NO MORE SINHALA MAJORITARIAN HIDDEN AGENDA IN NESL!!! MENINGFUL DEVOLUTION AND TRUE POWER SHARING IS A MUST FOR REAL PEACE!!!

The worsening plight of Vanni civilians
NOTEBOOK OF A NOBODY

by Shanie..................
(THE MOST RESPECTED WRITER/POLITICAL ACTIVIST BY TAMIL DIASPORA...WTRF-EDITOR)


Tamils grieve after identifying bodies of relatives who were killed while fleeing the Tamil Tiger controlled territory in Vishwamadu. (AP)

"Laws-of-war violations by one side never justify violations by the other. The government and the LTTE appear to be holding a perverse contest to determine who can show the least concern for civilian protection." In last week’s column we quoted these words of Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch. Since then, the plight of the civilians trapped in the Vanni has only worsened. Except for a few clergy and some aid workers, there is no one left to care for these civilians. Medical facilities are virtually non-extent and, according to reports, no food has reached these people since 29th January. Because of continuing artillery fire, they are now huddled in makeshift bunkers.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has expressed outrage at the unnecessary loss of hundreds of lives and the continued suffering of innocent civilians inside the LTTE-controlled areas. Without respect for international humanitarian law by both parties, their spokesperson has said, the bloodshed will continue. "We are calling upon both the Government and the LTTE to halt indiscriminate fighting in close proximity to large concentrations of innocent people in the so-called safe zone." He also added that the "safe zone" was not mutually recognized by the combatants nor did it meet any of the necessary international pre-requisites, leading to violations by both sides and putting the safety of the trapped civilians at even greater risk.

This week at an army centre receiving civilians fleeing the war zone, a suicide bomber blew herself up killing twenty soldiers and eight civilians. Suicide bombings are a trade mark of the LTTE, and there can be no doubt that this was the work of an LTTE cadre. As the Amnesty International has stated, suicide bombings violate the international prohibition on perfidious attacks that expose civilians to increased danger and are therefore totally unacceptable. It is a cowardly act deserves the strongest possible condemnation. On the same day, some civilians fleeing the fighting had come under fire and many have been killed and scores injured. Both sides blame each other for this act. In the absence of any independent verification, it is difficult to apportion blame; but it reflects the danger faced by the civilians, their utter helplessness and the lack of concern for their safety by the two sides.

The Defence Secretary so nonchalantly makes the outrageous statement that the Government was now not responsible for the fate of the civilians still in the LTTE held areas, echoing words of President Jayawardene just before the 1983 pogrom that he was not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people; "now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or of their opinion about us." Many in the South seem to agree with the Defence Secretary now, just as they did with President Jayawardene’s statement twenty-five years ago. The truism of the statement made this week by President Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) is all too plain: "Civil war generates frightening emotions of hatred and revenge that are immensely destructive."

The post-war scenario

Timor-Leste is a country that emerged in 1999 from a protracted and violent conflict to win independence from Indonesia. But years of warfare have left the country scarred and violence again erupted in 2006. So President Ramos-Horta’s words have the wisdom of history and experience. He has stated, referring to the situation in Sri Lanka today, "Those who speak glibly of an end to conflict, however, show little understanding of history, human nature or what constitutes real peace. There will be no long term peace in Sri Lanka if this war is prosecuted by either side to the bitter end without regard to human dignity." Tomor-Leste has established a Commission of Truth and Friendship with the basic aim of promoting reconciliation among its people.

In a post-war scenario, we need to shed the war rhetoric and talk the language of reconciliation. With a military victory over the LTTE, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Tamils and Muslims, the temptation to dismiss the political problems and treat the minorities as less than equal citizens will be strong. Already we have had nationalists close to President Rajapakse making pronouncements to that effect, although it must be said to his credit that he himself has been making reconciliatory statements. But will he have the will and the strength to resist those elements? If he is to do so, he will need the solid support of the seniors in the SLFP, who have been marginalized to an extent by the dominant forces in the Rajapakse administration. President Rajapakse must bring the seniors back into the mainstream if the military victory is to be consolidated by real peace which can only come about by a pluralistic approach to our political problems. War-mongers and majoritarian supremacists cannot bring about sustainable peace.

The majoritarian agenda is to change the demographic pattern of the North and East on the basis of the specious argument that ethnic conflict arose because of the concentration of minorities in a geographical area. If the Rajapakse administration unwisely goes along with this agenda, the ethnic conflict is not going to end with the military defeat of the LTTE. There has to be a recognition of minority aspirations; their fears can only be allayed through meaningful devolution and power-sharing. That is the only way to promote national integration and inclusive democracy. M J Akbar, the Indian journalist, once wrote: "Where there is no democracy, the question of minorities as such cannot arise. If the state is totalitarian, or autocratic, or monarchic, the voice of the dominant authority will be supreme. But in a democracy each element has a claim and what is more important, the right to preserve its identity… Minorities are thus essentially a phenomenon of democracy."

Over the years, the LTTE has destroyed whatever political space was available to the Tamil people by the assassination of Tamil dissidents that also silenced moderate Tamil voices. The Jayawardene administration contributed to that but we have seen a resurgence of that in the last couple of years with the assassination and intimidation of moderate Tamil parliamentarians and journalists who were seen as sympathetic to the LTTE. The task before the non LTTE Tamil people now is to re-assert themselves. Their leadership may have been eliminated but there are still democratic forces among the Tamils who can step in to provide a new leadership. It will be premature and unrealistic to expect the Tamil people at this stage to embrace either of the two major national parties. That can come about only if both UNP and SLFP show a willingness to shed fifty years of ethnic politics and come up with a consensus constitutional and administrative political solution to minority grievances. The Tamil people must also be prepared to shed the mindset created by the LTTE and be willing to compromise on a national solution (like President Kumaratunge’s 2000 proposals which the LTTE in their arrogance rejected) and also to enter into an alliance with other minority parties (like the SLMC) and even to accept the leadership of the SLMC in such an alliance. (It is significant that last week, the Muslims of Batticaloa and Kattankudy, despite bitter experiences with various Tamil armed groups, collected and sent over Rs 1 million to assist the internally displaced Tamils of Vanni.)

It is natural for the minorities for the preserve their separate identity, particularly in view of the majoritarian supremacist agenda that seeks to equate being a Sri Lankan with being a Sinhalese and a Buddhist. President Rajapakse has to make a conscious effort, not just limited to words, to draw in the minorities with meaningful power-sharing where they would be treated as equals. It is only then that the people of the North and East would feel truly ‘liberated’. If elections are to be held for the Northern Provincial Council, it must be fair with all parties being able to campaign freely and the voters given a democratic choice to elect a party of their preference. Any other course would be a continuation of the LTTE style of politics and have tragic consequences for the future of our country.


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