The resolution passed by the Tamil National Alliance in the Northern Provincial Council of Sri lanka on Thursday asking the Army to vacate the province by the end of the year is seen by the observers as the secessionist group's attempt to liberate itself from the island nation and declare itself as an independent Tami Eelam (country).
The TNA, an umbrella organisation of all groups demanding the creation of a separate Eelam in Sri lanka has been demanding the withdrawal of forces stationed in the Northern Province which witnessed a bloody civil war for almost three decades between the federal Government and the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the most dreaded terrorist organisation in the world.
While the TNA claims that the Sri lankan Army has taken possession of 67,000 acres of cultivable land, facts released by the Opposition Eelam Peoples Democratic Party and the Army are entirely different. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary, in an exclusive interview to The Pioneer said that the Army holds less than five per cent of the land which it had taken under possession during the Eelam War of 2009. "We removed the land mines installed by the lTTE from most of the area and handed the land back to its original owners. De-mining of the remaining areas is under progress," said Rajapaksa.
S Thavarajah, leader of the Opposition EPDP said the Army and the police together control only 5.6 per cent of the total land area of the Jaffna district. R Sampanthan, member of Parliament and leader of the secessionist TNA while addressing the annual convention of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a major constituent of the TNA, has declared that a sovereign State of and for the Tamils, one in which they enjoy absolute rather than shared or devolved authority, remained the goal.
"The TNA asking the lankan Army to vacate the Northern Provincial Council is similar to the Tamil Nadu Government asking the Southern Command of the Indian army to vacate from the State," opined a veteran bureaucrat in Chennai.
People in Northern Province too expressed their reservations over the TNA demand. "Since the stationing of the unit of the Army here, life is peaceful. We would like the Army to stay back in its present form," said a senior Jaffna citizen, He scoffed at charges by the TNA that the Army is intrusive. "I am a Tamil and I have not been put into any kind of inconvenience by the Army," he said on condition of anonymity.
Subramanian Swamy, senior BJP leader and a Sri lanka expert, pointed out that the demand by the TNA is with ulterior motives. "The region saw a 35 year long battle which claimed nearly 1,00,000 lives. The remnants of the lTTE are still active everywhere including Tamil Nadu. You need a surveillance and security mechanism to ensure peace and tranquillity," said Swamy.
lalith Weerathunga, Sri lanka's top bureaucrat and permanent secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the Government was ready to hold a referendum in Northern Province about the presence of the Army in the region. 'We are sure the people in the province would demand the continuation of Army," said Weerathunga.