Back to the beginning in Lanka

No more war?Photo: AFP

FINALLY, the conflict in Sri Lanka -- Asia's longest running civil war -- is over, with the military bringing an end to the minority Tamil insurrection. The development has not come as a surprise since the once-dreaded Tamil militants had been ceding ground to the government troops since last year and their total rout appeared to be only a matter of time.
Over the last few weeks, President Mahinda Rajapakse was boasting that his government would bring the entire country under it control within days and while on a recent visit to Jordan, he said the militants would be totally decimated within 48 hours.
His military commanders accomplished what their president said they would, and the Tamil militants confessed that their "struggle for a separate homeland has come to a bitter end."
With the crumbling of the militancy and killing of their supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the curtain was rung down on the twenty six year-old civil war in the island state. The government can rightly claim a decisive victory and the majority Sinhalese community danced and distributed sweets in celebrations of the development.
On the other hand, Tamils in different countries are bemoaning the defeat of their fellow community members in Sri Lanka, and many openly wept at the death of Prabhakaran and his close associates, including his son Charles Anthony.
Obviously, the Tamils can no longer do it in Sri Lanka. It is a contrasting scenario, but the bottom line is that the dream and quest for an independent homeland in the north-east for the 18 percent Tamils of Sri Lanka's total population now stands shattered with little hope that the movement can once again regain its fury in the near future.
The defeat suffered by the militants has not come as a bolt from the blue, as they were losing their control since mid last year and the Colombo government was quick to announce that the civil war was taking an irreversible turn towards defeat for the separatists.
When the Saarc leaders met for their regular summit in the Sri Lankan capital in early August, last year, the host nation's president said his troops would wipe out the last bastion of the rebels by the year-end. It did not happen then, even though the militants were on the defensive and ceding ground to the government troops, but now, the inevitable has happened, and the final denouement has taken place.
Several factors are responsible for the setbacks for the rebels, who once gave the impression of being very formidable and difficult to crack. Their supremo, Prabhakaran, showed adroit military strategy earlier through a number of startling victories including occupying Jaffna and strategic Tiger Pass.
But he made several mistakes in the battlefield during the first six month of last year and the trend continued. The parting of ways with him and siding with Colombo of a key commander and confidant, Karuna, was one of the major factors for the successive military setbacks for the militants.
Besides, Prabakharan demonstrated scant political wisdom when he squandered chances of gaining mileage during the several round of talks held between the government and the rebels outside Sri Lanka when a more liberal government was in seat in Colombo. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramsinghe wanted a political settlement with the militants, but intransigence by the hawkish militant leaders defied a solution despite some progress in the talks. The government that succeeded Ranil is of hard line president Mahinda Rajapakse following the policy of their freedom party former president Chandrika Kumaratunga. The military solution of the crisis has been its first priority as Rajapakse's government.
India has a definite role to play. Now, a Congress-led government is in power in India and it has no love lost for the rebels although a constituent of the coalition UPA government -- DMK of the Tamil Nadu -- is favourably desposed to the Tamil militants because of cultural and religious proximities.
The Congress-led government has shed no tears for the militants during their difficult times for understandable reasons. On the other hand, Rajapakse's government, hell-bent on crushing the rebels at all cost, succeeded in convincing many countries including China and Pakistan, and secured diplomatic and military support.
The final and military supplies of the militants also dried up while the government allocated huge money for the defence and expanded the armed forces as it considered the issue as a matter of survival for the Sri Lanka state.
Now, with the decisive victory, the Sri Lankan government must demonstrate wisdom and prudence in dealing with the post-insurgency conditions by addressing the real causes of the insurgency that battered the country for three decades.
It is not the time to determine the victor and the vanquished, even though celebrations on part of the government and its supporters are expected. After all, the issue was political, although Prabakharan and his men acted ruthlessly to the opponents.
Norwegian minister Erick Solheim, who acted as a peace envoy in the Lankan embroglio, has stressed on settlement of the crisis even after the defeat of the rebels, since the whole thing has a big cause which he says can not be ignored.
India, the influential neighbour and the UPA government, fresh from its renewed successful electoral verdict, has also called for peace and stability in Sri Lanka, taking into account the sensitivities of the minority Tamil population.
It is important that the root causes of the civil war must be addressed and there is no reason to think that the Tamil issue will now totally be lost to oblivion once the rebellion has been crushed, if these causes are not properly dealt with.

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is a senior journalist of international affairs.