Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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Short Fuse in Sri LankaAppendix AWesterners are kept aware of post colonialist conflicts in Kashmir,Israel-Palestine, Rwanda, and Sudan, but the decades-longconflict on the island nation of Sri Lanka between a SinhaleseBuddhist majority and the Tamil minority often seems a tragedy theWest would rather ignore. Recent events there suggest, however,that Sri Lanka desperately needs help from international peacebrokers if it is to avoid lapsing back into a bloody internecine warthat has been suspended since a 2002 ceasefire.The outcome of last month’s presidential election has stokedfears that the war between the Sinhalese-dominated governmentand the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will resume in comingmonths. The new president, Mahinda Rajapakse, won a narrowvictory in alliance with two hard-line Sinhala nationalist partiesthanks to an election boycott by most Tamils in the north of theisland.In Rajapakse’s initial address to Parliament Nov. 26, he warnedominously that he will reject self-determination for the Tamils,that he is committed to a ‘’unitary state” controlled by the Sinhala-Buddhist majority, that he wants to dissolve the current jointTiger-government administration of post-tsunami relief, and thathe plans to terminate a peace process that has been mediated byNorway.Two days later, the Tigers’ leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran,delivering his annual Heroes’ Day speech, restated the Tigers’familiar aim of self-government in a Tamil homeland, noted a‘’vast” policy difference between the new president and the Tigersand warned that Tamils are losing patience. ‘’The new governmentshould come forward soon with a reasonable political frameworkthat will satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamil people,” hesaid. If no such offer is forthcoming, Prabhakaran said, the Tigerswill in the next year ‘‘intensify our struggle for self-determination.”This either-or threat, seen alongside Rajapakse’s own hard-linestance, presages an imminent renewal of civil war.54
Former President Bill Clinton, who toured government-controlledareas of Sri Lanka Tuesday as a UN special tsunami envoy,grasped the danger looming over the island should the currentceasefire be washed away. ‘’Any recovery progress achieved thisyear will be quickly reversed if Sri Lanka returns to civil conflict,”Clinton warned.Sri Lanka has limited strategic importance for the United States,but America’s new strategic partner, India, has much to fearfrom a recurrence of warfare between the Tigers and the island’sSinhala-dominated government. India and the United Statesshould bring international pressure to bear on the island’sbelligerents to sustain the current ceasefire and craft a politicalresolution that recognizes the Tamil need for self-government.(Boston Globe – Editorial of 4 th December 2005)55
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ContentsIntroduction ..............
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IntroductionThe prospects for peace
Page 17 and 18: that I haven’t voted in the elect
Page 19 and 20: Is Peace Feasible?- Wakeley Paul[Wa
Page 21 and 22: In short, Rajapakse’s conception
Page 23 and 24: their leader should be? Obviously n
Page 25 and 26: The Vaddukodai resolutionIf there i
Page 27 and 28: due to the depopulation of vast are
Page 29 and 30: east because the Muslims reacted to
Page 31 and 32: usually tends to be obfuscated in d
Page 33 and 34: consider federal structures based o
Page 35 and 36: The official languageThe question o
Page 37 and 38: the LTTE-led Tamil National Movemen
Page 39 and 40: the LTTE to deliver humanitarian ai
Page 41 and 42: to power sharing. This behaviour, t
Page 43 and 44: political stand of the overwhelming
Page 45 and 46: Sudan’s Interim Power-sharing and
Page 47 and 48: of Norway and with the support of t
Page 49 and 50: inception of the CFA, they laid out
Page 51 and 52: determination, many analysts and co
Page 53 and 54: The peace talks were mediated by th
Page 55 and 56: Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam: The Part
Page 57 and 58: e trusted on a permanent basis. The
Page 59 and 60: their times and climes but their vo
Page 61 and 62: 4. Consequently the feeling of a mi
Page 63 and 64: The Armed StruggleIn the arena of c
Page 65: aircraft, the world has chosen to l
Page 69 and 70: epresentative, was “review of the
Page 71 and 72: says: “The governments of India a
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Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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