Sangam.org - Ilankai Tamil Sangam
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
Shared in Sri Lanka
by
Boston
Globe
editorial
THE WORLD'S response to the tsunami of Dec. 26 included a heartening will to overcome petty differences for the sake of saving lives and alleviating suffering. Implicit in the $2 billion of relief aid pledged by governments, the outpouring of contributions from private donors around the world, and the unprecendented cooperative rescue operations mounted by the US and Indian navies is a recognition of the common fragility of all humankind.
Yet
there
have
been
too
many
reminders
of
the
persistence
of
ethnic
and
political
conflicts
in
the
family
of
man,
tragic
habits
that
were
not
washed
away
by
the
waves.
In
the
northeast
of
Sri
Lanka,
in
the
Tamil
areas
that
have
been
racked
by
two
decades
of
deadly
warfare
between
government
troops
and
the
rebel
group
known
as
the
Tamil
Tigers,
there
continue
to
be
hostile
confrontations
even
over
the
distribution
of
food
aid.
A
relief
organization
that
cooperates
with
the
Tigers,
the
Tamil
Rehabilitation
Organization,
or
TRO,
has
been
assisting
not
only
Tamil
Hindus
in
the
northeast
but
also
Buddhist
Sinhalese
and
Muslim
families.
The
central
government,
however,
wants
nothing
to
do
with
the
Tiger-linked
TRO.
In
one
community
in
northeastern
Jaffna
Peninsula,
Tamil
peasants
refused
food
aid
from
a
contingent
of
Sri
Lankan
Army
soldiers,
whom
the
locals
had
come
to
fear.
According
to
the
peasants,
the
soldiers
later
returned
with
their
faces
covered,
entered
a
shed
where
local
Tamil
volunteers
had
stored
food
parcels,
and
burned
it
down.
After
visiting
a
Tamil
town
in
the
northeast
that
was
destroyed
by
the
tidal
wave,
Carol
Bellamy,
executive
director
of
UNICEF,
said
Monday
that
the
TRO's
"well-coordinated
relief
arrangements
put
in
place
within
so
short
a
time
are
all
really
commendable."
The
tsunami
took
away
the
lives
of
12,000
Sri
Lankan
children,
Sinhalese
as
well
as
Tamil.
Those
bereft
parents
whom
Bellamy
saw
wandering
along
the
beach
and
looking
out
to
sea
for
a
sign
of
their
lost
children
are
no
more
or
less
grief-stricken
for
belonging
to
one
ethnic
group
or
the
other.
The
irreducible
sameness
of
their
loss
ought
to
illuminate
the
irrationality
of
the
intercommunal
enmity
that
seems
to
have
survived
the
wave.
The
lesson
that
Sri
Lanka's
leaders
should
draw
is
that
there
can
be
no
military
solution
to
the
conflict
with
minority
Tamils
who
have
suffered
from
discrimination
and
repression
at
the
hands
of
successive
governments
dominated
by
the
Sinhalese
majority.
Before
the
current
tenuous
ceasefire
expires,
the
government
should
negotiate
a
permanent
peace
agreement
founded
upon
Tamil
local
autonomy
in
a
confederated
Sri
Lanka.
It
is
enough
that
Tamil
and
Sinhalese
parents
have
lost
children
to
the
sea.
No
more
of
their
children
should
be
lost
to
a
pointless
war.
| POSTED JANUARY 5, 2005 | The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, Inc., its members, or its affiliates. |
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