I apologize in advance for this post. I try to avoid politics on here, somewhat because the politics I follow is politics most people don't care about at all. I've especially tried to avoid this topic, since our dear government does not sympathize, but I feel that I need to put this out there. My view is not an uncommon one, but I do think that in this case, its an unbiased one.
Today a war ended. A bloody civil war that most people did not follow or, frankly, care about. The war was fought in the North East sector of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers. The Tamil Tigers are proscribed as a terrorist group in several countries, including the US. This is not entirely inaccurate, I concede. The Tigers are particularly harsh with their military, though of course, not being a recognized state, their military is treated as a terrorist organization.
Some background is needed to understand why this classification exists. Sri Lanka is home to two distinct populations: Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamilian Hindus. These two populations have little in common with each other, and the Tamilians, though numerous, are a definitive minority. The Sri Lankan Tamils have always been mistreated and persecuted to varying degrees, both by the Sinhalese and by mainland Indians. Hell, even one of India's celebrated epics (Ramayana) demonizes them. So when the British left Sri Lanka to self government, it was no big surprise that there were revolutionary movement fermenting in the Tamilian Northeast. One of these movements caught on and grew into the Tigers as they were recently. The Tigers were enormously successful at gathering support from Tamilians both in Sri Lanka and in India. They established a shadow government to administer proper justice to the Tamilians. The Sri Lankan government, concerned with its loss of power, sent troops into Tamil areas of the island. They were completely surprised when a LTTE military materialized and pushed them back out of Tamil lands. Sri Lanka retaliates by bombing the Tamils, eliciting protests from Indian Tamils. Indian Prime Minister finds his hand forced, and sends a peace keeping force (read: Indian troops) to quell the conflict in Lanka. Unfortunately, the Indian Minister ends up fighting on the losing side, i.e the Lankan government, enraging the Tamil Tigers. The Tigers had their agents in India assassinate the Indian Prime Minister. This resulted in the peace keeping force being withdrawn, the Tamil Tigers being marked terrorists, and an unofficial ceasefire between the two warring parties.
Many Sri Lankan Tamils had fled during this fighting, settling in different places around the world. Every time a number of these Tamils congregated, they set up charities for their fellow Tamils back home. While some of these were simply charities, a number of them contributed money covertly to the Tamil Tigers. With this money, the Tigers were able to maintain their military and develop their own minority state. The Tigers did not press for more land, but instead sought publicity for the cause of an independent nation for the Sri Lankan Tamils. The Sri Lankan government, powerless to wipe them out, sat idly by.
A little bit about what exactly the Tigers did. The Tigers set up an educational system and a justice system for the Tamils under their rule. They did not hold elections, they did not print currency, and they did not use military force to compel obedience from their people. They did not establish formal executive or legislative agencies, preferring instead to simply use local police forces. Nonetheless, despite this seeming crudity, the Sri Lankan Tamils openly preferred this system. The government offered them protection, rights, justice, and education. They might not have agreed with the governments methods of dealing with foreign adversity, but they accepted it. After all, they were an unrecognized people fighting against the world.
Then, in the last two years or so, the nations of the world began to systematically shut down Sri Lankan charities that they found. As the Tigers found their funds drying up, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister began anew the war that had ended so long ago. Without money to support their army, the Tigers began a futile stand against the Sri Lankan army, which was supplied by and modeled on the Chinese military. As the army slowly mowed down the Tigers and took their land, the Tigers continued to retreat. This morning, the leader of the Tigers was found dead after an ambush, and the war was declared over in the Sri Lankan capital. The UN, as it is wont to do, bleated uselessly about human rights and then sat on its ass. As a result of the war, several millions of Tamils have been displaced, either to other, less friendly parts of Sri Lanka, or to the Indian South, where an inept government mills about uselessly trying to provide the Tamils with sustenance.
I want to emphasize something: the Tamil Tigers constituted a dictatorship, and the source of their power, if one had to be chosen, was their military. And yet they were liked by those they ruled over, and they did not use the military to suppress their public's opinion. Do you realize just how rare this phenomenon is. A competent dictatorship that enjoys the unfettered support of its people. This amidst the completely incompetent democracies that riddle Southeast Asia. And yet it is this government that is labeled a terrorist organization, and it is to defeat this organization that so many misled governments in the world work.
The war is over, and within a month all discussion on Tamil rights will have ended. The Indians will make their customary gestures of condolence and then sit back again to enjoy their corruption. The Sri Lankan government will declare celebrations and then go back to its tourism supported economy. No one else really cares. It's just a little sad.
Monday, May 18, 2009
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