I’m just back from Sri Lanka, where I shared it’s first week as a unified country in decades.  I saw late night street parties, and Sri Lankan flags stuck on anything that stayed put, or that moves for that matter.  I heard the honks of roving truckloads of flag-waving, drum-beating, celebrators, watched but didn’t understand the President’s speech, and enjoyed the impromptu victory holiday.

The origins of the conflict always seemed pretty abstract to a newcomer, and it is somewhat baffling that progress has incurred such a heavy cost on the economy and liberty of the people.

As far as I can make out the origins of the conflict lie as they often do in colonialism, which employed a divide-and-conquer strategy between the Singhalese majority and the Tamil minority.  The Tamils are known as an industrious people and amassed a disproportionate amount of wealth and power under colonial rule.

After independence 50 years ago, the fledgling democracy was poor at protecting the minority Tamils from the vengeful rule of a suppressed majority – for instance Singhalese was declared the only official language which emotionally, educationally, and legally disenfranchised other language minorities.  One thing led to the next, and with poor decisions and corrupt manipulation on both sides, plus some probable interference from Tamils in South India, a brutal civil war broke out.

Several tired decades later, it is very hard to see objectively why the fighting had continued.  I suppose that a conflict this long generates its own momentum, deepens grudges, and incubates a set of entrenched interests.  In the few years I’ve been visiting I’ve often thought that there hasn’t been objective reasons left to warrant the continuing damage the conflict inflicts.  Like the conflict wouldn’t be very severe if it were starting fresh today.  Furthermore and most depressing, the fighting had concentrated power (namely LTTE leader Prabhakaran) in such a way that no compromise was possible.

Under those circumstances, I sympathize with the Sri Lankan preference for a decisive victory (despite the horrors that accompany it) rather than endure decades more of guerilla war, assassinations, and suicide bombers.  The victory earlier this month capturing the final LTTE territory, and the killing of Prabhakaran and other leadership figures, allows the country to move into a new phase.

I consider the military victory only one step in resolving the larger political conflict, but all the Sri Lankans I spoke with placed much more importance on it than that – for example:

• The feeling that Jaffna and the beautiful east coast will shortly be accessible to travel.  Many are looking forward to their first visit in years (and for the younger set, the first visit ever.)
• The feeling that many Tamils were forced into supporting the LTTE (financially, as human shields, and even as child soldiers), and now that the LTTE is gone these Tamils cannot be pressured in the same way.  There seems little desire to continue to label them “terrorists” and the term “ex-terrorist” and “ex-combatant” seems to signal a desire for reconciliation rather than ongoing revenge.
• The agricultural riches of the north will again soon allow Sri Lanka to feed itself and result in lower food prices.  The internal trade will also help bind the populace together.
• Confidence in the hard work ethic and capabilities of the Tamils to rebuild quickly and effectively join the political discourse.
• There’s hope that nobody would want to be the last suicide bomber to die for a losing or unjust cause.
• The end of the war will immediately start bringing in more tourist dollars, badly needed now as hotels, resorts, and restaurants already were suffering under the war before the economic collapse.

By the end of my visit I felt more confident that Sri Lanka can take this hard-won victory and build upon it a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous society.  The Sri Lankan people, of any background, certainly deserve that.  And they deserve our support in that process.  Godspeed!