After the war in Sri Lanka South and North : What Next ?

Last week, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his forces successfully crushed the LTTE. But in coming weeks and months, peace will be harder to win. And so will be the trust of the minority Tamils.

Neither side has any reason to celebrate

by Farah Mihlar

Today is a momentous day. I should be celebrating, like most Sri Lankans. I grew up as a Muslim in Colombo in fear of the deafening blasts of the Tamil Tiger suicide bombings. The Tigers ethnically cleansed 60,000 Muslims from their territory. Their campaign was horrific.

But when I travelled to Tiger-controlled areas, I realised that civilians there confronted another even more powerful enemy. I met children who drew only pictures of air force planes that dropped bombs over their homes. Hundreds of women had lost their husbands killed, disappeared, abducted or imprisoned. It was ugly and sad and unknown to the rest of the country.

This is all supposedly history now. People are jubilant. Yet, I feel unable to share in this thrill. I cannot understand how my people, my family and friends, can blind themselves to the carnage behind this victory. In the past four months alone more than 6,500 people have died, because the Tigers brutally held them captive as human shields and government forces continued their indiscriminate attacks.

The fighting is supposedly now over, but this does not mean Sri Lanka's problems are. The country still faces a humanitarian crisis that has to be viewed in the context of the Sri Lankan government's disastrous human rights record.

This latest success on the part of the government was diplomatic and political, as well as military. Every UN official, human rights group, journalist or politician who questioned them was dubbed a terrorist. Posters covered the walls of Colombo with pictures of David Miliband and Hillary Clinton with the word "terrorist" imprinted on their faces. The government brilliantly used neo-colonial arguments in the corridors of the UN to shut out Western criticism.

This deafness to international pressure cannot be sustained Sri Lanka has already appealed for international aid to rebuild the war-torn areas. The British Government must continue to work with the US to keep Sri Lanka top of the UN agenda. They should not be put off by Sri Lanka's wrath; there are hundreds of thousands of people in displaced camps who need support.

I do not wish to undermine the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. Having lived through their terror, I know what this means for the country. But for there to be a lasting peace there has to be justice, accountability, freedom and equality for all. [independent.co.uk]

Farah Mihlar works for Minority Rights Group International

UN fears Sri Lanka 'war crimes'

Actions by Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tiger rebels may amount to war crimes, the United Nations says.

UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay called on the two warring sides to suspend hostilities immediately in the island's north-east.

Describing the level of civilian deaths as "truly shocking", she warned it could reach "catastrophic" levels.

The government said it was "very disappointed" at the UN commissioner's "unprofessional statement".

There was no immediate reaction from the rebels.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, by telephone that Washington was deeply concerned about deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life in government-designated safe areas.

Source : BBC & NTDV

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[umiester]

3 Stable solutions for eelam tamils: Federalise the political system in sri lanka. Split Tamil Eelam away as another country or Make Tamil eelam another state with India,

[KolonelKARUNA]

@va12io lol..cant stop LOLing!!

[tamildeztiny]

@ are u jelouse?..if majority happy about that, what can we terrorist do?..cynide prehaps?

[tamildeztiny]

@ same like tamil net jouni-terrorist no?

[va12io]

tamils didnt celebrate actually,they were forced celebrate.if u go to north or east or majority tamil areas,it is clean silence bcoz this war came to end with price of 20 000 tamil civilians and 300 000 tamils were suffering in camps.

IF A TAMILS CELEBRATE,THEY ARE HEARTLESS!

[farhandafunk]

no more fighting pls lets make it hapen guys........

[mlomailom]

u just lost ur stupid eelam war. who's the idiot now???

[mlomailom]

idiot

[ForeverTamil]

Jesus Crist, these people from NDTV are disgrace for being called journalist. They just want to spread what they want others to hear. Tamils community there lost 20,000 people, another 30,000 maimed, the rest of the 300,000 are behind barbed wires without even basic needs. Do you think Tamils are celebrating? This Karuna, oh my god..

[sonofthedestroyer]

Sri Lankan idiots. You have Rajapakse from an old JVP rebel group which was responsible for brutal killings.

Then you have Karuna from LTTE.

Two men from two violent rebel groups are now president and vice president of the govt?