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Journalism of Courage
The suicide bombing in Colombo indicates the fragility of the peace process in Sri Lanka. Dr Neelan Thiruchelvam was a moderate, a voice of reason speaking on behalf of the Tamils in the north. Possibly, the last person a body that purports to be interested in the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils would want to get out of the way.
More a political visionary than a politician, Thiruchelvam was largely responsible for the devolution package intended to give the Tamils a share in the State. It helped the Chandrika Kumaratunga government consolidate the image of being the first non-chauvinist Sinhala authority. And, ironically, it was also the death warrant of its framer. Dr Thiruchelvam8217;s name is only the last in a long list of liberal politicians who were trying to establish a pluralist polity in Sri Lanka and assure rights to the minorities, and who have been eliminated by the LTTE. The terrorist organisation8217;s campaign shows that its proclaimed commitment to the Tamil cause is only a fig-leaf. The last thingit wants is a political settlement that can bring peace to Sri Lanka, for that would spell its irrelevance.
There is only one way that the Kumaratunga government can react to the killing: it must make the devolution package work. It should not allow Thiruchelvam8217;s death to be the last nail in the coffin of the peace process. It must, instead, treat it as a new beginning. The international community has shown whose side it is on quite unequivocally. It should not be too difficult to make this the basis of a campaign to turn the tide. If there can be no peace while the LTTE is on the scene, then the LTTE will have to go. While the government, rather deeply in debt because of defence spending, may not wish to engage militarily, it can try to turn opinion within the Tamil community against theLTTE. At the very least it will reduce the terrorists8217; recruitment base. At most, it will render it completely unacceptable.
