War and peace in Sri Lanka

| by N.S.Venkataraman

( September 02, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka International Defence Seminar – 2012 under the theme “Towards a Lasting Peace and Stability” took place with much fanfare a few days back , with several army officers, defence secretary and a few ministers participating and making claims about the achievements and role of Sri Lankan army during the ethnic conflict and after. Of course, one cannot but miss the fact that General Fonseka , the army chief during the period of conflict who successfully led the army to victory, was not in the conference. It would have been more credible if General Fonseka had been invited for the conference and allowed to submit his observations and his views. Obviously, politics has come into play in preventing invitation to General Fonseka.

All said and done, the Sri Lankan citizens are happy that the conflict and war has ended once for all, promising period of hope , peace and progress for the country. While it is hard to believe that Sri Lankan army has not been crude or brutal during the period of conflict in dealing with the LTTE or even with the innocent citizens who were caught in the conflict, at least some people think that such happenings are inevitable in such period of war and tension though unfortunate.

During the above conference, the rehabilitation measures initiated after the end of conflict were described in detail and the Sri Lankan army has been portrayed as peace keeping force now. This could be true as far as it goes, since peace has to necessarily follow the war and the army has a role to play both at the time of war and peace. It is now futile to keep on talking about the unfortunate war. What is important is how quickly the dignity and peace would be restored for the thousands of innocent citizens in the war torn area who have suffered enormously.

The battle of peace has to be won in the ground as well as in the mind of the people, so that there would be no occasion for such unfortunate events to take place at any time in the future and Sri Lanka’s integrity and solidarity would be assured.

It is true that there are forces outside Sri Lanka who keep on highlighting the sufferings of the people during the time of war, though , such propaganda do not cover the sufferings of all sections of the people, including Tamils, Sri Lankans and army men.

Whatever may be such international campaign, the best strategy for Sri Lankan government and Sri Lankan people will be to go all out to implement development plans, provide educational and job opportunities , promote cultural and religious activities and bring confidence in the mind set of the people in the Tamil speaking areas. If and when the Sri Lankan government would be able to convince the population about its healthy intentions by its positive actions, any international negative campaign will lose its steam.

There is no short cut for peace and peace cannot be attained without earnestly trying for it and preparing the appropriate conditions for it. While there is no justification to say that Sri Lankan government is not trying to achieve such ends, it is certainly necessary that it should not only do so but also should seem to do so. Frequent visit to the areas and interaction with the local people by the government representatives are absolutely necessary.

It is now the appropriate time for Sri Lankan government to create national integration council with representatives from all sides and without any government or political representatives in it , to constantly monitor the implementation of the development schemes, find out the loop holes and suggest remedies.

Building peace can even be more difficult than winning war, as peace has to be won in the minds of the citizens , for which extraordinary quality of good will and statesmanship has to be shown by those in charge.