THE Rajapakse dictatorship in Sri Lanka, which is backed with British finance and arms, and British big business investment, is continuing with its dictatorship over both the Tamil people and the Sinhalese workers.
There are now hundreds of thousands of Tamils in internment (concentration) camps in the north of the island, living in the foulest conditions possible, with an absolute minimum of food and medical treatment in camps that are susceptible to flooding.
The regime’s spokesmen say that the interned are still ‘mentally’ with the Tigers, but that they are being re-educated, and the Tiger cadre is being rooted out, a process that may take years!
As well, there are thousands of political prisoners, both Tamil and Sinhalese, being held without trial in Rajapakse’s jails, including journalists who have had the courage to speak out against his regime and its oppression of the Sri Lankan people.
The latest journalist to be jailed, after another rigged trial in the High Court, is JS Tissainayagam. He was found guilty under the regime’s notorious ‘anti-terror’ laws of ‘causing communal disharmony’.
This charge is being made in a country where the oppression of the Tamil minority, by pogroms and military massacres, has been standard practice since 1948.
Tissainayagam was arrested on March 7, 2008, when he went to the Sri Lanka Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) to look for his journalist colleagues Jasikaran and Valarmathy who had disappeared. He was detained for almost six months without charges, and then charged with inciting violence in articles in his magazine, the North Eastern Monthly, which is now closed. He was also accused of receiving funds from the Tamil Tigers rebels. He has denied the charges and intends to appeal.
His supporters are spelling it out that the regime is now using its anti-terror laws to quash all dissent and to cement the Rajapakse dictatorship, which has just secured a huge IMF loan to pay for an expansion of the military.
His supporters also spell out that Rajapakse’s regime is making Sri Lanka a no-go area for journalists, who now fear that they will be the victim of ‘white van’ death squads that serve the interests of the regime.
It is their opinion that since its military victory over the Tamil Tigers (secured with the full support of the international community) the regime is determined to silence all critics, by making them all fair game for ‘white gang’ death squads, by describing them as enemies of Sri Lanka.
The object is to turn Sri Lanka into one big prison camp.
The proof of this is that although the war is over and hundreds of thousands of Tamils are being kept in internment camps, the regime plans to increase the size of the military from 200,000 to 300,000 men under arms. This will be more than twice as big as the British army, which has been fighting at least two wars at a time for the last 20 years or so.
The need for this overwhelming force arises from Rajapakse’s main role, which is to protect the massive investments by British and international capitalists in Sri Lanka, especially in the big garment factories and in the tea and rubber industries.
With the world capitalist crisis raging, the international banks and bosses want to see further cuts in wages in Sri Lanka and trade unions smashed, as well as the privatisation of state owned industries.
They also want the IMF and other loans paid back in full, and on time, including the considerable interest payments.
The big army, the various police forces, the ‘white van’ killers will be used against the working class of the island regardless of nationality.
The way forward in Sri Lanka is through the revolutionary unity of the Sinhalese and Tamil workers to bring down the Rajapakse regime and bring in a workers and small farmers government. This will nationalise the banks and macjor industries, annul the foreign debts, and give the Tamil people the opportunity to decide their own future.
