Sir, - I write in response to Conor Meade's letter comparing the problem in Northern Ireland to that in the North of Sri Lanka (May 23rd). The only similarity is that both areas of strife are in the North.
The majority community has not established a pluralist state in Sri Lanka. Instead, it has established an ethno-religious state in which the language of the majority, Sinhalese, is the state language and the religion of the majority, Buddhism, is the state religion. The Tamil minority has fought against this situation through Ghandian non-violent means without success. It is only after the failure of the democratic and non-violent means that an armed struggle was begun. The war that is going on has resulted in untold suffering to the Tamil people with civilians being bombed, raped and pillaged. Mass graves have been found in Jaffna. Temples and churches have been destroyed by aerial bombardment. There has been a massive outflow of refugees to India. It is therefore not valid to compare the situation in Northern Ireland with that in Northern Sri Lanka or what we Tamils call Eelam.
We, as a people, draw sustenance from the struggles of the Irish people for independence but we also know that the situation we have to face is not a struggle between ethnicity and pluralism but a struggle for survival itself. - Yours, etc.,
M. Sornarajah, Professor of Law, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge,Singapore 119260.