I am praying for Samson Mwawasi, for I can understand what he would be undergoing right now in Kenya. We have had the same problem in Sri Lanka, for every time there is an election the country flares into an ethnic violence. First it starts with the major opposing parties waring with each other, and somehow ends up with the Tamil minority being murdered, raped and pillaged.
This time, the govt have broken the Peace Treaty signed in 2002. Even at the best of time, the peace treaty was hardly upheld. Now that the government has thrown the gauntlet at the minority, we have no chance. The minority at the beginning fought for equal rights to enter the University/college, jobs etc, for we were systematically discriminated. The government refused to sit down and broker a deal or a solution with the minority. We requested for an autonomous state, which was flatly turned down. In reply the govt went around burning down the library (built by the British, and the best one in the whole Island) and schools, homes etc, hoping the minority would not be a rival in the academic field etc. After years of unfair treatment, ethnic cleansing etc, the minority took arms to fight for a just cause- a separate state. Unfortunately the world refuses to see it in that light. They see only the way things are presented by the majority government.
On the other hand, I do not condone the violence perpetrated by both sides. In fact there has been numerous in-fighting among the minority and as a result there were massacres among the groups fighting for a homeland too. I do not in any way state that the minority rebels are in the right, they too had descended to committing atrocities. Nonetheless when you look at the situation objectively, it is the innocent minority civilians who are paying a heavy price- caught between a rock and a hard place. They are living in constant fear and deprived of even the basics.
It is a pity, for there is enough room for all to live harmoniously in that paradise Island. One time it was called the “pearl of the Indian Ocean”. It has one of the best of climates any place can offer- from unending sand beaches all around the coast to beautiful mountainous region in the central part. It produces the best of tea and cinnamon. We have the best of gems; famous for our rubies and blue sapphires. We are a cricket crazy nation, and was awarded for playing it with a “spirit of the game”. Many have commented the way the Sri Lankans have turned cricket into a gentleman’s game. Further one would not find a most hospital people on earth. They know how to treat a host well – the majority Singhalese are renowned for their unstinting hospitality. Yet we find it hard to get along with each other. If we look closely, we see the hand of higher forces, who are interested in taking over the Island, for its strategic position in the Indian Ocean, with its natural and man-made harbours. The civilians have become the pawns in the bigger game. It is a classic case of divide and rule policy.Please pray for the people that the Lord will shine the Truth in their hearts. Majority Singhalese are mainly Buddhist, and a very small percentage of Christians and Catholics. The minority Tamils are mainly Hindus, again with a small percentage making up the Christians and Catholics. We support the RBC over there, and according to RBC Michigan, there is an opening among the people, for they have undergone 25 years of ethnic trouble and also in 2004 they were badly affected by the Tsunami. Grace To You, of Dr. John MacArthur church has a transmission station there. Yet things are not easy for the new converts. Wherever people turn to the Truth, the devil always brings obstacles. Lately there have been persecution against the Christians and the Govt has brought in Anti-conversion laws. That is the only time the majority and the minority agreed in the parliament over this law! When it comes to Christianity the Devil knows how to bring unity among even the most hated, warring parties! The saying is that politics makes strange bedfellows, yet we can say that the Devil knows how to make strange bedfellows even with the worst of enemies and pit them against the Christians.
In closing this note, I would very much like the Doves to pray for Kenya and Sri Lanka. Only the people who have gone through the horrors of ethnic violence can fully appreciate the enormity of the humiliation, the deprivation, the gnawing fear and the frustration people go through day to day. They are without hope, trapped in a country where they cannot turn to the law for justice, especially when the Law and Order itself has becomes the perpetrator of injustice.