There Seems to be a Collective Paralysis!

News today, Thursday, 15 June 2006, is that countless women, children and others have been killed in a claymore mine attack near the Sri Lankan Holy City of Anuradhapura. The bomb was clearly detonated to coincide with the return to Kilonochchi of the LTTE team sent to the abortive Oslo talks. Claymore mines, one of the most deadly land mine devices used in Sri Lanka, are detonated by remote devices and this one was clearly done knowing the civilians on the bus, women and children, would be killed in large numbers. The Tamil Tigers immediately claimed they had nothing to do with the attack and called it "senseless violence used for political ends," but Government of Sri Lanka air force jets follow with a bombing raid on Tigers controlled Mullaithivu, clearly indicating the Government of Sri Lanka thought otherwise. Whither the peace process?

The Norwegians have fallen short of announcing their suspension of attempts at facilitating more talks, having so conspicuously failed in Oslo last week, but their frustration is evident. Both sides say they are still committed to a cease fire, agreed 2003, but their actions suggest otherwise. The recent spate of massacres by as yet unidentified groups affecting civilians in both ethnic divide suggests that the will to bring about a real peace process just isn’t there no matter what the ‘international community’ does.

The Tigers’ increasing use of the language of a para-state, suggesting a self elective ‘sovereignty’, and the southern Government’s own flouting of its own constitutional provisions suggests the development of a hybrid Sri Lankan state. To talk in this context of a unitary or federal state is almost nonsensical. There seems to be a collective paralysis among many of those engaged in conflict transformation – all avenues tried and retried but we head unhindered back to a massively destructive war.