Saving Sri Lanka

Peace on the Horizon? May 17, 2009

The Tigers are preparing to surrender, or at least open negotiations, as they find themselves only prolonging the suffering of the Tamils caught in the crossfire. It is to their credit that their official statement explains their surrender by saying “it is our people who are dying now,” hopefully referring to those Tamil civilians–for awhile there, it was looking like those civilian casualties were a cost the Tigers were willing to bear.

This could mean an official end to the war. That’s good news, of course. The bad news is there is still the matter of the refugee camps and displaced civilians, as well as the psychological scars, the independent Tiger-sympathizers who may still continue to attack, and, of course, the bumbling, bullying, juvenile government who will continue to marginalize and persecute Tamils as if they don’t grasp the connection between those policies and the emergence of the Tigers as a force to advocate for Tamil rights.

The good news, though, is that without the continued militiary operations as a distractor, and with the Tigers (hopefully) less able to silence moderate Tamil voices, perhaps Sri Lanka can try again to work towards equal rights for Tamil citizens; this time with diplomacy and dialogue taking the place of mobs of angry students with automatic rifles. That is, if the government is willing to listen and engage maturely.