{"id":122169,"date":"2014-03-25T16:02:01","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T10:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=122169"},"modified":"2014-04-01T03:10:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T21:40:21","slug":"the-forever-war-military-control-in-sri-lankas-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-forever-war-military-control-in-sri-lankas-north\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forever War?: Military Control In Sri Lanka\u2019s North"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Crisis Group<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0heavy militarisation of Sri Lanka\u2019s northern province<\/a>\u00a0after the civil war\u2019s bloody end in 2009 has been the subject of growing domestic and\u00a0international concern<\/a>. The large numbers of military personnel in the north, and the deep involvement of the military in the province\u2019s governance, endanger the re-establishment of democratic institutions that is necessary to lasting peace (see our Nov 2013 report\u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s Potemkin Peace: Democracy Under Fire<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Faced with\u00a0international demands<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including from the\u00a0UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 to \u201cdemilitarise\u201d the north,\u00a0the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) claims<\/a>\u00a0it has significantly reduced troops levels. It also says the civilian administration is fully functional and that \u201cthe involvement of security forces in resettlement and reconstruction activities \u2026 is being gradually phased out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This narrative is largely fictional. Best estimates based on available public information indicate the number of military personnel in the north remains extraordinarily high. Evidence from the military\u2019s own publicity about its forces in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts reveals its deep involvement in civil affairs and administration, with the stated objective of\u00a0\u201ccontrolling and monitoring\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the civilian population.<\/p>\n

Adding up the numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0concerns around militarisation in Sri Lanka are not merely about numbers<\/a>, yet the social and political consequences of the sheer number of boots on the ground are themselves disturbing. The government and military routinely deny that the post-war north is overly militarised and periodically claim troop numbers are on the decline. In advance of this month\u2019s UNHRC meetings, senior government officials made a series of new claims in this regard.<\/p>\n

On 19 January, President Mahinda Rajapaksa delivered a speech claiming\u00a0the entire northern province held only 12,000 military personnel<\/a>, a \u201cdrastic reduction\u201d from 70,000 at the end of the war in May 2009, with fewer than 10 military camps in the whole of the north. Two days later,\u00a0a presentation made by his secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, to the diplomatic community in Geneva<\/a>\u00a0indicated that\u00a0army numbers in the north had fallen by a third, from nearly 120,000 in May 2009 to about 80,000<\/a>\u00a0toward the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside the contradiction between the president\u2019s figures and those of his senior civil servant, the one-third reduction in troops claimed by Weeratunga begins from an artificially low baseline figure. We know from defence secretary\u00a0Gotabaya Rajapkasa himself that<\/a>\u00a0the total size of the army at the end of the war was 300,000 (with 450,000 total military personnel), not the 200,000 claimed by Weeratunga in his Geneva presentation. Additionally, in 2009 and afterward, almost two-thirds of troops were stationed in the north. On this basis, even accepting Weeratunga\u2019s claim that the northern total has been reduced by a third since 2009, some 120,000 army personnel would still be stationed in the north.\u00a0 Considering that\u00a0the population of the northern province is 1,058,762<\/a>, this yields a density of one army member for every 8.7 civilians, an extremely high ratio considering that hostilities ended almost five years ago.<\/p>\n

\"map-sri-lanka-25march\"<\/a>

Source: Security Force \u2013 Kilinochchi<\/p><\/div>\n

It is also worth noting that Weeratunga\u2019s presentation refers only to\u00a0army\u00a0personnel and thus leaves out tens of thousands of troops with other services stationed in the north: at three large naval commands and allied naval detachments spread along the coast and islands, at air force camps and bases, and in special task-force and civil-defence force detachments. With these included, the ratio of all military and paramilitary personnel to civilians may well approach the 1:5 ratio\u00a0previous studies<\/a>\u00a0have indicated. (This is\u00a0even higher than the ratio of military personnel to civilians<\/a>\u00a0found today in Kashmir, at the height of the second war in Chechnya or the conflict in Northern Ireland, during the surge in Iraq, or even during the French occupation of Algeria.)<\/p>\n

Wildly contradictory figures for the number of troops in the north are nothing new. On 17 June 2012, defence secretary\u00a0Gotabaya Rajapaksa reported a substantial reduction in the military presence in Jaffna district<\/a>, saying just 15,600 personnel remained there.\u00a0This claim was widely challenged at the time<\/a>, not least because, as late as 9 July 2012, the website of the Civil Military Coordination (CIMIC) of the Security Forces Head Quarters, Jaffna, a website that is actively updated and maintained, stated that \u201c[o]ver 35,000 troops are under its command\u201d. The figures on the CIMIC website were taken down soon after this contradiction was pointed out.<\/p>\n

Repeated attempts to mislead the domestic and international community regarding the scale of the military presence in post-war northern Sri Lanka directly contradict the GoSL\u2019s stated commitment to restore democracy and civil administration to the north.<\/p>\n

Development as militarisation: the case of security forces in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the war, Sri Lanka\u2019s northern province saw the establishment of Security Forces Headquarters (SFHQ) in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. A close analysis of the organisation, mission and activities of SFHQ Kilinochchi \u2013 drawing from on-site observations and interviews as well as the army\u2019s own publicly available information \u2013 indicates the military has taken over civilian governance functions ranging from economic development and humanitarian assistance to maintaining law and order. Of particular concern is the elaborate and highly politicised architecture of surveillance and control woven into the military\u2019s extensive development activities.<\/p>\n

Security Forces Kilinochchi (SF-K) was raised on 29 June 2009\u00a0\u201cwith the objective of restoring peace and normalcy in the area in order to assist the rebuilding of Kilinochchi district.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0The headquarters complex is\u00a0presently located in Iranamadu,<\/a>\u00a0along the main A9 highway.\u00a0SF-K\u2019s capabilities<\/a>\u00a0include three army infantry divisions (the 57th<\/sup>, 65th<\/sup>\u00a0and 66th<\/sup>\u00a0divisions ), eleven infantry brigades, and thirty-nine battalions, including engineering, services and medical units. In addition, the area under SF-K also has detachments of the Navy, the Air Force and the Special Task Force, the paramilitary arm of the police.<\/p>\n

As in the case of other SFHQs, the Area of Responsibility (AoR) of SF-K does not correspond to long-established civilian administrative boundaries but includes a significant part of Mullaitivu district, while a part of Kilinochchi district that lies on the Jaffna peninsula is excluded. The AoR is divided among the three army divisions of SF-K as indicated in the map below.<\/p>\n

The SF-K website makes clear that the population of the AoR has been meticulously surveyed, with different units of SF-K given the explicit responsibility of \u201ccontrolling and monitoring\u201d specific sections of the population. For instance, the website notes that the 661 Brigade, part of the 66th<\/sup>\u00a0Division based in Pooneryn,\u00a0\u201cis Controlling & Monitoring 6595 Civil Population & 175 Beneficiaries & 18 not rehabilitated ex combatants\u201d<\/a>. Similarly, the 662 Brigade, also part of the 66th<\/sup>\u00a0Division, is described as\u00a0\u201cControlling and Monitoring\u00a011844 Civil Pop, 334 Beneficiaries and 30 not rehabilitated ex combatants\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The architecture to enable such \u201ccontrolling and monitoring\u201d is provided by a network of camps of varying sizes spread across the AoR. A number have recently been renamed \u201cCivil Affairs Offices\u201d, with a board outside prominently displaying the mobile numbers of three or four key personnel. These camps are first and foremost the eyes and ears of SF-K, also serving as launch pads for regular armed patrols, including on bicycles.<\/p>\n

Integral to this architecture are other regimes of surveillance and control. Crisis Group interviews with residents in rural Kilinochchi indicate that many from the local community have been recruited as informers. While this leads to an atmosphere of suspicion and fear within communities, it is a central part of the military\u2019s project of \u201ccontrolling and monitoring\u201d civilians.\u00a0 In a similar vein a hotel employee reported that they had been \u201cinstructed\u201d to have CCTV cameras on site. CCTV cameras are conspicuous by their presence even in ordinary restaurants in Kilinochchi, yet again raising awkward questions as to how the government can have it both ways: on the one hand, declaring that peace has come to the north; on the other hand, exercising draconian control over nearly every facet of civilian life, including eating out.<\/p>\n

More striking is the central role SF-K\u2019s development activities play in its clearly stated control and pacification agenda. Its web page on \u201cDevelopment and Employment\u201d lists as one of the objectives of its development interventions\u00a0\u201c[a]ssisting in image building of the Sri Lanka Army in order to pacify the differences from the local population\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Such ongoing work by the military runs counter to government assurances to members of the UNHRC that the army\u2019s role in civilian affairs is being \u201cphased out\u201d. Instead, nearly five years after the war,\u00a0military interference in civilian governance<\/a>\u00a0appears to be expanding rather than contracting. The SF-K website notes that the military\u00a0oversee several civilian projects and departments<\/a>, ranging from a housing scheme funded by the Indian government to the construction of nurses\u2019 quarters at the Kilinochchi General Hospital and road construction by the Road Development Authority.<\/p>\n

The SF-K website also refers to a scheme for\u00a0\u201cprovisioning of Labour for Public and Private Sector\u201d<\/a>, while noting that the \u201cprogress of the scheme is yet to be informed by all the formations and battalions\u201d. Promoting employment may be laudable, but the intervention of a powerful military establishment in the labour market raises many serious concerns, asCrisis Group has previously argued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is also clear that the SF-K is deeply politicised. The page on Development and Employment on SF-K\u2019s website carries photographs of events (see below) that are obviously integrated into the election campaign of the ruling United People\u2019s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). This is entirely consistent with\u00a0reports of the military\u2019s partisan role in the run-up to the recent northern provincial council elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Concerns over the large military presence in the north are compounded by the government\u2019s continuing efforts to mislead domestic and international audiences. Even accounting for an element of exaggeration concerning its own development footprint, there is no doubt that the military continues to exercise a high degree of control over all aspects of people\u2019s lives in the north. Reconciliation and lasting peace are made harder as a result.<\/p>\n

*Crisis Group\u2019s blog, \u201cSri Lanka\u2019s Search for Lasting Peace\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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