Hidden motives behind Sri Lanka's approach

Ever since the violent racial holocaust of 1983, in which thousands of Tamils perished as a consequence of communal massacres, the Tamil struggle assumed international importance.

The international community showed deep concern over the gross violations of human rights by Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the massive influx of Tamil refugees into Western Europe, North America and Australia following the riots compelled the industrialized countries to take serious note about the political developments in the Island. Some of the concerned European nations attempted to relate developmental aid with improvements in the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. But such aid-related 'pressures' failed to produce any radical change in the system of state repression. The present Sri Lankan Government has made a few cosmetic reforms by appointing a human rights task force and commissions of inquiry to hoodwink the international community. But the country continues to be governed by Emergency laws, anti-terrorism acts and military and police tyranny. In the South, the Political opposition faces police harassment, intimidation, arrest, detention and assault and other forms of state repression with the aim to stifle the freedom of expression and opinion. In the Northeast, a series of war crimes of grave nature are committed against the Tamils under the camouflage of offensive military operations. The military occupied areas in the Northeast have turned into massive concentration camps where Tamils are being subjected to arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, rape, torture and murder. There is documentary evidence to substantiate over 500 cases of disappearances in Jaffna.

Though Sri Lanka is beset by the turbulence of war and civil unrest and the human right situation has worsened, the developmental aid from donor countries continues to pour into the country in a big way and a substantial portion of it is drained by the so-called 'war for peace'. The reluctance to exert aid-related pressure by the affluent countries has encouraged the Kumaratunga government to persist on a policy of repression and tyranny. Impervious to humanitarian concerns and insensitive to the monumental human tragedy caused by the war, some international countries continue to supply lethal weapons to Sri Lanka. The assured supply of unrestricted funds and unrestrained supply of arms have encouraged Sri Lanka to close the doors for peace and to embark on the ruthless policy of military domination against the Tamil people. Nevertheless some foreign nations are concerned over the escalation of the war and the intensification of the Tamil conflict and have proposed negotiated political settlement between the parties in conflict, i.e. Sri Lanka and the LTTE. Because of the mutual distrust and hostility between the combatants and the continuous failure of direct negotiations, some of these countries have volunteered to offer mediation or facilitation. Norway, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Britain have expressed their willingness either to mediate or to facilitate for peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lanka government. Though the LTTE leadership has responded positively to offers of international mediation, Sri Lanka has persistently rejected such offers of third party mediation claiming that the Tamil problem is an internal conflict.

Sri Lanka has spurned international mediation for specific reasons. Firstly, the Kumaratunga Government does not want the Tamil national question to be raised in the global arena as an international conflict. Secondly, it does not want the LTTE to be accorded the status of main player in the Tamil struggle or rather the party in conflict. Thirdly, Sri Lanka fears that the Tamil aspiration for autonomy and self-government may receive a sympathetic hearing as a reasonable demand in the civilized political world. Fourthly, Sri Lanka wants to continue with the military option in favour of a peace process because the conquest and domination of the Tamil homeland is a strategy that would appease the passions of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism.

It is true that the armed liberation struggle with the history of more than two decades has created mutual animosity, mistrust and a great deal of misunderstanding between the LTTE and the Sinhala state. This mutual hostility and mistrust have been the causal factors for the continuous break-down of peace talks between both the parties. It is on this basis that the LTTE has realized that future peace negotiations can only be meaningful and constructive if they are held under international mediation. But Sri Lanka is reluctant to seek international assistance for the reasons we have already outlined. There are other reasons too for Sri Lanka to refuse to negotiate with the Tamil Tigers. For the Sri Lankan ruling elites, the LTTE represents the militant stand of the Tamils; it symbolizes the collective Tamil aspirations for identity, homeland and nationhood. While the other Tamil groups have abandoned the basic principles underlying the Tamil struggle and are prepared to compromise on anything, the LTTE continues to articulate those principles.

Sri Lanka is not prepared even to discuss these issues that form the very basis of the Tamil national conflict. Contrary to Tamil perceptions and aspirations, Sri Lanka has postulated the problem in a different ideological universe, situating the Tamils as a minor ethnic group in a multi-ethnic social formation and denying their right to a homeland and national identity. It is precisely because of this approach, that the Sinhala regime refuses to enter into any meaningful dialogue with the LTTE, either directly or with the facilitation or mediation of the international community. The current military campaign is primarily aimed at the political marginalisation to the LTTE. The military occupation and subjugation of the historical homeland of the Tamils, the Sinhala rulers assume, will bring an end to the Tamil aspirations for autonomy and homeland and to the political struggle of the LTTE based on those aspirations.

These are the real intentions behind the current political and military approach of the Kumaratunga Government. But the Sri Lankan propaganda machinery tells a different story to the world, a concocted story that camouflages the hidden agenda; a story of 'terrorist threat' and 'war for peace'; a fabulous story of 'liberating' the Tamils from the 'dictatorship' of the LTTE. The international community should not be misled by the misrepresentations made by Sri Lankan propaganda but carefully examine the real story behind the just cause of the Tamil people and their struggle for freedom and dignity.