government signed the
controversial Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure
(P-TOMS) agreement, also known as the "joint mechanism," with
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on June 24
(Reftel),opposition to the agreement, including among
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's coalition partners, is
growing increasingly vociferous. In addition to the
Sinhalese nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP),which
left the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) on June 16
to protest the mechanism, two smaller members of the alliance
are also contemplating quitting. Although the New Unity
Alliance (NUA) and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) only
command a meager four seats in the Parliament, the symbolic
impact of their leaving--and the damage done to the UPFA's
claims to represent a broad cross-section of Sri Lankan
society--could be substantial. (NUA's constituents are
largely Eastern Muslims; MEP's are Sinhalese Buddhists with a
similar ideology to the JVP's.) Moreover, the parties' two
leaders each head ministries crucial to tsunami
reconstruction efforts (NUA's Ferial Ashraff is Minister of
Housing, while MEP's Dinesh Gunawardena holds the Urban
Development portfolio). MEP Leader Gunawardena told the
press that the party will decide by the evening of June 27
whether to remain in the alliance.

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MUSLIMS: UNITED IN OPPOSITION?
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3. (SBU) With its support base in the tsunami-ravaged
districts of Ampara and Batticaloa, NUA's threatened
defection could prove particularly damaging to the GSL's bid
to portray the P-TOMS as an effort to ensure the equitable
distribution to tsunami-affected populations of all ethnic
communities. Both NUA and the SLMC have criticized the
P-TOMS as neglecting Muslim interests, citing in particular
the disproportionate representation given to the LTTE at the
regional level (five LTTE to three Muslims and two GSL),even
though Muslims comprise the community most heavily affected
by the tsunami, and the location of the regional committee in
Kilinochchi. Muslim leaders have also complained that they
were not consulted during the drafting and negotiation of the
text. On June 26 NUA Deputy Leader M.L.A.M. Hisbulla
resigned from his post as Chairman of Port and Air Services,
citing opposition to the P-TOMS, and challenged NUA Leader
Ashraff to decide within 48 hours whether she would follow
suit. Hisbulla, who heads the NUA District Committee in
Batticaloa, complained publicly that under the P-TOMS Muslim
tsunami victims from Batticaloa would have to travel to LTTE

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headquarters in Kilinochchi to pursue relief requests. As
of COB June 27, Ashraff had not announced her decision.


4. (SBU) On June 27 the Muslim Federation of Mosques in
Ampara, called a one-day general strike, or "hartal," in the
eastern coastal district to protest the P-TOMS, closing shops
and shutting down public transportation in Muslim areas.
(Note: Ampara town, which is predominantly Sinhalese, was
unaffected by the strike. End note.) Muslim MPs from the
SLMC and NUA traveled to Ampara to participate in the strike.
According to police sources and local residents, roads
leading to and within the Muslim coastal areas of Kalmunai
and Akkaraipattu were barricaded with burning tires in the
early morning, but security forces succeeded in clearing all
obstructions by about noon. There were no reports of
violence in the area as of COB June 27.


5. (C) In a June 27 meeting with poloff, Nimalan
Karthikeyan, a pro-LTTE member of the National Peace Council,
said that the Muslims' main grievance is that they had not
been adequately consulted. Karthikeyan claimed that the LTTE
had been particularly scrupulous in safeguarding Muslim
interests during the P-TOMS drafting/negotiation process,
insinuating that, were it not for the Tigers, the Muslims
might have been left with no representation at all.
(Comment: We are skeptical of the accuracy of this account.)
Now that the deal is signed, Colombo politicos, rather than
Muslims in the field, are raising the main objections, he
asserted. The LTTE maintains excellent relations at the
grassroots level with the Federation of Mosques in the east;
Colombo politicians' jealousy of those ties may be partly
behind their opposition to the joint mechanism now, he
suggested. When poloff observed that the Federation of
Mosques was now spearheading an anti-P-TOMS hartal,
Karthikeyan again blamed Colombo politics and personal
rivalries for impelling the protest.

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JVP: SLOGANEERING AND
LITIGATING
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6. (U) On June 26 JVP leaders held a press conference in
Colombo to explain (again) the party's opposition to the
agreement. JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe demanded that
the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) table the document in
Parliament (neglecting to mention, as reported reftel, that
when the GSL attempted to do just that on June 24 his MPs'
disruptive behavior caused the session to be adjourned).
Amarasinghe stressed that JVP opposition to the P-TOMS would
form the crux of any future election campaign--whether for
Parliament or the presidency--and invited all "progressives"
and "patriots" to join hands with the former Marxists in this
endeavor. He added that the JVP planned to contest the
legality of the P-TOMS in court. True to Amarasinghe's word,
on June 27 JVP MP and former Deputy Minister of Small
Industries Sunil Handunetti filed a fundamental rights case
with the Supreme Court, alleging that the P-TOMS infringes
upon his civil rights.

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JHU TO ACCUSE PRESIDENT OF
TREASON, MENTAL INFIRMITY
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7. (C) The JHU, meanwhile, is contemplating its own
challenges to the P-TOMS. JHU Administrative Secretary Udaya
Gammanapila told us on June 27 that the party plans to take
legal action against River Basin Development Minister and
Leader of the House Maithripala Sirisena (for trying to table
the agreement in Parliament on June 24) and Rehabilitation
Secretary M.S. Jayasinghe (for signing the agreement on

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behalf of the GSL). Gammanapila said the JHU will ask the
Court to annul the civic rights of the pair on the grounds
that they had promoted the separation of the country through
their actions. (Note: Under the Sixth Amendment to the
Constitution, "No person shall, directly or indirectly, in or
outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance,
encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate state
within the territory of Sri Lanka." Anyone convicted of so
doing is subject to asset forfeiture, forfeiture of public
office, and the loss of his civic rights for up to seven
years. Civic rights include the right to hold public office,
vote, own property and hold a passport.) Constitutional
lawyer Saliya Peiris, however, told us in a separate
conversation that the JHU would be unable to follow through
on this plan since Sixth Amendment cases can only be filed by
the Attorney General. He speculated that the JHU would
follow the JVP's lead in filing a fundamental rights case
against the P-TOMS instead.


8. (C) Gammanapila also declared that the JHU plans to file
an impeachment motion against President Kumaratunga on
various grounds, including "mental infirmity," treason,
violation of the Constitution and misappropriation of
presidential powers. He said that the JHU has already
submitted to a group of psychiatrists in the UK a collection
of speeches made by the President on different occasions and
asked the doctors to analyze her mental stability. In
addition, he reported, members of the Buddhist clergy will
urge the four chief prelates, or "Mahanayakes," to issue an
edict calling all Buddhist monks and laity to converge on
Kandy on July 1 for an anti-PTOMS protest.

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UNP SUPPORTS IN PRINCIPLE;
NOTES CONCERNS
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9. (U) On June 27 United National Party (UNP) Spokesman G.L.
Peiris held a press conference to announce that the main
opposition party supports in principle the establishment of
the P-TOMS insofar as the agreement provides humanitarian aid
to the tsunami-affected and operates within the parameters
set out in the Oslo Communique and the Tokyo Declaration.
That said, Peiris went on to note several perceived flaws in
the agreement, citing in particular the lack of adequate
representation for the Muslim community and the failure to
stipulate clear provision for representation of the Sinhala
community.

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COMMENT
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10. (C) Part of the reason Muslim concerns are so often
ignored in domestic political discourse is because the
community itself is deeply divided--largely along the fault
lines of the rival political ambitions of various leaders.
Like the JVP, these splintered parties may now find a
rallying cry--and a defining election platform--in opposition
to the joint mechanism. While the JVP decision to quit the
alliance over the P-TOMS may have been no surprise--and, in
some ways, possibly a welcome relief for the embattled
President--the threatened defection of NUA is another matter.
The GSL has tried to sell the P-TOMS to the Sri Lankan
public as a humanitarian agreement ensuring the equitable
distribution of tsunami aid to all ethnic groups. A NUA
walk-out over alleged neglect of Muslim interests would
clearly undercut these efforts.
LUNSTEAD