By Izeth Hussain
The main focus of this article is on 13A, but I must first make some clarifications. In the course of the recent Parliamentary debate on the US Resolution more than one Opposition member claimed that the fate of Sudan which suffered the breakaway of South Sudan could befall Sri Lanka as well. The analogy is a totally misleading one. Sudan was never a single entity in the pre-British past. It was put together by the British for their administrative and other convenience without the slightest regard for ethnic and other factors, as part of the entirely arbitrary redrawing of the map of Africa by the Western imperialists in the nineteenth century. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has always been known as a single entity right through history, under names such as Taprobane, Serendib, Zeilan, Sailan, Ceylon, and of course for most of the time as Lanka. Even the name Eelam designated the totality of the Island, not just the part claimed by Prabhakaran. A comparable case is the island of Cyprus, which was known as a single entity from ancient times. I suspect that that is an important part of the reason why the international community will not accept the division of Cyprus, even though the de facto breakup has lasted for almost forty years. Sri Lanka could break up. It will leave the rest of humanity with an uneasy conscience that an enormity has been committed.Read More...
