by Wakeley Paul; originally published February 5, 2004
WHAT’S NEXT ?
WAR OR RECOGNITION OF REALITIES ON THE GROUND
The question that confronts everyone, Tamils, Sinhalese and the international community is, how long are the Sinhalese parties in parliament intending to maintain the current stalemate? While nothing happens, who suffers more than the Sinhalese people? The Tamils have an effective government in the Vanni and can continue to administer their region effectively while the Sinhalese are left in a state of impotence.
This does not however, give us reason for complacency. Two things are certain. Peace negotiations are dead. What does this signify? Nothing other than the fact that the government is using this stalemate to rearm and ready themselves for war. Why else are there these feverish negotiations being conducted with the Indians to ‘sugar up’ their armed forces? The English Press in Colombo have continually claimed that the LTTE have used peace negotiations to rearm, while a final settlement is pending. They have used this as an excuse to justify the breaking off of peace negotiations by Sinhalese governments several times before. If that is so, I ask once again, why did Colombo bother with peace negotiations, if rearamament was, supposedly, the only Tamil motive? Their own illogic does not seem to bother them. Do they care, or do they even compehend their illogic?
Victim of Thiraikerni Massacre by STF & Muslim Home Guards. Photo: Tamilnet, ‘Human skulls, bones unearthed in Thiraikerni,’ October 13, 2003
What is the President doing while claiming a desire to renew peace negotiations terminated by her? Rearming with the Indians? It should be an obvious indication that the government is preparing for war; and the international community should be made increasingly aware of this. This should be an additional ground for withholding all aid to the government till they get their act together. Aid to rehabilitate the people of the Northeast, however, remains a priority for obvious humanitarian reasons.
This again does not give us cause for complacency, since the victims of war, if war is renewed, are the Tamils, not the Sinhalese. If the LTTE attacks Sinhalese in Sinhalese areas, they are immediately banned as terrorists, while the government is allowed to attack its own citizens with impunity. This dual standard has to be stopped and made evident to countries like the U S & Britain, who have so easily been persuaded by the S L government to ban the LTTE as a terrorist organization. Have they considered what a set of terrorist organizations successive S L governments have been toward the Tamils over the years?
The fact is that the LTTE, through a remarkably efficient administration, has done more to uplift the living standards of their people in 25 years than successive SL governments have done in 56 years. The LTTE should be an inspiration to such organizations as the World Bank and the IMF. The fact is the LTTE has not indulged in discrimination between its residents; while every Sri Lankan government has since its inception in 1948. The only victims of LTTE attacks have been those who actively tried to overthrow them. These were people instigated by the SL government to pose such an imminent danger to their existence, that there was no alternative but to take prompt action to prevent this type of an imminent coup. These are facts that our national and International community should not hesitate to emphasize to the world at large
Our public international relations organs, in whatever forms they exist, need to be revitalized and reinvigorated to emphasize these realities.