Ruining Lanka's chances of finding a solution - The Island Editorial

Prabhakaran is dead and an LTTE rump is limping along overseas. It is sure to suffer some splits before long. There may be internecine clashes among the surviving senior Tigers staking claims for leadership. Prabhakaran died intestate, so to speak, and the LTTE's unaccounted for wealth in many hands may cause the aspiring leaders to fall out and break ranks. So, the LTTE’s revival as a military outfit in this country is out of the question. However, this does not mean that everything is going to be hunky dory for us.

Nothing could be more unfavourable to democracy than the unbridled militarisation of a society. That a country faced with war against a formidable enemy is compelled to unleash extremely ferocious forces perhaps disproportionate to the real threat is only too well known. And what needs to be done immediately after the conclusion of any military campaign is to put the genie back into the bottle, look after the war affected civilians and remove the politico-economic causes of the conflagration so that it won't recur.

Regrettably, instead of helping Sri Lanka achieve these daunting tasks, the western powers have resorted to a course of action that militates against her normalisation and conflict resolution processes. An aid blockade they have slapped as part of a witch hunt and their campaign to press war crime charges against some Sri Lankan leaders by way of retaliation are fraught with the danger of leading to the country's politico-economic instability in this crucial postwar period. The worst affected by their action will be the war displaced who would face a double whammy, should the economy suffer a debilitating setback.

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