Feizal Samath:

The Sri Lankan government on Monday came under increasing pressure to demand that the World Bank withdraw its country director for ‘inappropriate” statements over disbursement of tsunami aid in Tamil rebel-held territory and urged the global institution that he be removed.

After the People’s Liberation Front or JVP, a key Sri Lankan government ally, on Monday blasted the World Bank country director for his comments, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar followed suit saying Peter Harrold’s comments were inappropriate. The JVP was incensed that Harrold, in an interview in The Sunday Times on Sunday, had said that the bank’s six billion rupees for tsunami-related work in rebel-territory would be disbursed through state agencies but in consultation with the Tigers. The JVP said in a statement that Harrold had overstepped his duties by making the controversial statement which threatened the sovereignty of the country.

Various other groups angered over the comments were featured in Monday’s newspaper, indicating that they would launch street protests against Harrold and call for his withdrawal. Only the opposition United National Party, which initiated the current ceasefire and peace talks, came to Harrold’s rescue. UNP spokesman Jayalath Jayawardena was quoted in the Island newspaper as saying that it wouldn’t be possible to launch any major rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement projects in LTTE-held areas without their co-operation.

The furore added more headaches to President Kumaratunga’s shaky year-old coalition, particularly plagued by repeated threats from the JVP to quit over various issues. The latest drama is an upsurge of violence in the eastern district of Batticaloa where LTTE rebels are battling to contain a revolt by one of its breakaway leaders. The tit-for-tat killing worsened last month when the rebel group’s eastern commander Kaushalyan, who took over from Karuna, was gunned down, triggering angry protest from the LTTE and threats to withdraw from a 3-year long ceasefire that has held steady despite problems. The killings escalated last week with six deaths and another high-profile LTTE official, the leader of the women’s wing in the east, being seriously wounded.

Kumaratunga last month appointed an independent panel to probe killings against LTTE cadres and allegations that government forces were lending support to Karuna’s group. That move too incensed JVP which feels the government is bending backwards to placate the LTTE.

The Marxist group in Monday’s statement questioned on what basis Harrold had said that the LTTE had an unofficial state and officially recognised the LTTE controlled area. It also queried as to how one could identify areas in the North and East as a separate state just because an armed terrorist group held those areas by force through killings.

The World Bank country director, criticised in the past too by the JVP, told The Sunday Times the funds were for tsunami victims and those displaced in the two decades of war. He said the World Bank was considering the LTTE as a key stakeholder.

Harrold was quoted as saying that it would be naïve for anybody, including the government, to think that they could successfully carry out operations in the North and East, some parts of which come under LTTE control, without having a dialogue with the LTTE or without bringing it in as a stakeholder.

Samath, a freelancer, writes for THT from Colombo