Roots of the Conflcit

Televison interview with Bob Rae, MP, Canada, March 03, 2009

Excellent 17 minute summary on the roots of the Sri Lankan conflict by Bob Rae, MP from Toronto, Canada.

http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?video?TAWSP_Int_20090303_779445_0

Bob Rae is the Liberal foreign affairs critic, MP for Toronto Centre, and a former premier of Ontario. In 2002 and 2003 as chair of the Forum of Federations, he helped oversee constitutional discussions between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels. Visit bobrae.ca.

An artilce from his website:

Tragedy in a tear-shaped country

By: Bob Rae 

February 4, 2009

Sri Lanka is the island republic off the coast of southern India. On a map it looks like a teardrop in the Indian Ocean. As well it should.

Lord Durham once referred to Canada as "two nations warring in the bosom of a single state." Tragically, those words resonate deeply as we learn more of the growing loss of life in northeastern Sri Lanka.

The tens of thousands of deaths, towns and villages destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people made homeless in this long conflict have not dominated the airwaves and televisions of the Western world.

Neville Chamberlain once referred to Czechoslovakia as "a country about which we know little." Unfortunately this civil war in Sri Lanka has gone largely unnoticed and unheralded for its full 30 years.

Seven years ago there was a window in this terrible tragedy, a ceasefire brokered by Norway in the wake of unprecedented bombings and a dramatic toughening of world opinion after 9/11.

As chairman of the Forum of Federations, I attended most of the negotiating sessions of the so-called peace talks, and met with the leaders of government, opposition, civil society and the LTTE, known as the Tamil Tigers. I have been back many times since.

It is impossible to say anything about what is happening without enraging opinion on both sides. But some things must be said.

The Sinhalese community - the majority population - took power after the departure of the British in 1949 and over a long period made a series of disastrous decisions: imposing their language and religion (Buddhism) as the only official expression of the country, limiting access to universities and the civil service by the Tamil community, and refusing to broaden the country's politics to allow an effective expression of Tamil opinion.

Repeated attempts by moderate Tamils to effect change were met by a stone wall of resistance. What had been a parliamentary issue became a violent struggle in the 1970s, with the Tamil Tigers emerging as the most powerful guerrilla force after that time. The Tigers were ruthless at killing their opponents in the community and insisting that they and they alone would represent the Tamil people. Their goal was an independent Tamil state in the north and northeast.

We are always looking for "good guys and bad guys" in a dispute. The Sri Lankan government, for example, insists that the only way to understand what is happening is that the Tigers are thugs and terrorists and have to be eliminated. The Tigers and their apologists will point to the evil of a corrupt government that they say wants to eliminate the Tamils entirely.

The Tigers are ruthless and have never made the transition from a guerrilla army to a democratic force. They use suicide bombers against civilians and recruit children into their army. But their support around the world is partly based on the sense of the Tamil people that they have never been able to find justice inside a failed state. That does not justify or excuse suicide bombings and the recruitment of children. But it does mean that the narrative of "they're terrorists and that explains everything" is simply inadequate.

Sinhalese nationalism has not been able to change much, and even during the peace talks it was impossible to get the government to lay out a new approach to governance that is essential to get to a durable peace. While many leaders privately admit that change needs to happen, they are not prepared to turn private words into public action for fear of arousing hard-line opinion.

The collapse of the peace talks in 2003, the tsunami, the escalation of killings and assassinations, and the official termination of the ceasefire by the government in 2008 meant that the advocates of a "military solution" on both sides won out. There are now 300,000 Tamils trapped in the northeast as the Sri Lankan military tightens its noose on what had been officially recognized as "Tamil territory" during the ceasefire.

These hundreds of thousands are not terrorists. The world cannot stand by and do nothing. The UN can't allow the Sri Lankan government to say "it's an internal matter" and stay away.

Nor can Canada, with its long history of engagement in this issue, stay silent any longer. We should be joining the UN secretary general, the European Union, Norway and Switzerland in insisting on the protection of civilian life, and real political change to respect the rights and interests of all communities in Sri Lanka.

Bob Rae is MP for Toronto Centre and foreign affairs critic for the Liberal party.

The vast majority of Tamil Canadians firmly believe that the West, including Canada, holds the key to peace.

Contact Information:

Email: raeb1@parl.gc.ca

Phone: 1-416-954-2222

Address: 514 Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario M4X 1P4

Fax: 1-416-954-9649