Sri Lanka is not many things to many people. It does not have a possibly jeopardized nuclear weapons cache; it is not a majority Muslim nation addled by a lingering Bush-era war nor is it the stage for a celebrity scandal of any sort. What Sri Lanka is to those who care, is a humanitarian disaster and a human rights catastrophe on a grand scale. How grand a scale you ask? As of yet we cannot know, due to the Sri Lankan government's policy of barring independent journalism from the war-fighting area and there is little public objection outside of Tamil expatriate communities in the West and among Indian Tamils to the north. Sri Lanka is a different kind of war than Americans are conditioned to hearing about in the last decade but it is an equally vile and draconian one nonetheless.
After the shelling of hospitals inside the war zone, this week President Obama finally spoke out on a situation that is considered by most in the internationalist community to have no impact on American foreign policy. Sri Lanka's conflict does contain a wide international dimension, particularly in the Commonwealth states, but without either ethnic side lobbying in Washington and lacking significant domestic diaspora here in the United States, the cries of its people fall on deaf ears. In a rare bit of humanitarian-speak on a war with no pipeline project on the horizon, the President stated: "Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe." Obama is behind the curve on Sri Lanka. Though he did not forecast any kind of serious political solution in his remarks, the president should be commended for raising the issue at all amidst the current clutter of crises in a situation of such wretched desperation. Obama asked the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms while failing to provide any possible incentive to do so. "Now is the time to put aside some of the political issues that are involved" Obama went on to say. However, in a war driven by such bitter ethnic politics, it is highly unlikely the Sri Lankan government will stop short of its long sought prize of destroying the Tigers as a formal fighting force on the island. Tamil fighters, who famously wear cyanide capsules around their necks in the event of capture, will fight to the last man (or child soldier). Velupillai Prabhakaran, the demagogue of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is a brilliant and ruthless military tactician but is not thought to be a particularly rational actor who can be easily dealt with the arena of international humanitarian law. The fact that President Obama did not address the political and military leaders in the war directly by name alludes to the notion that the White House does have the political will or expertise to intervene to stem the azure tide of the Indian Ocean from turning blood red.
According to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, "It is a disgrace that this war is being waged without independent journalists present. With a major humanitarian crisis and war crimes clearly taking place, the government must heed the international community's calls for a ceasefire and for better access for humanitarian workers and journalists."
Unlike the broken states of Afghanistan and Iraq, Sri Lanka has a very active tourism industry and aggressively courts well-to-do vacationers. No matter how bad the violence in the remote north and eastern parts of the island has been since the war began in 1983, Western visitors have not only failed to abandoned the place, rather they have invested quite heavily in its less restive west and south coasts. Go to a bar around the capital and you will meet plenty of people from Northern and Central Europe, many of whom proudly own businesses in the country that run the gamut from garment factories to bars to hotels catering to other Europeans.
Though those immersed in the expat scene generally spend their time very far from the frontline, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have, through the implementation of suicide terrorism, often brought the war to the streets of Colombo. In this silent war, Westerners are relatively safe since the war contains no inherent anti-Western dimension. Attacking or injuring outsiders has no tactical utility for either side in this conflict. The government has needed to keep attracting those with hard currency that help keep it afloat while the LTTE is adept at manipulating Western public opinion and using the West in its fundraising efforts to perpetuate their well-organized war. Several developed nations have taken the lead in trying to mediate the Sri Lankan civil war in recent years, particularly the Norwegians, who are often agitated by their domestic Tamil communities to intervene.
A defining element in the war is not of one religion in Huntingtonian terms but of the emphasis of religious difference between the two communities. Islam, which has been vilified by many pundits and politicians in the U.S. and in the E.U., is not a convenient scapegoat in this war. The belligerents in this case are a Buddhist-led government and secular Hindu rebels while the island's minority Muslims and Christians are caught in the middle. The LTTE's goal has been to formally secede from the Sri Lankan state by creating a homeland called "Tamil Eelam," a de facto independent entity that, until very recently, maintained the characteristics of a functioning bureaucracy. The notion of a Tamil refuge received ideological succor from their ethnic brethren in South India's Tamil Nadu state. Separated by the narrow Palk Strait, Sri Lankan Tamils are closely knit by both familial and cultural ties to their Indian counterparts. Delhi dances awkwardly around this war to its south. Indian elites have not forgotten that eighteen years ago the LTTE killed the grandson of Jawarharlal Nehru, India's political founder; while at the same time the central government does not want to stir the ire of a crucial vote bloc of 60 million Tamils in one of the country's largest states during an election cycle.
As a cohesive group, the LTTE is the world's most proficient employer of suicide terrorism. The Tigers clichéd terrorist superlative is that they are alleged to have killed not one but two world leaders, Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gadhi in 1991 and Ranasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka in 1993, and are the only non-state organization to do so. American readers may likely think al-Qaeda would hold such a position rather than a fiercely organized group of quasi-Marxist Hindus hiding in the jungle in the middle of the Indian Ocean. But Marxism and Hinduism have given way over the decades to pure Tamil linguistic and ethnic nationalism. Both the LTTE and those legitimate members of Tamil civil society accuse the Colombo government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of being Sinhala or Buddhist "Chauvinists". Perhaps the single greatest motivational factor in the instigation of the northern and eastern Tamil rebellion has been language. The government sparked the uprising by trying to insist Sinhalese be the only official language for its citizens as well as enshrining Buddhism in the constitution in a crude attempt at revitalizing the island's pre-colonial past. Though the government claims the Sri Lankan army is fighting for the reunification of the country, I saw propaganda posters pasted up around downtown Colombo depicting Buddhist monks blessing ethnic Sinhala soldiers as they prepare to head off to the battlefront.
The Rajapaksas are not wasting their time with any hearts-and-minds style rhetoric. Additionally, the acquiescence of the Buddhist clergy plays into the LTTE's cultish leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's I-told-you-so doctrine of Colombo as a racist, uncompromising regime that has it in for his people. Alongside the elimination of his Tamil competitors, the tone of discourse from the central government and the actions within the framework of its domestic military policy serve only to reinforce Prabhakaran's insistence that the Tamil Tigers are the sole protector of the Sri Lanka's Hindus. Now as Prabhakaran makes his last formal stand in a now miniscule, truncated version of the zone over which he had ruled, the future of the island's Tamil population remains in question. Meanwhile President Rajapaksa remains crassly unapologetic as Colombo's goal is finally within reach.
While the Sri Lankan government appears to be close to consolidating its territorial hold on the country's turbulent northeast, a massive humanitarian drama, largely unseen by the international media, is unfolding. Earlier this year, Dr. Palitha Kohona told PBS's Tavis Smiley that his government was not allowing journalists into the war zone because it was "not safe" and that it is imperative that Colombo's "guests in the country do not come to any harm." But it is precisely the job of journalists to put themselves in harm's way in order to get the story out. Though the international community and the UN have been far from totally complacent on the issue, there does not seem to be enough of an outcry from the larger global public to gain traction with the ruling Rajapaksa brothers. Tamil pop star M.I.A. has claimed there is an ordered genocide being conducted against the island's large Tamil minority. While there is not yet any supporting empirical evidence for such a genocide claim, Sunday's mass casualty attack taking some 380 civilian lives demonstrates both the ferocity of the war and the dearth of diplomatic leverage to stop it. As an impotent Security Council looks on, this "Bloodbath" continues to bleed. Aid workers and journalists must be let into, or make their way into, Sri Lanka's killing fields so that we have been deprived of the right to say we did not know.
Amarnath Amarasingam: The Problem with Karma: Notes from the Conflict in Sri Lanka
I do wish, now that the Indian elections are over, the government here would take concrete steps towards stopping violence. With this new government in place, I also see a more robust diplomatic dialogue with Pakistan too.
I doubt if one Westerner in 1000 has any real grasp of the issues...and it's obvious that most "news" reports about the conflict are biased one way or the other, further muddying the waters.
It will be interesting to see how the Sinhalese victors go forward in their treatment of the Tamil minority from here on. Triumphalism and continued disadvantages toward the Tamils will just push the mess under the rug for a little while.
Seems neither side is heeding the Pali Canon or Thirrukural, respectively.
For actual depth on this story I have been forced to turn to Indian newspapers like The Hindu who have to tread between the sensitivities of their own in Tamil Nadu and their kindred across Ram's Bridge, while ever mindful of Rajiv Gandhi's legacy. To India's credit, they have had to compromise when it comes to Hindi as a national language, and the Tamils there were forced to turn their backs on terrorism.
Interesting that President Mahinda Rajapaksehas been on a state visit in Jordan during this last offensive, too. I'm not saying it means anything, just an interesting little footnote.
The Sri Lanka government is fighting terrorists in Sri Lanka and all Tamils have a homeland in Tamil Nadu.
What the SL government is doing is nothing short of genocide. Caught between the LTTE and the SL army are the poor citizens who aspire to have equanimity and basic humanitarian rights.
http://sinhabahu.blogspot.com/
http://firstlanka.com/english/defence-news/kandy-bishop-satisfied-with-idp-facilities/
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090320_09
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items09/110409-5.html
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/16/stories/2009051656011500.htm
Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, the Tamil Tigers seem to be absolutely suicidal to continue. They are at such a tactical disadvantage and there is no way they will survive. They are under siege in a territory that is only 4 km^2. I think the writing is on the wall for the tigers they are out manned, out gunned, and surrounded.
There is no doubt that Columbo has a long road ahead to ensure the fair treatment of its Tamil citizens, but NOTHING constructive can happen as long as Tigers are running around blowing things up. The Tigers must be ELIMINATED, only then is there hope for peace.
The Sri Lankan govt. has to come to the aid of the civilians caught in the current crossfire if it is even remotely serious in ensuring unity for the future.
Nobody likes war, but sometimes people engage in it nonetheless. Are they all crazy, or are SOME things worth fighting for?
In 2001, when the Tamil Tigers entered peace talks on the back of successive military victories, and as Sri Lanka was at the feet of the IMF. Since then, for five years, the International Community worked to shift the balance of power by means of pouring economic and military aid into Sri Lanka.
What we have today is a consequence of the West's unrestricted funnelling of cash and arms into Sri Lanka.
Of course, by the time the West came to realise the ethnic nature of the conflict, and the true genocidal intents of the Sri Lankan regime, it is too late. They have the full support of China at the UNSC.
Even now, it isn't too late for the IC to impose sanctions as means to at least win humanitarian access to the Tamils who are locked up in Sri Lankan military operated internment camps.
Where did the ltte get money to buy planes? submarines? anti-tank and anti-air weapons? Why not talk about Norway? expats in Canada and USA and UK who have been pouring about $2 million every month? All of this was supposed to go to the civilians right? Did you see Prabhakaran's pool? Did you know Soo Sai's family was caught today with money and gold?
Peter Ratna, If the West did not support the SL government, this war would have continued for another 25 years.... now it is coming to an end.....lets just hope that the sl government doesn't screw it up like SWRD did in the 50s.
Instead of building budhist temples, Mahinda should start with building Kovils for the tamil people....they are Sri Lankans afer all.
And will anyone care if sections of those camps are turned into Rape Villages or Death Camps for suspected LTTE sympathizers?
Obama, Sri Lanka.
Bill Clinton, Rwanda
Obama, Sri Lanka.
Bill Clinton, Rwanda
Obama, Sri Lanka.
Bill Clinton, Rwanda
Obama, Sri Lanka.
Out of all the garbage news that come out about the Sri Lankan "terrorist" war, I find your piece to be unique, well written and well balanced. It truly sounds like you have actually visited the country. That you for that. Your well balanced article is highly appreciated.
I would like though to point a few things to you so that you might want to consider when you write next about Sri Lanka.
1. You state: "Now as Prabhakaran makes his last formal stand in a now miniscule....the future of the island's Tamil population remains in question"
- - - Please realize that a significant tamil population lives peacefully in Sri Lanka's big cities like Colombo, Kandy and NuwaraEliye. Our currency has all three langauges (tamil, english, sinhala. All our government and legal documents have all three languages. Look at our stamps, look at our passports. Look at all the kovils in Colombo and Kandy. So, I think you are being led to believe that once the ltte is driven out, the tamil eople will be surpressed.
If there was anything that we could learn from this 25 year old war is:
a. Do not surpress minorities. Do not subjugate them to the lower end of citizenry.
b. Do not make Sinhala the only national language or Buddhism the only national relegion. Every country that has tried to implement this has had to deal with dire consequences as a result.
Continues in the next post.....
Man, I came from an area that has been colonised from Tamil Traditional province to sinhala regions. The colonization still goes on. And, look at what goes on the so called liberated east. Jeez!
LTTE is not the cause, and most of the western media of which still thinks sri lanka is a state of india yet to understand the root of the problem.
A
If you blatantly say that ltte is not the cause... I am sorry, you are viewing eveyrything from a biased view point. You lack any type of fact based analytical mind. you are working through your emotions. Have you seen footage of the ltte firing and killing tamils... your own brethren?
I have friends living in Kandy and Colombo and elsewhere who have neighbors that are sinhala.... so don't tell me that sinhala and tamil people can't live next to each other.
In the liberated east, you have a tamil, and an ex-terrorist leade"Karuna" who is a minister. Don't tell me that karuna is surpressing his own people now.....
Moreover, from a legal point of view, several government initiatives – including the systematic rape of Tamil women the forced detention of 200,000 Tamil civilians in military run camps, an embargo on food and medical supplies (and subsequent mass starvation and epidemics of various diseases), mandatory civilian registration, and deliberate targeting of Tamil civilians through repeated bombings of hospitals and government-created ‘safe zones’ – quite clearly indicate that the situation meets the criteria for genocide as defined by international law in the UN Genocide Convention.
If you are relying on MIA to give you facts from UK and USA good luck to your inteligence.
You second paragraph is all falsehoods. Instead of holding them in camps temporarily, are you sgeesting that they are let to go back to where they came from? Then they will step on a mine that the ltte planted, and you will blame the SL government again.
The government created the safe zone for the civilians not the terrorists. Did you know that it is the ltte that is firing motars at the hospitals? Why would the SL government just only shell the civilians now? They could have done that on all 200K right? Your logic and reasoning idoesn't hold any water my friend.
And I would bet you you think the ltte is the saving grace? Just look at some videos where the ltte is firing at their own people.... the ltte killed Laksham Kadirgamar for crying out loud. He is a tamil and an amazingly inteligent man. ltte kills their own people don't you get it?
You seem to have mistaken my comment for a defense of the LTTE, which was certainly not my intention. In fact, I wasn’t commenting on the LTTE at all. Contrary to what the government says, all of its critics are not LTTE supporters.
“are you sugeesting that they are let to go back to where they came from? Then they will step on a mine that the ltte planted, and you will blame the SL government again.”
I’m suggesting that the government does not have the right to keep them imprisoned in barbed wire camps against their will, ethically or legally. Respecting their right to freedom of movement does not mean they have to be granted access to dangerous areas- just as with every other human being. Thousands of them have family in other areas of the country they could stay with, for example.
As for my second paragraph being “all falsehoods”, see my response to Derek below.
Just because someone is prominent does not mean they know the truth, or even whether they know the facts. In a worst case scenario they might be even lying.
All I am saying is just because someone is prominent, we should not give them any credence or limelight. First someone reporting should determine if such a person is worth even mentioning in a report like this - discussions with such people belong in E! or equivalent. If Prince or Michael Jackson or Madonna came out and said the ltte is bad... I would care less and I would not expect a good reporter to even waste tim mentioning them.
I think MIA's story is a very interesting one and has a tragic beginning. That should be covered in a diiferent report, not on this. Her music aside, just listen to MIA talk...she talks like George Bush!
I believe the Bill Clinton Administration was waiting for "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that genocide was taking place in Rwanda before they acted. The evidence came after the killing was over. So you are wrong. We should not wait to use the word "Genocide". We should use it whenever there is suspicion of any kind of mass killing, rape, or detention of an ethinc or religious group. The burden of proof that genocide is NOT the case, lies with the suspected killers and rapists, in this case the SL Government. They can do this by allowing internaltional monitors and independent journalists to travel and investigate the allegations of genocide freely.
While Indian politicians have supported the cause of innocent tamil srilankans in the past, this year being an elction year, they have done mere token protests. Especially the leader of the current ruling party in India, Sonia Gandhi has very little incentive to be involved in this, as her husband, the ex prime-minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. Even though Rajiv Gandhi's peacekeeping mission to Srilanka was one of his legacies!!!