They consequently embrace the refrain that Sri Lanka does not have an ethnic problem; it merely has a terrorist problem. In doing so, they portray the LTTE as the main reason for the civil war, thereby deftly avoiding the civil war’s root causes, which have to do with the quest for Sinhalese Buddhist domination. The global war on terror waged by the United States and others has made the nationalists’ focus on terrorism effective, and emphasizing it has enabled the present government to deflect questions concerning its gross human rights violations against Tamil civilians.
Likewise, the Sinhala journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, before being assassinated by the government as he predicted, spoke out against the state misconstruing the conflict to excuse their own state terrorism:
we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka’s ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens.
Even after the defeat of the LTTE, the Sinhala nationalists are still harping on about the now defunct group which is brought up in every discussion about war crime investigations and accountability as the ultimate scapegoat to divert attention from their own crimes.
It seems any tyrannical regime can get away with crimes against humanity as long as it appeals to the boogeyman of Terrorism!
