Last stand?

Estimates vary,but all are agreed that roughly 100,000 civilians are trapped in the government-designated “no-fire zone” in Sri Lanka’s northeast. The name is a misnomer,because the zone,spread over a few square kilometres,has also become a refuge for LTTE cadres fighting what many believe may well be their last stand. Therefore,reports of atrocities are many — of civilians being used as human shields,of those trying to flee being shot. But in an equivalence that the Sri Lankan government has not shown the will or ability to break,the military too is coming under strong criticism. For the sake of the civilians,the government is being urged to cease shelling to ensure safer rescue of those trapped in the “no-fire zone”.

No tears will be shed for the LTTE fighters. Their fate is not the reason to engage Colombo. What is alarming is how little the Sri Lankan government appears to have applied itself to working out humanitarian and administrative arrangements for the immediate aftermath of the fighting. There is a visible lack of official attention to Tamil civilians in previously Tiger-held territories. There is disquiet over lack of planning about enabling their freedom of movement and transition in some manner to business as usual.

In fighting spread over the last 25 years,and especially in the last few years,with a ceasefire having given the Tigers effective control of large swathes of territory,Sri Lanka’s citizens have inhabited two different regimes. Colombo has to bridge that difference in an inclusive and federal way that challenges the ethnic nationalism sweeping the southern parts of the island country. Pressure to do so must not be eased by friends and donors to Sri Lanka.