Still squabbling

ASIA
Sri Lanka

Jan 6th 2005 COLOMBO
From The Economist print edition

Officials and rebels are arguing over aid

FOR those seeking a silver lining in the wake of the tsunami's destruction, Sri Lanka looked like a good place to start. For the first few days after the waves struck, government officials and separatist rebels sounded a conciliatory note. Both sides called for national unity and vowed to co-operate over relief efforts. This collaboration, many hoped, might help build trust. A resumption of peace talks—on hold since early 2003—seemed possible, and perhaps an end to the 30-year-old civil war pitting mostly Hindu Tamil rebels against the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese government.

But in the last few days, a war of words has broken out again. Spokesmen for the Tamil Tigers, as the rebels are known, have accused the government of dividing aid unfairly. More is being sent to the largely Sinhalese south, they say, than to the Tamil-majority areas in the east. The government, for its part, claims that the Tigers are trying to pass off its aid as their own, and even spurning assistance in order to exacerbate the crisis and so win international sympathy.

So which is it: sweetness and light or business as usual? A little of both, it seems. Stories abound of ordinary Tamils and Sinhalese helping one another. A genuine spirit of reconciliation seems to have infected some of the wave-ravaged districts. “People were seeing each other as human beings and not as Tamils, Sinhalas or Muslims,” said one resident of Batticaloa, on the eastern coast.

For sure, there has been some co-operation between low-level functionaries on both sides. Government officials have helped to distribute aid in Tiger-controlled areas. Government soldiers are even said to have co-ordinated with their rebel counterparts to speed the flow of emergency supplies through military checkpoints.

But, equally clearly, neither side can resist the temptation to score political points. Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sri Lanka's president, says she is not sure if the Tigers can be trusted. A spokesman for the Tigers, in turn, declared that the new-found friendship with the government was purely practical and did not in any way alter the group's determination to bring about an independent Tamil state.

All the same, the tsunami probably has reduced the odds of renewed conflict. According to Mrs Kumaratunga, the waves washed away much of the Tigers' weaponry. Their naval base at Mullaittivu is said to have been severely damaged. The army, too, has its hands full assisting the newly destitute. What is more, the tsunami almost certainly shifted many landmines around, leaving everyone in the dark about where they lie—another reason for both sides to think twice before going back on the offensive.

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