What's MR's solution to the on going carnage?

The government with its decision to close Colombo schools till Monday (11) following terrorist attacks last week has placed itself in the position of that heroic Dutch boy who saved his town from inundation by the sea by plugging a leak in the dyke that protected the town with his finger. The boy who stopped the leak in the evening had to plug the leak all night till rescuers found him the next day.
The problem for the government is greater. Would the terrorist threat to schools disappear once schools reopen? If after schools reopen an attack is made, what would the government do? Close them again or keep them open?
The threat of a terrorist attack on schools has been there for quite sometime. Some years ago a vehicle loaded with bombs was heading towards Maradana at the time schools were closing, when the children were on the streets and a smart policeman detected it and followed it on his motorcycle. The terrorist detonated the bomb at Maradana junction wreaking human carnage but most of the school children were saved. The marks left by the shrapnel of that deadly bomb can still be seen on the concrete pillars of the Maradana overhead bridge.
What the government can do is to place tight security nets around school areas but as most people are aware such security cordons are not impenetrable. The hard reality is that all institutions and people are vulnerable in this age of the human bomber. The ultimate solution lies beyond security cordons. But it must be said however unpalatable it maybe for the modern day Dutugemunus, that schools and school children in the north and east too have faced the brunt of the military offensives with 12 school girls reported killed in a claymore attack in Mannar just two weeks back.
Even UN reports on Children and Armed Conflict have dealt with the impact the war has had on schools and school children in the north and east and there is no getting away from the fact that the government is responsible for the security of those children as much as those in the south.
The threat from terrorism has been escalating as government forces step up attacks on LTTE held territories. The LTTE counter attacks are directed not so much against advancing government forces but on vulnerable civilians in Colombo, other urban centres and areas on the boundaries. The government may be having some kind of counter-strategy which the public is not aware of and are yet to see but there is no gainsaying it is the bounden duty of the state to protect the civilians to the best of its ability and capacity, be it in the north or the south. And one way to do that is not give the LTTE reason to launch tit for tat attacks on civilians.
President Rajapakse, his brother Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary as well as military leaders like Gen. Sarath Fonseka have been predicting a quick defeat of the LTTE, as close as August this year. Thus their plan may be to go hell for leather with their attacks irrespective of what the LTTE retaliation would be. This would be placing the civilian population at terrible risk.
The government's position has been that the LTTE has been refusing to negotiate for many years while continuing its terrorist attacks and there is no alternative but to crush LTTE terrorism militarily. There was the possibility of negotiations with the assistance of foreign nations but all that has been cast aside both by the government and LTTE.
Meanwhile the international community, particularly those concerned about human rights, are watching the situation and the UN Security Council Working Group is to meet on the Sri Lankan issue on February 21. What President Rajapakse should endeavour to do is to avoid confrontation with the international community, especially the UN. The Kosovo situation has some parallels to Sri Lanka where Kosovo, a province of Serbia with a minority population of Azerbaijanis wants to make a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Serbia and is expected to do so very soon. This UDI has strong backing from the Western nations and only the Soviet Union with veto powers can prevent UN recognition of such a state. The Sri Lankan situation differs considerably from Serbia but we should take heed against rubbing powerful Western nations on the wrong side.
It will be the supreme irony if the very extremists who are hollering for war and the eviction of international agencies in the name of protecting the country's sovereignty pave the way for UN intervention in Sri Lanka by their own ostrich like approach to international affairs and diplomacy, and that is not a very remote prospect either.
President Rajapakse is proud of his foreign policy achievements and he said so in his Independence Day address. But Sri Lanka's image as a democratic nation among the international community has been steadily slipping, particularly among Western nations that matter. It was reported last week that Sri Lanka has been ranked by the World Association of Newspapers as 'the third most deadliest place in the world for journalists.' Only Iraq and Somalia have been placed before us.
Sri Lanka's policy in resolving its national problem is looked down upon by Western nations such as the United States which has cut off military assistance. These are serious setbacks for a small nation fighting an internal insurrection for over 30 years.
President Rajapakse either does not care about adverse reactions by powerful nations or is ostrich like burying his head in the sand and pretending not to be aware of it. On Independence Day he said: 'As a policy we do not have cosmetic and shallow relations with Western countries. Our relations with them are true and real.. The confidence placed in us by the international community has not decreased by one iota.' Perhaps President Rajapakse needs much more severe shocks to awaken him from his reverie.
The President also appears to be committing the mistake of linking up the war to petty political campaigns. To some living in regions of the country not affected by terrorism his war is popular particularly as unverifiable statistics of deaths of the enemy are doled out freely by government propagandists. The government makes much of the war to boost confidence in itself. We are perhaps the only country in the world that produced a time table of ending a war - a 30-year- old war at that. It is supposed to end by August. We do hope that their wishes come true but giving time tables to end wars are unheard of. There is a Napoleonic quip: Unhappy the general, who comes on the field of battle with a system.
Mahinda Rajapakse's singular achievement for his two-year rule has been 'the conquest of the east.' Terrorism has been defeated, and it is being rebuilt and rehabilitated is his proud boast. And now elections to local bodies are to be held but there are strong protests about elections being held because the conditions are not conducive for free and fair elections. Both the UNP and the TNA have protested and are not participating in elections while the Muslim Congress has pointed to the anarchic situation prevalent in the east.
UNP Parliamentarian Lakshman Seneviratne said on Thursday in parliament that 28 persons including 12 candidates have been abducted in the Eastern Province after nominations papers had been filed. PAFFREL, an elections monitoring body has urged the government to make a credible demonstration of its capacity to control violence and dispel fears of the people regarding the possible use of arms by contesting parties. It is an open secret that the TVMP, the Karuna branch of the LTTE now under a new leadership, has its armed cadres roaming and is alleged to be in cahoots with government interests. Indeed they have come to an electoral agreement. All this makes a mockery of Mahinda Rajapakse's boast of having rid the province of terrorism and fostering a vibrant democracy. Keeping the war separated from politics will be in the interest of the country but that maybe too much to ask of the Rajapakse brothers.