Opinion
Sri Lanka Gained Upper Hand
Over LTTE in 2007 By
M.R. Narayan Swamy
New Delhi
Sri Lanka's failure to unveil a political package to end years of war
and its military successes against the Tamil Tigers marked the
highlights of one of the world's longest running conflicts in 2007.
After decades of seesaw fighting, Colombo took a visible upper hand
vis-à-vis the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), driving it away
from the country's eastern province and crippling its shipping network.
The LTTE, whose chief Velupillai Prabhakaran Nov 27 vowed to fight on
for an independent Tamil state, suffered a serious blow when its
political wing leader S.P. Tamilchelvan was killed in a Sri Lanka Air
Force attack Nov 2.
But the LTTE sprang its nascent air wing on Sri Lanka with military
precision on more occasions than one, stunning everyone and injecting a
new dimension to a horrific conflict that began a quarter century ago.
With many countries supporting its war effort openly or not so openly,
Colombo displayed no great urgency in opting for a power-sharing package
for minorities that would effectively negate Tamil calls for separation.
A path-breaking and seemingly sound devolution formula a group of
experts came up with in December 2006 suggesting federalism to placate
restive minorities got shot down by the government and Sinhalese
nationalist groups.
By the end of 2007, there was no firm indication - only hopes - that the
All Party Representative Committee (APRC) would prepare a new document
acceptable to everyone in a country badly divided on ethnic and
political lines.
Sri Lanka took an aggressive approach towards charges of human rights
abuses, going to the extent of branding UN Under Secretary John Holmes a
"terrorist".
But it was embarrassed when a Tamil Tiger breakaway leader it had
backed, Karuna, was arrested in Britain after sneaking into the country
on a false passport provided by Colombo.
Karuna has been widely accused of conscripting children into his group
in the east, an allegation also made against the Tigers.
The international community was mostly despairing on Sri Lanka, whose
top leaders declared that they had no use for the 2002 Norway-brokered
truce or for homilies from the West on human rights.
On Dec 30, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa trumpeted that
Prabhakaran may have been killed in an air force bombing on a bunker in
the country's rebel-held north May 26. The same day, army chief Lt. Gen.
Sarath Fonseka thundered that Prabhakaran may not be able to survive for
more than six months.
The internationally backed peace process collapsed in 2007. India
remained an active though not a successful players vis-à-vis Sri Lanka,
where violence since President Mahinda Rajapaksa took power in late 2005
has left thousands dead.
As the year ended, Sri Lankan troops were knocking on the doors of the
Tiger territory in the country's north in an attempt to take the war to
the very heart of Prabhakaran's fiefdom.
Throughout the year, tens of thousands of civilians suffered enormously
due to fighting between the LTTE and the military. Rights activists say
kidnappings and killings by groups backed by the state are rampant.
Ahilan Kadirgamar of the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum told IANS: "The
military establishment is gearing up to use a purely military approach.
The LTTE is also committed to escalating the war.
"Tamil civilians bear the brunt of the conflict. Minorities fear the
resurgence of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism... Sri Lanka could well be in
another protracted cycle of war and the year ahead looks very bleak," he
said.
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