Let the dream come true

Sri Lanka is in a decisive stage in this very hour. Decisions made in this hour, deeds done, articulations made would find their place in history books of our future generations. Sri Lanka suffered immensely due to over two decades of war. Thousands have died and became handicapped. It is not only lives and limbs of Security Forces and civilians of the Government controlled areas, but all Sri Lankans, LTTE carders and Tamil civilians in the LTTE controlled areas.

All the lives of the Sri Lankans bear the same value, all LTTE members including Prabakaran are Sri Lankans, where for the latter, the misguidance from the neighbouring powers oriented him for illusive political supremacy in a country of his own. The others had to pay with their lives of the political ambitions of few self centered people. If so called 'love for Tamil people' exist at this moment, Prabakaran would not have entrapped thousands of civilians in their rapidly shrinking territory as a shield for bombing, becoming an elusive Saviour of Tamils trying to survive shielded by the community that he has bragged to survive. It shows that it is indignant to call LTTE fascism even, as neither Benito Mussolini nor Adolf Hitler hid behind civilians threatening to go down with them in a cowardly manner.

Let us forget past follies, but learn from them. Picture by Chaminda Hiththatiyage

All of us have made mistakes in history. But the price we, Sri Lankans paid is too much. Decades of hatred, animosity misunderstanding harboured had its toll in unparallel dimensions. People have been suffering due to political mistakes of both the Government, overambitious Tamil leaders and of course short sighted foreign powers who took Sri Lanka as a chess board ultimately Kings and Queens had to taste the direct and indirect consequences of terrorism in their own game of chess. All with their overabundant Machiavellian talents and ambitions made one of the modern day tragedies of the 20th Century. With our neighbours watering the seeds of poison, the western world or so called international community contributed to exacerbate the situation.

The international community including UN, INGOs NGOs with the rest of the Alphabet watched silently as Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq was bombed killing thousands of civilians. cluster bombs, radioactive waste filled dirty bombs, missiles landed even on weddings, funerals and refugee camps but no one fought for the justice of the lives fallen. It is not that I try to justify death and mayhem the civilians in LTTE clutches undergo, as all are Sri Lankans, but the moral authority of so called international community and the organizations with all combinations of 26 letters of the alphabet. None of the almighty foreign dignitaries came to Sri Lanka and asked the LTTE to stop bombing civilians in busses, trains and numerous public buildings in Colombo. Of course they condemned as usual within few hours of the bombing as having readymade press releases for the Sri Lankan cause. But none made any solid move to change the dynamics of the situation. But when LTTE is being surrounded by Forces instead of press releases the whole flock comes to Sri Lanka to pressure the Government. We Sri Lankans want to know where were you when Central Bank and other public buildings were bombed, thousands of innocent civilians were massacred in cold blood?

Sri Lanka genuinely and blindly tried to come to a peaceful settlement during Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's tenure despite cold blooded killings of military personnel of the Forces and politicians, smuggling in of weapons by LTTE.

But even in that period international community never warned the LTTE of the such offensive and detrimental deeds done. Instead the LTTE was given transmission equipment, satellite communication phones, military training in Nordic special forces, camps. But when the dream of every Sri Lankan is becoming true after 25 years, we see the duplicity and double standards more than ever, words to crush us hidden in polite diplomatic wordings. Let alone them ponder when the time of their countries is at balance as it was in 9/11, but we will give all the courage power in our hearts and minds to the advancing Forces, for make the impossible, possible.

We as Sri Lankans dreamt of this day to come, but we always doubted that it would merely be another dream. I was born in 1983, when all the nightmares began, knew war since the time I could understand the world war. Though not heavily impacted, as a resident of Colombo I witnessed numerous bombings in Colombo, where even in school we received numerous bomb threats, saw chopped down bodies of civilians in war-torn areas. All the Sri Lankans suffered the same. What happened is happened, enough blood shedding, hatred, animosity, misconceptions, prejudice. With the final nail to the misguided who are reluctant to change we should begin the second war-which is far more time consuming and critical. It is not the time to celebrate victories of war, because as a Nation we have failed due to war. It is not the time to argue who started this. It is not time to brag about resurrections. It is not the time to point fingers at each other. It is not time to play political acrobatics. It is the divine time to heal. Make each others heal the decade old scars, physical and psychological. Flood our love to people who we couldn't be reached for decades, and to make them realize we all are in the same country. At the same time, international community and Big Brothers have an opportunity to restore misdeeds by developing infrastructure of North, East and throughout Sri Lanka.

Let us once again look at each other as brothers and sisters. Let us forget past follies, but learn from them. Let us make this dream come true. A dream of a peaceful prosperous Sri Lanka sans terrorism.

- Shalu