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Sri Lanka: The Root Causes

By Chandi Sinnathurai

14 January, 2009
Countercurrents.org

The serial killing of the Tamil civilians is continuing…Hospitals, children and elderly homes run by Christian organisations, family homes, businesses, livestock etc are being bombed indiscriminately.

The International community has sadly observed their calculated silence.

The corporate news media picks up the sensational story of the "Symbolic" capture of the Tiger defacto state capital. Of course, no doubt, this has its psychological impact - there is no logic in underplaying that. But to consider this as a decisive victory is a serious error of judgment. The Tigers have retreated into the Vanni jungles. They have also moved in with lock, stock and barrel. In other words, the Sinhala armed forces entered a ghost town and claimed it as victory. It is said, the Tigers know these jungles quite well while the Sinhala conventional army will be lost in the bush. Entrenched in the jungles, the Tigers have a vantage point, to continue their struggle, from the North into the deep South including the east.

The Air Power of the Sinhala Forces would be superior. Will the Tigers find a way of neutralising that is only a matter of speculation.

One thing can be certain. The real battle is in the jungles and it is here the "Vietnam" lesson is going to be learnt, yet again.

The tragedy is, civilians will continue to die in their thousands…

The other real battle is in the realm of politics. What are the root causes of the Tamil conflict? How will the Government handle the business of eradicating the causes.

One can think of three primary causes.

1) The discrimination against the Tamils in education, jobs and other opportunities and being treated as second-class citizens. Under development of the North and East.

2) Living under constant threat of being arrested as a Terrorist/or a sympathiser of terrorists and even be killed or simply made to disappear.

3) The self-determination of the Tamils. Freedom to choose and elect their leaders and to have a democratic self-government. The current constitution however, does not lend itself for such an arrangement.

The Cingalam hegemony over the Tamils is not a myth. This primary cancer has to be eliminated.

The state cannot keep the cancer and pretend everything will be rosy once the Tigers are taken out of the equation.

It is here, one begins to see the crack in the rationale…Protecting the Tamil civilians is not really part of the Government-plan, is it?

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