With the ongoing travesty in Gaza, attention has been distracted by another attempt to impose a military solution on a problem that clearly demands a political one: the Tamil minority of Sri Lanka. However, the murderously fanatical position taken by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in their decades long battle has forced the ideal of minority rights off course for the larger cause of eliminating terrorism that has nearly wrecked the island nation. LTTE is now locked in a deadly struggle to hold onto a small patch of jungle, a fraction fo the territory they controlled just weeks ago. Should the government destroy the Tigers as a conventional rebel force, its adherents will no doubt continue their struggle via guerrilla tactics and quite possibly more terrorism. A rebellion that has sustained itself for decades is not likely to raise the white flag and fade into the sunset. No doubt the Tamils of Sri Lanka have genuine political and economic grievances. As early as 1956, anti-Tamil legislation was passed. The official language of the country was made Sinhala; in 1972 the constitution gave Buddhism the “foremost place” in the state. The discrimination escalated, preventing many Tamils from attending university or acquiring government jobs. Hundreds of Tamil were killed in anti-Tamil riots in the decades following the independence from Britain. However, the Tigers squandered away any claim to fighting a just cause when they made victims of the very people they represented by trying to cling on to power at any cost. They have forcibly recruited children, men and women, suppressed independent media and opinion, killed and tortured political opponents within the Tamil community and generally operated as an authoritarian entity. Successive governments in Colombo have tried various approaches to tackle the problem, some good, some bad, but all mostly leading many young Tamils to join the LTTE out of anger. The latest cause for outrage was on Thursday in Colombo when the editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper that has been highly critical of the government's hawkish approach to the Tamil issue was shot dead. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the killing but there are charges that elements sympathetic to the government are using extrajudicial means to press their own point. The situation in Sri Lanka is a pointer that the resolution of political issues by violent means results in nothing but countless deaths, ongoing resentment and never-ending conflict. Rajapakse appears close to a historic victory against the terrorists among the Tamils. However, he still has a long way to go before he can make any claim of victory against the largely innocent Tamil minority whose grievances must be addressed if the country is to rid itself of the scourge of militancy once and for all. __
