Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict

Lament for a nation: Sri Lanka’s epitaph

Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario, Canada, submitted this article to Groundviews. It was first published in the Globe and Mail on 4th April 2007.

To honour the memory of Kethesh Loganathan and others assassinated before him, we can’t allow the world’s indifference to continue

Kethesh Loganathan was my friend. The last meeting I had with him was a memorable one: He provided me with information about a colleague whose life was at risk, he believed. Thanks to his intervention, his friend was able to take refuge away from Sri Lanka.

I knew Kethesh as an intense man, a thoughtful man ready to speak ironically of his Marxist path, of the twists and turns of his life. A proud Tamil, he believed in the recognition of his people, in the need to end the profound discrimination that had so deeply affected the lives of Sri Lankan Tamils.

But he was also a pragmatist who, in accepting his last job as a member of the Peace Secretariat, fought hard for the emergence of what he called an enlightened self interest of all Sri Lankan leaders to a resolution of the conflict that would lead to a federal type constitution for Sri Lanka, where self rule and shared rule would be the order of the day.

There is no doubt that it is because of politics, and his commitment, that he lost his life. He was assassinated, as were Lakshman Kadirgamar and Neelan Tiruchelvam before him.

Sri Lanka has become a terrible killing field. Military jets bomb orphanages, villages and hospitals, soldiers kill soldiers, political leaders are gunned down in their homes, children are killed in school buses, teenagers are indoctrinated to strap bombs around their waists, walk into the most crowded places and blow up themselves and dozens of others. I cannot find the words to express the sadness and outrage I feel to describe this tragedy.

It is a truism that there is always, in life, a gap between words and actions. But nowhere is this truer than in Sri Lanka. We are still waiting for meaningful action from the government on a new constitution. The peace process collapsed, in my view, because of an incapacity for action — by the government in making real change, and by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) in recognizing the rights of other Tamils to their own political opinions. This paralysis has now led to the humanitarian crisis we see today: thousands killed in the last year, nearly 200,000 displaced and homeless in the north and east, more violence and more children recruited into guerrilla armies under the government’s nose.

The world watches and does nothing. What is happening in Sri Lanka is certainly as bad as anything happening in Lebanon or Gaza. The television cameras of the world are kept away, and it is much harder to reach Batticaloa than it is to get to Beirut. But the destruction and loss of life are just as brutal.

To honour the memory of Kethesh Loganathan, we must recommit ourselves to the need for international engagement on Sri Lanka. We cannot allow the indifference to continue.

In particular, the Sri Lankan government must accept the presence of international human-rights monitors in all parts of the country. There is no exclusively military solution to this conflict; the price this past year has already been too high. More deaths, more refugees, more malnutrition, more despair — these cannot be the answer. But for peace with justice to happen, change must come from all sides. The LTTE must make the transition to democracy. Their killing must stop, as must the recruitment of children. And the world community must take its responsibility as well — a lack of focus, discipline and resources after the ceasefire agreement allowed the goodwill to slip through our fingers.

The ethnic conflict will never end unless Colombo recognizes the legitimate collective and individual rights of the Tamils. The onus of taking the first steps to bring peace to the island now rests on the government and opposition parties.

There have been studies, hints at proposals and offers to think about possible solutions. But what there has not been is a concrete commitment to change, to recognize the legitimacy of the fundamental quest of the Tamil people for recognition, for equality, for self government and for participation in a Sri Lanka prepared to open itself up to shared rule. This is what must now happen.

It is easier to be wise in hindsight, but one reason the ceasefire did not lead to peace was that the two main parties never moved beyond the temporary end of the fighting to get to a broader solution. A ceasefire between two parties can never be the basis of a full-scale constitutional solution because by definition, the latter process requires the participation of a much wider spectrum of society.

In addition, the LTTE’s insistence on being named the “authentic voice” of the Tamil people meant that others were excluded from what had to become a broader civil project for the whole community.

The international community’s participation in the process was disjointed and unfocused. The Norwegians should not have played a dual role as mediators and monitors of the ceasefire — these are two completely separate roles. The LTTE should have allowed for other Tamil voices to be heard, and should have stopped violence against other Tamils and child recruitment.

All the political parties in the Sinhala community need to embrace the need for deep, structural change in the governance arrangements in the country. This has still not happened, and the return to a military approach by the Sri Lankan government has resulted in more loss of life and more deep hardship.

What is now needed is a concrete plan, accepted by Colombo and others, that will allow for a ceasefire, a full recognition of the humanitarian disaster at hand and the need for robust international monitoring of the rights situation.

A constitutional process must then allow for the participation, without fear and without intimidation, of all sections and views in the country. There is no other way to get to a just result.

The parties in Sri Lanka have become addicted to violence. The outside world has gotten used to lethargy. And indifference has become a habit. All these things must change.

Bob Rae, former premier of Ontario and member of the Forum of Federations, participated in the Sri Lankan peace talks from 2002 until their cessation in the spring of 2004. This article is adapted from remarks he made at a memorial to Kethesh Loganathan in London, England, on Saturday.