Living upto claims so tall

Dec.12, 2006

Living upto claims so tall


THE confrontation between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil dissidents is worsening, with the international community seemingly unable to do anything to help contain the crisis and help the tens of thousands of displaced civilians.
The kidnapping on Tuesday of more than 20 teenage students, the bulk of them girls, adds to the agony and misery of civilians caught in the cross-fire. At least 20,000 civilians who have fled the conflict zone are now crammed into schools, temples and camps set up by the government. Those left behind are said to be used as human shields by the rebels.
The army is said to be planning a massive assault aimed at rooting out the fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam from the rebel-held territory in the country's volatile east, and the rebels have warned the military of pre-emptive strikes.
The government says its priority is to clear the area of LTTE fighters so that the displaced civilians could be returned to their homes. The rebel group sees the move as aimed at totally eliminating what they see as the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka.
Independent estimates show that at least 3,000 troops, civilians and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year in land battles, air strikes, ambushes and attacks; more than 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 1983. It is yet another saga of failure of diplomacy and mutual distrust with neither side willing to back down.
At certain point in the decades-old crisis pitting the Tamils who complain of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese, the rebels had appeared to be ready to accept autonomy in Tamil-majority areas of the island. However, negotiations towards that end failed because of politicking on both sides. Today, the Tamils have openly declared that they are pushing for an independent entity for themselves in the areas they dominate. The government has vowed to counter the campaign and there does not seem to be room for common ground and compromises.
What is resoundingly missing in the equation is any trace of trust and good faith between the two sides, and that is what stymied Norwegian mediators in the crisis. Neither the government nor the dissident group seems to accept the reality that there could be no victory through military means. The military cannot single out LTTE fighters and finish them off without inflicting massive casualties on the civilian population. The rebels should not be hoping that their insurgency would eventually force the government to allow sedition.
The only way out perhaps is for the United Nations to intervene in a very transparent manner and be a mediator with the determination to see the whole process through to the point that a settlement is found without the break-up of the country. What the Sri Lankan crisis needs today is an honest mediator with established credentials acceptable to both sides. It is not easy, given the not very successful record of the UN in intervening and bringing about compromises and solutions acceptable to the warring sides in a civil strife.
However, that should not dissuade the international community from mandating and empowering the UN to launch afresh efforts to end the crisis through an equitable settlement. In the latest flare-up, the UN has limited itself to calling for a suspension of hostilities in order to allow the civilians remaining in the conflict zone to leave.
It is imperative that regional powers like India and others take the initiative in order to start from scratch if need be an intense and determined effort to find a solution that would end the Sri Lankan crisis once and for all. They have the moral responsibility to check Sri Lanka from sliding into further chaos and bloodshed. They should involve the rest of the international community through the UN and commit diplomatic and material support for the world body to act decisively to solve the crisis. That is what people around the world expect them to do if they live up to their claims of being "regional powerhouses" and "emerging superpowers."
The price for failure to act now would be so catastrophic that history would not forgive not only those who are in a position to lead such an the initiative but also those who prevent it from taking off.