Political solution The next target

Haridas RAMAKRISHNAN

Will the capture of rebels’ final bastion signal the end of the long-pending conflict? The common opinion is that the rebels will go ahead with terrorist activities even the war is declared over.

A Sri Lankan military victory over the LTTE is necessary for any chance of peace coming to fruition in Sri Lanka. Only with the LTTE gone as a military force from the island nation does Sri Lanka in general and Sri Lankan Tamils in particular have a chance for a peaceful and prosperous future.

With support from other nations including apparently tacit help from India, Sri Lankan military seems to be in the final stages of military victory over the LTTE.

This is good news for Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Tamils, and Sri Lanka as a nation, India, and even rest of the world as well. the LTTE is not a force that can be negotiated with. But it is almost guaranteed that even if the LTTE is militarily defeated, it will remain as a terrorist organization and continue to pose threat to Sri Lanka and India.

Needless to say, it is Sri Lanka’s responsibility to take care of the Tamil civilians during the conflict. But it is pathetic on the part of some Tamil Nadu leaders to act as mouthpieces of the LTTE. We cannot treat the LTTE anything but as a murderous terrorist organization.

But one must keep in mind that it was the Sinhalese chauvinism that started the situation between Tamils and Sinhalese majority in the first place, i.e. many decades back.

Now that the LTTE is getting defeated, it is time for Sri Lanka to pick up the pieces of peace negotiations with Tamils there and work for a political settlement of the issue. Sri Lanka with the help of India need to nurture moderate Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka to represent Tamil interests in Sri Lanka.

There have to be two broad agreements on the issue between the parties. One is that Sri Lanka will need to remain as a united country.

Second is that Tamils will need to be full citizens of Sri Lanka with all the associated rights, like any Sinhala citizen. Tamil needs to be treated as a major and official language of Sri Lanka along with Sinhala. Also, Sri Lanka should work towards some form of acceptable autonomy for Tamil areas.

It is possible that once the military threat from the LTTE is gone, Sri Lankan military and political class may develop a thinking that the issue can be put in the backburner and the issue may die down.

This is not going to happen. This is the historic opportunity for Sri Lanka to rebuild the nation and heal ethnic divides.

The political process has to happen even before the military campaign dies down. It is in the interests of India and rest of the world to see a peaceful solution to the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka. India is a legitimate party on the issue because it affects India directly.