A strange element in Sri Lanka´s long-drawn civil war, now in its fourteenth year, is that despite the blood that has been shed and the limbs that have been lost on both sides of the lines, there has been little in the form of protest. The country has not seen angry demonstrations with ordinary people taking to the streets, refusing to offer their sons as cannon fodder. Despite the yearning for peace among people of all classes and communities, the carnage continues to be accepted with stoicism. Why? There are two reasons. On the Tamil side, there is fanatical motivation. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), has been able to inspire his fighters in a way that few guerrilla leaders in contemporary world history have been able to. The glass cyanide capsule that LTTE cadres wear round their necks and bite if captured, tells its own story. So also the numerous suicide killers who have blown themselves up for the Liberation Tigers.
On the other side of the bloodied fence, the young men fighting the war for the Colombo government most often do so because they have nothing else to do. Unemployment has long been the country´s biggest problem and although most politicians and, indeed, many other Sri Lankans would like to think that patriotism inspires most of the soldiers (and sailors, airmen and policemen) at the front, the reality is that they are fighting for their pay.
The money, by prevailing standards in the country, is good. A frontline serviceman of the lowest rank earns a minimum of SLR 6000. Besides, he is fed, barracked and clothed and gets many perks such as free cigarettes – which non-smokers sell in the open market. All this makes up for much more than what the soldier can expect in the lower rungs of the job market, assuming that a job can be found. Even with the good pay and perks, however, there are desertions by the thousands.
But that is not the whole story. Despite the poor state of its economy and the billions being guzzled up by the never-ending war, Sri Lanka looks after its war dead and disabled much better than do most richer countries. The family of a soldier dying in the fighting is immediately paid SLR 100,000 compensation. He is promoted one rank immediately and his pay continues till the time he would have reached the retiring age of 55 years. After that, a pension begins.