Sri Lanka: what happens next?

There’s a difference, of course, between asserting the right to self-determination, and exercising it. The latter has, almost by definition, to be done through negotiation, since it inescapably affects the rights of others. The creation of a new state may be the eventual outcome of such negotiations - or it may not. Johan Galtung’s elegant idea of “non-territorial federalism” may gain in salience, bringing with it, as it does, a reminder that the conflict is not, at root, “about” land but about rights and freedoms, as Jegan indicated.

With the demise of the Tigers, the “don’t-talk-to-terrorists” excuse is removed. The record shows that when assertions of self-determination are met with attempts to quell them, by force and/or administrative fiat, they gain in strength, and are apt to find expression in violence. When they are met with negotiation in good faith, they can produce a sustainable improvement in the outlook for all concerned. For hopeful precedents - albeit with different outcomes - look no further than the two ends of Indonesia, Aceh to the west, now enjoying a high degree of autonomous self-government within the state, and East Timor to the east, now embarked on a new chapter as an independent nation state.

The Tamil community in Sri Lanka must be allowed to elect credible leaders who can negotiate meaningfully on political arrangements for a shared future of justice and equality. So they must be allowed to speak and organise freely, with full access to International NGOs and - in the case of alleged Tamil Tigers now being arrested - to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Indictments, for the war crimes documented in the State Department report, can be held over the Colombo government as a means to incentivise co-operation, along with the financial squeeze through the EU and IMF. Unless there is an early move towards recognising and treating with the Tamils’ legitimate right to self-determination, the whole dismal cycle will, sooner or later, start again. That must therefore be the urgent concern of the international community.