Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sri Lanka: Time for reconciliation and reconstruction

Published in The Daily Independent, June 1, 2009

The quarter century old Sri Lankan civil war has ended albeit at huge cost. Nearly 90,000 people have been killed as Sri Lanka went through one of history's most cruel and devastating ethnic conflicts. The end came when the top LTTE terrorists, including the legendary Velupillai Prabhakaran, were killed by the Sri Lankan forces on a narrow strip of the northern coast after being driven out of their stronghold in northern Sri Lanka.

Nearly 250,000 Tamils have now become refugees. Resettling them will be the beginning of a long process that will involve reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese community and the minority Tamil together with reconstruction of a war ravaged Sri Lanka where destruction of the Tamil majority areas have been almost total. These efforts will require statesmanship from President Mahendra Rajapakasa before final curtains can really be drawn on the Tamil conflict.

It was India that had a big role in both helping start the long drawn civil war and ending it. In the 1980s, it was India's involvement in the ethnic conflict on behalf of the minority Tamil that encouraged the civil war. In the end, it was India's hands-off policy that allowed the Sri Lankan defence forces to push the LTTE against the wall and then to eventually annihilate them. It is also India that now can help in a major way in transforming the end of the Sri Lankan civil war into sustainable peace.

The beginning of the end for the LTTE came with the emergence of Mahendra Rajapakasa as the President of Sri Lanka in November 2005 and his single-minded devotion to end the civil war militarily. It was indeed an irony that it was LTTE's boycott of the 2005 elections that helped bring Rajapakasa to office in a very narrow victory. Upon becoming the President, Mahindra Rajapakasa made his brother Gotabaya Rajapakasa the Defence Secretary and another brother his Adviser and the brothers together put up the blueprint for the final push going against a negotiated settlement to the civil war in which the Norwegians played a major but unsuccessful role. Gotabaya Rajapakasa substantially increased the country's defence forces. New Delhi was kept on board about the final offensive. India looked the other way as the Sri Lankan government bought arms and ammunitions from China. India also cut off the LTTE's supply line of arms and ammunitions by effectively guarding the sea route.

The plan to strengthen her armed forces substantially and diplomatic initiatives with India meant it was just a matter of time for the complete annihilation of the LTTE. A few other factors also pushed the LTTE on the back foot such as the global war on terror that resulted in declaring the LTTE a terrorist organisation in 35 countries, including the USA and Canada, that in turn made it difficult for the Tamil Diaspora to contribute funds to the LTTE. Internal dissensions also had weakened the LTTE considerably. The Sri Lankan government started its final drive against the LTTE in January this year. LTTE's use of Tamil civilians as human shield merely delayed the inevitable but it came nevertheless when the body of Prabhakaran was finally shown to Sri Lankans and the world.

Prabhakaran's death with top associates should bring the terrorist phase of the Sri Lankan civil war to an end for a number of reasons. First, Prabhakaran was for the LTTE, "their brain ...their heart …their God …their soul "… who inspired them to do anything; even commit suicide bombings that was LTTE's contribution to the world of terrorism. Leaders like him for whatever they are worth emerge once in many generations. Second, Prabhakaran did not groom any successor and without one like him, it is impossible that LTTE can revive again in any time in the foreseeable future. Third, India's tacit support for annihilating the LTTE will also go a long way against the possibility of the terror group re-emerging in the near future.
The Indian Prime Minister hastily dispatched two of the country's top diplomats to Colombo immediately after the Sri Lankan government announced the end of the civil war. In sending National Security Adviser RK Naryanan and Foreign Secretary Shivsankar Menon, the Indian government wanted to ensure that the events in Sri Lanka, particularly the fate of the Tamil civilians, were handled to contain any negative fallout upon India's own Tamils. In his meeting with the Sri Lankan President, Narayanan sought a political solution to the Tamil problem while offering help in the reconstruction efforts following the elimination of LTTE. In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha had urged the Indian government during the just concluded elections to send forces to Sri Lanka to create a separate homeland for Tamils the way Indira Gandhi had intervened in Bangladesh in 1971 that underscores the point that the fate of Tamils in Sri Lanka is a politically sensitive issue in Tamil Nadu. Although Jayalalitha's AIADMK lost the elections, her support for Sri Lankan Tamils is significant in the context of Indian politics. New Delhi cannot afford to be apathetic towards Sri Lankan Tamils for her own sake.

Whether the Sri Lankan government is able to take care of the Indian concerns for a political solution will be an important equation in the ultimate success of the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. India has been offered a historic opportunity to use the end of the terrorist phase of the Tamil movement to emerge as a regional leader with the clout and respect to enhance its standing as a world leader. With a new and strong Congress government in New Delhi, India should now not only engage with the Sri Lankan government for sustainable peace there; India must do a little bit more and show the political will to treat all her neighbours with respect and dignity and as the much larger and stronger power, also show the heart to make concessions without holding her smaller neighbours to make reciprocal ones. Going by past experiences, India has sought more concessions from her smaller neighbours than what she has been willing to concede. The ball for a better South Asia is now in the Indian court where her neighbours, with the exception of Pakistan, have shown their willingness for friendly and sustainable relations with India.

The long-term prospect of ending the Tamil separatist movement will of course depend on President Mahendra Rajapakasa's initiatives and abilities to rise to the status of a statesman. There are signs that he is moving in the right direction. For one, he made it clear that the Sri Lankan government's fight has been against the LTTE and not the Tamils. For another, he has pledged to investigate claims of human rights violations committed during conflict with LTTE during the visit of the UN Secretary General to Sri Lanka. But there is a lot more he would need to do; he must remember that while there is ecstasy among the majority Sinhalese; the Tamils are in agony. He must transform himself for his country's sake from a "rebel with a cause" as he is described on his website to a "reformer with a vision."
The peace dividends in Sri Lanka are enormous but to achieve the potentials, the majority Sinhalese must also be ready to make significant concessions for the minority Tamils whose cause for fighting the civil war are embedded in their psyche for good reasons of discrimination and deprivation. If the Sri Lankan government shows the political will for reconciliation, there would be significant international support for the country's reconstruction although in the final days of the conflict, Western powers were very unhappy about the human rights issue, even threatening the Sri Lankan defence forces with trial for war crimes.

Before the civil war started, Sri Lanka was knocking at the door of becoming a middle income country; something that it can now realistically achieve but only through a joint effort of all Sri Lankans, Sinhalese as well as Tamils. In such a situation, how one fervently wishes there would be a few more men like Nelson Mandela in countries desperately needing one. In this case, it is Sri Lanka.

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