"Rajapakse 'best bet' to end ethnic conflict"

By M.R. Narayan Swamy

(November, 08, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Mahinda Rajapakse is the 'best bet' to resolve Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict but there can be no solution minus the Tamil Tigers, says a prominent Muslim leader from the country.

Nizam Kariapper of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) party also said that New Delhi needed to put aside the Rajiv Gandhi assassination of 1991 so as to play a more meaningful role vis-a-vis the dragging conflict.

'Rajapakse is the best bet, provided he is willing to (come up with a political solution),' Kariapper told the reporter, speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on federalism that ended here Wednesday.

'Whatever he does, the Sinhalese will feel he will have their interests in mind. And Tamils will accept a reasonable solution,' he explained.

Kariapper, 44, is the SLMC deputy secretary general and its nominee at the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), which has been asked by the government to come up with an acceptable package on devolution of power in Sri Lanka.

Kariapper, however, warned that there could no solution to the ethnic conflict without the support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and also 'the Sinhalese nationalists'.
'The LTTE's strength is not their weapons; it is the backing they get from their people,' he said. 'They may not have the absolute majority support of the Tamils but they enjoy (the support of) a significant majority.'

One of the dozen Sri Lankans who took part in the federalism meet, Kariapper faulted India for seemingly keeping aloof from the conflict because of the LTTE assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
'You cannot use the Gandhi killing as a handle in the Sri Lanka situation. This is fundamentally wrong,' he said, referring to India's move to almost wash its hands off the ethnic conflict following the assassination.

'India should look at Sri Lanka objectively. They should not let the Gandhi affair cloud their thinking. The problem with India is it does not act when it has to and it acts when it need not.'
Muslims constitute eight percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people. Although Muslims count Tamil as their mother tongue, they consider themselves a separate ethnic group, distinct from Tamils.

The SLMC is a member of the Rajapakse government, but Kariapper underlined that it was so 'most reluctantly'.

He also expressed disappointment over the devolution proposals put forward by Rajapakse's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). This, he said, had only affected the credibility of the APRC.
'A credible solution (to the conflict) should be federal in spirit, even if it does not have the name,' he said. 'It should recognise the areas of the north and east (of Sri Lanka) as the habitation of the Tamil-speaking people, both Tamils and Muslims.'

Kariapper said '85-90 percent of work' regarding devolution proposals was over at the APRC, which brings together various shades of political opinion in Sri Lanka, and 'we just need to agree on some basic principles'.

Can there be a military solution to the conflict? 'I don't think so, either by the LTTE or by the government,' he replied.

'The situation in Sri Lanka is very complex,' he added. 'But in this complexity, a solution may arise.'

Kariapper also admitted that sections of younger Muslims, particularly in Sri Lanka's east, were getting radicalised.

'There is a huge tendency of radicalisation among younger Muslims. It is only the trading culture in the community that has kept this from happening in large numbers.

'Also, lack of leadership has played a role. We refuse to provide leadership to radical Muslims. But it should be noted that such Muslims are a small minority.'