Sri Lankan government may be winning the battle….
…..but will it win the war?
While I haven’t picked sides in the Tamil-SriLankan politics , I think this time I can confidently say that the Rajapaksha is being extremely short sighted. And it is in the interest of the next generation of Sinhalese citizens to ceasefire and offer humantarian support.
Rajapaksha may successfully exterminate the current LTTE stronghold of a few hundred; but by allowing 200,000 Tamil civillians to be caught in the crossfire and refusing to offer them humanitaian support; the government is not winning any friends, quite the contrary. It is preparing a fertile ground for the children caught as refugees to have deep wounds and a Tamil cause tomorrow.
I think they may have given birth to many Prabhakaran’s during this war. Which is scary, because it has taken them 26 years to corner one Prabhakaran.
Posted in Uncategorized
May 8th, 2009 at 5:30 PM
well said…well said…well…well
May 24th, 2009 at 5:36 AM
That’s a well written post and I completely agree with the contents. Even I haven’t picked any sides in this regard, and I must also add that I perceive the problem to be somewhat complex. It is hard for me to accept the media reports completely because they provide various conflicting accounts - the western media over the past few weeks focused on the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, which must of course be really bad considering the situation. However the media as well as blogs from Sri Lanka seem to focus more on the positive outcome of the military operation.
I believe this is an extremely complex issue, involving a debate between two “rights” as opposed to a simple “right and wrong” kind of dilemma. From the perspective of the Sri Lankan president, putting an end to the militancy and violence is not only a right thing to do, but also one of his duties. At the same time he is duty bound also to make sure that innocent civilians don’t end up suffering. Delivering on both commitments is easier said than done. Just as a thought - I would really like to see the innocent civilians spared, but if the rebels are mixed with civilians, is it really possible to eradicate the rebels, while fully ensuring the safety of the civilians?
All that I am saying is, I find it difficult to understand the situation correctly based on conflicting media reports. As we all know, the first casualty in a conflict like this is the truth. While it is heartbreaking to see so many people displaced & suffer for no fault of their own, it is equally difficult to expect the government to carry out a close to perfect operation. There are moral and ethical implications in having civilians suffer, and as your posting correctly points out, this may also create more rebels out of civilians.
Atleast now the war seems to be over, there is no excuse for the government to postpone release efforts, or deny access to the relief agencies. While the government probably won the war militarily, it is yet to be seen if it is prepared to win the war politically, and secure a lasting peace. That can happen only if they speed up the relief efforts and compensate in some way all the displaced people – because that’s certainly government’s responsibility.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:44 AM
I would like to apologize for a typo error and post this correction.
Please read “release efforts” in 4th para as “relief efforts” or “humanitarian efforts”.
I guess that was the result of typing fast.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:03 AM
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