Sri Lanka teeters on brink of war
Government stops bombings but rebels say they will retaliate if attacked again.
After two days of bombing rebel targets in the northern part of the island of Sri Lanka, government forces reopened borders with rebel territory on Thursday.
Reuters reports, however, that the bombing, which forced thousands of residents of the northern part of the island nation to flee their homes, has left the country
teetering on the brink of open warfare after several years of a truce between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Diplomats say that if the violence between the two sides stops now, peace talks may be possible. If the violence continues, however, they fear that it will only escalate. Almost 65,000 people have died in the 23-year-old conflict.
The strikes on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in the northeast followed a suspected Tiger suicide bomb attack on army headquarters in Colombo killed 10 and wounded the army commander.
The pro-rebel Web site Tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com) quoted Tiger northeastern political chief S. Elilan as saying the rebels awaited instructions from their leadership, but any retaliation would be "catastrophically disabling and devastating". The Tigers say more than 12 civilians were killed in the government air and artillery strikes on their territory around the northeastern port of Trincomalee. They also say some 40,000 people have fled their homes.
The
BBC reports that truce monitors have traveled to Trincomalee in northeast Sri Lanka
in an effort to cool down the situation. Norway's international development minister, Erik Solheim, who is leading the mediation effort, said he didn't think the violence would bring an end to the four-year-old truce. "We are working with the parties on an hour-to-hour basis to do whatever possible to bring them back to the negotiating table," he said.
The Times of India reports that the European Union also issued a statement Thursday,
supporting the peace mediators and condemning the original suicide attack, which seriously wounded the chief of the Sri Lankan army and killed five of his bodyguards. The attack was carried out by a woman who was strapped with explosives in such a way to make her look pregnant. The EU asked that both the rebels and the government "refrain from further actions liable to jeopardize the peace process."
The
Colombo Page, a Sri Lankan news site, reports that the US also
condemned the original attack and intends to help organize world governments to pressure the Tamil Tigers back to the peace talks.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said, "It's regrettable that the Tamil Tigers have decided to restart the war instead of restarting the peace process. We are in touch with governments around the world to bring to bear whatever pressure we can on the Tamil Tigers to abandon this course of action and to look for ways that we can support the government on coping with the threat."
The
Hindustan Times reports that the suicide bomber has been
one of the principal weapons for the Tamil Tiger in their struggle to liberate the northern part of Sri Lanka. Suicide bombers have killed several leading Sri Lankan politicians and peace activists. In 1991 Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian prime minister and leader of the opposition, was killed by a female bomber. Many rebels feared that if Mr. Gandhi were reelected, he would send an Indian peacekeeping force on to the island.
The
Asian Human Rights Commission, in a piece posted on ReliefWeb, says that the return to violence in Sri Lanka is only part of the island's problem. A greater concern, the commission says, is the
almost complete collapse of democratic processes.
The AHRC has consistently pointed out that the crisis in Sri Lanka is a crisis of democracy, with its roots in the authoritarian style of rule that arose as a result of the 1978 Constitution. The abandonment of a basic democratic infrastructure that was accepted as the foundation of the country's governance at the beginning of independence met with hardly any resistance in the late 1970s and 1980s. The architect of the 1978 Constitution was an aged politician who had no other ambition than to rule for the rest of his life, like colonial governor generals or ancient monarchs. That the displacement of all basic democratic norms and standards and of the respect for institutions brought about by this constitution would damage the country for a long time to come was none of his concerns. The crisis has deepened since that time, without tangible efforts on the part of other political parties or civil society for the construction of the country on the basis of
democracy. The AHRC also argues that "peace talks" that don't include the larger issue of the restoration of democratic institutions ultimately will not succeed, and are "just an illusion."
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