sld
10-24-2006, 01:52 PM
* Editorial:
Monday, October 23, 2006, 13:02 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
"...we have no sympathy whatsoever for the Tamil Tigers. They are a terrorist organization; they have brought nothing but misery to the people of Sri Lanka as well as to the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.” - Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
No country could be more sensitive to the unholy outcome of secession than the United States.
US history includes forceful reminders of attempts at secession that ended in miserable failure. When eleven states formed the Confederate States of America in 1861 and declared secession, the US maintained that secession was illegal, and refused to recognize the Confederacy. This led to the American Civil War in April 1861. The agrarian Southern states based on attitudes to slavery, wished to separate from the industrialized North, a decision doomed from the start. When Abraham Lincoln became President on March 4, 1861, he declared that “no state by its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union,” calling the secession “legally void.” With the South losing the civil war, the concept of separation collapsed amidst the lives lost and blood shed.
From history to modern times, the US strategy in Iraq, with emphasis on integration and unity rather than a division of the country despite all odds, is a reiteration of the US stance that secession within a country is unacceptable as it is unworkable.
Within this framework and viewpoint, what is the US stance on Sri Lanka?
R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department’s third ranking official, in a recent interaction with South Asian journalists in Washington DC, gave the US stand in no uncertain terms. He said: “Let me set the record straight. The United States does not recognize the LTTE. We don't deal with them. We don't support them, we are extremely critical of them.... we have no sympathy whatsoever for the Tamil Tigers. They are a terrorist organization; they have brought nothing but misery to the people of Sri Lanka as well as to the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.” He added, “We have excellent relations with the government of Sri Lanka. I have met with President Rajapaksa. We are signaling our strong support for the government of Sri Lanka.”
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Mr. Richard Boucher, who was in Sri Lanka recently, assured President Rajapaksa that the US strongly opposes terrorism and would support Sri Lanka in every way in the country's fight against terrorism as well as the quest for peace. The October 18, 2006 editorial of the Washington Times commented that, “Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, rightly noted that the Tigers are a ‘terrorist group that needs to be treated accordingly’.”
For many years, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its agents and sympathizers in the US and Europe, exploited the relative ignorance of Westerners and propagated a myth about “a Tamil Homeland” and the need to secede. Among the facts they omitted to present were demographic figures clearly indicating that only Jaffna peninsula, Mannar island and a thin coastal strip of the east and a few towns in the interior are inhabited by Tamils. Many Buddhist artifacts have been discovered in the geographic area claimed as “a Tamil Homeland.” About one-third of Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the north and east and the two-thirds consisting of both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils live in the south. Thus, any “devolution package” will benefit only one-third of the Tamils, while two-thirds of the Tamil people will still be living in harmony with the majority Sinhalese and other minorities in the rest of the country.
The international community is at long last realizing the deception engaged upon by the LTTE.
It is, therefore, unfortunate, that a respected newspaper like the Boston Globe decides, in these enlightened times, to promote “self-rule in its own homeland” for Tamils. It adds, in apparent ignorance, “Peace in Sri Lanka must be accompanied by justice for the island's Tamil minority.” President Rajapaksa has promised justice for all communities in Sri Lanka and the right for all to live in peaceful co-existence.
The conflict in stances taken appears to point to an inconsistently handled information setup in past months where, according to Congressman Frank Pallone, Sri Lanka did not regularly or adequately brief US policy makers or the media.
It is vital that Sri Lanka keeps reminding the world that secession was never the goal intended. Maximum devolution within an undivided Sri Lanka is the goal to be reached in any meaningful negotiation with the LTTE.
Monday, October 23, 2006, 13:02 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
"...we have no sympathy whatsoever for the Tamil Tigers. They are a terrorist organization; they have brought nothing but misery to the people of Sri Lanka as well as to the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.” - Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
No country could be more sensitive to the unholy outcome of secession than the United States.
US history includes forceful reminders of attempts at secession that ended in miserable failure. When eleven states formed the Confederate States of America in 1861 and declared secession, the US maintained that secession was illegal, and refused to recognize the Confederacy. This led to the American Civil War in April 1861. The agrarian Southern states based on attitudes to slavery, wished to separate from the industrialized North, a decision doomed from the start. When Abraham Lincoln became President on March 4, 1861, he declared that “no state by its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union,” calling the secession “legally void.” With the South losing the civil war, the concept of separation collapsed amidst the lives lost and blood shed.
From history to modern times, the US strategy in Iraq, with emphasis on integration and unity rather than a division of the country despite all odds, is a reiteration of the US stance that secession within a country is unacceptable as it is unworkable.
Within this framework and viewpoint, what is the US stance on Sri Lanka?
R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department’s third ranking official, in a recent interaction with South Asian journalists in Washington DC, gave the US stand in no uncertain terms. He said: “Let me set the record straight. The United States does not recognize the LTTE. We don't deal with them. We don't support them, we are extremely critical of them.... we have no sympathy whatsoever for the Tamil Tigers. They are a terrorist organization; they have brought nothing but misery to the people of Sri Lanka as well as to the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.” He added, “We have excellent relations with the government of Sri Lanka. I have met with President Rajapaksa. We are signaling our strong support for the government of Sri Lanka.”
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Mr. Richard Boucher, who was in Sri Lanka recently, assured President Rajapaksa that the US strongly opposes terrorism and would support Sri Lanka in every way in the country's fight against terrorism as well as the quest for peace. The October 18, 2006 editorial of the Washington Times commented that, “Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, rightly noted that the Tigers are a ‘terrorist group that needs to be treated accordingly’.”
For many years, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its agents and sympathizers in the US and Europe, exploited the relative ignorance of Westerners and propagated a myth about “a Tamil Homeland” and the need to secede. Among the facts they omitted to present were demographic figures clearly indicating that only Jaffna peninsula, Mannar island and a thin coastal strip of the east and a few towns in the interior are inhabited by Tamils. Many Buddhist artifacts have been discovered in the geographic area claimed as “a Tamil Homeland.” About one-third of Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the north and east and the two-thirds consisting of both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils live in the south. Thus, any “devolution package” will benefit only one-third of the Tamils, while two-thirds of the Tamil people will still be living in harmony with the majority Sinhalese and other minorities in the rest of the country.
The international community is at long last realizing the deception engaged upon by the LTTE.
It is, therefore, unfortunate, that a respected newspaper like the Boston Globe decides, in these enlightened times, to promote “self-rule in its own homeland” for Tamils. It adds, in apparent ignorance, “Peace in Sri Lanka must be accompanied by justice for the island's Tamil minority.” President Rajapaksa has promised justice for all communities in Sri Lanka and the right for all to live in peaceful co-existence.
The conflict in stances taken appears to point to an inconsistently handled information setup in past months where, according to Congressman Frank Pallone, Sri Lanka did not regularly or adequately brief US policy makers or the media.
It is vital that Sri Lanka keeps reminding the world that secession was never the goal intended. Maximum devolution within an undivided Sri Lanka is the goal to be reached in any meaningful negotiation with the LTTE.