By
Danish A Khan, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, August 29 (IslamOnline) - Sri Lankan Muslims are vociferously
demanding an independent role in peace talks the Sri Lanka government
is to shortly hold with the separatist guerrilla outfit Liberation
Tigers for Tamil Elam (LTTE).
The
talks scheduled late July ran into rough weather, but are now
rescheduled from September 16 to 18 in the Thai capital of Bangkok.
Norway brokered a bilateral ceasefire between the two warring groups
on February 23 this year to end the two-decade long hostilities.
The
prominent political party representing Muslims in the island-nation,
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), has been invited to join the Sri
Lankan government delegation in the bilateral talks. Senior SLMC
leader and a cabinet minister in the government, Rauff Hakeem, will
attend the talks, Sri Lankan government sources said.
Top
SLMC leaders and prominent functionaries have, however, raised a
dissenting voice, and asked Mr. Hakeem to play a more pro-active role
and seek an independent course to place the demands of Muslims more
assertively so that the recurring problems cropping up because of LTTE
atrocities are amicably solved.
SLMC
leaders said that talks should be tripartite and LTTE should solely
represent the (Hindu) Tamils, the government representing the
predominant Sinhalese and the SLMC being the sole representatives of
Muslims, they said.
Arguably,
the world’ s most feared separatist movement, LTTE, has been
fighting a protracted war with the island government for over two
decades for a sovereign Tamil nation called "Tamil Elam"
from the north-eastern part of the tiny island-nation. The war between
LTTE and government forces has claimed 64,500 lives so far.
LTTE
represents the minority Tamil Hindus and claims to fight the
hegemonistic Buddhist Sinhalese dominance over the country. LTTE has
accused Muslims of supporting the government, and has all along made
them a prime target of its fury. War has rendered 65,000 Muslims
refugees expelled by the LTTE from areas under its control..
Muslims
make up nearly 7.5 percent of Sri Lanka’ s 18.66 million population,
with Tamils, mostly Hindus, making up around 12.6 percent. The
majority of the population are Sinhalese, mainly Buddhists. Nearly
one-third of Muslims live in the eastern province which LTTE wants to
include into its proposed Tamil-dominated homeland.
Muslims
complained that ever since the national ceasefire came into force on
February 23 this year they have been subjected to relentless attacks
from LTTE cadres and their supporters.
At
the same time the LTTE has been trying to mend fences with Muslims,
and has accordingly "apologized" for its past actions. It
has regretted its previous policy of ethnic cleansing of minority
Muslims in the embattled Jaffna region 12 years ago and has publicly
apologized for this. LTTE’ s supreme leader Velupillai Pirabhakaran
and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem signed a Memorandum of Understanding
early this month which promised to completely do away with harassing
Muslims in LTTE-controlled areas.
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Rauf Hakim_ leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress
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LTTE
ideologue and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham said recently that it
was a “ political blunder” to forcibly evict tens of thousands of
minority Muslims in 1990. “ Let us forget and forgive the mistakes
in the past,” Balasingham said. “ We do recognize the unique
cultural identity of the Muslim community. Linguistically,
economically and territorially the Muslims and Tamils are inextricably
inter-related and therefore have to coexist as brothers in the
North-east,” he admitted.
Practically,
the Tamil Hindu-Muslim divide is deeply ingrained in the polity.
Muslims have always feared the growing dominance of Hindu Tamils and
have therefore disapproved of their inherent political aspirations.
Tamil Muslims argue that in the event of a unified north and eastern
province, their interests would not be protected especially under LTTE
dispensation. In the event of any such deal Muslims fear that they
would have to live under the Hindu Tamils of the north.
Ever
since the Tamil separatist movement gained ground in the 1980s, the
divide between Hindus and Muslims has only grown. In early 1990s this
chasm widened because of the ethnic cleansing of Muslims by LTTE after
the capture of the Jaffna peninsula. At this stage over 65,000 Muslims
were driven out to live as refugees in the south and parts of the east
where they still live.
The
growing weariness of the Muslims can be gauged from the fact that
Muslim villages which were situated within the ambit of the Local
Government of Tamils were denied the rightful basic civic amenities.
Extortion, taking away of jewellery, motor vehicles and agricultural
implements from Muslims and abduction of Muslim youth to force them
into the separatist movement became an established norm with the LTTE
cadres.
The
over-taxation of Muslims in the east by LTTE has also been a major
issue. Most of the Muslims who are farmers and traders have resented
such imposition, leading to bloody ethnic clashes on occasions.
