Calculated risks
Editorial-May 21, 2014
There are risks worth taking in life. T. S. Eliot, the great poet, it was who said only those who would risk going too far could possibly find out how far they could go. A person who is scared of taking risks will get nowhere in any of his endeavours though blind plunges are fraught with the danger of leading to disaster.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, at a meeting with Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, on the sidelines of the 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai, has referred to a calculated risk his government took following the conclusion of the war. Pointing out that about 14,000 LTTE fighters including child soldiers were rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, he has said his government took that huge risk without hesitation.
The release of so many ex-combatants was undoubtedly a leap of faith. Most of Prabhakaran’s arms caches have not yet been unearthed and the LTTE is very much active overseas, especially in Tamil Nadu, where political leaders make a public display of their support for it. Maybe, some of the ‘rehabilitated’ Tiger cadres know where those arms dumps are. In fact, it was for future use that Prabhakaran had many of his weapons buried while he was beating a hasty retreat. The military and the police claim to have foiled an attempt by some LTTE cadres to regroup recently.
Terrorism is like cancer. It eats into the vital of a democratic society. It is capable of raising its ugly head again even after being decisively defeated as could be seen from the recurrence of JVP terror about 16 years later. When the JVP’s first abortive armed uprising was crushed in 1971, many thought the scourge had been eliminated once and for all. The ex-combatants were rehabilitated and released. But, a relapse of its terror occurred in the late 1980s, when thousands of lives and properties worth billions of rupees were destroyed. The fact, however, remains that not all former JVPers took part in the second revolt.
No ex-combatant could be rehabilitated one hundred percent and there is always an element of danger in his or her release. But, the reintegration of former fighters into society is a prerequisite for post-war reconciliation. How bad the situation would have been if all ex-Tiger combatants including about 600 child soldiers had been detained indefinitely is not difficult to imagine.
Some anti-terror experts have questioned the government’s wisdom of having set so many battle-hardened fighters free. Even the US Ambassador on War Crimes Steven J. Rapp during a visit here a few months ago asked the government why they had not been prosecuted. But, the government did what had to be done though the release of ex-combatants has not been appreciated at the international fora where allegations of war crimes are made.
This country has witnessed enough bloodbaths and it does not need another armed conflict to contend with. People who suffered for nearly three decades are struggling to rebuild their lives and efforts are underway to achieve national reconciliation. The government should step up its efforts to obviate the root causes of the conflict and those who have promoted terrorism in a bid to achieve their political goals must abandon their attempts to kindle another conflagration so that the rehabilitated LTTE cadres could lead normal lives.
