{"id":37718,"date":"2012-04-08T20:47:06","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T20:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=37718"},"modified":"2012-04-10T10:18:39","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T10:18:39","slug":"lanka-may-miss-chance-to-heal-its-war-wounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lanka-may-miss-chance-to-heal-its-war-wounds\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lanka May Miss Chance To Heal Its War Wounds\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Pramit Pal Chaudhuri –\u00a0Hindustan Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has a \u201cmarvellous opportunity\u201d to heal and reconcile its twin populations after 25 years of civil war, says Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sri Lanka\u2019s former prime minister and president.\u00a0Which is why she is more than a little baffled at the slowness with which the Mahinda Rajapaksa\u00a0government is building post-civil war \u201cbridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch opportunities do not last forever,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why they are called windows and not something larger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/p><\/div>\n

In New Delhi for the first annual conference of her own South Asia Policy and Research Institute (SAPRI), Kumaratunga said that since retired from active politics six years ago, she had dedicated herself to two international organisations, the Club of Madrid and the Clinton Global Initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I have created my own foundation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

SAPRI will look at issues regarding the subcontinent, Kumaratunga says, engaging research scholars globally on these topics.\u00a0 These deliberations will result in policy recommendations which will be communicated to policy-makers and professionals.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is still fertile ground for the dissemination of such ideas. While the civil war has seen some repair work accomplished, Kumaratunga says still more needs to be done in terms of physical reconstruction and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Kumaratunga led Lanka during some of the bloodiest years of the civil war. Today, with a Tamil minority \u201cwho want rights but of whom only a small minority still talk of a homeland,\u201d she seems worried Colombo doesn\u2019t recognize what a good thing it has going for it.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa\u2019s abrogation of her promise of Tamil political devolution \u2013 a decision he had been party to at the time and did not oppose \u2013 was one reason Kumaratunga declined to support him in the last elections.\u00a0 \u201cEven though he called me eight times asking for support,\u201d she remembers.<\/p>\n

Kumaratunga strongly denies she backed the rival candidate, General Sarath Fonseka. “Normally I would have supported Rajapaksa: I am still patron and member of our party. But I could not support some of his policies.\u201d So she stayed out of the campaign altogether.<\/p>\n

If she is concerned at Rajapaksa\u2019s minority policies, she is \u201cbewildered\u201d by his foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my time, we practiced nonalignment, which meant keeping good relations with the entire world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

This led many Western countries to agree to ban or limit the activities of the Tamil Tigers. Kumaratunga is clearly discomfited with Rajapaksa\u2019s confrontational policies with the West and his rhetorical claims to having new \u201cfriends\u201d in China, Myanmar and Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelations with India are essential and crucial,\u201d she stresses.<\/p>\n

Which leads her to wonder, after New Delhi\u2019s recent United Nations vote against Sri Lanka, what has changed there. Two years ago, in similar circumstances, India actually canvassed on Lanka\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomethings must have changed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not know what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, a key interest of SAPRI, besides development and poverty alleviation, is how such issues lead to conflict.<\/p>\n

Kumaratunga is much taken with Frances Stewart\u2019s work on \u201chorizontal inequalities\u201d and their connection to violence and conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first priority is that all sections of a population must be brought into a development process,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the theme of the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2201],"tags":[2487,2486,2488],"class_list":["post-37718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-from-foreign-media","tag-chandrika-bandaranaike-kumaratunga-on-reconciliation","tag-chandrika-bandaranaike-latest","tag-chandrika-bandaranaike-on-tamil-issue"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Lanka May Miss Chance To Heal Its War Wounds\u2019 - 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\/lanka-may-miss-chance-to-heal-its-war-wounds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Lanka May Miss Chance To Heal Its War Wounds\u2019 - 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