Insurgents can be defeated

There is no military solution to an insurgency. How many times have you heard or read that phrase, coming from 'experts' on strategy?

Well, the latest events in Sri Lanka seem to have punched a big hole in that theory. The Tamil Tigers, one of the oldest, most popular and best-armed insurgencies in recent times has just been 'solved', or rather dissolved, by military force.

To be sure, force was not the only reason for the Tigers' demise.

The secessionist movement made many political mistakes.

It turned neighbouring India against it by assassinating prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It made matters worse by making noises about a separate Tamil state that would eventually also include India's southern province of Tamil-Nadu.

The Tigers earned the ire of Muslim countries by carrying out 'ethnic cleansing' of the Muslim minority among the Tamils of the Jafna Peninsula.

They lost the sympathy of Western democracies by setting up what amounted to terrorist support bases on their territories.

They also ran into trouble with China, Russia and Israel by forging ties with insurgents fighting against them.

All that led to a unique situation in which China, India, Russia, Israel and Iran set aside their feuds to support the government in Colombo in its final push against the Tamil insurgency.

The Tigers also made a number of fatal mistakes on the domestic scene. Whenever the Colombo authorities, prompted by their own weakness, offered a compromise, the Tigers ensured that the truce did not last.

The Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka started as a legitimate, and inevitable, reaction by an ethnic and religious minority, against an insensitive majority. Ceylon's independence empowered the Sinhalese majority by making them the island's rulers. The Tamil minority, however, lost most of the protection that it had enjoyed under British rule. The end of external colonial rule produced a new system of internal colonial domination in which the Tamils were the victims.

As if that were not enough, the Sinhalese majority embarked on what soon became a systematic plan to asphyxiate the Tamil culture, language and, ultimately, even religion.

All this means that the Tamils had ample reason to fear for their future and hope for a measure of autonomy that would protect their identity and legitimate interests. In other words, justice was on their side. And they had every right to employ a variety of means, including armed struggle, to underline the justice of their cause.

Armed struggle is a legitimate tool when peaceful and legal means of defending a just cause are either unavailable or ineffective. Initially at least, there was nothing reprehensible about the decision by some Tamils to take up arms against a central power that treated them as second-class citizens in their own homeland.

It is by exaggerating its founding principle that every political system is corrupted and ultimately destroyed. In this case, we see that too much reliance on violence, the founding principle of any insurgency, could kill the insurgency.

The Tamil insurgency is not the first to be 'solved' by military force, although it took almost three decades to acknowledge defeat. The Malayan insurgency in the aftermath of the Second World War was defeated by military force - after 11 years.

More recently, Algeria, too, found a military solution to its insurgent problem after almost 12 years.

There are indications that even the narco-Marxist insurgency in Colombia may be on the verge of military defeat after more than four decades of defying the central government.

The defeat of the Tamil Tigers weakens the position of those who apply the old adage - that there is no military solution to an insurgency - to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The Sri Lankan experience shows that provided there is enough determination to apply the required levels of force, any insurgency could be defeated on the battleground.

However, one caveat remains. The military defeat of any particular insurgency does not exclude the possibility of other insurgencies emerging to exploit the very causes that first led to its creation.

The Tigers may be at an end as an insurgent force. But the soil in which they took root is still there in the form of Sinhalese arrogance and insensitivity, not to say 'imperialism'. Unless that soil is changed, the possibility of other insurgencies and terrorist groups appearing in Sri Lanka cannot be excluded.

In other words, military force can only produce a tactical victory. To achieve strategic victory one always needs politics.

It is against that background that the international community, especially the major powers that supported Colombo in achieving its victory, must now seize control of the agenda to help develop a credible framework for coexistence between the Sinhalese and the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Moderate elements in Tamil society now have an opportunity to come to the fore. And Colombo should be persuaded, or if need be pressured, into accepting them as partners in the quest for a political settlement.

Amir Taheri is an Iranian writer based in Europe.

I fail to comprehend the references made by this article and all media publishes on the discrimination of the minorities. I am a muslim from Srilanka and also a minority far more than the tamils and todate have not had a reason to take up arms to fight for my rights.Terrorism, no matter what the cause is should not be tolerated and if force is the solution so be it. We stand united not as sinhalese, tamils or muslims but as Srilankans to bring back the glory once it used claim....May the Almighty Allah protect my motherland from all evil.
Rizwana
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 15:07

Tamils in Sri Lanka; can live, buy and own properties anywhere in the country but Sinhalese cannot buy land in North (prevented by a pact), within so called Sinhalese nation. Statistically, Tamils are occupying more than their share in schools, universities, in the civil service, the government and even in the private sector. Tamils having privilege of enjoying the facilities like Tamil medium schools and Universities where the share is far higher than which entitled by a Sinhalese student comparing the students: institutions ratio. Even in Colombo, a Sinhala student is not admitted to any Tamil school, while all the Sinhala schools accept Tamil students. List can go on like this, but what I want to challenge with this is that the validity of the line of this article where it says 'produced a new system of internal colonial domination in which the Tamils were the victims'. I am failing to understand how someone can justify that Tamils are being victimised in Sri Lanka or the legitimacy for their struggle while they have all these privileges. In practice both Sinhalese and Tamils lived happily for a very long time despite of who are minority and majority. This is just something created by some selfish politicians who wanted to come to power using minority votes and few followers who were willing to support them without fair judgment. That is the whole truth nothing but the truth.
Kanishka
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 14:06

As mentioned by the two readers, the person who wrote the above article, does not seem to have a clue about what has happened in the past in Sri Lanka. If he can manage to get his hands on some of the books which describe Sri Lankan history, he will surely change his stance. These problems have been brewing up since the days of our Kings
Eric
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 13:19

Could anyone say it was a Tamil insurgency? If anyone needs to write a such article in a International arena, first they must peruse, study, investigate and find the truth and write. If anyone takes arms against a democratically elected government then government has full rights to take action and find the solution. Government had taken enough solutions and proposals, etc. Also, I need to emphasise that in Sri Lanka there a lot ethinic groups living, like Muslims, there is no fear on them about their future. Everyone is equally treat, there is no contradition. Sri Lanka is a Third world country and yet its economy has not stablised. So there are a lot of economic problems people will face. As Sinhalese, we have no problems with any race or any ethnic groups, Sinhalese are better than any one may think or guess, that has been inherited from the culture and religion. Find learn what the meanings of Terrorist and rebel are.
Kalana
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 13:08

In every country, there is a mojority and there is a minority and they live happily. So why divide a country on this basis. And then even if the country is divided, there would be a minority and mojority in that country. Remember, tribes, clans, subclans, families. So does that mean that we should declare our homes a separate states?Anyway, and we cannot compare LTTE with Taliban. with talibans many stakes are involved. remember the location of the area and countries involved.
Jamal Khan
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 12:36

Its sad to see such irresponsible comments on the Sinhalese majority. You must express your toughts with great responsibility
Sajith
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 11:53

Well, it's sad to see an Iranian writer based in Europe describing Sri Lankan and Sinhalese, we as Sinhalese are not insensitive or arrogant. We all know who are like that. If we are insensitive and arrogant, the world should see the massacre of Tamils, when LTTE bombed the most sacred site the temple of tooth, and when LTTE killed hundreds of innocent civilians by blowing up busses. The world has been taken on a ride by so called "Writers". Please understand the facts and then write. We as Sinhalese are not arrogant or insensitive. We live and breath with Tamils, Muslims and all others. So do your home-work before publishing articles.
Nuwan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 07:57

The person who wrote this is not a Sri Lankan. One should not go by the same old stories told by LTTE, and look at the real Sri Lanka as one country. If some one looks at Sri Lanka in the eyes of many international powers as a possible colony, then they will take all the false stories told by LTTE supporters. Sri Lanka has suffered heavy losses by centuries of foreign rule, as well as crimes committed by servants of these foreign masters. PLEASE LET SRI LANKA DECIDE WHAT THEY WANT. IT'S NOT A COLONY OF ANY COUNRTY. If any one thinks that scattering the world map will help their growth, it is a false idea. This is very much evident by what is happening to USA because of Al Qaida, who helped them in a big way in the 1980s.As every one knows western media has a dirty habit of trying to re-write the thousand years of old history as per their knowledge. If any one wants to comment on the Sri Lankan problem, let them understand the real problem "A minority who are servants of Western powers.
Sundar
Ras Al Khaimah,UAE
Posted: May 20, 2009, 07:14