SINHALA ARROGANCE/BRUTALITY AND TAMIL DETERMINATION TO BE FREE IN THEIR OWN LAND!!!

PROVIDE A HUMANE INCENTIVE FOR ALL PEOPLE TO MOVE

JEHAN PERERA.....NPC

For the second time in as many months, Sri Lanka was discussed in the highest international forum, the Security Council of the United Nations. As on the last occasion, Sri Lanka was discussed without being on the formal agenda of the meeting. If the government had expected its allies on the Security Council to block the discussion, this would have been a disappointment. There seems to be a limit beyond which countries find it difficult to support each other in international forums. The plight of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court despite being a close ally of China is an example that cannot be ignored.
The discussion on Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council is reported to have revolved around the humanitarian crisis involving the trapped civilian population in the north of the country. The United States and United Kingdom had backed a Security Council call for a humanitarian pause to enable humanitarian supplies to be sent into the area and to permit the evacuation of civilians. The usage of the term humanitarian pause rather than the more direct term humanitarian ceasefire was probably in deference to the Sri Lankan government’s antipathy to any ceasefire that could be extended to enable the LTTE to rearm and regroup.

The government appears to be rethinking its position on the humanitarian crisis in the north of the country. In the face of the mounting international pressure on the government, its defence spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella has said that the government is prepared to consider a humanitarian pause as called for by the UN. However, he also added that such a humanitarian pause would be subject to yet unspecified conditions that would depend on the prevailing ground situation. He also made an assertion that indicates that the government’s resolve to defeat the LTTE on the military battlefield remains unchanged.

In the course of his statement to the media, the defence spokesperson is reported to have said that the safe zone for civilians, which is the last remaining territory under LTTE control, had turned out to be a killing field for the security forces who were suffering casualties because they could not retaliate with their heavy weapons for fear of hitting the civilian population. He had added that once the civilians were evacuated the security forces would eliminate the LTTE, as they would have unfettered use of air power and heavy weapons. The problem with this reasoning is that it will be resisted by the LTTE in order to deny to the government that military advantage.

International sympathy

The LTTE’s conduct in firing at the government forces from the midst of the civilian population and preventing them from leaving is clearly unacceptable. This is also why there is so little international sympathy for the LTTE at this time. International sympathy is with the civilian population who are trapped and suffering immensely. When the international community asks for a ceasefire it is not because they want to give the LTTE another lease of life. The public statements issued by a variety of international actors suggests there is a consensus within the international community, barring some minor political parties in Tamil Nadu, that the LTTE must not be revived as a military force.

Unfortunately sections within the government appear unconvinced that the international community is genuine in their motivation to save civilian lives and suspect that the international community is still trying to save the LTTE to fight on for another day. Speaking to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have said that a ceasefire would give the LTTE an opportunity to drag out the war for another 25 years. Likewise the LTTE and its supporters, especially sections of the Tamil diaspora, appear to be hoping against hope that the international community will force a ceasefire on Sri Lanka that would give the LTTE another chance to fight on.

More forthright statements by the international community and greater discernment by the government and LTTE leaderships are necessary if a humanitarian catastrophe is to be averted. There are precedents in world history where those at the losing end of wars have fought to the end, leaving no one alive on their side.

One is the siege of Masada by the Roman army in the first century. After three months of siege, when the Romans entered the fortress inhabited by members of a Jewish sect, they discovered that its nearly one thousand inhabitants, including women and children, were dead. They had set fire to all the buildings and committed mass suicide rather than face certain capture and defeat by their enemies. Masada has been interpreted as symbolising the determination of the Jewish people to be free in their own land.

Averting catastrophe

It is common knowledge in Sri Lanka that LTTE cadres wear cyanide capsules around their neck that they have pledged to swallow so that they will not be captured alive. It is not impossible to envisage a situation in which the last LTTE cadre who are corered within the safety zone with the civilian population will fight to the very end to ensure that there are a maximum number of casualties. If such a scenario should materialize the consequences to the country could be very serious, quite apart from the tragedy of the people who become the direct victims. There is however a more favourable scenario that could be fashioned by the government if it is serious about a humanitarian pause.

The government has demonstrated its flexibility in accommodating and not prosecuting members of Tamil militant organizations, including those of the LTTE, who are prepared to join the mainstream. Douglas Devananda and more recently Karuna are two former Tamil militants who are now ministers of the government.

The government needs to offer other LTTE leaders, administrators and cadre an opportunity to come out without their weapons and to be guaranteed similar protection of the government and the law. .In offering such an opportunity to the people still remaining in the LTTE controlled territory, it must also be noted that until recently the LTTE ran a parallel administration. There could be thousands of people who were a part of this administrative apparatus, who might not have wielded weapons, but had a relationship with the LTTE.

They may have simply been doing a job and not subscribed to the LTTE’s methods of violence. They need to be given an assurance of their safety once they cross over.
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