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USA and Sihala Urumaya

The Sihala Urumaya and the United States would seem strange bedfellows. On Wednesday, the SU physically beat aside peace activists and marched to the US embassy to show their support for Washington's announced campaign against "terrorism", including an offer to host US military forces on Sri Lankan territory. The US embassy's reaction is not known.

For years, those extremist ideologues and politicos now grouped in the Urumaya lambasted the "western imperialists", led by the USA, for "interfering" in our internal affairs, apparently helping "terrorism" here. For years, the USA has been pressing all sections of Sri Lankan politics, both North and South, to give up their ethnic exclusivist projects and talk peace.

Suddenly the US has become the possible saviour of the nation in the eyes of the SU.

The US leadership's initial reaction to the suicide guerrilla attacks on New York and the Pentagon was to simply accuse what it calls "global terrorism", especially Islamic militant groups based in Afghanistan. It is this 'counter-terror' hyperbole that fuelled the jingoism of extremist groups like the Sihala Urumaya who base their whole politics on avoiding the political causes of violence and, in their bid to sustain the national status quo, focus solely on militarist strategies.

However, in recent days, the US has indicated that a simple, massive military assault is not on. The US is now likely to add a political emphasis to its campaign against such covert guerilla networks along with more precisely targetted military actions.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has recently reiterated her government's intention to negotiate with the LTTE and to creatively resolve the ethnic conflict by initiating fundamental political change. Even if the Sihala Urumaya steadfastly refuses to be open to creative changes, it is to be hoped that the Western powers, now grieving over the tragedy in America, will react as creatively to their crisis - in line with the West's constant advice to Sri Lanka.

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