The insurgency in Sri Lanka is over - or is it ?
The Tamil Tigers have been defeated militarily, but there is every chance that their war to secure autonomy will redevelop as a guerilla insurgency. The Tamils are a big group in India and they are well financed. During this last conflict they proved to be a formidable fighting force, developing their own army navy and air force and winning control over a third of the island for many years.
This was a war that nobody actually won. Some 70,000 to 80,000 died as a result of the fighting and the Sri Lankan economy is a basket case as borrowed money was thrown into buying an ever increasing stream of weapons to decide the battle.
Nothing has changed. The majority Sinhalese consider the Tamils inferior and exclude them from opportunities in government service or the community generally. The Tamils - who were originally imported from India to provide much needed labour - demand to rule themselves in Tamil majority areas of the island. Neither side will give an inch !
There is an eerie parallel here with Fiji. In both cases an imported minority is being resented by the original majority people of the home islands - and denied equality and equal rights.
It is too late to repatriate them to their place of origin because by now they have become local for many generations - and regard this as their new home.
Peace would need a change of attitudes by both sides - and there is no chance of that happening in the short term. The victors in a battle are unlikely to be generous - and further humiliation will only exacerbate a hopeless situation.
The sad thing is that for Sri Lanka and Fiji the only prospect seems to be - more of the same !
No comments:
Post a Comment