New Paradigm needed for Sri Lankan Crisis

(February 08, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Canadian Democratic Tamil Cultural Association (CDTCA) has issued a press statement in Ottawa February 6 expressing its deep-felt concerns about the situation in the Wanni. According to its spokesperson, the misguided actions of the LTTE during the past 30 years have brought immense suffering to the Tamil community. It has been groping in the dark due to the grave mistakes made in the name of its liberation. If we do not make an honest reappraisal of this tragic past, we will be condemned to suffer the consequences for another 300 years.

The Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, the CDTCA emphasized, could have been a good starting point to work towards a more permanent solution to the ethnic conflict. Unfortunately, the LTTE rejected the accord and took the fatal steps of attacking the IPKF and later killing Mr. Rajiv Gandhi thereby antagonizing India.

Among the colossal injustices committed by the LTTE, one was the expelling of the Muslim people in the 1990s who had lived in the north for centuries. LTTE also by its Jaffna-centric mindset alienated the Eastern Tamils. It mishandled its internal contradictions and branded those who represented the aspirations of Eastern Tamils as paramilitary and killed hundreds of its own cadres. The LTTE brutalized the very people for whose liberation it claimed to be fighting. It emasculated the spirit of the Tamil people's struggle by resorting to terrorism and killing democrats, moderates and dissidents.

When the struggle degenerated to a fascist domination of the whole community, our intellectuals failed in their duty to guide the community. The Tamil media became a tool of the LTTE in its disinformation campaign. Through all these developments, the Tamil people made the historical error of not condemning the atrocities. Instead in many instances, they became the cheer leaders for LTTE's human rights violations.

Political leaderships both in the North and South are responsible for the present crisis. Successive Sri Lankan governments and Tamil leaders have failed to act in a statesman-like manner. Critical decisions were made not in the interests of the people, but based on political expediency leading to a total breakdown of the trust and goodwill that had existed among the various communities.

As Sri Lankans, the time has come for us to adopt a new approach. Together, we have to search for a new paradigm in order to transcend the present difficulties and build a new united and strong Sri Lanka where people of all backgrounds can live in harmony with equal rights.

-Sri Lanka Guardian