The South endorses the war!

– The Sudar Oli Editorial

(August 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Gurdian) The ruling party has won the elections for the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils.

President Rajapakse during his election campaign maintained that the people will give a verdict endorsing his military operations against the LTTE and that it would be a mandate for his war while the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe sought a verdict against the government for the increasing cost of living and for co-existence.

The South has articulated that they are not worried about poverty or the economic problems and that they are for a victory of the Sri Lankan forces.
During the 2001 December elections, when the cry was “war or peace’, the South chose peace and rejected war.

The verdict of the South is that the people have endorsed the war unleashed under the guise of “humanitarian mission”.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the verdict may be, the people have given a mandate for a military solution, while the international community insists on a political solution for treating the minorities with honour and so on.

Having given an undertaking to the international community to find a political solution, the government makes moves according to its war agenda, which has now been endorsed by the people at an election.

It is high time that the international community realized that there is no political solution through peaceful negotiations and acted accordingly. Will the international community see the message of the election?

(An English translation of the Editorial in The Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo.) - Sri Lanka Guardian