Seventy thousand people have been killed and countless others injured in Sri Lanka’s civil conflict; thus, as the LTTE appears to succumb to a sizeable, battle-hardened military fighting with improved weaponry and small-unit commando tactics, any end to violence is welcome. However, that should not obscure the fact that the real challenges lie ahead. Having already established control over the Eastern province (where elections were held recently), if the Sri Lankan government notches up more victories by forcing the LTTE separatists out of their last foothold in the north of the country, how President Rajapakse faces three challenges will determine the future for peace in the island.

The first challenge is to build sustainable communal and ethnic harmony after half a century of disharmony. This involves reducing tensions between the Tamils on the one hand and the Sinhalese and Muslims on the other. Sixteen years of violent separatism by the LTTE has created deep fissures in the relationship between the majority Sinhalese, who form 74 per cent of the population and the Tamils who make up 12 per cent of the 20 million Sri Lankans. In addition, the Muslims, who were thrown out of Jaffna by the LTTE in 1991, are demanding to return to their homes. Muslim leaders including a cabinet minister have called for resettling the community and returning its lands and property. But such a policy is fraught with the possibility of intensifying tension between Tamil and Muslim Sri Lankans.

Rajapakse needs to do three things: ensure devolution of governance, establish a responsive political system, and promote more harmonious relations between the communities. In Sri Lanka the roots of the conflict, the Tamil demand for a federal state, needs to be addressed immediately. Sinhalese political elites have to create “maximum devolution” for the Tamil minority, which India too favours. As long as LTTE supremo Prabhakaran was the self-proclaimed sole spokesman for the Tamil population, Sinhalese nationalist parties like the JHU and JVP refused to countenance any move towards federalism, fearful that it would be a prelude to carving out a Tamil state comprising the north and east of the country. The opposition to federalism from Sinhalese nationalists may be less strident if Prabhakaran is no longer a player at the negotiating table.

... contd.