By Jehan Perera –
ජෙහාන් පෙරේරා
Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict appears stagnant though with a supportive international environment. The international community with the US, EU and India in the lead have been supporting Sri Lanka both economically and politically, especially with regard to seeking a just and mutually acceptable solution to the long protracted ethnic conflict. There are examples of other seemingly intractable conflicts suddenly going away. But these never went away on their own. There was a lot of work that was done, often behind the scenes by leaders who put the future before the past. Sri Lanka needs to take its opportunity sooner rather than later, which it can if its political and thought leaders choose wisely. An example to emulate would be Western Europe after the Second World War.
Prior to the end of the Second World War, the countries of Europe seemed to be permanently in conflict as their alliances shifted from one rival group to another. Europe had a hundred year long war between France and England. But the mass devastation of the Second World War and the formation of the European Union to help the battered European economies recover has meant that war in Western Europe has become unthinkable. Europe also produced world renowned thinkers on peace such as Johan Galtung who recently passed away and gave to the world the conceptual difference between positive peace and negative peace. There can be a similar phenomenon at work in Sri Lanka too. After the end of the three decade long war and more recently the economic collapse the ethnic conflict is fading into the background outside of the theatre of war in the north and east. But it is a negative peace, an absence of war …read more
Source:: Colombo Telegraph