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PEACE WITH DIGNITY

By S.M.M.Bazeer

After all we have passed through the agonising time of havoc,peace is now desperately sought after by all the peace loving Sri Lankans. In the long way of ethnic crisis we have had intervening zigzag line of war and peace. We have seen several models from Pondichchery to latest Basque claim, being ticked and mooted at the expense of lives of thousands and the tangible loss of millions . In persuit of peace, however the politicians have a hidden agenda the people seem tohave subscribed to the pessimistic view of peace, well above their party politics.

But the government is only concerned about the installation of civil on administartion with a reasonable return ofmal life, whilst eschewing political solution. In a climate where the entire nation has to bear the brunt of the civil war, it is uncumbenton us to express our solidarity with those who aspire for pease. The goverment's intension to seek peace with the LTTE seems increasingly slim. Any solution to ethnic problem should be a permanent one and ought to satisfy the legitimate rights of the Tamil and Muslim Communities.

As for the Muslim, any peace process should accomodate their asparations in the Northern and Eastern provinces on an equal footting. The Muslims have now been draged into a political crisis by the Tamil nationalist movements due to their failure of perspicacious analysis concerning distinctive and resolute identity of Muslims. Muslims as in the past would never compromise their beleif with anything. Terrorising and harassing of the Muslim will escalate to worse scenarios.

It should be noted that the Muslims always live in strict accordance with the principles of Islam despite they adopted many local customs. Tamil heavy handed military domination should not ignore the Muslims legitimate rights of the lands and identity as a seperate community. In brief if we are to clearly put it in the words of Raymond Whitaker "It is not simply the struggle between the Sinhalese and who comprise more than eighty percent of the sixteen million population,some of the worst massacres have been within the Sinhalese community and both sides have at one time or another persecuted the even smaller Muslim community" (The Independant 2/5/1993)

(FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF" VOICE OF THE MUSLIMS OF SRI LANKA"(April 1998) Article by Editor of the News letter: S.M.M.Bazeer