After 26 years of war that cost thousands of innocent lives, the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has brought Sri Lanka to a crossroads. Yet despite the government's victory, there has been widespread international criticism about how the war was handled. Success has come at a price in terms of destruction, death and the displacement of civilians. The number of actual deaths during the conflict, particularly in its last days, will never be known, despite many international attempts to hold the Sri Lankan government to task.

Despite the LTTE being widely praised in the Tamil diaspora as a "freedom fighting" organisation, it was one of the world's worst terrorist groups. It had perfected the art of suicide bombing and assassination, as well as engaging in the massacre of civilians from all communities, including Sinhalese and Tamils, and the ethnic cleansing of Muslim civilians from the north in 1990.

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Reconstruction, resettlement and rehabilitation will be the immediate postwar challenges and will have to be expertly handled. Reconstruction of infrastructure will be the easiest and most attractive option for donors, but creating an environment of equity and social justice could be relegated to the bottom of the list. There must be a separate effort to ensure reconciliation between people. Many barriers have been erected between Sri Lanka's communities and special programmes to build bridges, facilitate interfaith interaction and regain intercommunity trust are urgently required.

This is the role that the Sri Lankan diaspora as a whole will need to play to bring about a reconciliation that combines human values with an understanding of the need to move away from apportioning blame. Rebuilding trust will mean honouring unity and celebrating diversity, working towards equity and justice and ensuring the eradication of social prejudices in building a collective identity.

Elements of the Tamil diaspora, in particular, have been active in sustaining the conflict. Some are still trying to keep the cause alive by exerting pressure on the international community to instigate war crimes proceedings or cut back on trade subsidies such as the EU's generous tariff preference, the GSP+.

However, they fail to realise that this will not harm the government and will be detrimental to the overall development of the country. Cutting tariff preferences, for example, will affect industry – which will in turn affect the livelihoods of all communities. Ultimately, taking a government to task should be done through a normal democratic process, which can only work if all elements within the country work towards that goal. The focus now has to be on the future development of the country.

How Sri Lanka handles the current displacement crisis is likely to determine the confidence of its minorities and the diaspora. Pressure is mounting for quick resettlement and to give Tamils a share of power. To this end the government will have to work to ensure that all people feel they are equal citizens with equal rights.

Addressing the Sri Lankan parliament last May, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said: "We have removed the word 'minorities' from our vocabulary." Sadly, people seemed to have brushed aside the president's statement as a gimmick, claiming that he himself does not believe in it and has no clear plans for the future. Without denying past grievances, there should now be a move to hold the government to task in terms of building confidence among the various communities and giving ownership to the minorities in rebuilding the country.

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The Tamils believed that they were fighting for an identity and to control their own affairs. Such feelings cannot be blotted out by eliminating the LTTE but they can be made irrelevant by the treatment Tamils (and other minorities) receive in the new Sri Lanka. There should now be an active and systematic campaign for celebrating coexistence among Sri Lanka's diverse communities – and the Sri Lankan diaspora can play a big part in it.

This originally appeared here

A New beginning

If you are in the business of selling fire crackers or the Sri Lankan national flag, then over the last two days, business has been very good.  As the President of Sri Lanka returned yesterday from the G11 summit in Jordan to a rapturous welcome given by his ministers and religious leaders, on the streets of Colombo, people lit fire crackers and with lighting efficiency, flags were flown where all parts of the city, on buildings, lamp posts and from cars.

Today’s news of the death of the LTTE leader has further lightened the mood and there has been no letting up of the fire crackers. There are some who have been privately voicing a concern as to whether this public show of celebration could further inflame the situation and hurt an already ‘wounded’ Tamil population. 

‘This is not about a Sinhalese victory over the Tamils. It is about the victory of the Sri Lankan nation over the forces of terrorism’, remarked one trishaw driver as he drove his flag laden vehicle around town.   Whatever the intentions behind the celebrations, it is hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere here in Colombo, which has seen the brunt of many suicide attacks over the last 26 years. The mood was reflected by the gesture of the President kneeling on the ground with his hands raised in worship and appreciation as he got off the plane.

Speaking to some of my Sri Lankan friends and colleagues, there is not only a sense of a relief that things might be over, but what is striking is this sense of feeling surreal.  It is kind of hard to imagine or remember a time when the LTTE did not occupy part of the psyche of the Sri Lankan thought process.  No one really knows how to properly react.  ‘It is like this mole on your face that you knew was there and it really annoyed you.  Now it isn’t there any more yet you still half expect it to be still around’ is how one person described her feelings to me today upon hearing the news. 

The LTTE and its leader have occupied the lives of most if not all Sri Lankans, that it will feel strange that this is no longer the case.  The question though that is popping up immediately now is: What next? Already people are asking whether the security checks will be removed from the streets and what will happen to the army.  These are perhaps premature questions because though the conflict may be over, the peace will still need to be won.  As the Governor of the Central Bank said firmly today in a meeting on financial inclusion held in Colombo ‘We have to win the peace and ensure that people are returned to their houses in the north to restart their shattered lives’.  Analysts are talking about a political solution to ensure grievances do not give rise to future conflicts.  Whatever the case, it is important to talk about the future prospects of the country.

In the midst of all the celebrations, it should not be forgotten at what cost this has been borne.  The numbers of lives lost of men, women and children has been staggering especially over the last 6 months and no more than ever there is a need to repair the cracks that have been developed and to heal the wounds that have been caused by a 26 year old conflict.  The trust will need to be rebuilt in order to decrease suspicion. It will be important for people to realise that not all Tamils are from the LTTE and that not all Sinhalese are Tamil haters.   This is the role that the civil society and in particular the religious leaders will need to play in order to bring out about reconciliation that entails infusing human values with an understanding of the need to move away from apportioning blame for deceit and destruction.   Rebuilding trust will mean honouring unity and celebrating diversity, working towards equity and justice and ensuring the eradication of social prejudices. 

Special attention will need to be provided to the most vulnerable who are mainly the women and children.  The displaced have gone through a harrowing and traumatic experience and will need special support in order to address their physical, psychosocial and emotional needs.  For the children in particular, who have endured months (if not years) of conflict, there will need to be special feeding programs to combat the long term malnutrition as well as creative programs looking at education and health.  This will be absolutely vital to ensure a return to normalcy.

People will need to be returned back to their original land and homes as quickly as possible.  This is not only the 250,000 that are currently displaced, but the 100,000 who were displaced in 1990 from the north and who are currently living in refugee camps in Puttalum and the 100,000+ who are currently in India.  Each and every one of these people will need to restart their livelihoods and get back to normalcy.  There is a huge task that is involved in de-mining, infrastructure rebuilding and so on.

Last but not least, it must be seen as a new beginning for the country and a time to ‘Build Back Better’.  Thus all stakeholders, the private and public sector, the humanitarian agencies and donors, the individual and the collective will need to work together to ensure return, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.  People will need to rise above their politics of association and thought to work together on the single platform of building the nation for a better tomorrow so that the next generation of children have something better to aspire to.  As a humanitarian colleague said very eloquently, ‘We have already lost the futures of two generations of children to nearly three decades of war. This must not be allowed to continue.’