Sri Lanka - The Scoop

Since independence from the UK in 1948, Sri Lanka has been under emergency rule for more than half of its young life. And sixteen years of civil war with the Tamil Tigers (since 1983), leaving more than 55,000 Sri Lankans dead, won't end overnight. As Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar recently said: "Guerrilla wars don't finish like that. The Second World War finished on a particular day. I don't think this one is going to finish in that way." But who says war is hell? The civil war with the LTTE has been the best thing to happen for the island's economy since independence. The war has provided 400,000 new jobs-from the army's recruitment of poor, young villagers in the south to the hiring of 150,000 round-the-clock security guards for the private business sector. Then, of course, there are the army's vendors. Not bad for a nation of 18 million people. Then you've got your refugees. Unlike most places, like Kosovo, where you can simply tip-toe though the forest and suddenly find yourself inside another country in a tent with a UN-issue sterno stove and a kilometer-long line at the potty, Sri Lanka's more than 540,000 refugees have had to fly off the island. These days, between 15,000 and 18,000 Sri Lankans say adios to their homeland each year, keeping those 747s fuller than a Muslim cleric's belly the day after Ramadan. Each year, they send some US$500 million back to their families at home, which contributes to the island's US$4 billion "black economy." Right now, the road to Jaffna may be closed, but as such, it's a road to riches. If the army finally takes the road, the Tigers will dissolve back into jungle. The US named the Tamil Tigers to their list 30 foreign terrorist organizations in October 1997. The major danger to travelers is when the Black Tigers get dressed up in C-4 and dynamite corsets and head into town to join a political rally. Don't ever offer to pull a thread on someone's clothing in Sri Lanka. In a nutshell? As President Chandrika Kumaratunga admitted at a recent ceremony: her country has so far failed to build a nation.