Agence France Presse

Colombo, July 15:

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court today effectively blocked a controversial government deal with Tamil Tiger rebels to share billions of dollars in foreign aid for tsunami survivors. Chief Justice Sarath Silva said locating the headquarters of the proposed Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) in a rebel-held area was illegal. The proposed fund to which international donors were expected to contribute was also illegal, the judge held. The court ruling effectively blocks the aid deal that was arranged by Sri Lanka’s peace broker Norway, which has been trying to bring the rebels and the Colombo government back to the peace negotiating table they left in April 2003. The chief justice ordered four crucial clauses in the P-TOMS agreement suspended until the conclusion of a petition against the deal. The next hearing was fixed for September 12.

The Marxist JVP, or People’s Liberation Front, challenged President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s move last month after quitting her coalition government in protest. The court held that the president had the right to enter into a deal with the Tigers, but that four clauses in the agreement went against the constitution. The court ruling came a day after the government named Constitutional Affairs Minister DEW Gunasekara as its nominee to be one of the three members of the P-TOMS governing body. The joint mechanism was yet to begin its work as the nomination of members by the Tigers and the country’s second largest minority, the Muslims, was still awaited. The custodian of the P-TOMS funds was going to be an international lender and the headquarters of the mechanism was to be in the town of Kilinochchi, which is also the political headquarters of the Tigers. Sri Lanka’s international donors had insisted on the joint mechanism so that they could channel aid to it rather than directly to the guerrillas. A report said the Tamil Tiger today announced they may have to start using their own armed escorts for guerrillas traveling through government-held areas, defying Sri Lanka’s three-year-old truce and pushing it to the brink of collapse. Another report said police have sent hundreds of reinforcements to the restive northeastern region as tensions mounted after troops shot dead a suspected Tamil rebel.