The Hindustan Times Special correspondent writing from Colombo on March 19, have noted that the war in the East is seen as “a bid to alter the ethnic ratio.”  According to Hindustan Times, the anti-war group in Sri Lanka has alleged “That the government is using the ongoing military operations against the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] in the East to lessen the number of Tamil-speaking people vis-à-vis the Sinhalas there.” [1]

The ground reality is beginning to reveal that the Sinhala state has not changed its stripes at all.  From the day one of the independence of Ceylon in 1948 the secret colonisation of the Tamil homelands and the process of “slow motion ethnic cleansing” of the Tamils have always been the covert policy of each subsequent government, initiated by the First ‘native’ Prime Minister DS. Senanayake. 

So in short, the talk of “liberating” Tamils from the clutches of Tamil Tigers; re-settling the Internal Refugees and kick-starting a massive development programme in the East in particular, are all part of the same old jingo from the tried and tested racist song-sheet.

There are two predominant questions in the mind of the Tamil Diaspora.  The first, have the Tigers weakened as to not fight back?  In other words, has the belief in their invincibility evaporated?  The second,  what is the response of the international community [IC] on the current plight of the Tamils? 

The latter is easier to respond.  Currently, the IC’s response is pretty weak – issuing token statements if not holding silent.  But it is a pregnant silence.  They are wishing that the Tigers would be totally neutralised or as a US newspaper Op-Ed recently called it as the “Unclawing of the Tigers.”

The first question is much harder to answer.  If the government succeeds in its strategy of flushing out civilians from Tiger territory and then attacking Tiger installations; it will indeed reduce civilian causalities to near zero.  That is of course easier said than done. Even the recent Iraq war has proved that this precision-strategy is not without its serious flaws. Then the other realistic problem is separating the Tigers from the Tamils.  Thus far, the success of the Tigers mainly depended that the Tamils and the Tamil Tigers are indivisible. So the question whether the tactic of divide and develop [regenerate] and rule will win is something only time will tell.   

In the final analysis however, the plight of civilians will be the deciding factor.

Note: [1] http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/7598_1953832,000500020002.htm