[Reader-list] Fwd: After the Tigers' defeat, the abuse of Tamils must stop

[Venugopalan K M]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar at cmi.ac.in>
Date: Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Subject: After the Tigers' defeat, the abuse of Tamils must stop
To:



'... the quarter of a million Tamils who were trapped on the island's
northern beaches, cowering under government artillery fire, and shot by
Tamil Tiger troops if they tried to flee, have lived for four months in
infinitely worse conditions than the people of Gaza during Israel's invasion
in December. ...'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/18/sri-lanka-war-tamil-tigers

After the Tigers' defeat, the abuse of Tamils must stop

If Sri Lanka's president treats the civil war's losers as a conquered enemy
he will sow the seeds of a new militancy.

Jonathan Steele, guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 May 2009 22.30 BST

History is littered with the ruined reputations of national leaders who
thought they had won a great military victory only to squander it by
self-congratulation and stupidity. Whether Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda
Rajapakse, joins their number has yet to be seen, but the triumphant speech
he will shortly make to his fellow citizens will be an important signal of
the path he is choosing.

There has to be relief that the worst suffering of the quarter of a million
Tamils who were trapped on the island's northern beaches is over. Cowering
under government artillery fire, and shot by Tamil Tiger troops if they
tried to flee, they have lived for four months in infinitely worse
conditions than the people of Gaza during Israel's invasion in December.
Palestinians were at least in their own homes, with supplies of food and
water, however inadequate. The shelterless masses huddled along the lagoons
and sand banks of Sri Lanka's Mullaitivu coastline had nothing except panic,
grief and the sight and sound of the dying. The prolonged hell they have
been through far outweighs the sudden horror of the tsunami which swept over
this same coast four years ago.

The priority now is to ensure that the camps which the government has set up
for the surviving refugees are properly stocked with food and medicine.
Rajapakse has described the last stages of the campaign as an "unprecedented
humanitarian operation". As a euphemism for war his phrase is hard to beat.
But if he wants to ensure he is really "rescuing hostages", as his officials
claim, he has to give them facilities that respect their dignity.

If these are transit camps to help people recover while they trace missing
relatives and gather some strength after seeing their families shattered,
well and good. But if they become concentration camps, it is another story.
Government officials are already saying it will take a long time for people
to be "re-educated" after years of relentless Tiger propaganda. The phrase
is ominous. Why can't refugees be allowed to go back to the villages they
fled when the army offensive began last year? The Tigers' leaders are dead
and have no more sway over them. No one has taken the Tamils' land or
settled in their areas, as often happens in civil wars. Those who wish to go
home should be permitted to do so at once.

Senior officials recently told John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief
­co-ordinator, that they hope 80% of the displaced can leave the camps by
the end of this year. Foreign donor governments must hold Rajapakse to that
pledge. They should also insist that the camps are quickly transferred from
military to civilian control with unfettered access by UN humanitarian
agencies and aid organisations like the International Committee of the Red
Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

The Sri Lankan government is asking for international help. The donor
community should be tough in its response. India, in particular, has a
powerful role to play, now that the Congress party has strengthened its
mandate. Along with other foreign governments, it must make aid strictly
conditional on a clear vision from the government of its intentions towards
the island's Tamils. Is it planning to send Sinhalese settlers into the
traditional Tamil homeland with the aim of "diluting the Tamil threat"? Is
it going to pepper the area with army camps and checkpoints, like the
occupied West Bank?

Above all, what political changes is the government prepared to make? It is
22 years since the 13th amendment to Sri Lanka's constitution provided for
power to be devolved to the provinces. The Tamil Tigers' war gained popular
support and lasted for so long in part because Sinhalese-dominated
governments in Colombo never implemented that reform. Will it do so now?
Rajapakse's recent record in the east is not encouraging. Since defeating
the Tigers there two years ago, the central government has continued to take
most decisions while failing to flood the area with the development aid it
needs. Worse still, it has allowed two dissident Tiger commanders who split
from the main organisation and joined the government side to carry on gang
warfare. If the fruits of peace in the east have been so meagre, it will
require a major shift of culture in Colombo to improve on them now that the
Tigers have lost control of their heartland in the north.

A long succession of Colombo governments has failed to address the Tamil
minority's legitimate complaints. To write the Tigers off as terrorists or
see the war against them as "just" distorts the facts. While also resorting
to frequent acts of terror against civilians as well as assassinations of
politicians, they twice fought the government army to a standstill in
conventional war because they had a case which many (not all) Tamils agreed
with.

With the Tigers' defeat a fresh opportunity emerges. If Rajapakse treats
Tamils as a conquered enemy, who have to be corralled in camps and whose
land has to be split up and occupied, he will sow the seeds for new
militancy in the generation to come.

j.steele at guardian.co.uk



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