Editorial
The endgame in Sri Lanka
Rajapakse must act with sensitivity toward Tamils
THE enormity of the humanitarian tragedy now unfolding in Sri Lanka can only be imagined. In the last three months, as Sri Lanka's military has systematically pounded away at LTTE positions, as many as 6,500 Tamil civilians have lost their lives in the fighting. That is what a United Nations report reveals, confirming the grave predicament tens of thousands of Tamils have been in with the extent of the fighting shooting up to unprecedented levels of ferocity. It is now fairly obvious that Velupillai Prabhakaran's Tigers are on the verge of defeat and have nowhere to go. His fiefdom today shrunken to a mere strip of territory, Prabhakaran is either on the run or, as some think, already dead.
The endgame for both the government and the Tigers is now here. With President Rajapakse refusing to consider a ceasefire (because he smells sure victory), it is almost certain that Sri Lankan soldiers will go on digging deeper into LTTE territory until the last rebel bastion crumbles. It is now, therefore, the question of what happens after the Tigers are finally vanquished that really matters. A significant priority for the government must be to take Tamil sensitivities into consideration; and that can happen only if it can resist the temptation to treat the defeated Tamils (not all of whom were part or supporters of the LTTE) as subject people. The biggest need, once the conflict actually draws to a close, is for the government to seriously and sincerely treat all Tamils as citizens of Sri Lanka. It is on how the majority Sinhalese behave toward the Tamils that the future course of the country will be decided. If the Tigers have in the last twenty six years been guilty of brutality, the establishment in Colombo must also acknowledge the political and social injustices done to the Tamils since the 1950s. What is of essence, therefore, is for a fresh new beginning to be made for all Sri Lankans, through clearly specified constitutional guarantees of mutually acceptable political accommodation.
The bloodletting that has gone on for nearly three decades has deeply saddened all conscious sections of the global population. One would have preferred a negotiated end to the conflict, of the kind the Norwegians kept hammering away at until both the government and the LTTE (the latter more than the former) opted to go back to war. Now, with the end of hostilities in sight, let a process of national reconciliation be inaugurated in Sri Lanka. It is up to President Rajapakse to consolidate or squander his government's military triumph. Magnanimity and sagacity can set a new course for the country. At the other end, triumphalism can only sow the seeds of renewed conflict in the future.
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