Address Delivered to the People of Jaffna and the North
by President Chandrika Kumaratunga
January 8, 2001

"I would like to wish all of you a peaceful and happy new year. I will talk first of peace because my Government has given priority during the last 7 years to bringing in peace and to do all that is necessary to ensure the people of Jaffna and North and the East provinces of this country can live normal lives in peace and prosperity. My Government believes that one of its top priorities, one of the priority tasks that we have to address ourselves too is ending this most destructive war which has wreaked havoc and ceased much sadness in the lives of all of you.

We as a Government have done the maximum that any Government in this country or in any country has done in order to end the causes that have brought about the violence which affects your daily life and even ours. We have adopted a three pronged strategy in order to achieve this. Firstly, we have addressed the real problems of the Tamil people as well as the other minorities living in Sri Lanka, problems which have not been properly addressed by all Governments since Independence in order that the minority people, specially the Tamil people, can live with dignity with equal opportunity in this country. We have brought in many laws. The People's Alliance Government, my Government has brought in many laws to ensure the human rights of the persons. About 19 laws have been brought in by our Government in the last 6 years. We have in practice many procedures in order to ensure the safety of person and property of all people specially, the Tamil people. We have also taken many steps to ensure and guarantee that the Tamil people will have equal opportunities in eduction and in employment as far as possible, we seriously mean to guarantee the rights of the minority people. We have to do so legally through the constitution. My Government and I strongly believe that it is the best way of ensuring that the Tamil people, the Muslim people and all the minority people their rights. Especially, the way to ensure that they will not have to face the terrible violence that was unleashed against them under the UNP government in 1983, is to bring in a new constitution guaranteeing all the rights of the minority people and also devolving political power to the regions where there they live.

In order to do this within one year, in less than one year - of coming in to power my Government prepared a draft constitution including all these guarantees and devolution of power and presented it to the country. We invited the UNP, the main opposition party and the LTTE to discuss this draft constitution with us. We were willing to discuss any amendments, changes they wanted to propose but the UNP especially the LTTE has refused stubbornly to participate in any discussion which would guarantee the rights of the Tamil people.

Soon after our government coming to power - within ten days - I/as President of the country wrote to the LTTE Leader Mr. Prabhakaran inviting him to come for discussions. They agreed and we discussed for 8 months but the LTTE did not for one moment agree to discuss to end the war or how to solve Tamil people's problems which led to the war. All that they did during 8 months was to keep on asking for more and more things. We gave everything they asked for, except military advantages. We lifted the bans which the UNP Government had put on all food items, fuel, medicine, everything, which were necessary for the people but every time we asked the LTTE when will you start, when you will agree to start discussing on our proposals to solve the Tamil people's problems they said we don't want to discuss'. This is in writing in the letters that I wrote to Mr. Prabhakaran and the replies he sent to me.

The Government during the discussions with the LTTE in 1994, 95 gave almost everything they asked for. The LTTE did not give anything. They even lied during those discussions. They broke certain important agreements that we had and then finally, they made use of another facility the government gave the people of Jaffna and East which was the right to fish in the sea that was also banned by the UNP government and the LTTE made use of this facility which we gave to the people and attacked two naval boats in the Trincomalee harbour in 1995 April and began the war again.

The LTTE is solely responsible for the military operations that have been launched again under my Government in reply.

My Government dislikes war. We don't believe that war and violence can solve any problems in a durable fashion.

We are a democratic Government. We deeply believe in democracy and human rights and we see to the care of every citizen of the country whether they were Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or any other.

That is why as soon as we came into power I invited. I wrote to Mr. Prabhakaran inviting him to come to discuss seriously with us in order to stop the war.

Normally, a head of state of a legally elected sovereign does not write or talk to any terrorists, who belong to illegal organisations.

But I decided to write to the terrorist leader because I wanted very much as I do still to bring peace to Jaffna and to North and East of this country.

The LTTE has from 1994 since they broke the ceasefire agreement constantly refused to end the war. My Government was compelled to reply to the LTTE attacks and continued the war only because the LTTE has until now constantly refused to enter into serious negotiations.

We have invited the LTTE for the last 6 years - six and a half years - to enter into negotiations with us. Up to date they have not agreed. Even during the 8 months that the LTTE came to the negotiating table with us, they refused, as I said earlier, to discuss the final solutions to ending the war.

Now for the last 2 years up to 1999 the Government invited, agreed at the Norwegian government place the rule of a third party to try to find a way to get the LTTE to stop the war and begin to negotiate. They have refused up to now.

Now the LTTE says when they have still not agreed to discuss or to negotiate but suddenly they have declared a ceasefire for one month. As far as the Government is concern we declared no fighting we who invited the LTTE for discussions in 1994 and write through even through the Norwegians up to now. We took the initiative in the Government of Sri Lanka. We are willing to stop the war and call any ceasefires any time. But there is one condition.

Even the last time in 1994/95 when we discuss with the LTTE October 94, April 99. It was I and my Government that initiated the ceasefire proposal and the LTTE agreed. So there is no need to first declared us to ceasefire all that we are doing is because we want to ceasefire and end the war. But the condition that we are proposing very strongly is that after the ceasefire what. There is no point in having a ceasefire like the ceasefires that the LTTE agreed to under the UNP government on two occasions, under a our Government once in 1994/95. If it is only for the LTTE to prepare to comeback and continued the war, if it is only because the LTTE is weak that they want to get some time to get stronger in order to kill some more. We are ready for a ceasefire the LTTE is willing to agree to begin negotiations. They have up to now not agreed to this.

We have offered much more than a ceasefire for nearly 7 years, we have offered the Tamil people and the LTTE much more than a ceasefire. A ceasefire is only something temporary. We have offered permanent peace.

How do we achieve that peace. The only way to achieve that peace is for the two warring sides, the two sides that are engaged in the war is to agree to end the war.

My Government and I especially am 100% sincere in our desire to end the war I do not believe the LTTE wants to end the war.

It is because the LTTE, does not believe in democracy. The LTTE is not for giving human rights, democratic rights to the Tamil people. If they are for that, why do they kill so many Tamil people? Why do they kill all the democratic good leaders of the Tamil people? They have killed hundreds of them. Why do they grab your children 9, 10 year old children who should be in school and who should be looked after by their mothers and fathers and force them to become human bombs? They force them to hang a cyanide capsule round their neck and go and kill others. These children should be in their homes receiving the love and affection of their parents and going to school and receiving education.

The LTTE only believes as they have proved through action in the last 17, 18 years, they only believe in violence. They believe in dictatorship and forcing the will of a few LTTE leaders on the entire Tamil people and the entire country.

If the LTTE sincerely wants to end the war and truly believe in giving peace to the Tamil people, they have only do one thing, they have only to accept my invitation to come to discuss ways and means of ending the war and ensuring that the Tamil people can live in Sri Lanka with full equal opportunities like the Sinhalese and other people. We have to discuss this all, they have to accept our invitation to come to the negotiating table. Then we can discuss about a ceasefire.

A ceasefire without an agreement by both sides to enter into negotiations in order to end the war is only an empty promise. My Government has consistently said and we say even now we are willing to effect a ceasefire, but a ceasefire without an agreement from the LTTE to enter into serious negotiations on the serious matters that affect the Tamil people is pointless.

A ceasefire with out an agreement to negotiate is only a weapon used by the LTTE to continue to destroy the Tamil people.

I have now spoken to you about two of the prongs, on two out of the 3 aspects of the strategy employed by my Government in order to solve the Tamil peoples' problem and to end the war.

The two aspects if I may repeat are first the constitutional, legal and political proposals in order to guarantee firmly and on a long term basis the Tamil and minority people's rights.

That has to be achieved through a new constitution legally and politically. The sincere and honest will of the government is to implement what is contained in the new constitution.

My government has drafted the new constitution. We have done an immense lot of work to persuade the Sinhala majority people that this has to be done and the majority of Sinhala people have through 10 elections held in a short time of 7 years given us the approval to bring in the constitution and we have also obtained through long discussions with all the elected representatives of the people in parliament including all the four or five Tamil parties their consent. The representatives of Muslim people, Muslim parties too have expressed their agreement to bring this constitution. Only problem has been that we need 2/3 majority of MPP in parliament and for this we need the UNP support and they refuse consistently to support this.

But I can state very firmly, I can promise you that even if the UNP does not have the some of responsibility to agree to this in order that we may end the war and give the Tamil people their rights, we of the PA Government will find a way of bringing in the new constitution and implementing it, so that we can give the Tamils their rights.

The second aspect that I mentioned earlier, of our strategy is in order to end the war to negotiate with the LTTE and come to an agreement which will be satisfactory to the Tamil people, to the Sinhala people and to everybody.

But as I told you earlier the LTTE refuses to negotiate and as long as the LTTE does not agree to end the war, it is going to be very difficult for the government to end the war alone. But I believe that the Tamil people and all the people in the entire Jaffna peninsula and in the rest of the North want peace that they do not want the politics of violence of the LTTE and that the people had begun to tell the LTTE very firmly that they want to end the war. The people of the North compelled the LTTE to give up their violence to stop the war and agree to come to negotiations. My government will continue to try our maximum to bring the war to end as earliest possible.

The third aspect of our strategy for peace is to give an accelerated development programme to the North and the East which on one hand has been destroyed by the war and on the other hand war has been seriously neglected by all governments.

My government has spent billions of Rupees, thousands of millions of Rupees, to develop the North and the East. I will talk about the Jaffna peninsula and the North for example because I went to see the people of the North. We have after even while the LTTE was in control of Jaffna and the North in 95. I wrote to Mr. Prabhakaran offering a package, development package of 40 thousand million rupees for the North to develop the schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, irrigation etc. Mr. Prabhakaran wrote back to me saying I don't want your development. But after the LTTE was chased out the government took over a Jaffna peninsula and large areas of the North we have started development, we have spent hundreds of million of rupees in trying to develop the schools, hospitals, roads, electricity etc. The LTTE has constantly, killed or tried to kill government officers, government ministers and others and even your elected representatives such as two mayors, about 20 pradeshiya sabha members elected by the people of Jaffna. They have killed in order hoping they can stop the government's program to develop the areas.

The LTTE says they are liberating the Tamil people but I do not understand how they can liberate the Tamil people when they obstruct and destroy all the time the programme of the government is implementing in order to liberate the Tamil people from their poverty.

I have just returned from the aid group meeting of all the countries that give us money to develop Sri Lanka. The aid group meeting held in France. We discussed 4 major aspects for which the government and I have asked for aid from our donor countries from our friends abroad and one of the 4 programs that we have asked money for is the reconstruction and development of the North and the East. The donor countries are giving us a large sum of money, billions and billions rupees, that is thousands and thousands of millions of Rupees for this program for reconstruction and the development of the North and the East. Development work under this program in your areas will begin in a few months this year itself. It is the first time a government of independent Sri Lanka had drawn up and is implementing special program of development of the North and East.

The money we spend on this development programme for you, is not free. It is a loan given to us by donors and all of us and the whole country will pay 25-30 years for this programme which we are implementing for you.

And Mr. Prabhakaran and his LTTE has already begun to oppose this programme. They have begun to issue statements all over the world and through his office in London and everywhere else laughing at this aid that we have got to develop your areas and criticise the government.

The UNP has also now joined the LTTE in spreading a lot of lies and laughing at the government saying that we have obtained nothing. Is it nothing to obtain billions of rupees to develop the North and the East? This is also in addition to billions of rupees we have obtained for the development of the south.

I would now like to mention very briefly some of the major projects we have undertaken in the last six and half years for the North. For ex: we have given food, medicine and fuel to hundreds of thousands of people living in Jaffna and the North because they are supposed to be affected by the war. Even the UNICEF chairman sometime ago stated that Sri Lanka was perhaps the only country in the world that is giving food to terrorists that is killing the government forces and fighting against the government. But we still continue to do so even though we know that Mr. Prabhakaran takes most of the food we give to the people by force and only gives only a little to them and keeps it for his LTTE organisation. We still continue to give the food only because we want to help the civilian people of Jaffna and the North.

Up to now, even at this moment we are giving food and other rations to 3 hundred and 15 thousand people in the Jaffna district alone.

Even now in this new year we have sent 7,500 mt. food, rice, sugar, dhal and milk powder etc.

And I must specially mention here that in order to ensure the proper implementation of our programmes for the North. I have for the first time appointed a minister elected by the people of Jaffna to look after the development of the North - Hon. Douglas Devananda of the EPDP.

The new minister has been able to discuss with Government authorities, and private transporters and has been able to bring down the transport costs of food items, fuel and etc. that is being transported to Jaffna from approximately 50-60 US $ they were charging for 1 mt. considerably. We have reduced it to 30 US $ which is half the price. This should definitely reduce the price of food items and fuel etc. for all the people of Jaffna and the North.

We have also made arrangements in a regular manner to transport all produce of the farmers of Jaffna to Colombo so that you can get better prices. I also know that another very big problem that people of the North have is travelling from the north to the south and back again. The only reason for this problem is that the LTTE will not allow the Government to transport people or even the private people to take lorries from the road. We requested the LTTE constantly to open up the road but they refused. When we take people by ship, they bombed the ships but we will continue with the services. They bombed the ships and the planes. They have bombed, as you know, one private plane owned by a private company which was transporting dozens of people of Jaffna to Colombo and they killed all those people - people who were transported by air. Recently, my Government bought two ships at a very high cost which are luxury ships in order to transport passengers from the North to the South and back again. They began to operate transporting the people as well as the soldiers. The LTTE attempted to destroy both ships about two months ago when they were anchored in the Trincomalee harbour. They destroyed one quite badly and it is under repairs and caused damage to the other one which is also under repairs. Now we have engaged a private company. We have given them many facilities in order to transport passengers from Jaffna and back and that company is transporting at a very cheap rate and the government is paying them some money in order to do this at a cheap rate and we will continue to transport the passengers as much as possible. Even that is being obstructed by the LTTE. There is also problem for the Tamil people of Jaffna and the north to obtain permits to travel back and forth. I know there is a lot of problems in obtaining this. The main reason is once again that the LTTE misuses this permission that the Government gives and sends suicide bombers to kill people in Colombo, not only us of the government. They kill not only Sinhalese people and Muslim people, but they also kill Tamil leaders in Colombo, Very respected Tamil leaders such as Neelan Theruchelvam and so many others they have killed by sending people to Colombo making use of these permits. Therefore, I am sorry to say that the government is obliged to go in to the details of the people who are ask for permits. And this is a problem to the normal honest people. We do our best to simplify the procedures even further. But the only problem is that the LTTE also uses this gives false information and sends their suicide killers through process. I also like to inform that the Government officers, military officers, and defense personnel authorities and even the civilian officers also ask for bribes in order to give permission and in order to give the permits for your people to travel. Please inform me if any body has done this. I will give you a fax No. at the end of this. I would like you to note that and inform me to this fax number the names people who ask for bribes for anything at all. If they happen to be the Government servants I shall take immediate action against them. I am also aware that you who are living in the north and specially Jaffna peninsula have various problems which are due to the military operations going on. For ex. fishermen are not allowed to fish in certain areas. Then there is another problem in certain areas of Jaffna district and other places. Specially, in Jaffna which were inhabited by people earlier are now not given permission to live in this areas. All these difficulties arise only because certain precautions have to be taken to protect all of you the innocent people of Jaffna, to protect your elected representatives, your ministers, your members of Parliament, members of the MC and PS from getting killed by the LTTE. We have also to protect the military personnel who are there to ensure your safety and who are compelled to be there because the LTTE will not stop the war. I hope and I am sure we can change this whole situation. Once the LTTE agrees to our proposals to come to discuss with us and we find the solutions to end the war very soon. One of the problems I would like to mention is the problem of disappearances that existed in Jaffna before my Government came in to power. We have changed the situation very seriously for the better. When two sides are fighting against each other, specially at time of war it is known even in the west during times of war there have been violations of human rights. My Government has done our maximum in order to stop this and I believe that it has been reduced to the minimum. Whenever some violation of human rights have happened I have ordered that the strictest action be taken against the culprits. The personnel under my Government are not permitted to harass or harm civilian people. The UNP govt. instructed and ordered their thugs, their political thugs as well as the police and the military to kill and burn the Tamil people and their properties. We stopped all this. Thousands and thousands of people suffered like this under the last government. Under my Government a few hundred people may have been harmed may be hundred or two hundred, instead of 20-30 thousand and these are the exceptions, and at every time we have held serious inquiries, proper inquires, and we have taken action against the guilty. For Example there was the recent incident in Chavakachcheri, where some people I understand about 8 of them had been found killed. We have started inquires immediately, we have already arrested several army personnel. And we will take strictest action against them. Until we are able to terminate the war some of these problems may arise from time to time but I can assure you that my government, and armed forces will do our maximum to minimize the harassment and the problems caused to the civilian people. Finally, I would like to request all of you to give us your full support in order that we can complete the development work we have begun for Jaffna and the North and the East. To give your full support to Minister Devananda and all his officials and all other Tamil leaders who are trying to help to develop your areas so that you may live better. I would also like to request your full support to my Government and personally to me to finally implement the constitutional process that we have begun in order to bring in the new constitution so that we can guarantee the rights of the Tamil people and minority people and so that we can end the war in order that all the people in this country can live with equal opportunity in unity with each other. For this I believe that the people of the north specially must actively engage in persuading all those who are against the development work we have begun for you all those who are against democracy, all those who are continuing to carry on the war which creates so many problems to you in other words the people of Jaffna and the North to compel the LTTE to give up their politics of violence and to come in to the democratic process so that the Tamil people can have the rights that my Government has been trying to give them for the last 7 years. There has never been a government like this which has committed itself even while the LTTE's violence has tried to kill me as head of state, has killed several of my ministers, killed Tamil leaders killed, representatives elected by you, who were trying to solve your problems in the name of liberating of the Tamil people. The LTTE will have to be persuaded to agree to give up their violence and honestly join us in the process of helping the Tamil people to bring development to their areas to live in peace and dignity. I would now like to say good bye to all of you and in the meantime until I can come safely to Jaffna to see you, which I would like to do very much. But once again the LTTE prevents us from doing so, I would like to talk to you by means of the satellite where you can tell us your problems, and I could discuss with you the problems like I once did I think some time last year on a regular basis once in two or three months in different parts of the peninsula. I would like you to have all your problems written down so that we can discuss them when I address you through the satellite next time. Until then I would like to request you to inform me whatever serious problems you have not all small problems that can be solved there by the ministers and the members of Parliament, but what you would like me to solve. I would like you to inform me to the following fax number with your address or even without the address if you would not like to give and we will attend to the problems. The Fax number is 437065".