{"id":3094,"date":"2011-12-29T12:17:28","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2011-12-29T12:17:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:17:28","slug":"its-not-a-war-crime-debate-theyre-still-debating-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/its-not-a-war-crime-debate-theyre-still-debating-the-war\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not A War Crime Debate, They\u2019re Still Debating The War"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Indi Samarajiva<\/a> –<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Indi Samarajiva<\/p><\/div>\n

The Daily Mirror wrote a misleading headline saying \u201cTamils to blame for Lanka solution delay: Rajapaksa<\/a>\u201c. What the President seems to have said is that he blames the TNA, saying \u201cThere is no point blaming me, it\u2019s the Tamil parties that are delaying the solution.\u201d In the\u00a0Colombo Telegraph<\/a>, also, Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka has pointed to the intransigence of the TNA (the Tamil National Alliance).<\/p>\n

Are Tamils To Blame?\u00a0No. Tamils are people with diverse opinions and multiple identities. That would be retarded if Mahinda said it, but as it is I think it\u2019s just a stupid headline.<\/p>\n

Is The TNA To Blame?<\/h3>\n

Eh, not really. They\u2019re not really negotiating in good faith, but that\u2019s really because the premises they (and some Tamil groups) are operating under are completely different from the that of the government and the vast majority of Sri Lankans. There\u2019s no point blaming them really, but they\u2019re not really part of a solution either. That said, they are more a part than they were four years ago.<\/p>\n

Faulty Premises<\/h3>\n

What are the premises? On the extreme Tamil side, you\u2019ve got the idea that the North and East are a separate state, or at least a nation. On the mainstream Sri Lankan side you\u2019ve got that idea that Sri Lanka is one country which requires equal rights for all. On the extreme Sinhala side you\u2019ve got the idea that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist nation and everybody else can just deal with it.<\/p>\n

One side is calling for separation, one for subjugation, and the majority for unity and civil rights.<\/p>\n

Why do I say the civil rights position (mine, coincidentally) is the mainstream? Because that\u2019s what the government says (though not always what they do). That\u2019s what the laws of the country are. That\u2019s what the political system could support. It\u2019s essentially the path of least resistance.<\/p>\n

The War Crimes Debate<\/h3>\n

The war crimes debate makes a bit more sense viewed through these premises. The TNA and, more vocally, LTTE and non-LTTE diasporals are calling for international investigation because they want to see the Sri Lankan government punished for winning the war, leading somewhat mysteriously to separation for the North and East. People in the diaspora still want Eelam recognized as a separate state, while the TNA is more reasonably calling for autonomy. Note that this issue is not actually connected to the war crimes in question, that\u2019s just a means to an end. It is, like Dayan Jayatilleka says<\/p>\n

As if most of German society did not criticise the Nazis and Auschwitz even after WW 2 ended, and called instead for an international inquiry into the fire-bombing of Dresden by the Allies. (Colombo Telegraph<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The extreme Sinhalese oppose any investigation because, to paraphrase, fuck them. The mainstream, however, has conducted a flawed investigation which nonetheless took the huge steps of admitting that civilians died and that abuses did occur (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission Highlights<\/a>). The argument therein was that these losses were proportional to a broader aim \u2013 ending the war and uniting the country. That said, the next step would be civil rights.<\/p>\n

The War Debate<\/h3>\n

I think why this isn\u2019t enough is that the TNA et al don\u2019t agree with the proportionality at all. They don\u2019t see a united Sri Lanka as a desirable outcome at all, so any price would be too high for such a thing. It\u2019s like asking a Muslim how much they\u2019d pay for a ham sandwich. Nothing, less than nothing. They don\u2019t want a ham sandwich at all. They\u2019re not debating war crimes, they\u2019re debating the entire war.<\/p>\n

What they want out of investigations is not specifics of what went wrong and redress for that, the essentially want the whole premise rolled back, to say that the war itself was wrong. That\u2019s obviously unattainable (because it\u2019s not really true, IMHO) and the next step of internationally backed ethnic division is even more implausible. But that\u2019s where they are.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think the separatist argument is dumb by any degree. Even if the North and East is separate, nearly half of the Tamil population is still in the south and a ton of Muslims and Sinhalese are in the East and North. Aside from ethnic cleansing I don\u2019t see how that works out. AFAIK, civil rights for all is the only way out and in that sense the TNA and many in the Tamil community are not helping. Many, however, are. It\u2019s just going slower and more one-sided than it needs to be, because many political leaders don\u2019t want to buy into the idea of a united Sri Lanka at all.<\/p>\n

So, in that sense are the TNA and some diasporals beyond useless? Yeah. But I think the vast majority of Sri Lankans accept the idea of a united Sri Lanka and just want equal opportunity and a better life for their kids, ie, civil rights. It\u2019s sad that many Tamil political parties aren\u2019t really pushing for that attainable and worthy goal, but I think the people of Sri Lanka are more broadly moving in that direction.<\/p>\n

Courtesy \u00a0http:\/\/indi.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,63,26],"tags":[1139,1648,1134,1690,1397,1650,6983],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics-2","category-war-crimes","tag-democracy","tag-ethnic-conflict-in-sri-lanka","tag-human-rights","tag-peace","tag-tamil-politics","tag-transitional-justice-and-reconciliation","tag-war-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s Not A War Crime Debate, They\u2019re Still Debating The War - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/its-not-a-war-crime-debate-theyre-still-debating-the-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s Not A War Crime Debate, They\u2019re Still Debating The War - 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