Although this is from Asia Times, it seems pretty credible, I have read Indian reports claiming that Pakistani Jihadi groups have been activrely recruiting amongst Sri Lankan Muslims, who in these case support their Buddhist dominated government against a Hindu dominated seperatist group.
A wave of tension is sweeping through Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province following the killing last month of around five Muslims, allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In this atmosphere of mounting uncertainty, Muslim extremism appears to be gathering momentum in the eastern parts of the island. According to media reports, hardliners within the Muslim community are winning support for the idea that Muslims must take up arms to protect themselves from attacks by LTTE militants. Some reports suggest that they have established links with Islamic militants overseas. The Associated Press (AP) cites a Sri Lankan police intelligence report that says that Islamic extremists have already set up two training bases. While serious weapons training at the bases is yet to begin, the intelligence report says that the emphasis now is on raising the level of anger among Muslims to prepare them for a jihad. The AP report admits, though, that "no one in the rice-growing area [in eastern Sri Lanka] acknowledged the [existence of] the bases". The report, however, observes out that "many people looked away" when asked about the weapons training bases.
| Was AP always that mealy-mouthed about reporting events? Or did I just not notice it before? |
From the mid-1980s onwards, there have been occasional reports of Muslims receiving funds and arms from sources in the Middle East. If the present reports of mounting Islamic extremism are true, it signals a worrying complication in the Sri Lankan conflict. It is in the island’s Eastern Province that interaction between the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim populations has been most explosive. Once a Tamil-dominated area, the province’s demographic composition has changed drastically, with the government settling Sinhalese there. Today, while the Trincomalee district — the northernmost of the three Eastern Province districts — has a large section of Sinhalese, Batticaloa is predominantly Tamil, while Amparai is mainly Muslim. The role of the Sri Lankan government in deepening Tamil-Muslim rivalry has been significant. Throughout the 1980s, for instance, much of the violence unleashed on Tamils and Muslims was the work of the government. A special task force is said to have played a huge role in inciting Tamil-Muslim communal violence. The LTTE did not trust the Muslims, many of whom were providing information to the armed forces. It hit out against the "traitors". The government armed the Muslims, who in turn trained their guns on unarmed Tamils in the East. In 1990, the LTTE drove out about 65,000 Muslims from the north. Muslims were massacred in the east as well. Having failed to win the support of the Muslims, it was said, the LTTE decided to evict them from the north.
As in the 1990s, so also today, the LTTE’s hostile policy towards Muslims seems to make little sense. The Tigers need Muslim support to achieve their goals and they are an important part of its logistics network. If the killings were indeed the work of the LTTE, it is likely that it is convinced that however much it may work to appease the Muslims to win their support, they are unlikely to throw in their lot behind the Tigers. Hence, the reversion to violence against the Muslims. Perera says that the killing of Muslims lies is part of the LTTE’s twin-track policy. "The political track is currently epitomized by the deliberations in Paris regarding a response to the government’s proposed interim administration for the northeast. Tamil intellectuals from Sri Lanka and abroad are attending these deliberations. These deliberations are expected to yield a demand from the LTTE that would ensure virtually total political control over the northeast. The military track, however, operates on a parallel, and is not subordinate to political imperatives. The intimidation and coercion of the Muslims is part of the LTTE’s strategy to physically dominate the northeast." |