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

IntroductionThe prospects for peace in Sri Lanka are decidedly grim.There are good reasons to believe that the fragile Cease-Firebetween the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam may not hold for much longer.President Rajapakse has foreclosed all avenues for meaningfulresolution to the conflict by denying the existence of a TamilHomeland and a Tamil nation in the Island of Sri Lanka. Also, hehas strongly articulated his commitment to the preservation ofthe unitary state and Sinhala hegemony.The Tamil leader, Mr Velupillai Pirapakaran has acknowledgedthis state of affairs by pointing out: “The Tamil right to selfdeterminationwill never find space in the entrenched majoritarianconstitution and in the political system built on that constitutionalstructure. Our people have, therefore, realised that they haveno alternative other than to fight and win their right to selfdetermination.Self-determination entails the right to freely choose,without external interference, our political life” 1However, in a final attempt to bring about a negotiated politicalresolution Mr Pirapakaran has called on the new governmentto “come forward soon with a reasonable political framework thatwill satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamil people” At thesame time he has made it clear that this is the “final appeal”and should the Government reject this appeal. “We will, nextyear, in solidarity with our people, intensify our struggle for selfdetermination,our struggle for national liberation to establish selfgovernmentin our homeland 2 ”In the epilogue to his book ‘War and Peace ‘ in post ColonialCeylon, Adrian Wijemenne, a Sinhala historian concludes “TheSinhala leadership is notably pragmatic when it eventually awakesto the realities of the situation’ 3 .ix