Combating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience

But it cost 40,000 Tamil civilians their lives that the world community closed their eyes and let the Sri Lankan military slaughter away under unimaginable suffering. Many of the killings occurred in the special security zones, that the Sri Lankan Government itself had urged the Tamil civilian population to seek refuge in, but which nevertheless was bombarded with heavy weapons.

The defeat of the Tamil Tigers was marred by war crimes - and the UN recognizes that it betrayed the Tamil civilians in the war's final months, when clear and documented war crimes was committed. Evidence of atrocities pile up against the Sri Lankan politicians and military commanders, but they will probably never be prosecuted. I don´t think you have anything to be proud of.
 
But it cost 40,000 Tamil civilians their lives that the world community closed their eyes and let the Sri Lankan military slaughter away under unimaginable suffering. Many of the killings occurred in the special security zones, that the Sri Lankan Government itself had urged the Tamil civilian population to seek refuge in, but which nevertheless was bombarded with heavy weapons.

The defeat of the Tamil Tigers was marred by war crimes - and the UN recognizes that it betrayed the Tamil civilians in the war's final months, when clear and documented war crimes was committed. Evidence of atrocities pile up against the Sri Lankan politicians and military commanders, but they will probably never be prosecuted. I don´t think you have anything to be proud of.


Please refer to the table for the breakdown of overall deaths in the conflicts in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan here:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/how-sri-lanka-won-the-war/
 
Tamil Tiger defeat impossible 'without our friends in Washington' - FM Mangala
http://www.jdslanka.org/index.php/n...ble-without-our-friends-in-washington-mangala


"During that period, Ranil Wickremesinghe who was Sri Lanka's prime minister under President Chandrika Kumarathunge 'was the mastermind responsible for the two main causes of the LTTE’s ultimate defeat,' says Samaraweera.

Both acts were performed when Sri Lanka was negotiating a peace deal following a Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE in 2002 February.

One was laying the ground for the signing of 'the Access and Cross Services (ACSA) defence agreement with the United States that enabled Sri Lanka to access specialised equipment, training and information such as coastal radars'.

The other was facilitating the breakaway of Tamil Tiger Eastern commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan widely known as Karuna.

"This defection gave the army tremendous intelligence and understanding of the LTTE’s fighting methods," says Foreign Minister Samaraweera."
 
My latest for the Geopolitics...

Sri Lankan War Wounds Still Not Healed
https://thegeopolitics.com/sri-lankan-war-wounds-still-not-healed/

After more than 25 years of tense, protracted, and bloody civil war, the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka. In May of 2009 the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as Tamil Tigers, gave Sri Lanka the golden opportunity to unite the divided island nation. Unfortunately, this never happened. The war was over; nevertheless, the conflict between the minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese has been gradually worsening and they were back to square one this week over the arrest of a pro-LTTE Tamil Member of Parliament — M.K. Shivajilingam — for allegedly commemorating an LTTE steward who died in a September 1987 hunger strike on the aftermath of the failed India-Sri Lanka Accord.

Tamil advocacy groups have previously warned that the proclamation of “victory” over the Tamil Tigers would be a political blunder that would contradict the structural roots of the ethnic conflict in the country. People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) issued a statement warning the Sri Lankan Government that the decades old ethnic “conflict is far from over, and if the international community wishes to see decades of violence end in a just peace, it must act to acknowledge both the suffering and the rights of the Tamil community.” PEARL’s statement should be viewed with caution given the recent developments in Sri Lanka, such as the Tamil politicians’ vehement attempt to exploit the arrest of the MP to leverage their strength of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sinhala-nationalist majority government.

At the peak of this commemoration controversy, pro-government scholar and international expert on terrorism, Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, now an Honorary Professor at the Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, responded defiantly, which antagonized the Tamil politicians. “Those who glorify terrorists should be arrested, charged, tried and given the maximum punishment to deter others from following their destructive path. It will deter others funded by LTTE front organizations in the Tamil Diaspora from reviving the separatist agenda of the LTTE,” Dr. Gunaratna stated.

Dr. Gunaratna continued by warning that, “If a democracy permits display of terrorist paraphernalia and allows the dissemination of propaganda, the next step will be protests and demonstrations breaking out into violence. Like the Islamic State and al Qaeda, LTTE glorified death. If commemoration and celebration of death are permitted, it will lead to a culture of destruction.” He also emphasized that “It is essential for the government to relist the delisted LTTE fronts overseas, as some of them are operating in Sri Lanka.” And recommended that “the security and intelligence platform in Sri Lanka’s north and east should continue for one generation until the separatist ideology disappears.”

Dr. Gunaratna is perhaps stating the obvious. He is an academic striving to relate to real life situations. Terrorism that is rooted in inequality of a grieved man can best be combated by addressing political grievances. Further, Dr. Gunaratna has no solidarity with the Tamil community other than professional acquaintances.

To make matters worse, as a Sinhala Buddhist scholar, Dr. Gunaratna is obviously biased against Tamil Hindus. Moreover, he is trying to address the symptoms of an issue, and in carrying it to an extreme, may cause other injuries and another set of symptoms with which others may have to content. However, one cannot deny Dr. Gunaratna’s right to state what he wants. He is heading a counterterrorism think tank, not a policy institute or academic institution focused on stability or sustainable peace. A butcher can only sell beef; he does not understand fish. It is also irrational to expect the butcher to serve up a tasty beef curry, since that requires a chef. A surgeon will always find an excuse to use the blade, whereas a natural medicine physician will try to heal slowly when it comes to other wounds and issues.

The mainstream view among security practitioners, scholars and government agencies is that terrorism is wrong and undesirable, and that it is crucial to have effective policies which can eradicate or at least minimize terrorist incidences. However, just as there are varied conceptualizations of definitions of terrorism, so are there varied perspectives on how nation-states should deal with terrorist acts.

Theories about the underlying causes of terrorism have also influenced how nation-states counter terrorism. Many scholars argue that a combination of push and pull factors are the underlying causes of terrorism. On one hand, push factors refer to adverse elements within one’s social surroundings which are likely to propel a vulnerable individual toward terrorism. They include factors such as poverty and unemployment, as well as perceptions of discrimination and political or economic marginalization. On the other hand, pull factors are ideational and psychological and are used to understand why recruits are attracted to terrorist groups. In this context, terrorist recruits may join groups they believe will give them a sense of belonging, as well as prospects of socialization benefits — such as fame and glory — that could be accrued by joining a terrorist group.

Many countries have implemented Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) projects to address the push and pull factors that lead to radicalization. The underlying rationale of CVE is that military force and extraordinary legal measures cannot on their own be used to resolve the underlying causes of terrorism. CVE focuses more on community engagement activities, including:

1. Tolerance-building dialogues through interfaith cooperation;

2. Trust-building between local law-enforcement agencies and their respective communities;

3. Political inclusion through civic engagement opportunities and community service;

4. Organizing community forums to educate young people about the dangers of extremism and

5. Training credible voices within communities, such as mothers, as advocates to counter the messages of recruiters.

During the course of nearly 40 years since the armed conflict erupted in July 1983, more than 150,000 lives have been lost in the conflict in the exotic island nation of Sri Lanka. Of course, one cannot expect the Sinhalese and Tamils to forget their past and live harmoniously as has happened in South Africa. It will take time. Now it is a country in transition. The incumbent government should give the ethnic Tamil minority reasonable autonomy, perhaps within a federal system such as Canada’s, after the rehabilitation of the displaced people and reconstruction of the war-ravaged north and east.

Most of the 300,000 displaced Tamils have not yet been resettled in their original homes. New homes are still being built with the Indian government’s assistance. Although the rail track from Colombo to Jaffna has been repaired, the long-missed Yaldevi has resumed service, and an international airport in Jaffna has opened, the north and east of Sri Lanka remains underdeveloped and disconnected from the rest of the wider world.

The international community should help rebuild and reconnect the war-ravaged northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. Simultaneously, the international community must also help speed up the war crime investigations and probe thousands of forced disappearances of Tamil youth. Only when the wounds of the war heal will there be the right climate for a political settlement.

Canadian politician Tommy Douglas reminded us of the salient issues in his political allegory “Mouseland” about a troubled village of mice ruled by cats. The mice voted in black cats that represented the right-wing political parties on the spectrum, and then they discovered how hard life was. Next they voted in the white cats, that symbolized the left-wing parties, and things were different, but still not ideal for mice because the government was still run by cats. As the story continues, a mouse had the idea that mice should run their own government, not cats. This mouse was accused of being a Bolshevik and was imprisoned. The moral of the story: you can lock up a mouse or a person, but you cannot lock up an idea.

The LTTE may have been defeated militarily, but it was none other than former President Chandrika Bandaranaike who boldly stated that the LTTE was only the symptom and not the disease. The Tamils have a problem which will continue even after the LTTE is defeated, she declared after surviving an assassination attempt on her. The present and future rulers should remember and address the Tamil problem if they want lasting peace in Sri Lanka.

Armed resistance is born in an extreme state of oppression. Militants can be eliminated, but militancy cannot in turn be eliminated as long as the underlying causes remain. Man does not live by bread alone. When all citizens are treated politically equal and there is no glaring disparity between the rich and the poor, only then will lasting peace be attained.
 
Interesting reading, would need to read it a few times to form a more coherent opinion.
 
My experience with terrorism concerns the IRA In and around London.

Despite operations carried o9ut by security forces and other units they couldn't stop all terror attacks. One comes to mind when I was driving a bus in Oxford Street in London in 1981. I pulled up at a bus stop opposite Wimpy burger bar. A copper came running over shouting at me to ''Get that F^&King bus out of it'' I shouted back that I had passengers getting off and getting on my bus. He ran around to the platform and pushed everyone back on, I have no idea how many I had standing, but I was well over the weight limit. The copper rang the bell and shouting for me to go. To cut a long story short the bomb finally went off, killing the bomb disposal civi. All in all there were three bombs planted that day in Oxford Street.

In London we had many bomb attacks, no matter how hard the security forces worked, the bombers always got through. Terrorism is impossible to stop completely, despite security some forces successes.

I had a few other scares with the IRA in and around London, then Muslims had to have a go 7/7, comes to mind
 
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From the Eyes of a Tiger: Schizo-affect resulting from being a former child soldier – Part III
https://projectofive.ca/2023/01/18/...g-from-being-a-former-child-soldier-part-iii/

Daily guilt, persistent nightmares resulting from my involvement in the civil war, and helplessness in faraway Canada, I slipped into depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which gradually evolved into schizoaffective disorder in September 2001, soon after I arrived in Canada. Due to many years of prolonged treatment, the influence psychopharmacology has had on my life, and the effect that the drugs have had on my mind and behavior, I was ultimately changed into a different person. The antipsychotic drugs had a significant impact on my personality and outlook. As I internalized the treatment and conditioning, I came to misbelieve psychologically and biologically that I had a severe mental disorder and that I could no longer live without the antipsychotic drugs.

Moreover, due to the antipsychotic drugs and chemical imbalance in my body, I suffer from many different side effects, such as obesity, hyper-cholesterol, hyper-thyroid, extreme fatigue, short-term memory loss, loss of focus, and loss of concentration. One thing led to another, and I find myself today, after more than twenty years of ongoing treatment, I have been conditioned and dependent on these drugs. If I ever stop taking the prescribed medications, I will relapse.
 
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