Lessons from a Failed Peace
Mission
Dilrook Kannangara
The ‘peace’ mission of the Norwegians was a failure from
the start. First and foremost it was initiated by petty political desires
of Ranil, the then Prime Minister. Norway was chosen by the then President,
Chandrika, before they were called to perform the monitoring task. Scandinavians,
especially Sweden had a unique specialization in peace-making during
the Cold War because of its non-allegiance to either superpower. Finland
was also in the same position. Norway was in no way impartial as it
was a NATO member country. The few ‘peace’ deals it attempted
ended in worse disasters following their intervention.
However, being a Scandinavian country, and having initially expressed
its desire to be a ‘facilitator’ of peace between the two
warring parties, Norway crept into Sri Lankan affairs. Norway had a
different motivation for interfering in Sri Lanka. Norway is one of
the few countries that allowed Tamils (or anyone for that matter) to
migrate to Norway to fill in the vacuum created by zero population growth.
Not only did Tamils migrate to Norway in considerable numbers, their
population had a healthy population growth rate amply supported by generous
welfare schemes. By the turn of the century their numbers have grown
to influential proportions; their numbers count especially at elections
much to the dismay of indigenous Norwegians.
Generous western countries took a while to realize that migrants who
were indirect casualties of wars in faraway lands came to these western
lands with their wars! To get a feel of how much these elements affect
world politics just look at the election campaign of Hillary “Rotten”
Clinton! She is ready to bask in the glory of hypocrisy in favour of
her financers; she is ready to review the ban on the LTTE for a few
million dollars. No wonder she has topped the Democrats’ fund raising
campaigns.
After the fall of the Cold War the remaining sectarian terrorist groups
spread their reach through out the world. Al Qaeda overgrew its Mujahiddin
outfit and spread to Algeria, Somalia, Indonesia, etc. Similarly the
LTTE also spread its wings across every corner of the Tamil Diaspora.
Norway’s Tamils were also subject to this terrorist expansion.
As a result they started to agitate for LTTE demands which included
the setting up of a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka. Therefore Norway
had a clear agenda in coming to Sri Lanka. They were not in a position
to do an impartial job as they heavily dependant on Tamil votes for
political survival back home. If they were not supportive towards the
tigers, the Norwegians would pay for it by losing Tamil votes.
Norwegian politicians’ dirty ambitions were amply complemented
by desperate political aspirations of their Sri Lankan counterparts.
Ranil, the then Prime Minister was promising the sun and the moon for
the tigers to get ahead of his political opponents. He lost repeatedly
in internal and inter-party contests for power. To his good luck and
for the ill-luck of the nation, Gamini was killed by the LTTE in 1994
and he came back to the UNP driving seat. After losing the 1999 presidential
election, he had given up becoming the all powerful President through
democratic means. He once again looked up to the LTTE to bump-off Chandrika
in which case he could have become the President without an election.
Even with an election, with the heavy LTTE backing he could have been
elected. Therefore he allowed anything and everything for the LTTE.
There was the complete absence of the word ‘no’ for the LTTE.
The Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) was not approved by the parliament, not
by the President, not by the people, not by the judiciary and not even
by Ranil’s own Cabinet. But it provided everything for the tigers.
Their biggest benefit was that the CFA covered them from the Global
War on Terror and its implications.
From he word go the LTTE started violating the CFA and the government
did absolutely nothing about it. Instead it instructed police stations
not to investigate anything with a suspected LTTE link. All such matters
were directed to the SLMM which in turn used their ‘discretion’
not to take note of these incidents until Tamil political parties managed
to give the Norwegians a firsthand account of what their ‘peace’
is all about: killing all Tamil democratic political leaders.
At the same time the LTTE piled up their weapons; the SLMM paid no attention
these activities. Encouraged by the SLMM’s support, the LTTE initiated
a large scale recruitment drive of children into its ranks. Repeated
appeals by none other than the President of Sri Lanka on child soldiers
fell on deaf years. A large number of elite Sri Lanka Army soldiers
were killed throughout the country. The LTTE was further encouraged
by the SLMM’s silent approval of their conduct and initiated their
ethnic cleansing process yet again in order to create a Tamil mono-ethnic
homeland for the 80 million Tamils the world over.
SLMM did nothing and still talked about a ‘ceasefire’ that
was supposed to be in place. In June 2002 LTTE massacred more than hundred
Muslims in Valachchenei (the industrial city in Eastern Sri Lanka) and
displaced tens of thousands in the worse ethnic riots Sri Lanka has
seen after 1983. The government’s response was to observe a complete
media shut down using its direct and indirect control over almost all
media. Similar ethnic cleansing activities took place in Muttur, Serunuwara,
Manirasakulam, etc. Ethnic cleansing is a war crime and indeed war crimes
took place during a time of a ‘ceasefire’! The Norwegians
gave ‘hypocrisy’ a whole new meaning.
However, the people of Sri Lanka backed by a very high literacy rate
were not fooled by these antics. In an unprecedented turn of events
they toppled the UNP government in 2004, only three years into their
term. Muslim and Sinhala voters in the East played a pivotal role at
the 2004 election. However, the biggest turncoats were the Tamils. Tamils
overwhelmingly supported an extremist Tamil National Alliance which
was formed by the LTTE ‘political wing’ expelling all other
moderate political entities including the UNP. The only UNP MP from
Jaffna was forced to pack up and leave it after instilling morbid fear
by the LTTE. On their part the SLMM headed by Norway, endorsed the violent
election campaign by the LTTE. Even LTTE leaders were disgusted by the
greed of its top brass of following an uncompromised campaign to win
a mono-ethnic enclave. A powerful Eastern tiger broke away from the
LTTE and a new episode of killings started. The SLMM once again silently
approved the LTTE’s killing of its opponents but criticized the
government whenever the lesser tigers got the upper hand in their killing
duet.
Sri Lankans were utterly disgusted by the shameless conduct of the SLMM,
Chandrika and Ranil. As a result, an overwhelming majority voted for
Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil hardliners. This was a clear message by the
population that they wanted no peace in the annals dictated by the Norwegians.
More than one third of the parliament comprised of hardliners for the
first time in Lankan history. Moderate political parties namely the
SLFP and the UNP were reduced to their lowest ever number of seats combined.
However, people’s sovereignty was overruled by the SLMM as they
refused to take note of the ground realities. Many mass rallies were
held forcing the government to abrogate the thousand times ravished
virgin they called the ‘cease fire agreement’. Many ill informed
foreign nationals still believed in the virgin ceasefire agreement and
advised Sri Lanka and the LTTE to honour its ‘purity’.
The most crucial undercurrent that annulled the ‘cease fire agreement’
(CFA) was the fault of the SLMM in not honouring the law and order of
the land. They failed to understand that law and order is the basis
of peace anywhere in the world. There cannot be peace if law and order
is disregarded. Secondly the SLMM failed to recognize peoples’
aspirations. SLMM was living in a fools’ paradise only listening
to the LTTE, the Sri Lankan President and Ranil all of whom had separate
understandings with each other apart from the SLMM.
SLMM headed by Norway became the monkey in the Aesop’s tale where
two cats fought to share a piece of cheese. Ultimately the mediator
gobbled their cheese in the name of ‘peace making’. As a political
party quite correctly stated recently, the official abrogation of the
cease fire agreement (CFA) in 2008 was only the issuance of a formal
death certificate for a person died five years ago; in fact it was the
death certificate of a stillborn baby which will never be issued a birth
certificate.
After almost five years of ‘cease fire’, the Sri Lankan conflict
has taken its most dangerous turn. Five years’ of absence of law
and order which was hijacked by the SLMM against the will of the people
has paved the way for perilous developments.
Today the Norwegians end their ‘truce’ monitoring mission
in utter disgrace; they stand humiliated, accused of providing material
support to terrorists, hated and cursed by Sri Lankans for their hypocritical
performance. For ages Norway will be associated in the minds of South
Asians as lopsided peacekeepers bend on championing their own interests.
Without a doubt no South Asian country in its democratic right will
invite Norway for any peace missions.
Tomorrow a violent and terminal war will begin thanks solely to the
‘peace’ mission that nurtured war and violence for so long.
This war will be for peace. Some criticize the statement war for peace;
but alas, they fail to understand that it was indeed ‘peace’
that lead to war! That was Norway’s mission ‘peace for war’.
Therefore war leading to peace is very much apprehensible.
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