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Peace in Lanka, thanks to Bush and bin?
They are indeed a strange and disparate pair to thank. But if the people of Sri Lanka who have suffered for two decades or more through a conflict that was the combined handiwork of politicians and jingoists, must thank somebody for trying to bring the curtain down on it, let them turn to President George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.
Had George W. not entered the White House by hook or by crook (more of the latter, some might add) and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda not decided to teach the new America a lesson for its increasingly strident arrogance, they would have still been battling it out in the Wanni.

But because George W. decided to launch the mother of all wars and wipe out international terrorism from the face of the planet, Velupillai Prabhakaran shed his camouflaged uniform for a safari suit and Colombo's arms dealers are shedding crocodile tears on each other's shoulders at the diminishing dollars under their mattresses.

If peace comes to Sri Lanka and the vindictive politicians who do not want to see it for their own selfish reasons retreat to their lairs, the Norwegian mediators might still try to persuade the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee to award the peace prize to Ranil Wickremesinghe and Velupillai Prabhakaran.

But when the history of this period comes to be written, it would be perverse historians who would deny George Bush and bin Laden a significant, though totally unexpected and impromptu role in pointing the way ahead.

This is not to say that neither Ranil Wickremesinghe nor the LTTE leader had not considered efforts to bring an end to a conflict that had eaten away at the heart and soul of society and become a canker in the body politic.

Mr. Wickremesinghe fought the December 2000 parliamentary election on a mandate for peace. The LTTE itself had earlier made overtures to the Chandrika Kumaratunga government but nothing tangible emerged from this except to identify Norway as a possible third party to help a dialogue get off the ground.

After Mr. Wickremesinghe became Prime Minister and the tragedy of September 11 last year, the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire that was enlarged on, leading to the Cease Fire Agreement(CFA) and the Memorandum of Understanding(MoU), and laid the groundwork for the subsequent peace talks in Thailand and Norway.

But it was the international outrage at the acts of terrorism in the US in which thousands of people died and the concerted efforts by most nations to join hands in the fight against terrorism that convinced the LTTE that time was running out.

Although at first the LTTE denied the international anti-terrorism climate had in any way influenced its decision, it later admitted it did have some impact.

In a recent interview in Oslo, Anton Balasingham, virtually admitted that a new hostile international scenario had contributed to the LTTE's decision to seek peace.

"…..then the entire international community is demanding that our problem be resolved. So this is a new historical development as far as this matter is concerned. Now we have no choice but to seriously and sincerely find a negotiated solution".

Those who dismiss foreign affairs and international developments as irrelevant or unimportant in Sri Lanka's internal matters might want to revise their insular views if they are not too stubborn about admitting their churlishness.

If they throw their minds back to July 1983 anti-Tamil riots and subsequent developments when thousands of Sri Lanka Tamils began seeking asylum abroad, they should remember the opprobrium in which Sri Lanka was held abroad.

Sri Lanka's international reputation had reached its nadir because of the inhuman and uncivilised acts of some political and criminal elements which thought that killing and burning the person and property of another section of the community was an act of bravado.

It took many, many years of hard and constant work by Sri Lankan diplomats, academics, journalists and friends of Sri Lanka to gradually restore a semblance of respectability it had enjoyed shortly after independence.

In this the LTTE itself inadvertently helped because of its terrorist activities for which the Tamil diaspora, particularly in the western countries where they had settled, provided financial and other resources.

Just as Sri Lanka became a hate symbol because of the activities of the then government, the LTTE later brought the wrath of foreign nations on itself by the wanton and indiscriminate terrorism of its own. So much so that at least five countries including major western nations that were host to large Tamil populations, banned the Tigers as a terrorist organisation.

Both sides have by now learnt from their costly mistakes. What might seem to us as unimportant or irrelevant to the international community is not necessarily so. For one, issues such as human rights are becoming increasingly important to people at large. Also the movement of peoples, especially from the generally impoverished south to the north often bringing to their new homes the problems from the past, and because globalisation is very often impinging on issues in a way not thought of earlier.

As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet "The play's the thing…." This drama has gone on long enough with far more people dying on stage than in a Russian comedy. The curtain is now about to come down on the latest play written on the theme of conflict and suffering.

After three acts in Thailand and Norway, the main action seems to be coming to an end, though some sub-plots remain to be played out before the denouement.

No doubt conspiracies are afoot. Efforts would be made to sabotage what has been achieved. Admittedly what has emerged from the talks will not be to everyone's liking and the shrill sound of criticism will be heard.

But these are not talks between victor and vanquished, between those who won and those who surrendered. That needs to be understood and respected. But when the nitty-gritty of governance and the structural adjustments to the polity are being worked out, those responsible must learn not to be even more zealous than Oliver Twist and ask for far more than can be reasonably given.

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