CARNAGE in the streets of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, where more than 80 people were killed and about 1 300 injured last week by suspected Tamil suicide bombers, is a terrible reminder of the human cost of civil war and of the limits of force in solving chronic ethnic conflicts. The violence shows no sign of abating. Tamils, making up nearly 18% of the 18-million strong population, want more say in running their own lives with demands ranging from greater powers for provincial councils to full independence in the north and east of the country.
This is a war with roots deep in the past, but the special tragedy of last week’s dreadful explosion, attributed to the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, is that it comes at a time when prospects for a political settlement the only sort possible had seemed brighter than before.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga was praised when she took the initiative a year ago, boldly offering a cessation of hostilities, only to face renewed attacks on military and civilian targets. Her package of devolution proposals, offering substantial autonomy on eight regional councils, was rejected by the Tigers and hardline Sinhalese nationalists. Recently presented to parliament in clear legal form, the proposals are on hold but could represent a major constitutional accommodation for legitimate Tamil concerns.
The government too has followed a dual strategy: Kumaratunga came under pressure from her own generals, and last October authorised an offensive that resulted in the capture of the Tiger-controlled Jaffna peninsula. But without that key citadel to defend they became freer to concentrate on what made them notorious terrorism.
The Tigers have always had ruthlessness on their side: their leader, the messianic Velupillai Prabhakaran, sent hit squads to kill the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, as well as the Sri Lankan president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, and the opposition presidential candidate, Gamini Dissanayake. And as their extremism sets the tone, other Tamils have either fallen silent or become collaborators.