Lankan conflict

“There is no easy way out of the spiralling morass of terror and brutality that confronts the world today” – Arundhati Roy

Every attempt to kill a terrorist, unfortunately involves accidentally killing hundreds of innocent bystanders as well. And for every hundred innocent people killed, there is a good chance that several future terrorists will be created. But one has to make sure that the right kind of innocent people are killed. Not the innocent innocent people from across the border. I mean, people would know about it then. Indians are good at math. They can count their fishermen. And who knows, India may develop a spine overnight and decide to intervene. Demand a ceasefire, impose sanctions or something. That can’t be allowed to happen, can it?

The Sri Lankan Navy has put in place an “underwater defence system” on their side of the border and they want the Indian Navy to warn Tamil Nadu fishermen not to stray in and get blown apart. How nice of them!

There is another not unimportant reason for the sea mines. For the Tamils on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar, there is definitely a sense of solidarity with the fighting Tamil separatists. But solidarity can only get you so far. This is a world ruled by its economics, not emotion. I think it is more as a business opportunity that the LTTE is appealing to the Indian mule. The supply lines through the mainland are strangled and the Tigers have to depend on the sea for rations. Rice, fuel, money, other essentials. Maybe even ammunition. So by installing sea mines, the Srilankan Navy was choking all life lines to the LTTE.

The only other alternate to the Tamils’ demand for complete statehood is the complete annihilation of the Tamils. A separate nation for Tamils is unpalatable for the Sinhalese and political suicide for anyone suggesting it. Not going to happen. Genocide of that scale is uneconomic. A PR exercise that SriLanka is ill-equipped to handle. Their national budget is perhaps less than the money Hillary spends on her presidential bid. Given the international watchdogs, human rights activists and scores of other people who have nothing better to do, not economic at all. But the LTTE is a different issue. The SriLankans can piggyback on the already well established propaganda of “Fight on terror”. LTTE is a terrorist organization and terrorism is bad. Nobody can object now. Nananaana. I mean, there are a lot of skeletons in that cupboard and the international community will not want to open it. With the LTTE, which has been the muscle behind the separatist movement, gone, there will be peace. Peace at any cost. What about the remaining Tamils you ask. Oh! Well… they can be non-entities. An inconvenience that they can live with.