Editorial -

One of the jokes that did the rounds during the bad old days of the Cold War was how a young Russian guide showing off the splendour of the marble statues and chandeliers of a Moscow underground train station to a group of visiting Congressmen was asked by one of the American Senators, "But where are the trains?"

Infuriated, he retorted; "Ok, but how do you treat blacks in Alabama?"

One was reminded of this yarn -- and the idiom - on hearing that the LTTE had cut off the water supply from the Mavil Aru anicut feeding some 30,000 acres of paddy lands in the country's Eastern Province -- because the European Union banned the organisation.

No doubt the LTTE is seething after the EU slapped them with the "terrorist organisation" tag, lumping them with the likes of Al-Qaeda. But why take it out on the poor people of the Eastern Province?

The EU first imposed a travel ban on the LTTE soon after the rebels assassinated Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar -- and then went on to kill more than 150 servicemen in almost daily attacks since the beginning of this year. And yet, they feel slighted when the EU categorises them as a terrorist organisation.

Our approach to dealing with the IC (International Community) or more aptly the DC (Donors Club) has gone staggeringly awry since of late.

With the murder of Mr. Kadirgamar last August, it was the officials of the Foreign Office -- honed in their skills by their Minister -- who were largely responsible for arguing the case for an LTTE ban in the corridors of power in Europe.

Recently, they were engaged in a mass evacuation of Lankan citizens trapped in Lebanon following Israel's military assault on that country -- a contingency the Ministry of Labour had not worked out.

Now, with SCOPP (the Peace Secretariat) making forays into foreign policy issues, another can of worms, that of conflicting positions and contradictory views of the Government of Sri Lanka, was opened.

Minister Kadirgamar was extremely careful about protocol, subtle nuances, timing and the gamut of detail that went into dealing with the IC - or DC - especially to maintain Sri Lanka's self-respect despite its shortcomings, muscle-wise, in international affairs.

Only last week we cautioned this Government about talking in different voices. We were referring to a whole host of issues ranging from the fuel strike to the peace process to military offensives. We said that if it is the Government's intention to confuse the enemy, then that is fine, but what is happening is that even their friends are getting confused.

Take this week's example of the (un-signed) statement by SCOPP on the Mavil Aru water issue that quoted the Geneva Convention to show that the LTTE has committed a "war crime" by depriving the people of that area of their livelihood and their food.

By doing so, the Government agency has, surely inadvertently, equated the LTTE with the State, for the Geneva Convention is a document that is primarily between States -- and only the Common Article 3 thereof refers to "Internal Conflicts". But there is no requirement to have to quote from this Convention to show that the LTTE has violated international law.

Was the Foreign Ministry consulted on this statement? Our bet is that it was not, because the officials there know all too well, how Minister Kadirgamar was so careful about avoiding such equations. He did not even like any reference to a "civil war" because it had other connotations - of a conflict between two ethnic communities, which is what the LTTE is trying to make it out to be -- that was how far he went.

One would have noticed that incumbent Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera made no reference to the Geneva Convention when he addressed the Colombo-based ambassadors soon after the SCOPP statement. He simply referred to the justification for a sovereign Government using "legitimate force" to provide a means of livelihood to her own people against rebel-instigated violence.

It is high time the Government and the President co-ordinated the efforts of the State machinery -- be it in settling a strike, talking peace or making war.

Our Defence Correspondent gives a detailed account of the battleground in the Eastern Province this week, and our news pages are full of the resultant human catastrophe.

This is a separatist insurgency where some unwritten rules of common decency prevailed all these years. The Government, for instance, never stopped food supplies to the LTTE even at the height of this insurgency. Civilians caught in the conflict were kept fed, even though the Government knew that much of the supplies would filter to the fighting cadres of the LTTE.
The LTTE depriving the farmers of the Mavil Aru area of water, is akin to depriving a human being of oxygen. Are we then, getting into a no-holds-barred clash to a finish? One can only hope and pray that reason will prevail -- if any reason is possible.