Lasting peace in Sri Lanka could prove elusive unless president addresses Tamil concerns

Sri Lanka’s Tamils left to wonder what comes next

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Riding high on his battlefield victory against the Tamil Tiger rebels and his landslide re-election, Sri Lanka’s president appears under little pressure to tackle the deep ethnic tensions that fueled a generation of conflict here.

Any effort to empower the marginalized Tamil-speaking minority could only anger Sinhalese nationalists, and many observers fear that an opportunity to bring a real peace to this country will be squandered.

With general elections coming later this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has indicated he will wait until the next parliament is in place to deal with Tamil demands for greater rights and self-rule in areas where they form a majority.

Analysts warn that without addressing the minority’s fear of domination by the Sinhalese, the conflict will be forced underground from where it could potentially spark renewed violence.

“Now that the (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is no more, there is no justification of terrorism for the postponement of the political process,” said Sakthivel Balakrishnan, an analyst with the research group Center for Development Alternatives.

For more than a quarter-century, this Indian Ocean island nation was consumed by the conflict between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the ethnic Tamil separatists who were fighting for an independent state in the jungles of the north and east.

Last year, the rebels were defeated in a massive government military offensive, bringing peace to the country and glory to Rajapaksa, who last week was re-elected in a landslide victory.

But for those living in former rebel-held areas, the war brought death, destruction and misery. The U.N. says 7,000 people perished in the final months of the fighting. More than a quarter-million Tamil’s were interned into government-run camps, where some 100,000 still remain. More than 11,000 are being held on suspicion of rebel links.

The results of last week’s presidential election underscored the great ethnic gulf that remains between the country’s Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority. Despite a resounding victory across much of the country, Rajapaksa lost in areas hit hard by war and where Tamil’s constitute a majority.

“He should resist the temptation to feel that he was elected by the Sinhala Buddhist majority and can therefore overlook the aspirations of the minorities who did not vote for him,” The Island newspaper wrote Saturday.

Suresh Premachandran, an ethnic Tamil lawmaker said that Rajapaksa must understand that the Tamils voting against him was a rejection of his policies.

“The Tamils have said that they are a different people and that they need a political solution,” Premachandran said. “They must be prepared to share power with Tamils.”

The country’s existing constitution has a provision that allows for a level of autonomy for the country’s nine provinces, but critics say even those rights in the north and east are stifled by heavy-handedness from the central government.

After his re-election Rajapaksa said he wanted to be the president of all Sri Lankans. He pledged to seek reconciliation, and a find a “homegrown solution” to the Tamil’s problems. But that, he says, will have to wait until after the general election, planned for later this year.

However, Rajapaksa’s election manifesto suggested an autonomous Tamil-run region was not an option. “A unitary state, not to be divided,” was one of the key promises.

The government has indicated it plans to pursue reconciliation as part of a countrywide attempt to spur economic growth through development projects, suggesting it sees the problems afflicting the north and east not as ethnic but economic in nature.

The formerly rebel held areas have suffered disproportionately from the decades of war. The infrastructure is decrepit. Tamil civilians complain that military camps, large and small, have mushroomed, sometimes occupying private land. Their immediate needs, however, remain humanitarian: resettlement in their old home districts, food aid, and basic shelter.

Access for international aid groups to former rebel areas is restricted and even lawmakers must get defense ministry clearance before visiting resettled villages.

To rebuild and prop up this region will take time, government officials said.

But Rajapaksa’s public comments since crushing the Tigers “suggest little recognition that there is a serious problem of ethnic justice or power sharing that needs to be solved,” according to a report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

“The Rajapaksa government has shown no interest so far in constitutional or other reforms to address the ethnic tensions that gave rise to and were deepened by nearly 30 years of civil war,” the report said.

Whatever the proposed solution may be in the future, Rajapaksa said it must be accepted by all.

Sinhalese nationalists, who form the core of the president’s support base, get irked by any notion of additional rights for minorities.

Dharmasiri Rajapakse, a 50-year-old accountant and Rajapaksa supporter, said no additional powers should be granted to Tamils.

“Equal facilities should be provided to all areas so that there is no need to give special powers to north and east,” Rajapakse said.