Let the healing begin in Sri Lanka

The government must open up the country to aid workers and seek a lasting peace with the Tamils

The cessation of the fighting in Sri Lanka marks the welcome end of a prolonged and brutal war. But it also creates two issues of immediate concern.

The first is the critical plight of the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the north and east of the country who have been victimized by the conflict.

The international community failed them during the fighting by falling short of its commitments under the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. It must not fail them again by leaving them to the tender mercies of a government that has been prepared to sacrifice civilians to gain military advantage.

Those stranded in makeshift camps for the displaced are in dire need of food, shelter and medical attention. Many have been displaced more than once, having fled the conflict in desperation only to find that it followed them. They are now far from home and left with nothing. It will require a sustained and organized effort to resettle them safely.

Many more have also been brutalized by one or both sides in the conflict, held by force and against their will as human shields by the ruthless Tamil Tigers and/or targeted by the indiscriminate shelling of government forces.
Now that the hostilities have ended, the Sri Lankan government must open up the country to international humanitarian workers to help domestic agencies deliver the aid that is urgently needed. Access must also be permitted to international human-rights monitors to assure that a world with every reason to be suspicious that the rights of Tamils will be respected.

The second issue is whether a government fresh from its victory in the field will take the high road and seek a lasting peace, or simply pretend that a military victory has solved the nation's problems. The defeat of the Tigers brings the possibility of a new beginning. Can a durable peace rise from the ashes left from decades of conflict? The answer depends on the willingness of the parties to accommodate their differences and on the openness of the Sinhalese majority to confront at long last the deep sense of grievance and inequality felt in the Tamil community.

Although making up 18 per cent of the population, Tamils have long been denied full participation in the nation's life. Diminished access to education and advancement, starkly lower levels of economic status and linguistic and other barriers (very few of the police and security forces even speak their language) have meant that the Tamil community has long felt on the outside looking in.

There have been periodic efforts by the international community to facilitate an accommodation, as when the Canadian NGO Forum of the Federations, led by former Ontario premier Bob Rae, advocated province-like status for a Tamil territory, with decentralized authority over matters of local jurisdiction. That effort foundered when there proved to be too little political support for the structural changes that were needed.

There was also a Norwegian-brokered peace accord in 2002 that promised the recognition of minority rights. It too fell apart when both parties proved more intent on seeking a battlefield victory than a political solution.
The Sri Lankan government must not assume that its military success means that the national fault lines have been healed. If a lasting peace is to be achieved, Tamil grievances must be addressed. A form of “truth and reconciliation” process, adapted to the culture and circumstances of Sri Lanka, might also create a more constructive atmosphere.

The international community, through the United Nations and influential donor countries, must encourage a process to achieve a new beginning, or run the risk of watching Sri Lanka consumed by decades more of instability and violence.

The Harper government has consistently urged restraint in recent months upon the hawkish elements in Colombo. For this reason, it is well positioned to encourage the Sri Lankan government to use this historic moment to seek national accommodation. Our large population of Sri Lankan heritage, our skill in devising processes to recognize linguistic and other minority rights and our deep commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts make us an ideal candidate for a leading role in a “contact group” of like-minded states that might be formed to encourage and support parties weary of war to create a better future for the next generation.

In this way, Canada can help to ensure that the international community both monitors the way in which the civilian survivors of this war are cared for and returned home and encourages the parties to the conflict to find long-term solutions for their differences.

Lloyd Axworthy is president of the University of Winnipeg and a former Canadian foreign minister. Allan Rock is president of the University of Ottawa and a former special adviser to the United Nations on Sri Lanka.