HONG KONG The tragic loss of so much life along the coasts of the Indian Ocean need not be wholly in vain. While the relief effort gets under way and the priority is correctly placed on maintaining public health so that no more lives are lost, politicians could also start thinking about ways to forge a new era of peace and security out of the devastation left by the tsunami.

As fate would have it, the sea surges struck several areas that have been wracked by protracted conflict. Near the epicenter of the giant earthquake that triggered the waves in northwest Sumatra, the people of Aceh have been caught in a long-running conflict between separatists and the central government in Jakarta that by some estimates has cost 10,000 lives since the mid-1970s. In Sri Lanka, almost 20 years of civil war has claimed more than 60,000 lives. More recently in southern Thailand, a low-level insurgency sparked by conflict between the Muslim majority in three southernmost provinces and the region's Buddhist minority, has already claimed more almost 600 lives this year.

The fatalities in these conflicts don't register as starkly as the final death toll from Sunday's tragedy, which exceeds 60,000. But when the wreckage is finally cleared and human cost eventually tallied, there will still be the need to address the causes of conflict in these areas - and hopefully the desire to use the tsunami as a departure point for a new basis of understanding and peace.

In Aceh, for instance, the authorities have been forced to allow in international relief agencies and the foreign news media after several months of martial law, which kept observers and aid workers out of the troubled province. After the immediate task of helping people to survive and rebuild their lives is accomplished, Jakarta could use this opportunity to tap into all the international expertise on the ground to build a more equitable relationship with the Acehnese people and restart negotiations with the separatists who have been fighting for autonomy.

In Sri Lanka, there are already faint hopes that the utter devastation of the island state's coastal areas will help unite the warring Tamils with the Sinhalese, who outnumber the Tamils five to one. The tsunami itself did not select its victims by race, so in rebuilding the nation, there should be a stake for everyone.

Southern Thailand's economy will suffer greatly from the tsunami and its aftermath because it depends so heavily on tourism. Now that the richer upper south, centered on Phuket, has been devastated, the government could help unite its Muslim and Buddhist communities using a broad and inclusive economic plan to revitalize the region. Those responsible for the violence on the Muslim side should call a halt to the wave of killings and bombings that has killed more than 580 people this year - like the ambush that took the lives of three police officers on Songkhla Province on Monday, the day after the tragedy struck.

When human tragedy on such a vast scale takes place, the world tends to pull together - and so, it is to be hoped, will the divided communities of this region. This is not a time for countries to be hostage to feelings of national pride - or for rebel movements to exploit the weakness of centralized authority. This is no excuse to play games of one upmanship in the region or harp on old national wounds.

Religious and ethnic differences can be healed and the memories of past acrimony set aside, if the task at hand is to rebuild the shattered lives of so many over so vast an area. But the process will need a special effort on the part of political leaders and rebel movements to prevent any one side seeking political advantage from the tragedy.

One concrete proposal would be for all the parties to these conflicts to come together in forums set up to deal with the tsunami's aftermath. International organizations invited to help with relief work can facilitate these interactions. This way, confidence-building could begin and lead eventually, once the task of saving and putting back together the shattered lives of their people is accomplished, to more substantive negotiations for lasting peace.

Michael Vatikiotis is a former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Copyright © 2004 the International Herald Tribune

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