Sri Lanka To U.S.: Now You Know How We Feel

by Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka did too, but with a proviso: "Now you know how we feel."

"For those people (in America), that was definitely a shock but it was a good lesson for countries which encourage and are sympathetic towards terror groups," said Rajitha Attanayake, a student at the Colombo university. "The time has come for superpowers to realize the gravity of the terrorist problem."

His statement, and those of other Sri Lankans, reflects the anger at what many here see as the U.S. government's double-standards in dealing with terrorism, particularly in connection with the country's 18-year civil war.

"When a bomb triggered by Tamil rebels goes off in Colombo, the United States wants Sri Lanka to restrain itself and talk peace, while when bombs go off in the United States, leaders there want to take revenge," said one newspaper columnist, in a view echoed by many people.

President George W. Bush has vowed revenge against those responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, saying "we will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge and no rest."

For Sri Lankans, the anger of the American people was a reminder of the start of the rebel revolt for a separate state for minority Tamils living in the country's north and east. There was anger and animosity towards the Tamils, which turned into bloody riots in 1983.

Most of the country's majority Sinhalese community were appalled and embarrassed by the riots and were hopeful of a peaceful end to the conflict through negotiations between the government and Tamil rebels.

But the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has dragged on for nearly two decades, causing thousands of deaths and crushing the economy. More than 60,000 people, including government and rebel troops, and civilians, have died in the conflict since 1983.

National newspapers, while condemning the U.S. attacks, have also adopted the "I told you so" stance. "Forked tongue," read the headline of the Sunday Times editorial on Sept. 23.

The newspaper ran a front-page story quoting U.S. embassy spokesman Stephen Holgate as saying that the U.S. government had not changed its stand in calling on the Sri Lankan government to initiate peace talks with the rebels.

"We are fighting against terrorists who are not asking anything; they are not demanding anything, and not coming for negotiations. They want only to kill Americans," he said.

"There is a distinction between the LTTE and the terrorists in the Middle East. So the U.S. has not changed its stand in calling on the Sri Lankan government to go for peace talks."

Those comments drew an angry retort from the Sunday Times editorial board. "The U.S. has nothing to negotiate with bin Laden as he hates America full-stop. But with LTTE terrorists, it is a different cup of tea, because they are asking for something!"

"If bin Laden demands one-third of America and two-thirds of its coast as a separate state tomorrow -- does it mean that the U.S. must not then wage war but negotiate with bin Laden?"

Predictably, U.S. embassy officials joined a peace protest last week called by the country's business community to end the civil war. U.S. diplomats stood outside their office gates holding hands in a symbol of peace along with thousands of others who gathered across the country in a plea for an end to the island's bloody conflict.

Worried about growing anti-American sentiments, the U.S. embassy issued a statement reiterating its support of the Sri Lankan government.

"The United States has supported, and will continue to support the policy of the government of Sri Lanka which, while resisting terrorism, says that a political solution must be found to the civil conflict in the country. We have long agreed with President Chandrika Kumaratunga's position that negotiation offers the best hope for long-term peace in Sri Lanka," said the statement by U.S. deputy ambassador Lewis Amselem.

He said the United States was the first Western country to declare the LTTE a terrorist organization and in support of this policy has conducted numerous training exercises with the Sri Lankan armed forces and will continue to do so.

The statement said the U.S. government had also supplied the Sri Lankan armed forces with considerable material support including meeting the cost of delivering 300 military trucks last year.

Political analysts point out that whenever Tamil rebels launch bloody attacks in Colombo, including suicide attacks, the Western world called for restraint and a return to the negotiating table.

Proposed peace talks, guided by Norway, have been on the back burner in the past few months as the ruling People's Alliance government is preoccupied with other political crises.

"While we feel sorry for the lives of all those innocent men and women who were victims of a barbaric terrorist attack, what we cannot understand is why nobody is concerned about the lives of unarmed women and children who are killed by the LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka," said Nalin de Silva, a veteran columnist with the independent Sunday Island newspaper, known for his Sinhala leanings.

While the suicide attacks in the United States shocked many countries, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers were perhaps the first to resort to this type of deadly weapon as far back as the mid- to late-1980s.

According to terrorism experts, Sri Lankan rebels have committed two-thirds of all suicide bombings in the world. Since 1980, 280 people prepared to die for a cause became walking bombs. Two-thirds of the people, 160, according to experts, were Tamils who belonged to the LTTE.

According to a report in last week's Sunday Times of India, Western intelligence agencies were investigating the close links between the LTTE and Osama bin Laden's shadowy Al-Qaida network at the very time the bombings in America took place.

When leaders of powerful nations wax eloquent about terrorism, "we Sri Lankans can only have a smirk on our faces, as we know about terrorism firsthand having borne the brunt of a more vicious and ferocious kind of terrorism than the U.S. has just faced for so many years now," the Sunday Times editorial noted.

It added acidly: "But then we must negotiate. After all, there is something to negotiate -- a separate state."