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| The government says tens of thousands of civilians have been streaming out of the war zone [Reuters] |
Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist fighters have decided to "silence" their weapons after admitting that the conflict in the north of the island had reached a "bitter end".
But the military rejected the declared ceasefire and said it would continue its offensive against the separatist fighters.
The declaration by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Sunday came shortly after the army said that at least 70 Tamil Tigers had been killed as they tried to flee the war zone.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," Selvarajah Pathmanathan, a spokesman for the LTTE, said in a statement.
"It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them," he said.
"We remain with one last choice: to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns."
(Pathmanathan added that the separatist fighters' "only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer".
Anura Yapa, the media minister, dismissed the ceasefire declaration, saying that "fighting is still going on in small pockets".
"We want to free this country from the terrorist LTTE," he said.
Far from the battlefield, thousands of Sri Lankans hugged soldiers, waved flags, set off firecrackers and danced to the beat of traditional drums in the streets of the capital, Colombo, celebrating the end of more than 25 years of conflict.
'Conflict not resolved'
Despite the government's apparent crushing military victory against the Tigers, however, Erik Solheim, a Norwegian minister and former negotiator in the conflict, warned on Sunday that "peace is long from being won".
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| Sri Lankans in Colombo have been celebrating the end of the war [AFP] |
"The conflict is not resolved even if the battle has been won."
Norway helped broker a ceasefire in February 2002, which came to an end in October 2006 when peace negotiations broke down.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president, has said that after defeating the separatists, his government would begin talks towards power sharing and political reconciliation between the Tamils and majority Sinhalese government.
But many Tamils are sceptical that the victorious government will be willing to make real concessions.
Leader still at large
And with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tigers, still at large, the threat of renewed guerrilla warfare remains.
Narayan Swamy, the editor of Indo-Asian News Service and author of Tigers of Lanka: From Boys to Guerrillas, told Al Jazeera that it was "highly unlikely that Prabhakaran would ever surrender or show the white flag".
"Being captured alive would be the ultimate humiliation for a man who took on the Sri Lankan state with the view of breaking it up and forming an independent Tamil homeland.
"It is clear he has failed in his objective. That is bad enough," he said.
Swamy added that there remain "certain legitimate Tamil grievances".
"That's why the international community has repeatedly been telling the Sri Lankan government to get its act together," he said.
Displaced civilians
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a spokesman for Sri Lanka's military, said about 63,000 civilians who had been trapped in the war zone fled to safety in the past 72 hours.
Pathmanathan, the Tigers' spokesman, said the bodies of thousands of wounded and slain civilians lay strewn across the war zone.
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| The government says "fighting is still going on in small pockets" [AFP] |
The Sri Lankan ministry of disaster management and human rights said on Sunday that it was continuing to process civilians rescued from the fighting.
Rajiva Wijesinha, a secretary at the ministry, told Al Jazeera from Colombo: "We heard that the last of them [civilians] had been saved. This was one of our great priorities in the last couple of weeks to make sure we got the civilians safely away."
Amin Awad, a representative of the UN refugee agency, said "almost all the population in the conflict zone - about 60,000 - had left".
He told Al Jazeera that the displaced were being "processed at the Omanthai crossing point. That leaves very few, if any, people in the conflict zone".
James Elder, a spokesman for Unicef, told Al Jazeera that civilians from the conflict zone were still arriving "sick and hungry" and that women and children were malnourished.
"This latest massive influx of people who have endured those extreme conditions is going to put even greater strain on those camps," he said.
| "The Tamil struggle started long before the Tigers were born and will continue after the end of the Tigers" Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, leader, Tamil National Alliance |
"At the same time, it is urgent that the government comes out with very clear screening and separation policies and a timeline so those who are termed non-combatants are allowed freedom of movement and are allowed to resettle."
The government and the Tigers alike have been criticised for not allowing civilians to safely leave the area and for precipitating a humanitarian disaster.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict that started in 1983 and the UN says 6,000 were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in just the last four months.
'Struggle to continue'
The Tamil Tigers once controlled nearly a fifth of the Indian ocean island nation, running a shadow state that had courts, police and a tax system along with an army, navy and even nascent air force.
But by Sunday, government troops had surrounded the remaining fighters in a 1 sq km patch of land and were seeing suicide bomb attempts and plain suicides by fighters, the military said.
However, the struggle for a homeland for ethnic Tamils who say they are marginalised by the ruling majority Sinhalese government would continue, Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance, told Al Jazeera.
"The Tamil struggle started long before the Tigers were born and will continue after the end of the Tigers," he said from Chennai in India.
"The Tamils have always demanded self-determination, which would mean substantial self-rule in the areas of their historical habitation."
1 comment:
"The Tamil struggle started long before the Tigers were born and will continue after the end of the Tigers," he said from Chennai in India.
"The Tamils have always demanded self-determination, which would mean substantial self-rule in the areas of their historical habitation."
An alternative to the above might be the NEW CONCEPT given below:
Probably the best concept for a political solution with meaningful and just power sharing arrangement.
An earnest APPEAL to all those who strive for sustainable peace in Sri Lanka
“The lack of engagement and communication, in turn adds to the sense of estrangement. This is not in the interests of either side, particularly the Sri Lankan people who yearn for peace, a just solution to the ethnic conflict and the hope of prosperity at least for their children.” – Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
With the above end in view please spare a part of your valuable time to ABSORB the meaning of the views submitted below.
Too much of time has been wasted in discussing the origins of the problems and the paths taken by various real patriotic and peace-loving persons to solve the problems in the ways they sincerely believed as the best. The problems have grown and evolved and had been twisted by many to suit their way of thinking.
So, it is high-time we start to RETHINK in terms of a solution that would address the ASPIRATIONS ALL THE PEOPLE in the country, not just the aspirations of the Tamils, in a just and meaningful way rather than continue to criticize other people for their “faults”.
Failures are the pillars of success. We have learned a lot of things through experience. With the experiences gained we will have to work for a change of heart not just a change of mind of all the people in the country.
“People who value democracy, equality and equity, needs to pressure the Sri Lankan state to take immediate action towards a meaningful and just power sharing arrangement. That is the only way to ensure security and the dignity of the peoples of Sri Lanka.
If peaceful coexistence through power sharing is not achievable, the only other solution that would be available will be secession” – Mr. Lionel Bopage, former Secretary of the JVP.
There is a vast difference between the policy and thinking of the ORIGINAL JVP to which Mr.Lionel Bopage belongs and the policy of the present JVP.
A new concept that moves towards a meaningful and just power-sharing arrangement based on true democracy – a large number of people participating in the governance of the country based on equality, equity – is a great deviation from the usual thinking of the meaning of the word “sharing of power” is given below for the perusal and comments of concerned people.
Many, who call themselves as ‘moderates’ and advocating a “Unitary State” are not willing to consider this NEW concept of the phrase “sharing of power” that gives a certain degree of ‘power’ with ‘responsibility’ to as many as possible including the poor and voiceless silent majority in the country and not excluding the so-called “minorities” and still maintain the “character” of a “Unitary State”
Now, one word, for those who are actually and sincerely interested in fostering a unitary-state by supporting “devolution” as a means to achieve sustainable peace, please avoid thinking in terms of “devolution” and instead please try to think in terms of “sharing of powers”, rights, duties and responsibilities that cannot be taken back at any time by any government or individual by any method.
The best political solution to address the problems faced by various sections of the Sri Lankan society - particularly the poor, the politically weak and the “minorities” who do not carry any “political weight” - would be to DILUTE the powers of all elected representatives of the people by separating the various powers of the Parliament and by horizontally empowering different sets of people’s representatives elected on different area basis to administer the different sets of the separated powers at different locations.
It has to be devolution HORIZONTALLY where each and every set of representatives would be in the SAME LEVEL as equals and in par and NOT VERTICALLY, where one set of representatives would be above (more powerful than) the other, which is the normal adopted practice when talking of devolution, in this power-hungry world. It is because “devolution of power” has been evolved “vertically”, we have all the trouble in this power-hungry world. So, for sustainable peace it should not be the present form of “devolution of power” but “dilution of powers” or “sharing of powers” in such a way that no single person or single set of people’s representatives be “superior” to another.
This system would help to eradicate injustice, discrimination, bribery and corruption - the four pillars of an evil society – and help to establish the “Rule of Law” and “Rule by ALL” for sustainable peace, tranquility and prosperity and a pleasant harmonious living with dignity and respect for all the inhabitants in the country. Everyone must have “equal” powers, rights, duties and responsibilities and most importantly everyone should be deemed “equal” and treated “equally” before the law not only on paper but also practically – be it the Head of State, The Chief Justice or the voiceless poor of the poorest in the country.
Since all political and other powers flow from the sovereignty of the people, it is proposed herein that these powers be not given to any ONE set of representatives but distributed among different sets of people’s representatives (groups) elected on different area basis (village and villages grouped) to perform the different, defined and distinct functions of one and the same institution - the Parliament – like the organs of our body – heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes, nose, ear etc. – performing different and distinct functions to enable us to sustain normal life.
A detailed version of the concept, which is quite long is available for discussion by interested individuals with an aim to change the hearts not just a change of mind of the citizens of this country who aim to preserve a UNITARY form of Government with every section of people from every part of the country PRACTICALLY PARTICIPATING in the GOVERNANCE OF THE COUNTRY in a meaningful way. In a way it may be termed “participatory democracy”. In this system the COUNTRY IS NOT DIVIDED but the “powers of governance’ of the Parliament is separated and administered COLLECTIVELY by different sets of peoples representatives.
The system suggested is neither a federal state for which “Thanthai Chelva” worked hard through non-violent means for nearly thirty years nor the “Two State Solution” for which the LTTE is fighting through violent means for more than thirty years. It is a combination of both and is between both but still a “unitary” state.
The solution advocated can be compared to the policy of the EPDP - a partner in the present government - “self-governance at Regional Level and collective governance at the National Level”. Basically there are some differences between the suggestions above and that of the EPDP. First, the above suggestions are for sharing of power horizontally and EPDP’s suggestions are for sharing power vertically. Second, EPDP's suggestions are for addressing the aspirations of the Tamils while the above suggestions are for addressing the aspirations of the PEOPLE, not just that of the Tamils alone. A careful perusal of the above suggestions in FULL will enlighten the need for such an approach.
Give and Take is the best policy. Rule or control your “self” and allow everyone to rule themselves.
LIVE AND LET LIVE
IF THERE IS A SINCERE WILL to treat all inhabitants of the county with dignity and as respectful citizens of this country, enjoying equal rights in all respects, then THE ABOVE IS A WAY
The above suggestions are by a voiceless member of the silent majority who wants all voice to be heard.
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