Honourable peace for Tamils

THE PAST: An emaciated, malnourished girl came out from a hovel and stretched out her hand. She smiled as she stretched her hand, which had little flesh to keep her bones in place. One of my colleagues gave her some biscuits, which she accepted with a glee.

She took the biscuits and ran into her abode calling her sister as if gifts had come from heaven. The younger sister was frail, coughing incessantly and throwing out phlegm. They took the biscuits with relish. This was inside LTTE territory.

We had arranged for a bus load of lawyers to travel to Jaffna on the newly opened A9 road. As we passed through and entered 'no man's land', then, the forbidden territory, we witnessed the most terrible effects of war. We could hardly speak as the spectacle of misery, degradation, the damage caused to life, limb and property was incredible.

They have lost everything that was necessary for them to continue living. The image of the girls, extending their feeble sickly arms to receive the morsels of food, is permanently etched in my memory.

We could argue for days, for years and still not come up with an answer as to who was responsible for this predicament of the Tamil people of this country. What went so wrong with the culture of compassion, love, kindness and the brotherly affection we had towards those of the other communities?

My memory goes back to my days at Law College. After sitting for the final law examination, we travelled to Jaffna, by the Yal Devi train, to attend a farewell, arranged by the Jaffna hospital staff, patients and well-wishers, to a Sinhala Paediatric. The Sinhala doctor was the brother-in-law of my friend the late Suranjith Hewamanne.

After a grand farewell, the Doctor told us that there was never, in his public life, as a Government Servant, an occasion where he received such a warm and touching send-off.

Thereafter, the manner in which the people of Jaffna treated us, their hospitality, caring attitude, remained deeply rooted in my mind. Their houses, the Palmyrah fences, the dances, songs and the rituals, even the toddy with prawn and crab curry feasts, they arranged for us, would never be forgotten. It was Jaffna hospitality at its best. What has gone so horribly wrong within the last thirty years?

Douglas Amarasekara, former Professor of Mathematics, wrote in the 40s that the cause of all wars was land. When we entered the LTTE territory from Omanthai, I remembered how true this statement was. I felt that even this war is being fought not on ethnic divisions, as we all seemed to believe, but on Land and Territory. The fundamental question of homeland is at the bottom of this conflict and of those all over the world.

D. S. Senanayake's colonization scheme is, even today, hailed as the most farsighted scheme of one of greatest leaders this country has ever produced. We applaud his intuitive action, which has been a buffer against the terrorists. When D.S. Senanayake was alive, he had the foresight not to offend any community. He settled not only Sinhalese, but Muslims and Tamils too in these schemes.

But, we did not know or care, at that time, what the Tamils thought of this colonization scheme. We never believed this was a scheme to undermine the Tamils, but as one to resettle southern Sri Lankans, who did not have any land. We believed it was one to develop the country and make it self-sustainable in the staple food.

The Colonization scheme, engineered by the then Government, was perceived by the Tamils as a methodology, adopted by the government, to make them a minority in their traditional homeland. The feeling of a superior force driving them from their land was a matter of revulsions and as there was no authority to redress their grievance of losing their land, they were driven to the evil forces, waiting in the bush to embrace them with open arms.

The facet of human behaviour and its gregarious herd instinct for survival resents anyone striving to alienate them from their natural habitat. The method is common, irrespective of the perceived notion of security; their survival is being endangered by rival groups of ethno-religious assemblage.

In Colombo, Maligawatte has become a conclave of Muslims, Wellawatte of Tamils from Jaffna. Similarly, Kiribathgoda has no shop or business enterprise of any of these minority communities. It is a little known and less publicized fact that no intruder from other communities is tolerated and allowed to indulge in any business.

The herd instinct is therefore there in humans too. They would much prefer to interact with their own communities, with a similar cultural background and in such areas, places of religious worship and other cultural centres proliferate. Displacing them, or establishing other communities, would cause the fear and apprehension of losing their land, their birthrights and their cultural heritage.

During JRJ's time, when terrorism began to raise its ugly head, the colonization scheme was viewed by many Tamils as a contraption to oust them from their lands. JRJ announced that the government planned to colonize all Tamil areas with Sinhala settlers so as to reflect the population. This was believed to be a scheme to undermine the numerical strength of the Tamils in areas where they traditionally lived.

Add to this, Lalith Athulathmudali, the Minister of National Security and the hero of the Vadamarachchi battle against the Tigers, said that one way to root out terrorism was to remove the concept of Traditional homelands and create parity between different communities. He then announced that there was plan to settle 30,000 families in the North.

Under the plan, 250 families would be selected, from each of the Sinhala constituencies, for resettlement in the Northern province. He said "Such settlements would be created this year in the Killinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts and extended to the Jaffna Peninsula next year."

So, instead of making the North and the East population equal in their number to that of the Majority and rooting out terrorism, the product increased the capacity of the terrorist movement to extend its rank through these dissidents. This has happened, the world over.

Wherever groups use the method of terror to win their rights, then there is a precursor of an action by the rulers, which is considered with contempt by the other section. Thus the divide begins to blossom much to the delight of those who believe that they could achieve their rights only by resorting to terror.

Rhetoric's of this nature never helped the cause, other than that of the terrorist. All over the world, whether in Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir or Northern Ireland, the main cause of terrorism has been land. Wherever people are displaced, terrorism grows.

The reason for the high rate of crime in Sri Lanka, especially in the villages, revolves around the proprietorship of land. Villagers become criminals and ethnic groups become terrorists when they are displaced or thrown out of their land.

Similarly, the fear of the Sinhalese, which the Tamils do not understand or refuses to accept, is also based on Land. They genuinely fear that any concessions granted to the Tamils, under a non-democratic organization, which does not permit any dissent, would severely undermine the majority. They fear, as proclaimed by the Tigers, that eventually the LTTE would commit genocide of the Sinhalese and would drive them to the Southern seas and grab their land.

As long as there is distrust and the Tamil question is to be decided by the LTTE, the Sinhala majority would never concede any concessions to the Tamils.

This has led to untold misery, squalor, dreadful conditions of people in the North and East as well as in other districts in the South. The growing population of internally displaced persons, refugees and every aspect of decent human life had been affected by this distrust and the internal dimensions and external exhibition of these manifestations have engulfed the polity with views diametrically opposed to each other. Both parties to the conflict are yearning for an honourable peace, which has eluded them for the past two decades.

When the genuine grievances of the Tamils are aired, these are countered by equally vociferous sections, which demand to know what grievances are there to redress. There are no grievances to be addressed, they preach. The language rights are now enshrined; the Tamils enjoy equal rights to protection against discrimination, obtaining employment and the right to own property. We had a Chief Justice who hailed from Jaffna.

We had as an Inspector General of Police, a Tamil. Our Attorney-General is a Tamil. Then, where is this discrimination? It is the Sinhalese and the Muslims who have been affected. Can they own and enjoy the fruits of land in the Northern District.

It is the Muslims and the small community of Sinhalese who had been driven away by the LTTE from Jaffna and the North. They vividly refer to the horrendous pogrom of the Muslims with the intention of voiding the traditional homeland of another race.

The rationale is not without foundation. The refugees in Puttlam are ample testimony, as they, under no stretch of imagination, would fall into the category of aggressors or agents of state sponsored colonization and thereby deprive the Tamils of their homeland.

Thus, two major communities have suffered and continue to suffer due to the bigoted, intolerant actions of their leaders. Muslims get crushed between these two forces. The LTTE resorts to terrorism to achieve its goal, the government responds to such terror, in order to safeguard the state. The resultant position is the utter degradation of human life.

It is a tragedy that engulfs everyone living in this Emerald Isle. The worst is that everyone has accepted human tragedy as an integral part of the struggle and they ignore it completely or refuse to compromise. They are blinded by their own faith and their own methods of achieving their goals. This has created such an impasse, a stalemate. The government has vowed to maintain the territorial integrity, and the so called liberators have vowed to carve out a separate state.

In the midst of all this, there remain Tamil Leaders, who have disowned any association with terror and who urge that a solution acceptable to the Tamil community be brought forward. Of those leaders, only one is still alive and with impeccable credentials. He is Anandasangaree, the leader of the TULF.

He has written letters to Mahinda Rajapaksa and the JVP to accept a Federal Solution to the ethnic question. He has written several times to Prabhakaran denouncing his terror methods. In his letter he has said, "The Tamils were proud of their culture and civilization. All that pride is no more. We are now an uncivilized lot, ruthless murderers and plunderers.

Your cadres should take the responsibility for this slur on the Tamil community. Have you at least preserved the rights we enjoyed at the time you came to champion our cause? Are we enjoying our fundamental rights?...... Our people are God fearing and just. They spurn violence.

It is your cadres and not civilians that are promoting violence by brutally killing people throwing bombs or hand grenades, and planting claymore mines. I owe you an explanation, for repeatedly suggesting the Indian model, for the simple reason that it is neither federal nor a unitary constitution and such a constitution will be acceptable to many."

Sangaree has suggested that, at the last presidential elections, 49.7% of the voters supported a federal solution. "I am positively sure that if you (Prabhakaran) declare that you will give up your demand for separation, the JVP and JHU will support a federal solution".

The Federal solution is anathema to Prabhakaran and some Sinhala intellectuals. H. L. De Silva said, "Reluctance to use the 'F' word because of an active consciousness of the mainstream political parties, of the widespread unpopularity of any system of government that was suggestive of, or perceived as, a division of the country, coupled with deeply felt apprehension and fear among the majority, that it is precursor to the eventual disintegration of the state.

In consequence, there has been, what may be described, almost a visceral fear of federalism as demonic force, that will insidiously destroy the vitals of the State". De Silva cannot be identified as an individual who advances arguments to satiate the thirst of a rabid chauvinist faction and pandering to their taste.

But the fear he has expressed is the genuine apprehension, amongst the majority of Sinhalese, that the ultimate victor in this exercise would be those, whose avowed ambition is to establish a separate state. And, the global ambitions, as enunciated and published by these groups, would ultimately annihilate the Sinhalese and another massacre of Rwandan type would be ultimately enacted.

Today, we are in a different phase of this engagement. Mahinda Rajapaksa's leadership has so far taken the forces to unprecedented victories. Yet, ultimately, if the forces are able to dictate to the enemy to negotiate a political solution to the 20-year-old confrontation, then the people would become victorious.

If this happens, the fears and apprehensions, as espoused by De Silva, are bound to whither away and a solution acceptable to the Majority of the Minority and the Majority of the Majority would be a real possibility. Then, we ought to listen to the moderate views of leaders of the calibre of Sangaree and accept a model in keeping with the aspirations of the Tamil People. We have lost many opportunities of not including the Tamils in our government and in the thinking process.

The gains to the Sri Lankan community, if this happens, would be immeasurable. An Honourable Peace and a devolution package, acceptable to all, would be the dream of every right thinking person who loves his motherland.

Russell, on the subject of nationalism, made an interesting remark, "Now take the case of England and Scotland. They went to war with each other for centuries and centuries and it was universally held on each side of the border that it was proper to hate people on the other side of the border. And then, from a pure dynastic accident, the governments were unified, and the hatred ceased."

History may be repeating this episode in our part of the globe. Prabhakaran's mistake of disenfranchising the people made Mahinda the 'King' or President. If Mahinda is able to weaken Prabhakaran, bring the LTTE to the negotiating table and make peace with them, on a solution acceptable to all, then, in a matter of days, the hatred, if there was any, would cease.

This we witnessed when we travelled to Jaffna through LTTE territory. The people came out and waved flags, cheered and welcomed us from the deepest corners of their hearts. The Bar, which had over a hundred members before the riots, has dwindled to less than a dozen, who embraced us and informed us how relieved they were that peace had finally arrived. Some dared to speak to the television cameras and they poured their hearts out.

"We never hated each other and there was no reason to begin hating they said". Mahinda's ultimate triumph would be to embrace everyone and lead this country from this abject state to glory. Mahinda has a large heart. He will thus become the first President whose writ and commands will pervade the entire length and breadth of the country.