The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon before 1972, is an enchanting tropical island in South Asia, located about 31 kilometers (19.3 mi) off the southern coast of India. Sri Lanka is a splendor of tropical forests, beaches and landscapes. The Sri Lanka Tamils have lived on the island since about the 2nd century BC. It is thanks to their creative ingenuity that the island boasts a rich ancient cultural heritage of art and literature.
Sri Lankan Civil War
For almost 26 years, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commanded a rebellion against the government. They were a separatist extremist organization that fought to establish the independent Tamil state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island. The Sri Lankan military defeated the LTTE in May 2009.
The revolt caused terrible hardships for the people of Sri Lanka, its environment and the economy of the country. Officially over 80,000 people are listed as killed during the course of almost three decades of war. The tactics employed by the LTTE garnered them the notoriety of being a terrorist organization in 32 countries, counting the United States, India, Australia, Canada and the member nations of the EU.
Commander in Chief
In the midst of a precarious ceasefire agreement, Mahinda Rajapaksa won his first presidency in 2005. By 2006, he decided to vanquish the Tigers once and for all, since allegedly peace talks accomplished nothing.
Triumph over the rebels for the Sri Lanka government came in May 2009, though Mr. Rajapaksa’s reputation was seriously jeopardized by events at the end of the Tamil Tiger war, because thousands of civilians were killed as troops fought to corner and crush the rebels. However, he dismissed the international criticism and called for a last-minute ceasefire, which gave his military enough time to finish the war.
He had also promised to protect journalists and freedom of speech, but at least one prominent journalist was murdered and dozens were beaten, arrested or forced to flee the country during his time in office. Media watchdog Reporters without Borders declared Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
President Rajapaksa, determined to make the most of his success at ending the war, summoned for early elections in 2010. The “Historic Election Results Dash Minority’s Hopes” report by an IPS Correspondent on Jan. 29, 2010, describes how the victory in the presently concluded presidential polls delivered an ominous signal to the minority people of the island nation. All hopes for equality in a country that has been deeply divided by different ethnic peoples have all but vanished.
The opposition candidate, former Army commander Sarath Fonseka, was supported by an alliance of the major United National Party and smaller Tamil and Muslim parties and the Sinhala extremist party, Janatha Vimukthi Party. Commander Fonseka led his troops to the crucial victory of the LTTE during the final phase of the civil war.
Undeniably, results announced the next day on television showed a marked difference in voting figures in areas dominated by the Sinhala majority population compared to Tamil and Muslim minorities. Clearly, the ethnic minorities supported and voted for Mr. Fonseka. The polls unmistakably showed that Mr. Fonseka was favored with more than three times the votes compared to Rajapaksa’s in Tamil and Muslim communities.
Interviews by IPS with Tamil voters expressed their deep desire for a leader who respects their rights as equal citizens with the majority race when it comes to jobs, land, education and security for themselves and their families. They stated that Rajapaksa has continually ignored important constitutional guarantees, i.e. the 17th Amendment, which promises an independent public service, judicial, police and election commission.
According to a briefing note for tourists by the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice , March 2010, neither of the main presidential candidates, General Fonseka or Mahinda Rajapaksa, had expressed a consistent position on a political solution to address the rights of the Tamil minority. General Fonseka is on record as saying the country “belongs to the Sinhalese,” while President Rajapaksa came to power by championing the unitary state and opposing the Norwegian Process which was exploring a federal solution. Effectively, President Rajapaksa’s election campaign slogan was “api wenuwen api” (“us for ourselves”).
Such it appeared both candidates had a different message dependent on the audience. Though, the general sentiment in the Tamil community was that at least General Fonseka had offered some hope of change.
Minority groups in Sri Lanka view the future with hopelessness, because what it holds for their collective identity and aspirations remains in limbo.
Parliament’s Covert Attitude and Actions
On July 9, 2009, barely two months after the ending of the civil war, the BBC reported that the Sri Lankan government ordered international aid and human rights organizations to “cut back on their activities.” It asserted the decision was made because there was no more fighting. Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe claimed the order was not only aimed at the ICRC.
"It is something we have told all international agencies. Since there is no more fighting now, we have told them and others that they should scale down their work. It is a decision we took after careful consideration," he said. "The challenges are now different. Manning entry and exit points and handling dead bodies, transport of patients, in the post-conflict era are no longer needed."
Considering that the ICRC (International Red Cross) was the only outside agency allowed access to the area of combat in the final phase of the war, taking in aid and evacuating wounded people by ship, correspondents maintain that the latest announcement had signified a serious dilemma. The ICRC’s cutback of staff has resulted in no independent monitoring of camps accommodating the displaced.
According to the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, one year after the end of the war in May 2009, approximately 110,000 Sri Lankans are still confined in camps, some with no outside world contact.
Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica - Jaffna
“Sri Lanka orders cuts in aid work”, BBC, July 9, 2009
Heike Winnig - Ms. Winnig is German, born in Bad Kreuznach, Rheinlandpfalz, Deutschland, and has lived in the United States since she was a child. ...
Join the Conversation