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Pardoning the deserters

The decision by the Sri Lanka Army to pardon the deserters after they pay up their dues is bound to be controversial. Already a number of retired Senior Military officers have expressed contrarian views bemoaning the decision stating that the country, and the Army, would be forgiving cowards who fled at the sight of battle.

They contend that this decision would make Sri Lanka a soft state, and that it's armed forces would not have the required resolve to face an enemy because of this course of action.

This may be what the decision to pardon deserters looks like on the surface, but closer examination of the problem will reveal that there are many other factors that must be considered.

This country has been at war for nearly twenty years. It is only for the past year or so that we have not had soldiers dying on the battlefield in large numbers. The conflict has sapped the energies of the nation and traumatized our people in many ways. Many a time managers and leaders have wondered why our people have lost initiative and even long-term commitment to ideals and eventually come to the realization that the constant uncertainty imposed by war is to blame.

If the ordinary civilian who lives far away from the killing fields was affected in this manner, then surely the soldier who faces death, and the daily maiming and killing of his buddies must be more traumatized.

In an ideal situation men and women go to war to fight, and if necessary die, for their beliefs. In the case of Sri Lanka the war was an internal conflict. We were not invaded by some hegemonic foreign power. Instead we had to fight a war to preserve the unity and integrity of the country, and safeguard our democratic and pluralistic way of life.

The Armed Forces of this country did fight well, we have no doubts about that. They faced what has come to be known as the most fearsome guerrilla organization on the planet. Eventually the security forces of this country proved that despite the ferocity and almost legendary tenacity of the enemy, they could not be defeated.

But at the same time, it became clear to the armed forces themselves that they cannot bring about a clean and clear end to the conflict by armed means. As many military analysts who examined our situation dispassionately observed, ours was an un-winnable war, either for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or for the forces of the government. That has been the basic realization that has made the peace negotiations possible. The prime underlying factor that propels parties to a conflict to come to the negotiating table is the conviction that they cannot win what they want by the use of violence.

Many of the deserters may have been convinced of this and their sheer number speaks volumes. We have some 150,000 men and women under arms at present. Of them, 58,000 are deserters, making up almost half of the total number of armed forces personnel.

This surely indicates a war-weariness, not only among the ordinary civilians on both sides of the ethnic divide, but also on the part of the soldier.

Therefore the decision to pardon the deserters is taken in the spirit of compassion and understanding. The energies of the state must not be taken up by hunting down the deserters, as there are just too many of them.

On the other hand this move will ease the rehabilitation of these individuals and allow them to re-enter society with grace. Keeping them branded as criminals will only drive them into the shadows and the only beneficiaries will be the gang leaders of the underworld who can use their skills to increase their loot.

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