Nature’s Fury, War’s Hatred

The governments of Indonesia and Sri Lanka appear ready to squander a chance to let the Dec. 26 tsunami ease them toward an end to their separate, long-running civil wars. The hatreds between ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka, and between the government and rebels in Indonesia, seem to be on the verge of re-exploding in a time of the rawest human need.

Sri Lanka and its Tamil Tiger terrorists have observed a cease-fire for two years, although it appeared in danger of collapse even before the waves demolished entire communities on the island nation. Afterward, Tamils accused the government of holding up emergency shipments to western areas that they control.

The Colombo government denied the charge. But it refused to let United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan visit Tamil territories, supposedly because his security could not be guaranteed. The reality was that officials feared an Annan visit would imply recognition of a separate Tamil government.

Indonesia also cited security concerns Tuesday in limiting aid workers to two large cities on Sumatra island and barring entry to the many smaller towns devastated by the tsunami, which killed more than 100,000 Indonesians. Jakarta earlier delayed letting a U.S. warship use landing craft to put Marines ashore in Aceh province, center of sporadic clashes. When it did allow the landings, it required Marines to go unarmed and let the Indonesian military provide security and distribute the aid. The Marines agreed Wednesday to cut back their presence.

The government said it feared rebels would disguise themselves as government soldiers and attack the Marines. That’s dubious. Even the more sensible argument that residents might fear that the U.S. was invading is undercut by the thanks of Acehnese for the Navy helicopters that ferried in supplies amid appalling devastation.

The war between the government and separatists in Aceh dates to the 1970s and has killed more than 10,000 people, many of them civilians. Human rights groups have presented convincing claims of military abuse of the Acehnese. There have been sporadic cease-fires, including one after the tsunami that each side says the other has violated.

In Sri Lanka, the war between the minority Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, and the majority Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhists and control the government, has killed more than 60,000 since 1983 -- nearly twice the tsunami death toll in that country.

The Sri Lankan government should not let the tsunami make its relations with the Tamils worse. As in Indonesia, the government needs to get clean water, food and supplies to the refugees, regardless of religion or ideology.

Discrimination would pour more poison into wounds untreated for too long.