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Jaffna councillors resign en masse

By V. S. Sambandan

COLOMBO FEB. 13 .Twenty-three members of the Jaffna Municipal Council resigned en masse today, following their inability to re-open the town's public library as scheduled tomorrow. Public pressure, reportedly backed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had put off the event.

According to sources in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, the re-opening of the library — which was razed to the ground in 1981 allegedly with state connivance - was put off following protest by `people's organisations''.

The event was also to be a major landmark in the affairs of the Jaffna Municipal Council, which is to be dissolved in a few days on completion of its one-year extension. The leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), V. Anandasangaree, was scheduled to have inaugurated the event and two Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers were to fly to Jaffna tomorrow for the formal re-opening.

The Jaffna Municipal Council has 23 members. The TULF, with nine members, held the Mayoral position. The PLOTE (six), the EPDP (six) and the EPRLF (2) are the other parties represented in the Council.

Talking to reporters in Jaffna, the councillors cited the "inability to work in a democratic framework'' as the reason behind the mass resignation. Of the parties, the TULF is a part of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which sees the LTTE as the `sole representative'' in the negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government.

Tamil political sources see the long shadow of the LTTE behind the non-event. The Tigers have reportedly expressed their view that the library should not be re-opened as the "work was still unfinished''.

The library was reconstructed over the past two decades with significant international support, including donation of books by India. The opening would have also come as a prelude to a year of the ceasefire agreement, which falls later this month.

Political analysts also see behind this latest deadlock the absence of reconciliation during the year-long ceasefire. "There are negotiations, without any reconciliation'', Jayadeva Uyangoda, Professor of Political Science, Colombo University, said. Late last night a group of civilians, reportedly from an LTTE front organisation, locked the old library premises from where books were to be shifted to the newly constructed one.

The latest stalemate is also reflective of the LTTE's resistance to the extension of Colombo's powers in the Tamil-majority north and east. During the ceasefire period, the Tigers held their territory that they gained earlier by pushing back Government forces. However, the Jaffna Peninsula, which was won by the Government in 1995, still remains elusive for the Tigers.

The latest development is also symbolic of the shrinking space for democratic politics in the conflict resolution process in that it prevents the Government and the elected Municipal Council from carrying out their activities.

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