The war that raged between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE for the past three years has virtually come to an end. The LTTE’s international spokesperson has admitted that the battle has reached its bitter end and that the LTTE is prepared to silence its guns. President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be making an address to the nation on Tuesday morning to announce the military victory.  There are media reports that the government will declare this day to be National Liberation Day, which will thereafter be an annual holiday. But if this day is to be celebrated as such by all Sri Lankans, especially Tamil citizens, there needs to be fundamental change in Sri Lanka.  As pointed out by leader of the Tamil National Alliance, R Sampanthan, the war is over, but the ethnic conflict that spans five decades is not.

The ethnic polarization in the first years after Independence was on account of citizenship and language.  When the young Tamil militants took to arms in the mid 1970s, seeing the failure of the Tamil democratic leaders to deliver reform, the ethnic conflict took the fateful path of violence and increased polarization.  This was seen most markedly in the last battles between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE.  There was a near total polarization in the ethnic compositions of the two fighting forces.  This polarization is to be seen today as well in the divergent opinions being expressed by members of the different ethnic communities about the end of the war. 

Most sections of the ethnic majority population have been viewing the end of the LTTE with satisfaction as a positive phenomenon that opens the prospects of peace, development and prosperity in the country.  Some of them have been celebrating joyously, waving Sri Lankan flags and lighting firecrackers to mark the end of the war and the crushing of the LTTE.  On the other hand, many amongst the Tamil population and all that I spoke to, bear a sense of grief, anger and despair at the manner in which the war has ended.  There is a sense amongst them that all the sacrifice that they made over the past three decades of violent conflict has been in vain.

The last phase of the war was one of the most cruel and challenging in the annals of modern warfare. It ensured that the Sri Lankan war took the headlines of the international media.  The LTTE in its retreat herded the Tamil population of the northern territories it once controlled into a tiny patch of land.  Using more that quarter of a million civilians as human shields they sought to keep the Sri Lankan military forces at bay, and buy time for some change to ensure their continued survival.  Virtually unanimously, the international community urged restraint, the non-use of heavy weapons that could cause indiscriminate casualties, and the evacuation of the civilian population.  But to no avail.  More than 20,000 civilians are believed to have either died or been injured in the fighting that ensued.
 

LESSON LEARNT

In the last days the LTTE had to face the might of the Sri Lankan armed forces that had surrounded them in a handful of square kilometers.  There was no doubt about the final outcome of this test of strength.  The conventional capacity of the LTTE was no match for that of the government. The last remaining hope of the LTTE, and those who supported it, was that its unconventional strategy of having a civilian shield would generate international intervention that could buy them time, if not save them.  The fact that there was no such international intervention holds a lesson for the future.

During the last phase there was a great deal of international interest in the plight of the civilians trapped in the war zone.  There was discussion about Sri Lanka in the highest international forums, including the UN Security Council.  But none of this translated into action that could support the continuing existence of the LTTE.  The farthest that the international community was willing to do was to visit Sri Lanka on fact finding missions and to go back with mixed feelings.  They saw the two or more sides to the story.  Many of them understood the government’s concern that negotiations with the LTTE would not be successful.  The most they would do was to issue a statement calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

But even this call for a humanitarian ceasefire was invariably linked to an evacuation of the civilian population who were being held as a human shield, and to the laying down of arms by the LTTE.  By and large, the international community was not seeking the salvation of the LTTE.  Their concern was the civilian population. As a result, the LTTE spokespersons welcomed the ceasefire calls, but remained silent about the civilians or about disarmament.  So did all those sections of Tamil opinion abroad who campaigned visibly and vocally for a ceasefire.  As is the case with ethnic conflicts, their sense of ethnic nationalism led them to champion the cause of the warring party rather than that of the civilians for whose sake the war was purportedly being fought.

The terrible moral of what happened to the LTTE is that any organization, whether would-be-liberation organization or government, needs to follow the norms and principles of international human rights if it is to gain both international sympathy and tangible support.  Due to its abominable human rights track record, which included political assassination, child recruitment and finally the use of human shields, the LTTE failed to attract any international support when it finally counted.  The election results in India, where the Indian government won handsomely and the pro-LTTE parties performed very poorly, gives support to the contention that ordinary people who are not emotionally attached do not wish to support organizations that violate human rights.

GUARANTEE RIGHTS

The militarily victorious Sri Lankan government, which has now won the war according to the deadline of three years that they set, has the challenge of promoting reconciliation and lasting peace in Sri Lanka.  It needs to obtain international support supplement its own resources in providing for the displaced persons and victims of war and in taking the country onto a fast track of economic development.  The government will also require international cooperation in preventing sections of the Tamil diaspora who have for long supported the violent activities of the LTTE from seeking to keep the fires of hatred burning in Sri Lanka through acts of internationally sponsored terrorism.

An immediate measure that needs to be given priority attention would be to ensure that the hundreds and thousands of displaced civilians are provided with improved relief and rehabilitation services, and are resettled in their home villages as soon as possible.  The assistance of the international community will be crucial in this regard, as the resources of the Sri Lankan government appear to be depleted for a variety of reasons, not least the need to fight the war.  Another confidence building measure would be to ensure the physical and mental security of Tamil citizens living throughout the country.

At this time when attention has been focused on the last phase of war and on the humanitarian crisis in the north, there is another less publicised crisis that requires urgent attention.  This concerns the breakdown of law and order and the spate of kidnappings, murders and extortions taking place in the east and other parts of the country.  There are also reports of threatening telephone calls and extortion rackets that affect mainly the Tamil population who are already vulnerable due to the stricter surveillance they have been under as possible LTTE supporters.  This section of the population is especially vulnerable due to the suspicion prevalent in the security forces and general population that Tamil people are more likely to have been supportive of the LTTE than other people.    

One of the roots of the problem of law and order above has been the existence of paramilitary and other shadowy groups which were supporting the government in its anti LTTE operations.  As the war has come to its end, the government needs to disarm all these groups and find ways in which to reintegrate them into the larger society.  It will be necessary to involve international organisations with credibility, such as the UN, in the demobilisation and reintegration process if the government is to restore the confidence of the Tamil people in its commitment to the rule of law that applies equally to all.  The government needs to show the Tamil people that the elimination of the LTTE does not mean that the fight for equal and democratic rights is over, and that it will be the guarantor of their rights.