Band-aid approach to the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict

Just as foreign aid and international financial institutions (IFIs), like the IMF, have made a mess of many economies of developing countries with weak governments without a mind and will of their own, the international community – in its role as a third-party mediator - is about to drive Sri Lanka, once again, over the brink into a deep political abyss.

The decision of the European Union (EU) to ban the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) portends to be a step in this direction. The EU’s behaviour reminds one of the all-too-familiar caricature of the police station inspector in Indian cinema who ‘solves’ a dispute / crime by hushing up the victim (or victim’s relative / witness), who rushes into the police post to report a theft, murder or rape, before or after (mis-)recording a FIR (First Information Report).

The record of the international community in, for instance, Iraq is a sorry one, to say the least, with yet another key coalition partner - Italy’s new Prime Minister Romano Prodi - now being forced into admitting the folly (Note 1). The disconnect between the international community and ground reality is once again showing in the latest EU decision regarding Sri Lanka which basically faults the LTTE and exonerates the Sri Lankan government, thus seeming to apply starkly different standards of conduct to the parties in conflict.

Too many innocent lives have been maimed and lost on both sides of the conflict for far too long.

Instead, a nation that combines the traditions of Buddha’s Dhamma and Thiruvalluvar’s aRam could have made more sense of its independence from colonial rule by articulating an alternative to the excessively materialistic, self-centred, greed-driven, consumption-based Western economic model. (Note 2)

What could have been the nearest thing to paradise on earth is turning into ever more of a cesspool.

Inept moves by the international community can only worsen the situation.

Years of bloody and brutal conflict have only served to both expose and entrench the roots or fundamentals of the problem: it is whether and how two nations (or nationhoods) can be contained within one state.

The stopgap, band-aid approach of ban and freeze (of assets) is not likely to be helpful as it will only address the symptom, not the cause.


Note 1:

Prodi calls for Iraq withdrawal
Thursday, 18 May 2006

"We consider the war and occupation in Iraq a grave error that hasn't solved - but has complicated - the problem of security," Mr Prodi said.


Note 2: (added on 23 May 06)

When Buddhism was a bridge between Lanka and Tamil Nadu
Hindustan Times
May 22, 2006
“The fascinating story of the historical links between the Buddhists of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was narrated by Dr S Pathmanathan, Professor of History at the University of Peradeniya, in his Fourth Vesak Commemoration Lecture delivered under the auspices of the Deputy High Commission of Sri Lanka at Chennai on May 14.”


Related reports:

EU outlaws Tigers as terrorists
The Times (London)
20 May 2006
THE European Union has agreed to blacklist Tamil Tiger separatists as a terrorist group, despite warnings that this could lead to full-blown civil war in Sri Lanka......The agreement in principle, which was cloaked in secrecy until now, will be formally adopted by EU ministers on May 29.

The Critical Situation in Sri Lanka
20 May 2006
Open Letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Brian Senewiratne (Dr)
Patron of the Campaign for Truth and Justice

Tigers lose advantage gained at Geneva Talks
20 May 2006
D.B.S. Jeyaraj


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