The Obama Administration has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to human rights and dignity and rule of law and has largely delivered on its promise -- most notably in the context of the Arab Spring.

Western powers murmur but Sri Lanka yet to come up with roadmap for reconciliation and good governance. Positive features in LLRC report, but issue of accountability for military excesses not addressed, say international groups. Sri Lanka ushers in another New Year in just six days, with some of the most difficult challenges staring in the face of the government.

This article is meant to analyse the inadequacy of traditional interpretations of the ethnic crisis and point out limitations inherent in them. It is not incorrect to treat this issue as an ethnic crisis. Yet, in my opinion, it is not correct to treat it only as a conflict based on ethnic differences that prevail between the majority Sinhala community and the other minority communities -Tamils and Muslims.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report presented in parliament on  December 16, after it was handed over to President Rajapaksa on  December 20, has left a divided international community and a divided local political response, which is nothing unusual, but the larger part is formed by the silent lot, that was expected to take a stand on the “report”.

Following the release of the much-awaited final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) issued a statement claiming that issues of accountability were not adequately dealt with in this report.

The International Crisis Group report titled ‘Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East’ that was released on Tuesday touched upon problems faced by the Eelam Tamil women in their homelands at the hands of the occupying Sri Lankan military apparatus.

While Human Rights groups and Tamil parties in the island as well as the diaspora groups slammed the LLRC report by Rajapaksa-appointed Commission of Colombo, the US State Department said “the report has addressed a number of the crucial areas of concern to Sri Lankans” and saw the accountability issue as a domestic one without calling for international investigations.

11,000 people belonging to 2,556 families have been displaced from the low-lying lands of Ki'linochchi district this week following heavy rain and floods, according to District Secretariat officials in Ki'linochchi. Of these, only 1,443 persons of 349 families have been provided refuge by the SL administration. The remaining families have been struggling to find space with their relatives and friends elsewhere.

“….. Everybody believed them to be solid and inanimate – to be true facts. No one yet understood that life would become an uncomfortable, endless walk down a sea shore laid thick with facts of all sizes and shapes. Boulders, pebbles, shards, perfect ovals. No one had begun to imagine that these facts were without any order, opposed or natural – that facts were as meaningful as raw vocabulary without grammar or sentences. A man could pick up any fact he wished and fling it into the sea and make it skip. A practical talented arm could make it skip three, perhaps four times while a lesser limb might make a single plunk with the same concrete proof of some truth or other. Another man might build these facts into some sort of fortress on the shore.

The end of war did not envelope the country in peace nor is it practical to expect this to happen so soon after the termination of hostilities.  Yet the expectation that the termination of hostilities will bring about energized and speedy attempts to bring about conditions that spell normalcy for the people. To make it operative political processes that restore civilian administration has to be revived, new or old institutions have to be set up to help people to rebuild their lives.

Finally, the full report of the long awaited Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is in public domain, after it was presented in parliament on Friday (16 December, 2011) by the Leader of the House, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. He in fact sounded very certain the recommendations would be carried out to the letter.

For quite sometime, ever since the establishment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the Government of Sri Lanka has been asking its critics not to pre-judge the work of the LLRC and to await, patiently, the finalization and publication of the Report. The Report has now been published. What do we have here? Is it one that establishes beyond doubt that the Government’s version of the war, or the human rights situation in the country, is correct? If not, where has it gone wrong?

Two Sri Lankan human rights defenders and political activists disappeared in Jaffna in the North of Sri Lank on 9th December 2011. There is still no credible news of their whereabouts and human rights groups have voiced serious concerns about their safety. Mr. Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Mr. Kugan Muruganandan were last seen by relatives, leaving Mr. Muruganandan’s house at Avarangal Jaffna, at 5 pm on 9th December. They have not been seen since.

Our challenge is strongly to encourage the Sri Lankan government to embrace reconciliation, accountability, and respect for human rights, while trying not to push the country towards Burma-like isolation from the west,” Patricia A. Butenis, US Ambassador in Sri Lanka wrote; as revealed in WikiLeaks cables – Colombo Telegraph on November 14, 2011.

While structural genocide continues unabated in the homeland of the Eezham Tamils, certain well funded Sri Lankan NGO’s that harp on peace and reconciliation are steadily pursuing a war by other means on the Eezham Tamil Diaspora.