Geopolitics of Asia: Sri Lanka, the next Burma?

by IRTAG Media | March 24, 2008 at 04:44 am | 337 views | 2 comments

The geopolitics of India and China has helped immensely to sustain the Burmese dictatorial government. The international sanctions have been rendered useless due to the growing economic strength of the Asian rivals. Sri Lanka begins to play the same card to sustain the genocidal war against the Tamil minorities.

The New York Times covers how the economic strength of China and India is changing the world order and helps to aggravate the Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights situation.

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gerrypopplestone

at 09:21 on March 24th, 2008

I'm not sure what exactly you mean! Surely the Tigers are equally as bad if not worse. Prabakharan to my mind is a really nasty dictator who has murdered many moderate Tamils committed to justice. I dont support the current president in trying to wipe out the Tigers but equally I think the amount of land they are demanding is preposterous. Neither side really wants to budge in their stubborn demands.

IRTAG Media

at 11:40 on March 24th, 2008

Soon after the independence of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) the majority dominated government started to introduce discriminator policies sidelining the minorities. Peaceful resistance by the Tamil moderates were
ignored or ridiculed by the Sinhala majority. All these happened in the 1950s
to 1970s long before Prabaharan came into the picture. The demand for
separation did not drop from the sky overnight. Initially, there was not even a
demand for power sharing at regional/provincial level. The demands were only to
restore the lost language rights, equal opportunities in higher education etc.

After losing confidence in the central government there was demand for power sharing
on the basis of traditional home land where the minorities inhabited and ruled
themselves as kingdoms long before even the Europeans came. The peace efforts
have never ruled out including the latest (2002 – 2008) involving Norway, a
solution within united Sri
Lanka. The call for complete independence is considered and rightfully too as the last option.

The ethnic strive has escalated into an armed struggle and civil war for more than 25
years now. Over these years more than 1.5 million Tamils have left Sri
Lanka. An equal amount or even more are internally displaced. 30+ years of war has changed the demography of
the North East of Sri Lanka we know now. Not to mention the 100,000+ dead.
There has been systematic colonization of the East Sri Lanka all these years too. Yes
if the brutal war continues for another 30 years then with the facts of that
time it might sound logical to comment that even mere North of Sri Lanka is preposterous demand by Tamils.