On the brink of civil war

Posted by admin on Nov 2, 2006 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers, are a rebel group led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. They are fighting the Southern Sinhalese government for a free state in the North-East of Sri Lanka. Because of the conflict, which first erupted in 1983, more than 64000 people have died, and over one million have been displaced.

The Tamil Tigers have a highly disciplined and motivated guerilla force, many of whom are either women or children. The Tamil minority say they have been discriminated against, and have suffered decades of oppression at the hands of the successive Sinhalese governments.

The government currently controls nearly all of the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which the Tamil minority claims as their cultural heartland. Recently, the Tamil Tigers have been striving to regain power by taking back this territory.

Many in Sri Lanka fear the country is heading toward a full scale civil war due to increased violence between the government and the northern rebels. Despite a Norway-brokered peace deal signed in 2002, violence has escalated, with over 2 000 killed this year alone. Even the tsunami – which swept over South-East Asia at the end of 2004, killing more that 35 000 in Sri Lanka – failed to bring the two sides together.

The latest violence occurred as negotiators prepared to travel to Geneva, Switzerland in the hopes of bringing peace to the island nation. However, there is fear that the peace talks will be put on hold because of the increased fighting.

Officials in the international community hoped that the fighting would decrease before Geneva, but currently this seems unlikely. Sri Lankan government officials say the Tamil Tigers have agreed to attend the peace talks only for the opportunity to regroup.

On Oct 23, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse signed a pact with his main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), signifying their agreement to a common policy on the Tamil Tigers. The two parties have agreed to work together on key issues despite being on different ends of the political spectrum in the past. This support from the opposition is crucial if Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) wants to strike a deal with the Tamil Tigers.

Advocacy groups in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo argue that the problem lies in the government’s inability to persuade the Tamils that there are alternatives within government structures. Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council, believes that until the government can convince the Tamil people that their desire for equality and power-sharing will be delivered to them, they won’t have peace.

The Tamil Tigers have long said that because of the bickering between the two main parties in Parliament, a political settlement has been impossible.