The horrible tragedy of tens of thousands of men, women and children being trapped in and trying to flee the war zone in northern Sri Lanka has shocked the conscience of people all over the world. People in India and especially Tamil Nadu are outraged by the cynical way in which the Rajapakse government of Sri Lanka has sought to justify the intolerable suffering and wretched conditions of the hapless people there as an "unavoidable necessity" arising from their military campaign to wrest power from the LTTE.

Reports confirm that the fleeing population has not only been subjected to the trauma of being caught in a war zone, with thousands injured and killed, but that they are emaciated and starving as well. As the Sri Lankan army has relentlessly and over several months tightened its vise around the area controlled by the LTTE, it has pushed the people there away from their homes and sources of livelihood, turning them into a destitute people on the move. It has enforced a blockade to prevent essential supplies reaching them. It has squeezed these uprooted people into a smaller and smaller area, virtually herding them into a concentration camp and taking no responsibility for their survival. In other words, the suffering of the people was not something unforeseen or accidental, but was an inevitable consequence of the path chosen by the Rajapakse government.

The Sri Lankan government claims that the target of its military campaign is only the LTTE and not the civilian population. This takes no account of the fact that for the last several years, the population of those areas has known no other administration than that provided by the LTTE. There is no way the Colombo government could have inflicted a military defeat on the LTTE without decimating the people living there. Yet, it has deliberately chosen the path of concentrated military force and rapid military advance, knowing full well that this would result in maximum civilian distress and casualties. It has ignored all international conventions regarding the human rights of people caught in the midst of military hostilities – and that too, the rights of a people which it claims belong to its own country!

What has allowed the Rajapakse government to feel that it could get away with war crimes on such a horrific scale? Within Sri Lanka, the polity has become extremely militarised and fascised. The armed forces and the most reactionary and chauvinist sections of the bourgeoisie, whom the Rajapakse government represents, are setting the agenda. They have whipped up Sinhala chauvinism to such unprecedented levels that all political forces in the country that raise their voices for a political solution to the Tamil national problem, or who question the path of violence and terror and a "military solution" have become the target of savage attacks. The Rajapakse government has systematically seen to the elimination of reasoned opposition to his policies, not hesitating to resort to the politics of assassination. It has used the imperialist definition that LTTE is a "banned terrorist organisation" to justify the "final solution" to the Tamil problem through war and terror.

But the most important factor that has emboldened the Sri Lankan reactionaries in recent months is the support of the US, Britain and India to the present campaign. It cannot be ever forgotten that precisely these very imperialist forces — US, Britain, India and others — have both in the past and at present, overtly or covertly, busily intrigued in
Sri Lanka to advance their own geo political aims. India for example, first openly armed and trained the LTTE. Thereafter, it collaborated with the then Sri Lankan government, against the LTTE, following the Rajiv Gandhi-Sri Lanka agreement, and sent a military force into Sri Lanka during the last years of the Cold War. The US, Britain and Japan have for several years, through their support to the Norwegian-brokered peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, recognised defacto that there are virtually two states in Sri Lanka, one controlled by the Sri Lankan government, and the other by the LTTE. The aim of all these games by the foreign powers has not been to assist the Sri Lankan peoples in solving their problems. The aim has been to exacerbate them, and use the situation to advance their geo political interests in a strategic island controlling the main shipping route between Europe and Asia.

At the present time, there appears to be a confluence of interests of all the major powers — US, Britain, Japan, India and China. All of them have decided that at this time, they will back the Rajapakse horse. The LTTE is left with little or no international support, and this is being used to strangulate it. But this will not solve the problem of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Nor will it bring peace to Sri Lanka. Tomorrow, as happened to leaders like Milosevic of Yugoslavia, or Saddam of Iraq, the same imperialist forces could well turn the tables and hurl the accusation of genocide at the Rajapakse government in order to advance their dirty imperialist aims. The victims will be the people of Sri Lanka of all nationalities. 

A very alarming situation now prevails in Sri Lanka. The fascist offensive of the Rajapakse government sets a dangerous precedent in the already turbulent politics of South Asia. A military defeat of the LTTE will be used to justify all-out war as a method of resolving political disputes that are a legacy of colonial rule and decades of chauvinist and self-serving politics promoted by various parties and groups. This will be a grave setback to peace and security in this region. Such military “solutions” leave the roots of the problem untouched and leave a legacy of lasting bitterness. They go hand in hand with clampdowns on democratic rights and all forms of political debate and struggle at home. They open the door wide to foreign intervention and even invasion, as seen so many times in recent years around the globe.

People's Voice strongly condemns the Sri Lankan government which is responsible for one of the worst examples of human suffering in recent times. We condemn the imperialist powers which are responsible for the terrible plight of the people of Sri Lanka.

Throughout these difficult years of civil war in Sri Lanka, the democratic political forces have fought fearlessly for a political solution to the problems confronting Sri Lanka which would be in the interest of all her peoples. The imperialists, the Sri Lankan state are deliberately trying to eliminate such forces both through conspiracy of silence, as well as actual physical elimination. The times demand that all political forces fighting for a political solution further step up their struggle for such a solution. People's Voice whole heartedly supports this struggle.