Is Kosovo the way for Sri Lanka

"Ironically, the only certainty in Sri Lanka is the escalation in violence. The Sri Lanka government will use more force to stem the rising tide of LTTE’s growing separatist tendencies, fuelled and influenced by Kosovo’s UDI. Sri Lanka government has already declared that Kosovo episode has proved that devolution as a solution will not work for ethnic conflicts."
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by Anjali Sharma

(March 18, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Declaration of independence by Kosovo on February 17th, 2008 and its recognition, almost immediately, by the international community has sent ripples among the countries with restive regions. The problem is not so much with the Kosovo declaring independence but with the way the international community has backed the insurgency and succeeded in separating the province from its parent country.

Sri Lanka is one of the first few countries which criticized the Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) citing that, in the long run, it will set a dangerous precedent for the countries battling insurgencies. While the international community maintains that the circumstances leading to Kosovo’s independence were different and as such it did not set a precedent. But the International Relations Professor Spyros Economides of London School of Economics believed that “ultimately it does set a precedent.”

The freedom of Kosovo Albanians from the prolonged suppression of Serbs bolstered the sagging morale of the rebel LTTE in Sri Lanka fighting for a separate Tamil Eelam in the same fashion. The comparison between Kosovo and Sri Lanka is quite obvious but similarities are few and far between. One must also keep in mind that while making a comparison, the interests and opinion of international actors also mattered in deciding the fate of such beleaguered nationalities.

Ethnic Albanians, like Tamils were subjected to discriminatory policies and human rights violations at the hands of the majority Serbs. When the torture exceeded and passive resistance failed, KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) was formed to carry out armed attacks on the Serbian forces. According to official estimates, thousands of people perished and millions displaced in the struggle for independence. When situation worsened in 1999, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 placed Kosovo under the authority of United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) with security provided by NATO – led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and legally reaffirmed Serbia’s sovereignty over the region. But when UN led negotiations also failed to reach the consensus as desired by the Albanians, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence with international support, particularly US.

Sri Lanka, Kosovo and the World

In its early days, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was banned by the US as a terrorist organization quite like LTTE but the year 1998 saw the US authorities taking a U-turn by lifting the ban. The violence unleashed by the KLA was never recognized as a serious threat by the western powers even after US President Clinton’s special envoy Robert Gelbard branded KLA as an ‘Islamic terrorist organization’. But though LTTE has got huge support in men and material from various foreign countries including India during its hey days, it was never bracketed with the KLA by the global community. Not only was it branded as terrorist organization, its funding network was also crushed under the ban imposed on most of its fund-raising front organizations, notably Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).

Major world powers have had a little interest in interfering in Sri Lanka’s civil war. Till now, Sri Lanka holds little promise for the US as it already maintained a base in Diego Garcia, south of Sri Lanka. It would also be wrong to think that control over the bylanes of the Indian Ocean might provide incentive for the US to interfere in Sri Lanka. The US and Britain from the early days of the ethnic dispute in Sri Lanka had accepted the predominant position of India in the South Asian region. Given its substantial amount of Tamil population in the southern part, India also cannot become as sympathetic to the Tamil demands. China too need not be interested in the internal dynamics of Tamil-Sinhalese politics provided its economic interests remained unaffected by the ensuing vagaries of the ethnic conflict.

KLA and the LTTE

Owing to their brutal and repressive policies towards their own people, LTTE has, to an extent, lost popular support. The situation is such that the majority Tamilians prefer to live among the Sinhalese dominated Southern provinces in Sri Lanka unlike Albanians who had wholeheartedly supported Kosovo’s liberation movement. In fact, the unity of Albanians in and around Serbia hastened the process of the Kosovo liberation.

A difference can also be found in their respective capabilities in developing a democratic decision making apparatus. KLA started as a militarily-weak organization equipped with small arms such as AK-47 assault rifles and a few RPG-7 anti-tank weapons. But later it grew in size with indigenous popular support and funded in part by heroin trafficking and by German secret diplomacy. The origin and development of the LTTE is quite similar. Starting as a small group of young revolutionaries belonging to the troubled northern province of Sri Lanka, LTTE grew in size owing to its vast network of drug and human trafficking and arms smuggling. But unlike KLA, Tamil group failed to transform itself into a political party which could take over the reins from the rebel group, as and when the need arose. In a sharp contrast, many ex-KLA members have played and are playing, an active role in politics, reconstruction and development of the province.

Though all moves of LTTE have been influenced by the notion of state-building, none of its policies can said to be positively constructive. There is no development worth the name in the LTTE-controlled provinces. Most of the schools, colleges, hospitals and other agencies of public utility are state-owned. Financial institutions are practically non-existent. It is moot question weather the LTTE can sustain itself once it gets hold of its separate nation-state.

Undoubtedly, Kosovo is also fragile and weak but then it has the backing of international community, UN and its neighbouring countries. The case of Kosovo is unique in the sense that it has been put under international trusteeship where under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the question of final status was left open and independence is one of the possible options. Throughout the period of probationary independence, Kosovo has learnt many lessons in self-governance, the conditions that are thoroughly absent in the rebel held territories of Sri Lanka.

Conclusion

Ironically, the only certainty in Sri Lanka is the escalation in violence. The Sri Lanka government will use more force to stem the rising tide of LTTE’s growing separatist tendencies, fuelled and influenced by Kosovo’s UDI. Sri Lanka government has already declared that Kosovo episode has proved that devolution as a solution will not work for ethnic conflicts. The separatist movements can only be suppressed by military means. There can be no political solutions for such problems. On the other hand, the Rajapaksa government has also observed that not all alternatives had been explored by the Serbia in order to retain Kosovo.

The LTTE, as expects, uses counter-violence and guerilla tactics against the civilians to pressurize the government to give in to their demands, especially now as the Kosovo has set a precedent. Accommodative tendencies will remain absent and a reasonable solution elusive as before.

Anjali Sharma is Associate Fellow in Observer Research Foundation, Chennai.
- Sri Lanka Guardian