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Both have said that only a political solution that is acceptable to all sectors of the people, including the Tamil community, will lead to peace. But it seems that the message is not getting through to its intended recipients.
There is a reason for this. The Indian government has been providing Sri Lanka with weapons systems, albeit for defensive purposes, and training Sri Lankan military personnel in India. Recently India also invited Sri Lankan army commander General Sarath Fonseka for a visit where he was, by all accounts, very graciously hosted. This in turn led to an outburst from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which accused India of committing yet another blunder of historical proportions.
A similar double message to Sri Lanka comes from the United States. On the one hand, the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report on Sri Lanka earned the ire of the Sri Lankan government. The report pointed to the most distressing features of the Sri Lankan crisis, including mass displacements, assassinations, abductions and disappearances which have been taking place with impunity. The value of this report for human rights defenders is that it documents several of the human rights violations and provides a credible reference point in the face of bland governmental denials.
On the other hand, and like India, the U.S. government has been providing Sri Lanka with weapons for defensive purposes and also training its combat personnel. The question is, what lies behind these mixed messages? There is insistence on a political solution and on political processes. At the same time there is a military strengthening of one of the parties.
The answer must be found in the context of three factors. These are the preservation of Sri Lanka's territorial integrity, the unacceptability of the LTTE as it presently is, and the impracticability of a military solution.
As a longstanding member of the United Nations and the international community, and with its acceptance of nearly all international agreements on human rights and governance, Sri Lanka is well regarded in the world as a functioning democracy. Foreigners who visit Sri Lanka are usually impressed by what they see. As a result, with possibly a few exceptions, there is no desire within the international community to punish Sri Lanka. Instead there is a desire to assist it out of its protracted conflict.
In contrast to the acceptability that the government has, the LTTE has little or no international acceptability. It is evident that even the countries that have been most critical of the Sri Lankan government, on account of its unwillingness or inability to prevent human rights abuses, have no desire to side with the LTTE. Those with knowledge of the Sri Lankan situation may believe that the LTTE has grown out of Tamil frustrations, but they are not prepared to accept the LTTE as it is.
It is this fundamental asymmetry between the government and the LTTE that led the most important countries in the international community to clearly side with the government in the conflict with the LTTE. The weapons and training that the Sri Lankan military obtains from countries such as the United States and India is to ensure that the LTTE does not get the military upper hand over the government. It is also to convince the LTTE that its own reliance on a military solution to the ethnic conflict is but a chimera. This is because the LTTE, and not only the government, believes in the possibility of a military solution.
The reality today is that the world's biggest military powers, the United States, India, China and Pakistan, have indirectly joined hands to support the Sri Lankan government in its confrontation with the LTTE. The problem is that the government apparently believes that this support will enable it to win the war against the LTTE and solve the problem. This is where the government and all those who have joined the bandwagon of war seem to be making a miscalculation.
The most powerful sections of the international community are militarily supporting the government to ensure that the LTTE does not once again get the military upper hand. They are thereby sending a clear message to the LTTE that its own reliance on a military solution cannot succeed. But they also insist, without exception, that human rights should not be violated and that the practice of impunity should cease because they believe that the ethnic conflict cannot be resolved by military means but requires a political solution.
The lesson from ethnic conflicts in different parts of the world is that military solutions and enforced solutions do not work. This is what the international community has been trying to impress on the government and LTTE, both of whom continue to believe in the military solution. Except in rare instances, the government had to make peace finally with the main militant organization in cases of ethnic conflict. Sometimes this happened after many breakdowns of peace talks and ceasefires.
Sri Lanka will not be an exception to this rule. The sooner the Sri Lankan government decides to focus on a political solution, the sooner peace will come.
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(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
