Comments on: Post-CFA politics, war and peace in Sri Lanka: A few thoughts

By: JM

JM — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:21:51 +0000

Sunanda’s wonderful and pessimistic analysis only leads to the conclusion that the Sri Lankan Army will, in all probability, annihilate or drastically decimate the LTTE within a short period of time. Has anyone thought about what they are going to do if, god forbid, this comes to pass? Sri Lankan peacenik NGOs, as do their donor countries associated with the Sri Lankan peace process, believe that LTTE must not be made irrelevant, because that would make it difficult for them to persuade the Sri Lankan state to “restructure” itself according to their guidelines. LTTE, in a manner of speaking, is the stick used to bully Sri Lanka into submission and conformation. Losing this stick means a near-complete loss of control. Sri Lanka has friends in other places, including Russia, China, Pakistan and even Iran, and they are only interested in a mutually beneficial trade relationship with no strings attached, so Sri Lanka is not particularly worried about the loss of favour by Norway, EU or US.

If the LTTE is done for, there wouldn’t be a war. What then, will you do? How would you then convince the Sri Lankan people that ethnic-religious partition of the country is essential? Without the war, there wouldn’t be as many, if any, human rights abuses? But then, the reason why this government is being accused of all these crimes doesn’t have anything to do with whether it’s committing them or not. Otherwise Ranil’s administration should also have been accused of supporting child conscription by the LTTE.

So what is your Plan B, Sunanda. What trajectories will you and your organisations take if there is no longer a question of engaging in CFAs, peace talks, ISGAs, P-TOMS and other such things with catchy acronyms?

By: cyberviews

cyberviews — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:15:54 +0000

I think Sunanda is indulging in a bit of exaggeration for effect. I believe when he uses the term “pariah” he is not using in the context of “rogue state” (the term N. Ethiraveerisingham would like us to use and I shall do so henceforth!). Sunanda is more likely referring to countries who for geo-political or other selfish reasons, are willing to support states that are failing to uphold the rights of its citizens. This applies to China when its supports Burma or Sudan and now when it supports Sri Lanka, whose human rights record is dismal to the point of being genocidal. The true rogue state whose support Sri Lanka has sought and obtained with alacrity on their part is Israel. Other rogues states that comes to mind are Burma and Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka is on a fast track to becoming one. Sad that people of the intellectual calibre of Dayan Jayatilaka by becoming apologists to its cause, are hastening that process.

By: N. Ethirveerasingam

N. Ethirveerasingam — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:35:23 +0000

Sunanda Deshapriya and Dayan Jayatilleka,
Please don’t use the term “Pariah”. Many do without realising that the British used the Tamil term to denote a caste that Tamils ignorantly consider low in status. The Parayar I knew in my village are wonderful people. They were the Town Criers giving the news after beating a drum for people to assemble. They were the drummers in churches and funerals. They were nurses, teachers and government servants. As a child and now as a person in his twilight years I still admire them and consider them equal to any other. It pains me when I see or hear the name of a community is used to express distaste of another person or a State. It is a complement to Sri Lanka to call it a “Paraiah” State. A more appropriate terms for the current Sri Lankan state may be a “Rogue State”, or a “terrorist state.”

By: Sam Thambipillai

Sam Thambipillai — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:21:58 +0000

The government of Sri Lanka has unilaterally withdrawn from the Ceasefire agreement of 2002. Officially now it is engaged in war in the North East of the island. Crimes committed by government soldiers will now come under the definition of war crimes.

With the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission leaving the island, the North and East may turn out to be the killing fields of the military sycophants and their allegiances.

There are two important things that the International community would be obliged to do immediately.

Firstly, to stop war crimes, the UN and the International Community should ask the International Criminal Court(ICC) , established in 2002, to investigate Sri Lankan governmental and military leaders for planning, supervising, aiding, abetting and perpetuating the disappearances and the death of many Tamils in the North and East of the island.

The persons who have committed war crimes should be taken to the ICC and charged under ‘continuous violation doctrine’.

The ‘net’ of the ICC should be spread to catch all the war criminals in Sri Lanka, especially the “big fish”, including; the pilots (both foreign and local) who bombed civilian areas killing civilians and destroying property; the soldiers who directed and executed artillery fire at civilian areas, killed people and displaced many; soldiers who abducted civilians, tortured and killed them; the commanders who shot at point blank range the 17 aid workers in Mutur and other similar persons who committed crimes against humanity.

The Serbian General Milosevic was sentenced to 38 years in prison, by the war crimes court in the Hague, during the second week of December last year, for the siege of Sarajevo and indiscriminate shelling and bombing that happened in 1994 and 1995.

The governmental and military leaders should similarly be charged and punished for the siege of the North, created by the closure of A9 road since 2006 and bombing and shelling civilian areas indiscriminately.

Secondly, Britain and the International Community should take immediate steps to decolonise Tamil Eelam and make the people live safely and justly in their sovereign country.

By: Amarakoon

Amarakoon — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:41:21 +0000

Sunanda how can you say Govt. recruited Child Solders? May be Karuna but not the Govt. I am afraid U R wrong there.

By: ivap

ivap — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:27:49 +0000

oops that should read…

does the answer to the previous question really matter ….

By: ivap

ivap — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:22:06 +0000

Another article somewhat pertinent to this and other discussions occurring at groundviews in general at http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/fingerwagging-wont-help-build-democracies/2008/01/02/1198949896987.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Of course the question is, would Simon Jenkins be able to publish this in russia, china, and lets not forget iran today as a native? More importantly, does the answer previous question really matter for the cause of liberal democracy in the (whole) island of sri lanka?

By: sam

sam — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:12:56 +0000

It’s all perspective really: one person’s pariah state is another person’s love pad.

By: Dayan Jayatilleka

Dayan Jayatilleka — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:12:16 +0000

So, in the view of this writer, China and Russia are “pariah states “…!

By: Carl Oweson

Carl Oweson — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:29:15 +0000

Susanda, I am afraid you are perfectly right. In other words: Quite some time, probably several years, will pass before this island put brave and courageous leaders in the right positions. Those who run the show today clearly do not have an intimate experience or knowledge of what war actually means. Thus, they are likely to tackle seriously only their own minor personal/family concerns and make decisions which leave the poor masses, who, like in most war zones, are the ones paying the price with their lives and limbs, in continued misery. Peace is actually not wanted in this country above other “goods” among the rulers. Therefore raw animalistic, immature and truly unmodern tendencies of accepting deadly violence directed at other human beings go on unabated. Really sad for those who somehow have to deal with and witness this reality on an everyday basis (and have developed normal human capailitities to take in others’ suffering). Much easier for those of us who can just stay away from what would otherwise have been a paradise island. And probably simply a bliss or pure lust satisfaction for the crowd of government thugs and the many saffron-covered and janaka-populistic racists that are allowed to influence the ways things are done and understood in this part of the world.