Conflict Resumes

Being stopped at thrice at security checkpoints over the few km from the airport to my house, told me that all was not well in the Emerald Isle. In fact, we are heading very steadily back to total war. Following an attempt on the life of Rajapakse's brother in the heart of Colombo (near my beloved Mango Tree restaurant), the GOSL is reconsidering its relationship with the LTTE. In other words, they are wondering if they should ban it and attempt to kill it. To ease their decision making, they have ordered that Norway cease discussions with the LTTE. This renders that benevolent fishing nation an outsider to the entire process and leaves both sides happily at each other's throats.

We should have all seen this coming when Uncle Prabha issued his idiotic Heroes Day speech. He was calling for the elusive Tamil nation of Eelam again, claiming the "Sinhala chauvanists" had left the Tamil people with little choice at a "turning point" in their history. I agree with a brilliant editorial in The Hindu, which exposes this nonsense for the deranged bollocks that it is. The Tamil people and all other parties to the Sri Lankan conflict have heard this speech before, to the point of deja vu. Anything short of Eelam was never on the cards for Prabha, the GOSL was just negotiating so that he might one day die of fatigue at the negotiating table, as Mr. Balasingam is apparently going to do. Yes, I made fun of a person having cancer, you can kindly take SQ 468 and suck my balls if you think I am going to have any sympathy for a Tiger, cancer-riddled or not. The Tamil people have also heard of these turning points before. In reality, they are not at all involved in any decision making process. Instead the LTTE makes decisions for them, like the Kasparov-like decision to try and blow up the President's brother. The masterstroke has put the Sinhala chauvanists firmly back in control of what was looking increasinly like a secular polity. With almost the same level of planning as an LTTE attack, the raving loony mobs of the JVP and JHU were out in force asking that the Tigers be banned and the nation go back to war.

What is worrying is how hard it is to argue with them now. The nation and the international community are being made fools of by Prabhakaran. The GOSL may even have been pushed to emulate his draconian security and recruitment measures. Allan Rock has given up trying to get the LTTE and has decided to pursue the easier and more vulnerable target of the GOSL. In other words, the conflict has come full circle. The Sinhalese are claiming that the LTTE is a bloody thirst bunch of scoundrels and the LTTE is claiming that the Sinhalese have no serious intentions of giving Tamils any form of meaningful representation.

All observers of the conflict will agree that both sides are right. The Sri Lankan conflict has confounded international pressure and politicians of all stripes for the last 26 years. And both sides seem more interested in spilling blood than shaking hands. The bleak, grey skies of the monsoon season should be taken as God's fair warning of what lies in store for Sri Lanka in 2007.

The Pearl of the Indian Ocean is starting to looking more and more like a giant teardrop.