The bombing of a Tamil school by government aircraft and the apparent death of 61 children and the wounding of hundreds more, may now prove to be a tipping point in the confrontation between the Tamil Tigers and the authorities in Sri Lanka. Although the rebel claims about this tragic loss of young life have not yet been independently verified, in a way it does not matter. True or not, the incident will become grist for the Tamil Tiger propaganda mill that will fuel a recrudescence of the conflict.
The final end to a three-year cease-fire that in recent months has been more honored in the breach is a disaster for both sides and will be a cause of despair for the Norwegian negotiators who have worked so long and hard to bring peace to this beautiful island. But even though the bloodshed may be starting again, nothing has in fact changed. The plain truth is that this is a civil war that neither side can win. Since the Tamil rebellion began in the 1970s, 64,000 lives, hundreds of thousands of maimed people, the majority of them innocent Sinhalese and Tamil civilians, and severe disruption to the island’s economy have proved this. The fresh death and destruction that now seems inevitable is therefore going to be just as pointless, just as much of a wretched waste.
The Tamil Tigers have clearly been guilty of precipitating the renewed violence. Their refusal to carry on the already fitful negotiations frustrated moderates in the government, who believed that a deal could be cut giving the Tamils autonomy within the Sri Lankan state. Thereafter a series of provocative attacks on the Sri Lankan Army and Navy, culminating with the interdiction of key water supplies to Sinhalese farmers have finally propelled the government into retaliation. From now on, the Tamils are back on the familiar ground of conflict, which will enable them to retighten their hold on the whole Tamil community.
Unfortunately, successive Sri Lankan administrations have often fueled the conflict, either deliberately or through carelessness. The appalling failure to send post-tsunami aid to the Tamil area in 2004 was extremely ill-judged. A large proportion of the island’s 30,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of homeless were in the Tamil region. By holding up assistance to these unfortunates, the government in Colombo not only acted with a lack of humanity but reinforced the claim of the Tigers to be wholly responsible for the welfare of the country’s Tamil minority.
Tiger propaganda also claimed that die-hard Sinhalese nationalists welcomed the destruction that had overtaken the Tamils. Perhaps a few hard-liners did and may even have been contributed to the woeful delay in getting urgently needed assistance to the whole Sri Lankan population. But while the peace process was still alive, such people were pushed into the background. Now unfortunately it seems their hour may have come again. Provoked beyond endurance, the authorities are finally matching fire with fire. Yet even as the calamity recommences, both sides must know in their hearts that fresh carnage will achieve absolutely nothing.
