Without constructive policies for all, Sri Lankan peace will not last. Ali Ismail writes in the Asia Pacific Times.

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The Sri Lankan military has declared victory over the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), ending  Asia’s longest civil war. But the deep divide between the Singhalese majority and the Tamil minority remains – as does the suffering of tens of thousands of refugees who were held hostage by both warring parties.

May 20 was declared a national holiday in Sri Lanka. In his speech celebrating the military victory, President Mahinda Rajapakse said: “We removed the word ‘minorities’

from our vocabulary three years ago. No longer are the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays or any other groups minorities. There are only two peoples in this country:

One are those who love this country and the other smaller element that have no love for the land of their birth. ”

The south of Sri Lanka celebrated for an entire week. Its roads were full of young people

(including children) singing songs and serving food to passersby. The national flag flew high on vehicles, rooftops, paddy fields, trees and even on boats. Every Sinhalese seemed to have become patriotic. Some even went as far as to intimidate Tamils on the streets

of Colombo and other cities. In the north, there are more than 190,000 suffering Tamil men, women and children. Many at Manik Farm, a camp for those displaced by the war in Vavuniya district, recount harrowing experiences during their time under the brutal clutches of the LTTE and also the merciless government that showed no regard for civilian safety in its attacks on the LTTE.

They were bombed relentlessly from the air and ground. And there are even credible allegations of the use of white phosphorous, a chemical agent. Marahatham is a 24-year-old single mother at Manik farm. Her husband was arrested a year back when they lived in Vavuniya. She has since seen him twice in Boosa, a prison in the south, where she

was stripped naked and searched before gaining entry to see her husband. Due to the government’s offensives in the last year, Marahatham and her only child were displaced 12 times. And now she is alone.

“I waited with my injured child and a neighbor at Puthumathalan hospital,” she said. “The hospital got shelled twice and the second shell took away my child. Then I did not want to live anymore and thought that the military or LTTE would kill me.” After the second shell, Marahatham fled with other refugees in a waterway. As they were running,

bullets were fired from the LTTE side and eventually the refugees were caught in crossfire between the army and LTTE. Miraculously, Marahatham was not hit.

“I saw many bodies floating in the lagoon, mostly children,” she said. “Many could not walk through the water due to their injuries and I saw them drowning but could not help them. I held one of them above water level.” But when she reached the other side of the water, a military man took the child she had been holding on to from her, after she told him the child was not hers. “I don’t know what happened to the child,” she said, “and I can’t get rid of the guilt that I did not say that he was my child.” And this is a story experienced by tens of thousands of locals.

In the past four months, more than 7,500 people have been killed, many thousands injured and maimed and over 280,000 civilians have become homeless in the Vanni district, in northern Sri Lanka.

A doctor treating civilians in Vavuniya hospital told the Times of India: “About three-quarters of the injured coming in now have suffered from blast injuries and the rest are gunshot wounds and mine explosions.” Even though the government declared the victory on May 17, no third party has been allowed unhindered access to the war zone where many civilians (mostly injured and the old) are still trapped.

After the Vanni civilians’ escape from the LTTE, the government has forced them into detention camps ringed with barbed wire and they are kept under 24-hour military surveillance. The mobility of these people has been completely taken away.

Families are separated, the injured are not given immediate medical attention and many elderly and weak people have died from starvation and dehydration. In these so-called government “welfare” villages, women have been raped and killed, children snatched away from their mothers by paramilitary officers and young people who were taken away for questioning have not returned.

NGOs and international organizations have yet to secure free and full access to serve these people who are essentially incarcerated for a crime committed by someone else – the enemy that the government celebrates having defeated.

The military that manages the camps is yet to come up with a list of the displaced. It is feared that this delay is due to the process of weeding out every possible LTTE suspect.

The government is also systematically erasing all the evidence and eliminating witnesses of possible war crimes it has committed in the last bit of the land held by the LTTE, including the use of chemical weapons. The fates of thousands of young people taken away at the screening points are still unknown.

Government doctors who served bravely during this brutal war have been detained. They are being investigated for failing to abide by government regulations for talking to the media about the horrors of the war.

Like the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government has terrorized its own citizens (if it genuinely considers Tamils part of the nation). For a start, the president owes an apology to people whose homes were bombed by the military while their kin were blown to pieces by multi-barreled cannons and rockets.

A true celebration of unity in this nation can take place only when the government offers the Tamil people a political solution that legitimately addresses their justified grievances.

There is an urgent need for political and institutional reform that involves substantial devolution of power to the northern and eastern provinces. Until then, there will be nothing to celebrate.

*The writer is a human rights activist from Sri Lanka and is publishing this article under a pseudonym.