Civil war

Sri Lanka’s chance for peace

The war between Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tigers, a rebel militia, officially ended in May after almost 26 years. Shortly after President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory, the rebels announced the end of hostilities. Their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the final days of combat. Many civilians died as well, but there are no reliable figures. In the last weeks of the war, the rebels had detained civilians in the combat zone and refused access to aid agencies. Recent UN estimates suggest that up to 100,000 people lost their lives during the civil war, and hundreds of thousands had to leave their homes.

Claudia Isabel Rittel

14.07.2009

According to government figures, more than 250,000 Sri Lankis have been displaced recently. Twenty camps have been set up, but they are hopelessly overcrowded, say aid agencies. They consider the situation of the refugees a “catastrophe”. Many people are suffering from malnourishment, and they urgently need humanitarian aid. From mid-February to early May, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) evacuated nearly 14,000 persons, first and foremost the sick or wounded.

The end of the war was preceded by weeks of fighting over a small area in the north of Sri Lanka, which had been occupied by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The UN Security Council had called on the rebels to end the war and release all civilians. A few years ago, the LTTE had controlled about one quarter of the country with their own administrative structures. The rebels, who recruited child soldiers and used suicide bombers, lost prestige in the past years.

A ceasefire agreed in 2002 was repeatedly broken, first by the rebels, and later by the government as well. At times it seemed possible to resolve the conflict peacefully by granting a degree to autonomy to Sri Lanka’s Tamils. Observers say the ceasefire failed because of a split in the LTTE in 2004. Last year, the government officially declared the ceasefire over, and hostilities intensified.

Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million. Three quarters of those belong to the Buddhist Sinhalese majority, and one quarter are Hindu Tamils. During a visit to the island, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation and demanded unfettered access to the displacement camps. However, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declined immediately, and his troops were still chasing rebel fighters. After the war ended, the EU called for an independent review into breaches of international humanitarian law.

In Germany and Switzerland, Tamils staged demonstrations to draw attention to the situation in their homeland. The integration of the Tamil minority will be central to the peaceful co-existence of Sri Lanka’s two major ethnic groups, but so far there is little indication of Rajapaksa thinking along such lines. (cir)