Sri Lanka's Uncivil War

Boston Globe editorial, June 29, 2006

THE FESTERING ethnic conflict in the island nation of Sri Lanka receives little attention here, but recurrent bouts of violence there between the government and minority Tamils have taken 70,000 lives since 1983. And now, after a suicide bomber killed the deputy chief of the Sri Lankan army Monday, there is reason to fear that an already tattered cease-fire signed in February 2002, between the government and the rebel Tamil Tigers is about to be submerged in another round of bloodshed.

There have been helpful calls for restraint from the outside world. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on both sides to return to peace talks under Norway's auspices. The Norwegian government's special envoy has admirably pledged to persist in Norway's mediation efforts, saying: ``Norway remains committed to Sri Lanka in good times and bad times." But international mediators and cease-fire monitors can do only so much if the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka and Tamil Tiger leaders do not act to prevent a renewal of civil war and forge a durable peace agreement.

At present, the two sides appear far apart. The memory of old atrocities seems to overwhelm a recognition of the need to accept compromises for the sake of peace. Tamils harbor deep and justified grievances over the discrimination they have suffered at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. The suicide bombings and assassinations carried out by the Tigers over the years have left government officials and many Sinhalese so fixated on their exposure to terrorist violence that they ignore the injustices Tamil civilians in the north and east of the island have suffered.

A political solution is needed. It will have to include a new constitutional arrangement that frees Tamils in the northeast from submission to the Sinhalese-dominated central government. The assistant US secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, offered a useful outline of such a solution this month in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, when he said: ``Though we reject the methods that the Tamil Tigers have used, there are legitimate issues raised by the Tamil community and they have a very legitimate desire, as anybody would, to control their own lives, to rule their own destinies, and to govern themselves in their homeland, in the areas they've traditionally inhabited."

This acknowledgment of a Tamil right to self-rule in their own homeland marks a welcome evolution in US policy. The international community should press the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers alike to come to the negotiating table in Oslo and work out a loose confederation that retains Sri Lanka's unity, grants the Tamil northeast self-governing autonomy, and puts an end to the island's long agony. 

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Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe
from E Satkunarajah, June 29, 2006

Dear Editor,

Re:  Sri Lanka's uncivil war, Editorial on June 29th, 2006

The 'uncivil' war has been going on in Sri Lanka for well over 20 years between the Sri Lankan Sinhalese ruling elites led by successive Governments of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and Tamil minorities led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  As quite rightly pointed out in your editorial more than 70,000 people have been killed in the uncivil war so far.

If a full blown war breaks out with the woefully amassed modern and dangerous war machineries by both warring parties, further hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives will be lost in no time and the country will be burnt to mere ashes.

This is the real, bleak prospect the Sinhalese and Tamils face, whether one likes it or not.  It is about time the Sinhalese leaders make a bold move to solve this long, ugly agony of the island.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, stated rightly in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, that, `Though we reject the methods that the Tamil Tigers have used, there are legitimate issues raised by the Tamil community and they have a very legitimate desire, as anybody would, to control their own lives, to rule their own destinies, and to govern themselves in their homeland, in the areas they've traditionally inhabited."

The biography of the founding father and a greatest architect of the beautiful, prosperous country of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuvan Yew, "Man and His Ideas, "
quotes Mr. Lee as saying about Sri Lanka, "We have got to live with the consequences of our actions and we are responsible for our own people and we need to take the right decision for them." He further said, "The country [Sri Lanka] will never be put together again, somebody should have told the leaders then, 'loosen up or break off,' but the Sri Lankan leaders were either wrong or
too weak at that time."

In its conclusion, the Boston Globe editorial said, "The international community should pressure the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers alike to come to the negotiating table in Oslo and work out a loose confederation that retains Sri Lanka's unity, grants the Tamil northeast self-governing autonomy, and puts an end to the island's long agony."

Mr. Lee Kuvan Yew's statement in that recently published book, US Assistant
Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher's
recent speech in Colombo and the Boston Globe editorial today have the best clues so far from any quarter, be it local or international, to resolve this protracted "uncivil" war between Sinhalese and Tamils.

The time has come for the International Community to play a decisive role in resolving the longstanding Tamils struggle in Sri Lanka. The last four years of peace talks between the GoSL and the LTTE did not bear any fruit and only dangerously widened the gap between the two warring parties to a level that is now unbridgeable.

The international community should decisively act by allowing the Tamils to rule themselves, in their homeland looking after their own lives and affairs with their freedom like any other people in the world.

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