WHAT IS THE SOLUTION - WAR OR PEACE?

It is at times hilarious and sometimes sad that the most widely discussed subject in the Sri Lankan media and by the Sri Lanka people is whether we should use war (military solution) or peace talks (political solution) to settle this conflict.

There is no conflict anywhere, even in our households which is solved only with peace talks or only with war. Conflict resolution is a complex subject on it's own and war, peace talks and many other tools should be used to resolve this conflict.

The question that has to be asked first is whether peace brings greater benefits to the LTTE in general and Prabakaran in particular as opposed to continuing the war, (during the period the Indian army was at war with LTTE and when the LTTE was confined to the Mullaitivu jungles they found that peace may be more profitable and initiated peace talks, but later they out manovered the then Sri Lankan government and went back to war!) As things are, the obvious answer in continuing the war is more profitable for the LTTE because:

1. They earn over U.S.$ 2 million per month

2. They have strong movements operating in over 15 countries 3. Prabakaran controls land where civilians living in the area are fed, educated and their other requirements such as health is looked after by the government and the LTTE only has to extract money and recruit people by force as fighters.

4. Prabakaran leads an army of about 5000 who are at his total disposal.

5. In peace, LTTE will have to contest an election and co-orporate with the others and get the power, of which there is no guarantee.

6. If peace is achieved, the life of Prabakaran and many others will be under threat by their own tamils (whom they promised to liberate) in revenge for tens of thousands of tamils killed by the LTTE.

If the war is to be settled ;

- The Foreign Ministry and the foreign minister in Sri Lanka should understand the importance of harnessing international support particularly from the countries where LTTE is active such as Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia and South Africa etc. They must ensure that the freedom enjoyed by the LTTE in these countries are curtailed and ultimately their activities completely stopped. Sri Lanka has only had limited success so far in the U.S.A but the LTTE are still operating there under various front organizations and why has the US government only named Afganistan and Pakistan as countries supporting terrorism in South Asia according to the South Asia Overview of the state Department's ` Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999" report.

- The government of Sri Lanka, the Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lankan people should come up with a plan to deal with our friendly neighbour India.

- The income LTTE earns of over U.S.$ 2 million per month has to be reduced and then brought down to zero.

- The overseas Sri Lankans must change their strategy and concentrate in pressuring India to leave Sri Lanka alone and also lobby their own governments to stop LTTE operations in those countries.

- The war must be handled professionally by professionals and not by a second Lft. who has never encountered a battlefield with party political objectives in mind. This can best be done by setting up a war council consisting of the Leader of the Opposition, business leaders (who fund the war) and experts in other fields such as economics and foreign relations etc.

- The priority of the government of Sri Lanka should be to curtail the LTTE publicity overseas and not censoring the local media. The department of information should be given a target to prepare a comprehensive plan to counter the LTTE propaganda mission and to see to it's destruction within a period of 12 months.

This article has deliberately refrained from discussing the famous '' package'' as it has no relevance to the on-going war and as it has been discussed so often in so much detail.

The package may be a tool to satisfy the ego of the Tamils who are not a party to the war. Grievances of the tamil community (if any) must be handled when the war which is the biggest threat to the tamils) is curtailed.

Will the Norwagian peace initiations succeed? They will, provided India is happy to allow an European country to meddle in the " Greater India"!

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