National Post Editorial on May 20, 2009:

Reconciliation time in Sri Lanka

If the international community had gotten its way, the war in Sri Lanka would now be in a state of abeyance. A ceasefire would have been declared, the shooting might temporarily have stopped and the beginnings of a humanitarian rescue operation would have been put in place to deal with the thousands of refugees created by the fighting.

Instead, the Sri Lankan Government ignored pressure to halt its offensive, standing by its decision to end - once and for all - the rebellion launched more than 30 years ago years by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

It appears finally to have accomplished that task. With the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the driving force behind the calamitous civil war has been eliminated and the fighting abilities of the Tiger army decimated. The Tigers no longer control any territory on the island, and the bulk of their leadership has been captured, killed or neutralized.

Tragic though the humanitarian consequences of Colombo’s policy have been, the chances for peace appear better now than they would have under a ceasefire. While much work remains if the Government’s military victory is to lead to reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s Tamils and the majority Sinhalese, at least now the way is clear to attempt it.

Although Tamils in Canada and many other countries maintain the Tigers organization was founded to protect their rights and oppose the oppression and inequality they suffered at the hands of the Sinhalese-dominated Government, it regularly set new standards for brutality. Prabhakaran reportedly carried out his first murder in 1975, and the organization was built in his image.

It killed opponents, assaulted critics, financed itself through an international network of threats and extortion and was recognized as a terrorist organization in more than 30 countries, including Canada. As the Sri Lankan Army closed in on the group in recent months, it treated its own people - the Tamils on whose behalf it supposedly carried out its atrocities - as human shields to ward off the inevitable. Prabhakaran was not interested in a negotiated peace. Numerous high-level attempts at compromise had been made over the years. They all fell apart.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s vow to finish off the Tiger army and end the country’s nightmare came only after successive peace talks had failed and it became evident the Tigers would never quit fighting until they had either achieved their goal of an independent Tamil homeland, or been comprehensively defeated on the battlefield.

That conclusion was no doubt behind Rajapaksa’s refusal to be pressured into a ceasefire, despite international revulsion at the tactics employed by both sides. The consequence of that determination has been a nightmare for tens of thousands of civilians, caught in the middle of the fighting and forced to flee their homes for an uncertain future in unsafe and under-supplied refugee camps.

Nonetheless, it can be argued that another truce would only have delayed the inevitable, and extended the suffering by allowing the Tigers a chance to re-arm and reorganize for yet another assault.

It is imperative now that the Government follow through on its victory with a campaign of reconciliation that is just as focused and relentless as the military one that made the opportunity possible. Although Tamil military operations may have been defeated, the sense of inequality that gave strength to the terrorists remains and could easily give rise to further violence if not extinguished.

That can only be prevented by recognizing the validity of Tamil grievances and working assiduously to eradicate them.

Thousands of Sri Lankans of all stripes have given their lives, not to bring about a victory of arms, but to achieve peace through equality. Bringing that about would allow the Government in Colombo to legitimately claim the title of peacemaker.