The ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers stipulated the recognition of authority and certain other allowances. But these agreed conditions have been violated by the Sinhala armed forces for long. Now this violation has turned into a full scale genocide of the Tamils.

A series of such instances could be cited. Violation of the ceasefire agreement, under cover of a shadow war between the Sinhala state and the Liberation Tigers, had exceeded it limits. The oppression unleashed on the Tamils has, in the immediate past, intensified in the Tamil homeland under the control of the armed forces creating a terror filled situation of great fear and anxiety.

In other words, whatever atrocities committed against the Tamils before the ceasefire agreement - in war time - are again unleashed on the Tamils in their homeland and have reached the peak. The recurrent oppressions:

1. Disappearance of persons taken into the custody of armed forces.

2. Assassinations.

3. Horrendous attacks and torture.

4. Sexual violence followed by murder.

These brutal acts of violence by the Sri Lankan armed forces increase with each day.

It is clear that a situation where none can stem these assassinations and oppressions has come to prevail. Particularly, the Sri Lanka Human rights Commission cannot do anything about this terrible violence. The representatives of the Human rights Commission in Jaffna themselves have given up and reported that the State armed forces refuse to co-operate with them in any manner.

It is also clear that the anti-Tamil bands do take part and assist the State armed forces in committing these acts of terror. These bands differ from region to region.

In the Eastern regions like Batticaloa and Amparai, the Karuna band play the important role and in Jaffna peninsula, it is the EPDP band which is engaged in similar atrocities. Though these two bands have different names their malicious acts are same in nature.

The assassinations in the Tamil territories have many and varied aims and objectives. Many prominent persons who had been steadfast patriots of the Tamil nation and who had tried to present the justified demand of the Tamils to the international community are the victims of these assassinations.

Journalists G.Nadesan and T.Sivaram, University lecturer Thambiah are some of these assassinated. Joseph Pararajasingam, a member of Parliament and an untiring human rights activist was the recent victim in this list of assassinations.

It is evident that attacks in revenge come next. For instance, when two young men of the Karuna band deserting the band after killing some of them, surrendered to the Liberation Tiger Organisation, sisters of one of the young men were brutally shot to death.

Murders of reprisals by the Sinhala forces are carried out in places where their cadres had been killed or attacked, and innocent people travelling through these places also have been beaten and killed. Many of the recent murders are of this kind.

In addition to these, many young men have been killed in fear and suspicion by the Sinhala armed forces. The fear arises from the suspicion that these young men are Tigers or an imminent attack by them. Relationship with the Liberation Tigers, supporting the Liberation Tigers are the reasons for suspicion and fear which result in these killings. The Manipay murders of a mother and her two daughters, and the deadly attacks on her husband and son fall into this category.

Apart from these customary violence, genocide had been carried out in pure, blind racial hatred. The murders of five University students in Trincomalee are the most important ones of this kind.

There cannot be any other reason than the racial hatred of the Sinhala regime and its armed forces. University students and those selected to enter the university were murdered while engaged in innocent conversation were murdered violently for no imaginable reason.

Whatever the reasons for these assassinations be, the strong base from which these arise are but the resolutions of the Sri Lanka state and its armed forces. In reality, these murders and attacks are carried out at the very insistence, assistance and blessing of them.

The new Military Chief Lieutenant General Fonseka employs genocide as his strategy to keep the north and east under his control. A few of his statements prove this fact beyond doubt.

Particularly, his conviction that all Tamils are to be suspected, and all those who had trained themselves in the art of self-defence are Liberation Tigers, the authority he had vested on his military troops to shoot anyone they suspect, make one to conclude that he has given his open blessings for the genocide of the Tamils.

The main reason for the Armed forces refusing to co-operate with the Jaffna district Human Rights Commission could only be the decision taken by Lieutenant General Fonseka. His decision is based on his conviction that there is no need to give a reason or to explain the arrests, disappearances and assassinations of Tamils by the armed forces.

There are others in the Sri Lanka Defence ministry who order the genocide of Tamils. Former Asst. Commissioner of Police and the present advisor for the Defence Ministry Kotagathenya and the Secretary to the Minister of Defence Kotabaya Rajapakse are some of them.

It is reported that the recent assassination of the students in Trincomalee was carried out at the orders of Kotagathenya. It is said that the special police commando force assassinated the students on the special orders of Kotagathenya.

The recent assassinations of Tamils and other such genocide attacks on them reveal that the Sinhala racist fanatics are ever ready to assist and approve the genocide killings and other such annihilation of the Tamils.

Such hostile activities of the Sri Lanka regime show that there is no possibility of solving the ethnic issue through peace talks. Escalation of anti-Tamil atrocities by the Sri Lanka state when Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister for Development and Peace talks of Sri Lanka and former special envoy is due to arrive in the island, tend to disrupt the very foundation on which the peace talks are to be held. In other words, they are but obstacles in the path of peace talks.

The venue for the peace talks and the subject to be first discussed were the main issues to be resolved until recently. But it seems that the situation has changed significantly. The Tigers are compelled to demand the Sri Lankan state's assurance to stop the assassinations committed by its armed forces and paramilitary bands.

The shadow war begun by the Sri Lankan state against the Liberation Tigers has now become the genocide of Tamils. No one can deny or reject this. If there is anyone who does so, they inevitably have a share in this genocide of the Tamils.

If the Liberation Tigers, in response to the Sri Lanka regime's shadow war on them, had paid pack in the same coin, and are said to be responsible for certain reprisal attacks as the government accuses them, such attacks would have been restricted only to the state armed forces and its auxiliary forces.

But today, the Sri Lankan state has unleashed an indirect war on the Tamils and this has now extended to a situation where innocent Tamils are being assassinated mercilessly. How far would it be possible to hold peace talks in this situation?

The activities of the Sri Lanka state clearly show that it has chosen genocide of Tamils as the only way to solve the ethnic issue. Though the Leadership of the Liberation Tigers has patiently tolerated the attacks aimed at them and the military challenges against them, it would not be that patient to tolerate the genocide of Tamils.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will be driven to seriously reconsider the ceasefire agreement and the option of peace talks to solve the ethnic issue, if the Sri Lankan state continues to choose genocide of Tamils as the only way to solve it.

It is time to think whether it is sensible to hold talks with someone who believes on genocide as the one and only way.

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