[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E47]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  RESOLVING THE CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 1, 2000

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following article from The 
Boston Globe on December 23, 1999 for the Record. The author of this 
article, Shri Srithilliampalam, is very active in calling for 
observance of human rights in Sri Lanka and a peaceful settlement to 
the 17-year conflict. We must encourage the parties involved to stop 
the terror and negotiate a peaceful end to this war.

                 [From The Boston Globe, Dec. 23, 1999]

                      Promoting Peace in Sri Lanka

       Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, East Timor--these are the civil 
     and intercommunal wars that have aroused horror and sympathy 
     in the past few years. But in Sri Lanka there is another 
     internecine conflict no less tragic, a war that has waxed and 
     waned intermittently since 1983, destroying more than 60,000 
     lives.
       Now, with the results in from Tuesday's presidential 
     election and Chandrika Kumaratunga re-elected with a 
     dramatically reduced majority of only 51 percent, the time is 
     ripe for an international peacemaking initiative. All the 
     humanitarian justifications for saving lives in Kosovo, 
     Bosnia, East Timor, and Chechnya apply in the conflict 
     between the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka and the Tamil 
     minority. Civilians, conscripts, and victims of terrorist 
     bombings all deserve to be saved from a senseless repetition 
     of murder and mayhem that can be ended only by a negotiated 
     solution. Chandrika, as the president is known to her 
     compatriots, was elected five years ago as the leader who 
     would bring peace to Sri Lanka. But instead of trying to end 
     the killing by granting autonomy to the Tamil areas in the 
     north and east of the country, she yielded to hard-line 
     arguments for a decisive military solution. In turn, the 
     Tamil Tigers have shown no willingness to end their campaign 
     of murder and terror.
       In a scorched-earth offensive this year, government troops 
     occupied most of the Tamil homeland. But this fall the 
     Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam overran one government 
     outpost after another. It should be clear by now that the 
     government's tactics succeeded only in driving the moderate 
     Tamil population of the north and east into the hands of the 
     Tigers. The war is unwinnable.
       The time has come for third-party mediation. Washington is 
     unwilling to play that role, but just as Norway originally 
     midwifed the Oslo accords between Israelis and Palestinians, 
     an impartial country could mediate peace talks. Such talks 
     should be preceded by a cease-fire, a withdrawal of 
     government troops, and the provision of food and medical aid 
     to civilians in the north and east. If the principle of an 
     international humanitarian obligation is to have any meaning, 
     it must be applied consistently.

     

                          ____________________