Socialists oppose the war in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: Socialists oppose the war

ON 15 June, two claymore mines exploded in Sri Lanka destroying a bus
packed with farmers, workers and children. Over 60 were killed and
another 40 injured.

Clare Doyle, CWI London

This incident, the worst for many years, took place in Kebithigollewa,
populated predominantly by Sinhalese. It comes after weeks when killings
by the state and other paramilitary forces have been a daily occurrence.
Minority Tamils are constantly hounded by the police and army in the
capital, Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government’s reaction to the bus explosion was to
order immediate air strikes against strongholds of the separatist
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have de facto control over
the North and parts of the East of the island.

Talks to save the ceasefire declared in 2002, which many hoped would
end the 20-year-long war, have foundered. The last ones planned did not
go ahead and this latest escalation of the situation could mark a return
to full-scale armed conflict.

The LTTE itself denies responsibility for the Kebithigollewa bombing.
Their leaders have made very war-like speeches about the "coming
campaign", the "ultimate war". They have threatened a
‘blitzkrieg’ rather than the "inch by inch" approach to
achieving control over the territory they see as their homeland.

But they say they don’t target civilians and blame this atrocity on
dissident LTTE elements working with the Sri Lankan army.

Heightened tension

WHOEVER IS responsible, the United Socialist Party (USP – the
Socialist Party’s Sri Lankan counterpart) condemns this terrible attack
on ordinary working people. They report that fear and tension in the
capital Colombo, and elsewhere in Sri Lanka, has dramatically
heightened.

The USP, now seen as the country’s main left force, has linked up
with other left and minority parties who are opposed to the war and
fighting all attacks on democratic rights. The party is also conducting
an independent campaign of its own against war preparations on both
sides.

They stress that it is the working people and poor farmers – both
Sinhala and Tamil – who have to carry the main burden of war. Already,
before the vast human and economic costs begin mounting again, prices of
basic necessities have rocketed and people are ground down by poverty
and crippling anxiety.

Only the working people can find a solution to the horrors of the
national conflict. The USP continues to demand that the rights of all
oppressed minorities be honoured, including the Tamil-speaking people’s
right to self-determination, with autonomous rights for the Muslim
Tamil-speaking people in the East. It stands for a united struggle;
against chauvinism and communalism, against terrorism and war, against
the rule of the bosses and the landlords.