Is peace roadmap on right track?

By Vipul

(February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lanka government is planning to reopen the A-9 Jaffna-Kandy highway for the public by March, according to reports. The government is also planning to commence reconstruction of the Northern rail track that ends at Kankesanthurai in Jaffna peninsula on March 19, said the reports.

It is hoped that the early resumption of road and rail links would facilitate the free and quick movement of people and goods among all parts of the island resulting in an increase in commerce and help to reduce prices of essential items in the Jaffna peninsula.

A news report said the military had already reopened the road and operated a food convoy along the A-9 highway to Jaffna.

Food and essentials for troops and police in Jaffna went by road on Tuesday, the AFP news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

He said the opening of the A-9 meant they no longer had to depend on expensive air and sea transport to the peninsula.

Hopes are rising over peace dividends as troops make speedy progress in the Vanni battlefront.

The vision of a Singapore in the Indian Ocean should remain alive as global concern grows over the plight of civilians trapped in the war zone.

Tamil sympathy, if not support, is with the hapless Sri Lankan citizens of Wanni.

The World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday that the health conditions were endangering the lives of the civilians.

Amid these concerns, thousands of protesters rallied outside the US White House recently and appealed to the US government to publicly condemn the atrocities perpetrated on civilians.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said the government's military offensive had reached the point of no return and the troops would not rest until terrorism was eradicated.

He also dismissed international demands for a ceasefire. The LTTE has said it is open to a limited cease-fire and a political solution, but has rejected Colombo's calls to disarm.

Rajapaksa's remarks came as former US ambassador to Sri Lanka Jeffrey Lunstead pointed out that the Sri Lankan government has an obligation to protect its own citizens.

He also defended Sri Lankan Tamils grievances and said these needs should be addressed by the government.

Lunstead said the US should work in "close co-ordination" with India on the Sri Lankan issue and impress upon international financial institutions to give "conditional" aid to the country.

"A powerful and united donors group could insist that development assistance will flow only if strict conditions are met," he said, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations sub-committee on South and Central Asian Affairs.

He said the world community could play an important role in shaping Sri Lanka's future.

Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch, addressing the US sub-committee, urged the UN Security Council to hold a special session to address Sri Lanka's humanitarian catastrophe.

Sri Lanka watchers, however, pointed out that there were no witnesses at the hearing to represent the Sri Lankan government or the international aid organisations working in the battlefields.

Sri Lanka's conflict with the Tigers is to defeat terrorism and isn't about Tamil ethnicity, the country's ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya said.

"It is a struggle to rid Sri Lanka of a globally recognized terrorist organization -- the LTTE," Wickramasuriya said in a statement in Washington to coincide with a Senate hearing. Most of the Tamil population lives in harmony with Sinhalese, Muslim and other ethnic groups, he was quoted as saying by media.

The current situation has, however, created a window of opportunity for the Lankan state to win over that alienated community.

There has never been a better time to finish off extremist forces politically by de-legitimising them.

Analysts fear that the government is not serious in addressing the issues of the Tamils and arriving at a political settlement.

If the Tamil people are given a reasonable political solution, if democracy and the rule of law are restored in the North and the East, a majority can be turned away from the fighters.

But in the absence of a just settlement, the memory of past injustices will be reawakened by current suffering.

As the results of the latest round of provincial council polls demonstrated, a majority of Sinhalese back the government but not a majority of the minorities.

The battlefield victories have helped the ruling party win all local elections despite economic hardships attributed to the war effort in which tens of thousands of people have died.

The UN, the European Union and others have all expressed concern about reports of civilian casualties. The military says civilians may have been killed but that the numbers given have been inflated for propaganda reasons.

The government and the Tigers have strongly denied attacking civilians but with the government having barred journalists and neutral parties from entering the war zone, suspicions are growing and rumours are spreading.

The Tigers have also urged the Urging international community to effect a ceasefire and initiate a political solution as a priority than insisting the group to lay down arms

There is also controversy over the government's plans for Tamils leaving the areas held by the Tigers.

Some refugees have reportedly complained that life in refugee camps in government-held areas are just as hard as life in LTTE territory.

The government says the restrictions on refugees are temporary, to give them time to weed out insurgent infiltrators and to ensure the rebels do not try to repeat an attack that killed 30 people on February 9 at a refugee registration centre.

The government plans to transfer most refugees to temporary villages with schools and other facilities, with homes for each family. The government says people will be placed with others from their home areas.

Conditions in the war zone have rapidly deteriorated as stranded families packed fields filled with human waste, water supplies dwindled and a makeshift hospital ran out of essential medicines, the top health official in the region -- Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah -- said on Wednesday.

Aid groups estimate more than 200,000 people are trapped in a small strip of rebel-held territory along the northeast coast. The government says only 70,000 remain trapped.

It is still not too late for nationalists and patriotic forces to look for the key question of the impact Tiger leader V Prabhakaran would leave, dead or alive, on Sri Lanka, with a clean heart.
-Sri Lanka Guardian