Tragedy in Sri Lanka

This blog was origanily published at www.titulia.com around the middle of May during the Sri Lankan crisis. I'm posting it here now. My apologies if the formatting seems a bit wierd, I copy and pasted it from another site.

I'm no expert on the Indian sub-continent, but I try to pay attention to events there as much as possible. Afterall, more than 1/6 of the world lives in that tiny corner of the world. This a region of many many contrasts. In alot of ways the sub continent is like Europe except you have one giant country in the middle with several others lying on the periphery. But that doesn't mean India neccesarily dominates the news - the world pays attention to Pakistan and Sri Lanka with a fair bit of interest thanks to their respective diasporas.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Trvthseeker blog without a Canadian context. The Toronto region has one of the largest concentration of Sri Lankan Tamils outside of Sri Lanka. Apparently there are 200,000 living in the Toronto region and beyond. This makes them a voice to be reckoned with. The Sri Lankan Civil War (or the Tamil War of Independence depending which side you are on) has lasted over 30 years. In 1978 peanut farmer Jimmy Carter was President. The Donkey Kong arcade game hadn't been invented yet. Tomahawk missiles were in their infancy. Walter Cronkite was still anchoring the CBS evening news.

Any war is a tragedy. Some counts place the casulties at 70,000. Many more have been displaced. There have been several attempts to restore peace but they have failed. It appears the Sri Lankan government is pushing to end the 'insurgency' once and for all. The Tamils certainly have their greivances. The world has not been allowed in to see if ethnic cleansing has occured. This is a true concern. With TV cameras off and a lot of people crammed into a very small parcel of land, it could be quite possible that civilians are being slaughtered for nothing more than their heritage. For that the world needs to smack Sri Lanka around a couple of times. Sri Lanka needs to allow observers into this area immediately or they should face sanctions. And for a country as poor as this small island, sanctions could hit them pretty hard.

But war is war. While the battle is certainly lopsided in Sri Lanka's favor (the Sri Lankans are flying aircraft, the Tigers have nothing bigger than a few rocket launchers), the Tigers have hit where they can hit. And there is plenty of evidence that they use terrorist tactics. An Indian Prime Minister died because of the stance he took on the war. Terrorist tactics cannot be condoned at any time. While promising not to use 'heavy weapons' but still deploying them is hypocricy at its worst, Sri Lankan civilians have lived in fear for the past 30 years. The Tigers are labeled by many countries as a terrorist organization. This still doesn't stop them from being active through out the Tamil overseas community. There is evidence that they extort money from those who wish to leave this conflict completely behind in their new homes. Last week Tamils in Toronto took their protests to a whole new level when they marched their protest onto a major freeway and shut it down for 5 hours. I understand that some ethnic groups feel a need to have their own home.

There is plenty of evidence where ethnic groups can live together, but unfortunately there is just as much where they cannot. Unfortunately the tactics of the Tigers do not legitimize their struggle to the outside world. This does not mean that there is never a reason to pursue armed struggle. But tactics need to stop somewhere and the massacre and extortion of civilians would fit in most people's 'bad' list. I hope this next chapter of the conflict leads to peace. But I don't expect the Tigers to lay down peacefully. Unfortunately you don't rid yourself of suicide bombers by taking away their territory. You rid yourself of suicide bombers by lessening the crusade. I don't think the Sri Lankan gov't will do that. In fact, they may just inspire more overseas resentment and the flowing of resources to keep the rebellion alive. The sad thing is the Sri Lankan government may just have kept alive the one thing they are trying to crush - the dream of a separate homeland for the Tamils. You can't crush dreams with a tank.

Oh yes, in other subcontinent news - Congress has a very strong showing in recent elections. Comes close to a majority, which is almost unheard of in Indian politics. I'm watching this one with great interest.