Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
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Short Fuse <strong>in</strong> <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>Appendix AWesterners are kept aware of post colonialist conflicts <strong>in</strong> Kashmir,Israel-Palest<strong>in</strong>e, Rwanda, and Sudan, but the decades-longconflict on the island nation of <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong> between a S<strong>in</strong>haleseBuddhist majority and the <strong>Tamil</strong> m<strong>in</strong>ority often seems a tragedy theWest would rather ignore. Recent events there suggest, however,that <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong> desperately needs help from <strong>in</strong>ternational peacebrokers if it is to avoid laps<strong>in</strong>g back <strong>in</strong>to a bloody <strong>in</strong>ternec<strong>in</strong>e warthat has been suspended s<strong>in</strong>ce a 2002 ceasefire.The outcome of last month’s presidential election has stokedfears that the war between the S<strong>in</strong>halese-dom<strong>in</strong>ated governmentand the Liberation Tigers of <strong>Tamil</strong> Eelam will resume <strong>in</strong> com<strong>in</strong>gmonths. The new president, Mah<strong>in</strong>da Rajapakse, won a narrowvictory <strong>in</strong> alliance with two hard-l<strong>in</strong>e S<strong>in</strong>hala nationalist partiesthanks to an election boycott by most <strong>Tamil</strong>s <strong>in</strong> the north of theisland.In Rajapakse’s <strong>in</strong>itial address to Parliament Nov. 26, he warnedom<strong>in</strong>ously that he will reject self-determ<strong>in</strong>ation for the <strong>Tamil</strong>s,that he is committed to a ‘’unitary state” controlled by the S<strong>in</strong>hala-Buddhist majority, that he wants to dissolve the current jo<strong>in</strong>tTiger-government adm<strong>in</strong>istration of post-tsunami relief, and thathe plans to term<strong>in</strong>ate a peace process that has been mediated byNorway.Two days later, the Tigers’ leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran,deliver<strong>in</strong>g his annual Heroes’ Day speech, restated the Tigers’familiar aim of self-government <strong>in</strong> a <strong>Tamil</strong> homeland, noted a‘’vast” policy difference between the new president and the Tigersand warned that <strong>Tamil</strong>s are los<strong>in</strong>g patience. ‘’The new governmentshould come forward soon with a reasonable political frameworkthat will satisfy the political aspirations of the <strong>Tamil</strong> people,” hesaid. If no such offer is forthcom<strong>in</strong>g, Prabhakaran said, the Tigerswill <strong>in</strong> the next year ‘‘<strong>in</strong>tensify our struggle for self-determ<strong>in</strong>ation.”This either-or threat, seen alongside Rajapakse’s own hard-l<strong>in</strong>estance, presages an imm<strong>in</strong>ent renewal of civil war.54