As Sri Lankan military forces try to overrun the last remaining strongholds of the LTTE rebel group (better known as the Tamil Tigers), how should Canada respond?
Canada once had a low-profile relationship with Sri Lanka. But that changed after the country’s 1983 pogrom, when thousands of Tamils and Muslims were killed. More than 250,000 Sri Lankan Tamils have come to Canada as refugees since then, making Canada home to the largest Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in the world. Meanwhile, the Tigers — who once controlled large swathes of the island nation — have engaged in an on-again, off-again war with the Sri Lankan government. Understanding the history of this conflict is critical if Canada is to help develop a solution for the conflict.
Following its independence from Britain in 1948 (at which time the country was still known as Ceylon), Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese-dominated government introduced several laws to institutionalize discrimination against the minority Tamil population. In 1972, Buddhism was made the primary religion of the state, and discriminatory laws were passed against religious minorities (most Tamils are Hindu). Sinhalese rioters during this period attacked temples and churches, killing hundreds. That led to the formation of many small Tamil militant groups, one of which was the Tamil Tigers.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the West paid only modest attention to Sri Lanka’s internal conflict. But since 9/11, the country is seen in a different light. The Tigers — a conventional military force that has perpetrated acts of terror — have been banned in 31 countries, including Canada.
The Tigers and the Sri Lankan government have had several rounds of peace talks, but the guns remained truly silent only for a short while. In 2002, the two sides entered into peace talks brokered by Norway, with both parties agreeing to the establishment of an autonomous Tamil region in the northern part of the country. Unfortunately, both groups violated the terms of the agreement, and Sri Lanka finally called off the talks in January, 2008.
Since then, Sri Lanka’s army has scored many battlefield victories. But ultimately, there can be no military solution to the conflict: Even if the Tigers lose all their bases, Sri Lanka’s government will not be able to defeat the Tigers as a guerrilla force. In the meantime, civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire between a racist government and a rebel force that is militarily outgunned and shunned internationally.
If a negotiated political solution is to come about, the Tigers must clarify their acceptance of a Tamil nation within a united Sri Lanka, and commit to disarm. For its part, the government of Sri Lanka must agree to treat the country’s Tamils in a more humane and equitable fashion. The current stage of the conflict — in which an alarming number of civilians have died at the hands of government forces — only reinforces Tamil concerns in this regard.
The international community must convince the Sri Lankan government and Tigers alike to arrive at a permanent resolution through peaceful negotiations. Canada could play an especially important role. In fact, our federal system (which could be a model for Sri Lanka) and our large Tamil diaspora makes us a credible candidate to lead the peace talks
The question is: Do we have an appetite to see the world beyond Iraq and Afghanistan? If so, this could be Canada’s moment.
I’m irked over the phrase “a conventional military force that has perpetrated acts of terror.” You write it as if it makes logical sense. Doesn’t perpetrating acts of terror not make them a conventional military force? Wouldn’t that be the same as saying -a conventional government that encourages racism.? Yes, one may not be as villianized as the other, but that doesn’t mean that they are not both wrong.
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I have never denied the fact that LTTE is a terrorist organization, but there is a difference in how they operate vS hamas, Al qaida, FARC, rising sun or Kurdish freedom party. Thats why I hav clearly mentioned thatn they are a militant group that has invovled in acts of terror, unlike Alqaida or Hamas whose idealogy is to destroy Israel and kill all Jews. The Tigers are fighting for a free state that can exist along with the sinhalese.
They have conducted acts of terror, but 98% of theirs strikes have been against military targets, like the airbase bombing and all the nine aerial attacks were on military targets when we clearly know that it would have been easier for them to attck densly populated sinhalese areas. They chose not to do so.
If we want to bring peace, we need to dig to the bottom of the issue and not be lost in propoganda war.
The sinhalese need to realise that their military can never win over the tigers in a gureilla warfare.
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I’m not sure where you got your statistic of 98%, (maybe I’m just suspicious of 98% of statistics), but let’s say it is true. Just because they are a lesser terrorist group doesn’t justify anything.
I do agree with the fact that we need to dig to the bottom of the issue and not be lost in propaganda war. However, I think that your opinion is based on propaganda.
Yes, the LTTE have political goals but their organization has been perverted and are too power hungry to ever provide hope for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. They are only hindering things. I think what is ignored, because of war propaganda is that the terror is both external AND internal and this terror does not effect only Singhalese people, but Sri Lankans as a whole, and engulfs the Tamil community. It has killed thousands of Tamils in the name achieving Tamil eelam: youths, intellectuals, moderate politicians, political leaders in the South, even a prime minister of India. It has brainwashed many girls and boys from marginalized subcommunities in a purposefully closed environment, forcing them to believe that there is no other means to eelam. Without any reservations, they has sent these people on suicidal missions to kill others. I have trouble believing that a pregnant woman willingly chose to kill herself because she believed in the ideals of the LTTE.
The assassination of Dr. Rajani Thiranagama in 1989 is also worth noting. She was a strong activist for Tamil rights and was once part of the LTTE. She left the group deciding that that they were not about political activism, but patriarchy and power. She founded the University of Teachers for Human Rights (an independent human rights watchdog group). They reported on instances of force, rape and stupidity. She was killed by a member of the Tamil Tigers as a deliberate warning to those who tried to continue the work in the university because it questioned the inhuman practices of the LTTE towards the people they say they are protecting so tirelessly. They are only protecting themselves.
In the 1990s the LTTE began mass arrests of actual and possible dissidents, thousands of whom were tortured and then died or were killed in LTTE camps. The LTTE actively destroyed all the other alternative organized politico-military organizations and banned all independent civil-society activism. The Tamil community in Jaffna was atomized. People were not longer able to speak out or act out, except as puppets of the LTTE. Immediately after the LTTE resumed war with the state in 1990 (after the death of hundreds of Sinhalese and Muslim policemen who had be disarmed), the east saw a calculated massacre of Tamil civilians and the LTTE deliberately massacred Muslims in their villages to increase Tamil insecurity with the goal of recruiting and propaganda. People became justifiably fearful and learned to survive without any ability to influence the situation.
Trying to paint the LTTE in a good light does not help the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. The LTTE stifles legitimate change in the country and gives the international community an excuse to ignore Tamil claims. I’m going end with a quote from Dr. Rajan Hoole, a member of the UTHR and from whom I got most of my historical information: People must come forward to challenge the LTTE’s undemocratic claim to “sole representation.” People need to question the direction of the Tamil nationalist struggle as well as the Sinhalese extremist view which equates the Tamils and LTTE and thus rejects any need for a political solution.
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I can point out the discrimination by the Sinhalese to Tamils and it will go on and on. This is not about the LTTE and the Lankan government can go ahead with its military operations against the LTTE, but the sufferings of the Tamils should be kept in mind.
They now accuse ICRC, BBC, CNN are being paid of by LTTE! Like how frigging dumb you have to be.
You are in Canada. They called Allan Rock A ‘white Tiger’ . Do you ageee with that ?
1 million third generation Indian Tamils were forced out of Sri Lanka in the 60s and 70s long before the LTTE came.
I dont care about the LTTE, but every sinhalese Ihave seen justifies the discrimination against minorites and go on and on and on about LTTE.
The only thing they havent blamed the LTTE for is the Tsunami!
Even today hill countr Tamils are being discriminated in the South, who dont support LTTE. Why? Even after the liberation of the East, International agencies celarly say that East is worse off now than it was before in the hands of the rebels. Why ?
The Sri Lankan gvt needs to win the support of Tamils, not bomb hospitals and say it is a legitimate target on camera. These guys have be pyshopaths to go on camera and say that they did indeed target the hospitals because it is in rebel territory.
Mark my words, Sri Lanka will become like Zimbabwe by the end of 2010. Rajapaske will become a dictator.
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I apologize if my comments led to the assumption that I support the actions of the government. I don’t. I think there are major and disgusting abuses going on all over Sri Lanka that need to be recognized. The plight of Sri Lankans, especially the Tamils should never be denied or diluted and neither should the fact that much of the abuses are approved or ignored by the majority.
What I am saying is that, like you said, many people use the LTTE as a scapegoat; an easy excuse to do as they wish. By making comments that legitimize them you are only making their excuses stronger and helping to ignore the real issues. I believe that it would be beneficial to dismantle the LTTE, however, I agree that this will not help bring peace if people on both sides are not held accountable for their actions and constantly scrutinized by the international community.
You said: The Singhalese need to realise that their military can never win over the tigers in a gureilla warfare.
I find that frustrating because that is what some people that support the government’s actions are saying, just a little different: the Tamils need to realise that their gureilla warfare can never win over the military.
How are these thoughts any different? How is it solving anything?
Extreme points of view, even if they are from opposite sides of the spectrum are usually very similar in the end and are usually never successful or productive.
The thing is: Neither will ever win with the way it has been going. What needs to happen is something different and this is what needs to be focused on. It can’t be about us vs. them anymore, even though that is the way it has been for an extremely long time. It’s never worked and it’s not going to.
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Isnt that what I said in the piece, that neither can win it in the battle field and that permanent peace wil come only by sitting across the table, not in the battle field.
the military is big enough that the Tigers can not beat them in the battle field and the tigers are small enough that the military can not beat them in the jungles in a gureilla warfare.
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