War-torn Sri Lanka is the last sick man of the region

Last weekend's carnage underlines the idiocy of pledges to destroy the Tamil Tigers. Peace talks now seem a distant hope.

• 
• • Jonathan Steele
  • The Guardian, Friday May 2 2008

Time is running out for the great south Asian boast. By the end of this year, according to a new year prediction by Sri Lanka's army chief, Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka, his guerrilla opponents - the Tamil Tigers - would be "extinct". They and their demands for a homeland for the Tamil minority would vanish from the field, and after 25 years of war the island and its Sinhalese majority could enjoy peace again.

An end to Sri Lanka's bloodletting is certainly overdue. The country has become the last sick man of the region. In Nepal an almost equally long civil war stopped 18 months ago when intelligent compromises produced agreement to reform the constitution. In Pakistan, after nearly a decade of army rule, elections in the winter produced a partial return to civilian control; the country's re-empowered politicians have just struck a peace deal with militant leaders in the fractious border provinces.

Comparisons are never exact, and Sri Lanka differs from Nepal and Pakistan in numerous ways. Since gaining independence from Britain it has had an uninterrupted history of parliamentary rule. Its system of land tenure is not feudal. By Asian standards economic inequalities are relatively minor, and the benefits of decent healthcare have spread to every district, along with universal education for girls as well as boys.

But on the pattern of many other democracies, the country's elected politicians have not responded well to the legitimate demands of ethnic, religious, and regional minorities. Tamils turned to violence and terrorism after years of frustration. Many went to the extreme of advocating secession after becoming convinced that a fair share of power was unreachable in a unitary state.

The current government is not the first to believe it could defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are properly known. Earlier administrations had similar ambitions but eventually realised they were futile and ruinous. The death toll has already reached 70,000, a proportion of the population that would amount to 200,000 in Britain. No wonder independent observers treated Fonseka's victory boast with horror. No wonder, too, that India's embassy and western diplomats were appalled a few days later when Fonseka's political master, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, abrogated the internationally brokered ceasefire. Its Scandinavian monitors had to leave.

About this article: This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday May 02 2008 on p43 of the Comment & debate section. It was last updated at 00:05 on May 02 2008.