Sri Lankan Civil War Ends!

[CaptainChewbacca]

Link

From The Times
May 18, 2009
Tamil Tigers admit defeat after battle reaches 'bitter end'

(Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images)
Street celebrations in Colombo after the Government declared victory in the 26-year war with the rebel movement
Robert Bosleigh in Colombo and Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent
The Tamil Tigers admitted defeat yesterday in their separatist struggle as hundreds of Sri Lankan government troops closed in on a diminishing patch of coconut grove where the last of the rebels — and possibly their elusive leader — were surrounded.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers’ chief of international relations, announced that the rebels were laying down their weapons after 26 years of fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland. “This battle has reached its bitter end,” Mr Pathmanathan, who is in hiding, said in a statement published on the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.

The statement came one day after President Rajapaksa had declared victory over the Tigers, ending what has been Asia’s longest-running civil war.

Mr Pathmanathan said: “We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer.” He added that there were fewer than 2,000 Tigers in the conflict zone — reduced to a few hundred square metres on the northeastern coast — and that more than 3,000 people had died there in the previous 24 hours. The Government denied the claim.

He also said that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tigers’ leader, was still on the front line and wanted the international community to help to broker a ceasefire. The Government appeared determined, however, to finish off the Tigers, despite repeated international appeals for a ceasefire and threats of war crimes investigations and other sanctions.

The army said that its troops had found the bodies of 70 Tigers, including two senior leaders. It said it had yet to find Prabhakaran, who has vowed not to be taken alive and is said to carry a vial of cyanide around his neck. There were rumours that he and his son, Charles Anthony, had blown themselves up.

In Sri Lanka there were muted celebrations over the apparent death of the Tigers as a fighting force, but fears that a military victory would not mark the end of the violence. Mano Ganesan, a prominent Tamil MP and human rights activist, said: “The war is won but the political conditions [underpinning] Tamil militancy remain undefeated.”

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, told The Times last night that the army had avoided a civilian bloodbath by rescuing 62,000 people held by the Tigers as human shields.

A few hundred troops were conducting a “mop-up operation” for the final handful of rebels in an area of just 800 square metres after surrounding them and cutting them off from the sea for the first time on Saturday, he added.

A satellite image of the area released by the military showed the mangled wreckage of several vehicles on fire, billowing thick black smoke and a row of tents. “They were actually defeated some time ago, but they have formally accepted defeat only now,” said Brigadier Nanayakkara.

“They fought for an Eelam [separate state] that they could never win. It was only a waste of lives. They have caused massive death and destruction over the years. Finally they themselves have realised that it is all over.”

Across the country there were sharply contrasting reactions to the bloody climax of a conflict that has cost at least 70,000 lives and crippled Sri Lanka’s economy since 1983.

Among some Sinhalese in Colombo, the capital, where government workers had spent the morning decking the streets in bunting and national flags, the mood was jubilant.

“It is a great day for our President,” said W. S. C. Bandula, 40, a driver. “The war is over. We can look forward to better lives, better security, a better economy.”

Others were less sure. “Some of my friends believe the suffering is worth it to beat the terrorists. But I can’t feel any happiness when there has been so much bloodshed,” said Marisa, 27, a Sinhalese office worker.

Even in subdued Tamil areas in the north, government troops cajoled people into setting off firecrackers to celebrate.

Many Sri Lankans are anxious, however, that Tiger terrorist cells are waiting to unleash suicide bombing attacks — a tactic pioneered by the group — in the south of the country. Some also fear that the violence of the past few days has driven a new wedge between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority.

Raj, 24, a Tamil law student in the northern region of Jaffna, previously a Tiger stronghold, said: “Among young Tamils, views have become much more polarised and radicalised. We will see how this plays out in the next few months.”

Mangala Samaraweera, a former Foreign Minister, now an opposition MP, said: “The carnage of the past few days has fostered calls among formerly moderate Tamils to calls for a separate state. I fear hundreds of Prabhakarans have been created.”

Aid organisations said last night that the humanitarian situation was set to deteriorate, despite the army’s boast that it had conducted the “world’s largest hostage rescue”. A UN spokesman said that the organisation was scrambling to supply aid for an estimated 300,000 civilians displaced in recent weeks.

Citing the poor physical condition of 130,000 people who escaped the conflict zone in mid-April, UN officials said that many of those who fled at the weekend would require urgent medical attention for battlefield injuries and malnutrition. The army says that only a few need hospital care.

The United Nations has not heard from the conflict zone since the end of last week, except for government statements. The International Committee of the Red Cross has a handful of workers still in the battle area but was unable to give any update on their condition.

Journalists are not being allowed close to the conflict to report first-hand. No medical supplies or food have reached the region for more than a week.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister, dismissed international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. “There was no bloodbath as some people feared,” he told reporters. “Everybody has come out safely and they are being looked after by the Government.”

However, the UN and Britain have called for an investigation into allegations that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes by shelling civilian targets, including hospitals.

Washington has said that it is blocking Sri Lanka’s application for a $1.9 billion emergency International Monetary Fund loan because of its conduct of the war.

President Rajapaksa has dismissed appeals and threats as Western hypocrisy. He was apparently emboldened by support from China, which has provided him with crucial arms, aid and diplomatic support since the war began again in 2006.

Beijing’s support appears to be linked to a $1 billion port that China is building on Sri Lanka’s southern coast as a commercial venture and a potential refuelling and docking station for the Chinese Navy as it protects oil supplies from Saudi Arabia.

History of violence

1972 Velupillai Prabhakaran founds the Tamil New Tigers, later to become the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), to fight for a separate Tamil state in reaction to alleged widespread anti-Tamil discrimination

1983 A Tamil Tiger attack in northern Sri Lanka kills 13 soldiers, triggering anti-Tamil riots in the capital, Colombo, in which hundreds die. This, in effect, marks the start of the civil war

1987 India brokers truce and sends troops to enforce it but the Tigers renege and begin three years of fighting in which 1,000 Indian soldiers are killed. In 1990 India withdraws, leaving the Tigers in control of Jaffna, in the north

1991 A female suicide bomber, believed to have been sent by the Tamil Tigers, kills Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister, along with 14 others at a rally in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A year later the LTTE is outlawed in India

1993 A suspected Tiger suicide bomber kills Ranasinghe Premadasa, the Sri Lankan President, at a rally. The following year Chandrika Kumaratunga comes to power and starts peace talks but heavy fighting continues over the next six years

2002 Norway negotiates a ceasefire and peace talks begin. The Government lifts its ban on the Tigers and the rebels drop demands for an independent state

2004 Colonel Karuna, eastern commander of the Tigers, defects to the Government

2005 State of emergency declared after Lakshman Kadirgamar, the Foreign Minister, is killed by a suspected Tiger assassin in August. In November Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister, wins presidential elections on a vow to reject demands for Tamil autonomy. Most Tamils in Tiger-controlled areas do not vote, helping him to win. New peace talks fail in Geneva

2007-09 Government forces begin to drive the Tigers from eastern Sri Lanka. A year later they launch an offensive. In 2009 they seize the Tiger’s de facto capital, Kilinochchi Source: Times archive

A war that has been raging for almost my entire life has ended. Outstanding.

[Big Orange]

Here is a BBC video.

[CJvR]

Always nice to see a war that actually ends.

As for Sri Lanka, this was the easy part the hard part remains.
Unless the goverment is willing to settle for one nation and an occupied territory.

[Rochey]

Excellent news. Now let's hope it stays that way.

[ray245]

Of course, that's assuming that there is active steps to decrease the amount of discrimination aimed towards the Tamils in general.

[KrauserKrauser]

I bet the discrimination will decrease if they stop the suicide bombing and using human shields.

There's a unique idea.

[ray245]

I bet the discrimination will decrease if they stop the suicide bombing and using human shields.

There's a unique idea.

Well considering the fact that discrimination against the Tamils is one of the few reason why the LTTE was created, social re-integration may take them generations to resolve.

[Stuart]

Well considering the fact that discrimination against the Tamils is one of the few reason why the LTTE was created, social re-integration may take them generations to resolve.

I'm afraid that's not true. The Tamils like to play the victim card (along with quite a few others I can think of) but their claim to victimhood is very, very weak. Their claims to discrimination are even weaker.

The truth of the matter lies in the fact that the majority of the Tamils are not long-term residents of Sri Lanka at all. As we've discussed elsewhere, there are long-term Tamil residents of Sri Lanka but they were not the basis for the terrorist's strength. The main source of support for the LTTE was the Indian Tamil population. They are mostly those who were brought over by the British in the 19th century up to the 1930s reinforced by immigrants from Tamil Nadu in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, the problem is that the British colonial administration greatly favored the Tamils they had brought over. There's no sinister reason for that, its just that the Tamils had been working for the British Colonial Administration for a long time, they knew how the administration worked and what it wanted. In contrast the Singhalese hadn't got that experience. Also, the British liked to place political control in the hands of immigrant groups (especially the ones they had brought in) precisely because they didn't have any ties with the local population. The upshoot of this policy was that, when Sri Lanka gained independence, the Tamils were massively over-represented in government, commerce etc. Furthermore, the Tamils had a bad habit of throwing their weight around and treating their privileged position as being theirs by right.

Of course, since the Tamils are less than ten percent of the population of Sri Lanka (they're not even the largest minority in the country, there are more Indian Moslems and Sri Lankan Moors than there are Tamils) their over-representation couldn't continue. In any election, Singhalese polutical parties would dominate the elected government and they would want their people to control the government. The cries of "discrimination" from the Tamils are not complaints about actual discrimination, their distress at the loss of the privileged position they had held under the British. It's a sign of just how exaggerated a sense of their own importance the Tamils had that, being 8.5 percent of the population, they claimed 40 percent of the island as their "homeland", leaving the 91.5 percent of the population that remained to share the remaining 60 percent. In a very real sense, it was non-Tamil portion of the population that was being discriminated against. The real cause of the civil war was not discrimination against the Tamils but the Tamils refusal to adjust to a situation where they held power out of all proportion to their numbers thanks to the support of a colonial power.

Prabhakaran (now deceased may he rest in pieces) deliberately stoked up the situation to feed his own megalomania (he was also into necrophilia but that's another story) and create a state where he had absolute power - which he did. He was an absolute dictator of the northern third of Sri Lanka for a long, long time. Everything else was just a tool to the end of getting him that absolute power.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The British must have a real habit of having minorities in power. What with Iraq and what not. Their decisions can be really.. far reaching.

[mr friendly guy]

If the Tamils are so small (number wise), how is it that the Tigers held out so long? One would have thought that the Sri Lankan government would simply be able to outspend them, have more soldiers to lose etc and hold almost every advantage even if every Tiger was some super fanatical soldier.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

If the Tamils are so small (number wise), how is it that the Tigers held out so long? One would have thought that the Sri Lankan government would simply be able to outspend them, have more soldiers to lose etc and hold almost every advantage even if every Tiger was some super fanatical soldier.

A combination of incompetence and grueling jungle warfare. In short, too many truces signed, and too many agreements dishonored, and the Tamils were getting steady flows of cash and constantly smuggled in weapons via various sources, such as Thailand. Every time a truce was signed, the Tamils rearmed, and then broke the truce and that was repeated et infinitum. Then this current government decided enough was enough. Used some foreign aid and bought some new weapons, and dived back into the fight.

[Starglider]

A combination of incompetence and grueling jungle warfare. In short, too many truces signed, and too many agreements dishonored, and the Tamils were getting steady flows of cash and constantly smuggled in weapons via various sources, such as Thailand.

The Tamil rebels were remarkably good at;
1) Convincing Tamils worldwide to donate money to the cause.
2) Squeezing the population in areas they contolled for every penny they had.
3) Using a combination of intimidation (terrorism) and outrageously inaccurate PR to convince other governments not to back the Sri Lankan government (and put pressure on them to sign ceasefires when tactically convenient for the Tamils).

They really did make the IRA (who also used to try all these tricks, with less success) look like complete amateurs.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

They really did make the IRA (who also used to try all these tricks, with less success) look like complete amateurs.

Hell, they even had their own small navy. They are quite all-rounded for a rag-tag army.

[Elfdart]

The British must have a real habit of having minorities in power. What with Iraq and what not. Their decisions can be really.. far reaching.

Imperialism 101: Use a minority group to do your dirty work. Encourage them to lord it over the locals. This will almost guarantee their loyalty, since the other locals will hate their guts and might want some payback if you should ever leave (see Ireland, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Iraq, Liberia et al).

[Tiriol]

The British must have a real habit of having minorities in power. What with Iraq and what not. Their decisions can be really.. far reaching.

Imperialism 101: Use a minority group to do your dirty work. Encourage them to lord it over the locals. This will almost guarantee their loyalty, since the other locals will hate their guts and might want some payback if you should ever leave (see Ireland, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Iraq, Liberia et al).

Correct. It is an adaptation of an old Roman saying divide and conquer. It's far more easy to manage your holdings if you set up some sort of discontent among your subservient nations/nationalities directed against OTHER subservient nations/nationalities.

And as to the end of the civil war... Good for them. I hope that they can finally be at peace.

[bobalot]

There is discrimination against Tamils. There were anti Tamil riots in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981, 1983 (Black July, where 3000 thousand Tamils were killed) and 2000. If you take notice, most of these occurred before the Tamil Tigers were even around.

It's not like it's the Tamils who are singled out. Sri Lankan muslims are also given a lot of shit. In the 70's it was illegal to import Tamil movies, books, magazines, journals etc. Don't tell me that isn't discrimination.

It was bullshit like that that gave arseholes like the Tamil Tigers the support and recruits they needed to wage their homicidal campaigns.

[CJvR]

Apparently the Tigers now deny that their boss was killed yesterday.

[Pelranius]

I'll believe that Mr. Necrophile (thanks, Stuart, I'd forgotten that little detail about him and I just had dinner) is alive when they produce footage of him.

[Phantasee]

I saw this on one of the local news channels. They were showing the President and the top Army guys cutting a cake.

Popping some bubbly, throwing up some streamers and confetti in celebration, I understand, but cutting a cake? That was weird.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I saw this on one of the local news channels. They were showing the President and the top Army guys cutting a cake.

Popping some bubbly, throwing up some streamers and confetti in celebration, I understand, but cutting a cake? That was weird.

DUDE! Have you never HAD cake? Creamy and delicious, with sugary frosting that makes ANY occasion special. You don't even get cake on THANKSGIVING, because it's not special enough. They've been fighting a bloody and protracted conflict for twenty-six years, and nothing says 'no killing today' like some motherfucking CAKE!

[Stuart]

There is discrimination against Tamils. There were anti Tamil riots in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981, 1983 (Black July, where 3000 thousand Tamils were killed) and 2000. If you take notice, most of these occurred before the Tamil Tigers were even around.

The LTTE was founded in 1976 (in fact Prabhakaran personally killed a Sri Lankan parliament member in 1975). That puts the 1977, 1981, 1983 and 2000 dates - four out of six note - after the foundation of the LTTE so your comment falls there. However, prior to the LTTE being formed, there was an older pro-independence terrorist movement called the Tamil United Liberation Front or TULF.

Dealing with some specific events, the 1983 riots (the usually accepted maximum death toll for the events is 400 with most estimates being 250 - 400. The Sri lanka Government says around 1,000 people were killed during the riots as a whole but that includes non-Tamils. The 3,000 figure comes from Tamil propaganda websites and has no credibility), its important to note that the direct cause of the riots was a LTTE attack on the Army that killed 13 soldiers. Since it was a Tamil attack that kicked off the whole regrettable affair, they have only themselves to blame. By the way, it's likely that the LTTE carried out the attack in an effort to provoke precisely the response that did occur. It's also worth noting that the main focus of the riots, initially at least, was not the Tamils but the Government. The Army had decided to bury the 13 dead soldiers in a central cementary rather than return them to their village, the decision being taken to try and cool down the situation. Instead, people resented the decision and rioted, targeting government offices. it was only later that the mob turned on the Tamils.

The 1956 and 1958 events were the result of Tamil objections to the Sinhala Only act that made Singhalese the official language of Sri Lanka. Since 91.5 percent of the population speak Sinhala and 8.5 percent don't (no prizes for guessing which 8.5 percent don't), making Sinhalese the official language seems eminently reasonable and Tamil objections to that are another example of their over-inflated sense of self-importance. Once again, their actions brought down the problems on their own heads. A close examination of the situation shows this is the standard pattern, the riots that the Tamils like to claim are discrimination against them were, in fact, the result of their own actions against the majority population. I don't condone rioting or civil disorder but its a bit rich for a group to complain about them when its their actions that caused them.

It's worth noting that, pre-independence, the Tamils were strongly opposed to a universal franchise for a democratic Sinhalese government on the explicit grounds that this would endanger their privileged position.

It's not like it's the Tamils who are singled out. Sri Lankan muslims are also given a lot of shit.

Yet, the Moslems and Moors are solidly on the side of the Government. That tells you a lot about the reality of the situation. If the Moslems actually felt they were being oppressed by the Sri Lanka Government, there would be Moslem terrorist groups operating. These guys aren't exactly shrinking violets you know, you may have noticed they have a tendancy to blow things up when upset. The fact the are NOT doing so in Sri Lanka is indicative. If the Moslem and Moor populations in Sri Lanka (who, remember are a larger minority than the Tamils) felt they - or Islam - were under attack, there'd be a Muslim terrorist movement as well. There isn't, in fact, very conspicuously, there isn't. By the way, the Tamils did attack Muslim groups in the eastern provinces and those groups did retaliate. So, your hypothesis tends not to be supported by the facts on the ground.

In the 70's it was illegal to import Tamil movies, books, magazines, journals etc. Don't tell me that isn't discrimination.

Before I said anything, I'd want to see proof of that. That smells like something off a Tamil website. I suspect that the banned importation (if it happened at all) is of pro-independence media material and other propaganda tracts by the LTTE and its predecessors. That isn't discrimination, that's a sensible security measure. Oddly, most reputable sources (for example The Tamil Library Project make it clear that it was the provision of a free and well-funded university system by the Sinhalese government that allowed the flowering of Tamil literature in the 1960s and 1970s. To quote the source cited - In the 1970s, contemporary Sri Lankan Tamil literature was part of the educational curriculum at the university entrance level, and this paved the way for the participation of teachers and students in the literary debates of the day. Writers became important social figures. This does not support your statement.

It was bullshit like that that gave arseholes like the Tamil Tigers the support and recruits they needed to wage their homicidal campaigns.

Considering that very considerable doubt has been thrown upon your assertions, I think that this statement cannot be supported. I would say that as the detailed history of the region is studied, a more accurate picture emerges. This is of a small Tamil minority that was, under the colonial regime, in an unjustifiably privileged position trying to defend that privilege in a post-colonial world where they could no longer rely on the colonial power to protect them. Their actions in support of an indefensible position created the atmosphere that turned people against them. Seen in a historical background of continuous Tamil efforts to subjugate the Sinhalese majority, the Sri Lankan position vis a vis the Tamils then becomes very easily understandable.

Attempting to rectify a position where privilege is unjustly held by a small minority is not discrimination.

[hongi]

After four days of alleged shelling by government forces, a civilian camp looked like:



Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, you're packed into a little piece of land with thousands of refugees, Tamil Tigers on one side using you as human shields, government forces shelling the fuck out of you on the other.

[cosmicalstorm]

I have searched but not found anything about the necrophilia. Can someone explain that to me?

[Stuart]

I have searched but not found anything about the necrophilia. Can someone explain that to me?

Prabhakaran was in love with death; in many ways, the Tamil terrorists he commanded were a death cult. Those fighting as part of the group were issued with cyanide capsules that they were expected to hang around their necks and swallow the contents if they were about to be taken prisoner. He invented and institutionalized suicide bomb attacks and took great delight in looking at the pictures of the resulting dead bodies. When using female suicide bombers, he was reputed to have gone to great lengths to make sure that he picked ones that were pregnant. When the Sri Lanka Army overran his underground bunkers, they found substantial evidence that he had had performed sex acts with dead bodies. It is possible to find some accounts of this on the web but the search is very definitely NSFW.

[Stuart]

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, you're packed into a little piece of land with thousands of refugees, Tamil Tigers on one side using you as human shields, government forces shelling the fuck out of you on the other.

Being a civilian caught in a war zone really sucks. Modern warfare being what it is, its inevitable that civilians will get caught in a war zone and be so in large numbers. By and large, that's why its better not to let wars start. Modern Warfare is a lose-lose game, its just that the winner doesn't lose as much as the loser (and even that's open to some doubt).