The undeclared Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka shows no signs of abating. The Ceasefire Agreement, whatever is left of it, is enervated and made more irrelevant daily. Violence in the north and the east increased dramatically in 2006. Thousands continue to be displaced – unable to return to their homes, starving, without access to basic human necessities or redress against repeated human-rights violations. Many more have fled Sri Lanka to South India, bringing back memories of the exodus of refugees in the late 1980s. In Colombo, a draconian government with scant regard for human rights uses the continuing intransigence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as an excuse to clamp down on civil society, NGOs and the media. Legislation enacted in 2006, most notably the anti-terrorism regulations, has stifled democratic rights and civil liberties. Many peace rallies around the country have been routed by thugs and goons affiliated to current members of Parliament.
A growing culture of impunity pervades the country. The establishment of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), meant to display the government's interest in investigating high-profile assassinations, killings and disappearances, is only a half-hearted attempt for the benefit of the international community. Supine government advisors, jostling for favour, write long columns espousing military offensives as the only way towards a sustainable peace, with a militarily-emaciated LTTE believed to be more interested in a victor's peace process. The LTTE, for its part, shows no interest whatsoever in confidence-building measures and actions that could lead to a substantive peace process. The intensity of armed conflict, coupled with the alleged suicide bombings and terror attacks against civilian targets in the south, galvanise the perennial suspicion that the Tigers want 'Eelam' at any cost and will not countenance any other option.
Vanishing middle ground
Given the intransigence on either side, securing a modicum of peace in Sri Lanka in 2007 is going to be possible only through an emphasis on human rights. In this framework, the denial of livelihoods and the large-scale displacement of citizens in the north and east, in the interests of national security, are inexcusable failures of the Mahinda Rajapakse government.
The idea of those in power to cleanse the Eastern Province of the LTTE and position in its place Karuna and his 'political party', the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), is extremely disturbing. Concerns raised by local activists and international missions about the Sri Lankan Army's complicity in Karuna's regime of violence in the east are met with vehement denial by the renegade rebel as well as the government. But Karuna is no democrat, and the allegations of extortion, killings and violence, to which the government turns a blind eye, are true. The emplacement of the TMVP would only subject communities in the east to another regime with scant regard for democratic governance.