had separatist designs and wanted to
While all these countries have
carve out an independent state in
Gaza. Using this change as an excuse
he dismissed Hamas led government.
Salam Fayyad of Al Fateh was
appointed new Prime Minister on
June 14 and on 17th of June a new
cabinet took oath of office. Thus an
interim government was formed.
The new government did not
enjoy majority support of the
Parliament. That body was still con-
trolled by Hamas. Thus, it is definite
that Parliament's approval for any of
the programmes and policies of the
new government will now be forth-
coming. To overcome this hurdle,
the President passed a decree autho-
rising the new government to work
without approval of the Parliament.
By yet another decree, the President
outlawed paramilitary forces of
Hamas, its executive and other mili-
tias linked to Hamas. The President
launched a scathing attacks on
Hamas. He declared There is no
dialogue with these murderous
terrorists and accused them of
giving Israel an excuse to punish an
entire people. He also disclosed that
Hamas had designs to murder him.
Hamas reacted sharply to steps taken
by the President Abbas. It declared
that President had no authority to
dismiss a government which still
enjoys the support of the majority in
Parliament. There have been demons-
trations against Abbas in Gaza. So far
as the outlawing of Hamas is con-
cerned, it is very much doubtful
whether the newly formed govern-
ment has force enough to enforce it.
The coming days are going to witness
more fierce conflict in Palestine.
The western world, particularly,
the U.S.A., European union and Israel
have come out openly in support of
the newly formed government. The
President Bush welcoming the new
development has called Abbas the
real President of Palestinian people
and a voice of liberals in that region.
Bush reiterated that he supports
the formation of Palestinian nation.
Israels Prime Minister Olmert expres-
sed confidence in the new govern-
ment. He declared that Israel will
cooperate with the new set-up and
release tax money to it. Israel has
withheld 70 crore of dollars and
did notpay it to Hamas led govern-
PD/August/2007/235 Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.
ment which was disliked by it.
Similarly the European Union has
also wel-comed the regime change. A
major donor to Palestine European
Union has also declared that it will
establish diplomatic ties with the new
government and resume financial
help.
Sri Lanka Crisis and Indian
Response
For the last 20 years or so Indian
foreign policy towards Sri Lanka has
been centred around the issue of
Tamil problem. Also, the Indian
foreign policy has moved full circle
from conscious political involvement
during early 1980s to active political
and military intervention during
198790 period again to reserved
political reaction since 1990s. The
present phase of Indian policy is
based on the fault recognition of
disengagement of Tamil issue from
other areas of interaction and co-
operation. However, the change in
Indian policy has been more in the
terms of instrumentalities than in
terms of basic objectives, which still
remain the same i.e., to find out a
lasting political solution of the Tamil
crisis within the unity and territorial
integrity of Sri Lanka. In other words,
India still rejects the demand for a
separate Tamil homeland elam but
wants to ensure adequate devolution
of political power and larger
autonomy to Tamil dominated North
and East provinces.
The present status of Tamil
Problem : Tamil problem of Sri
Lanka has ethno-social, political and
economic dimensions. The genesis of
Tamil problem lies in the social
composition of Sri Lanka. Out of 19
million population of Sri Lanka,
Singhalese constitute 74%, old Tamils
13% and 6% Tamils of Indian origin
constitute the minority in Sri Lankan
society. While old Tamils are the
original inhabitants of Sri Lanka,
Tamils of Indian origin were brought
here from India as plantation workers
during British rule. The Singhalese
and Buddhists and Tamils follow
Hindu religion. Muslims and Chris-
tians constitute rest of the 7% popu-
lation.
openly sided with Al Fateh against
Hamas, the Russian government has
given a sane and sound advice to the
new government. The advice is to
have dialogue with Hamas and other
groups so that peace may be restored
in the region.
Arunoday Bajpai
After independence in 1948, the
majority Singhalese rulers of Sri
Lanka adopted policies which gra-
dually discriminated against minority
Tamils in the field of education,
government services and welfare
programmes. The feeling of insecu-
rity among Tamils became acute as
Singhala was declared national
language. Buddhism was declared
national religion and Seghalese far-
mers were encouraged to settle in
Tamil dominated north-east provin-
ces. The problem of descrimination
against Tamils became more intensi-
fied during Jayawardhanes regime in
early 1980s.
The dissatisfaction of Tamil
towards Sri Lankan government was
expressed initially through their
moderate organisation called Tamil
United Liberation Front which
demanded autonomy for Tamil domi-
nated north and east provinces.
However, the repressive and descri-
manatory policies of Jayawardhane
government led to replacement of
peaceful resistance by a violent
protest and struggle. In July 1983,
Tamils killed 13 armymen of Sri
Lanka which caused hardening of
attitude of Sri Lankan Army and
successive armed conflicts between
the armed forces and the Tamils. The
extremist and terrorist organisation
LTTE gradually got prominence and
eliminated moderate elements from
the political scene.
Since 1983 the Tamil crisis has
taken volent turn as LTTE eliminated
moderate the Tamil organisations,
asked for complete independence
from Sri Lanka for Tamil areas and
waged sustained armed struggle
against the government. The LTTE,
due to its systematic and violent
struggle has scored two important