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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The great 'escape' By a Special Defence correspondent The flood of condolence messages over the death of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar condemning his assassination posted by foreign Governments, world leaders, international agencies and other eminent individuals was soon followed by an equal flood of new messages from the same sources commending the culprit, the LTTE for changing their stance and deciding to return to the peace talks last week.
boomeranged Kadirgamar was not assassinated mistakenly but it boomeranged on them after certain parties such as the Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, local and foreign pro-LTTE NGOs and individuals too joined the international community to condemn the act mainly because of the Minister's strong and good rapport with the leaders in the field of international politics and diplomacy. The LTTE's international propaganda war that had been launched at that time to disgrace the Government, especially blaming it for the P-TOMS imbroglio, accusing it of collusion with renegade Karuna group to win international sympathy in order to obtain direct funds to infuse blood to its war machinery in the name of development or tsunami rehabilitation was disturbed all of a sudden with the Kadirgamar killing. But the LTTE strategists, within less than a week, successfully put the things back in track with the blessings of Tamil Diaspora or their pro LTTE agencies. There is no doubt that the Government is deeply committed to end the conflict through a negotiated settlement. It was obvious from the President's repeated calls for peace even after her close confidant and Foreign Minister was felled. Can the same commitment be expected from the LTTE? Would they come to the negotiating table with a sincere motive? Or would it be another tactic to divert international pressure after the Kadirgamar killing? It is well known that Minister Kadirgamar was for long at the top in the LTTE hit list due to his relentless international campaign to brand the LTTE as a terrorist and separatist group which directly caused several countries to ban the LTTE in their territories. But why did they time the killing at this juncture? Recent bomb attacks in London and other violence occurred internationally did not refer to any links with the LTTE. Hence the LTTE surmised that they would not get any pressure from the international community if they commit any crime in Sri Lankan soil. They also thought that the regional atmosphere was conducive as India was involved in many dilemmas and internal chores including conflict with Pakistan, border crisis with Bangladesh, conflicts with regional separatists groups such as in Nagaland. Even India and Sri Lanka has found certain disparities over the Sethusamudram by this time and Minister Kadirgamar had issued a statement over it saying that the country would have to seek international justice in respect of the canal project. So the LTTE decided that India would not worry about their activities in Vanni or in Colombo. Thirdly, the domestic political and security situation were tuned accordingly with the intensification of political dog fighting by protest marches demanding a Presidential election this year, mass rallies and legal battle over the date of presidential election, naming candidates and even polluting city walls with mud slinging posters thereby turning a blind eye to the public and political leaders' security. Politicians and their securities might have also not taken seriously that the LTTE would commit any killing as the CFA was on force and, with this assassination and the suspected security lapse we assume that many MSDs of Parliamentarians had relaxed the security routines of their particular members before this killing. Having realized that all these circumstances are in their favour, the killers deployed a sniper this time, the best method to destroy the target, taking another anti-terrorist campaigner in the world. Therefore, a close analysis of the modus operandi of the killing of the Minister proves that the assassination is not committed by any other military or rival group but by an expert killer group which had planned it well for a long period of time. Most unfortunate was the failure of those in charge of intelligence to sniff around next door from where the Minister's killers were operating. However, the aftermath of the crime turned out to be different to their expectations. After the London bomb blast, the British Government proscribed the TRO, the LTTE's major international fund raising machine in London. It was a heavy blow on the LTTE. The European Union has already proposed to proscribe the LTTE activities within their territorial parameters. This was another blow in the offing. The UNICEF has repeatedly warned the LTTE to stop child conscription. To turn all these unfavourable circumstances into favorable ones, the best option they chose was talks. Under these circumstances, the LTTE's willingness to come to talks is very clear though their commitment is still questionable as the message is not confirmed by the LTTE though Norwegians rushed to convey it in a sudden rush during the heat of Kadirgamar assassination. All peace loving Sri Lankans would hail the two parties if the peace talks would begin soon. But how would they share the pound of flesh is the difficult question to be answered. However, past experience would remind us that the LTTE would insist that the Government properly implement the current CFA providing more facilities to continue its killing spree while strengthening their military bases in the Vanni. There is no doubt that the LTTE would come up with a list of complaints. They have already prepared the ground by abducting civilians, harassing them and putting the blame on the army. Shootings are still going on violating the CFA. Last week in Vavuniya the LTTE labelled a victim Rajaratnam Sreekanthan who was killed as a para-military cadre though he was really a PLOTE member. There are no armed para -militaries in the area except those of the LTTE renegade group Karuna because all para military groups were disarmed by the army under the CFA. According to intelligence sources, there would be more factions within the LTTE in the near future, and this situation would intensify. Besides these circumstances, ordinary people in the peninsular too are angry with the LTTE for its violence including the killing of SSP Wijewardene and their attempt to use the ordinary people as human shields. After all the LTTE has admitted that they have internal problems and they were able to solve them within the group so the LTTE cannot blame the government for para military operations in the North and East. Politicians, people and the international community blame the LTTE when they commit a grave crime. It is the typical human reaction but prominent persons such as Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, President Premadasa, Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake and many others fell at the hands of the LTTE. Condolence messages flood in, newspapers pages are full of condolences and obituary writings, expensive posters are pasted, protests are held and all such heat and growing anger in the society dies away gradually with time. But so far not a single scholar or research fellow except a few with the backing of certain NGOs with vested interests, have taken a pragmatic step to study Prabhakaran or his behavior towards terrorism though the movement has killed over 60,000 lives including top leaders for over two decades. No University has initiated such a program to equip and prepare a generation of scholars to face the future challenges. LTTE sniper's lens The Kadirgamar killing created an irreparable loss in the arena of local politics. What would be the fate of others who believe that the LTTE would play into their hands to grab power easily in a day? Would they let such narrow minded people to hold the crown forever? To
give wisdom to such persons could be a daunting task but the recent arrest
of a suspected Tamil youth while he was video filming the official residence
of Opposition Leader is one clear indication that no one is excluded in the
LTTE sniper's lens. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Although it is the LTTE's old trick of pulling the wool over the eyes of
the international community after such assassinations, except those who
mollycoddle the LTTE, ordinary people with an iota of grey-matter could
guess that their Norwegians buddies have come to the rescue of the LTTE when
they were in peril after they assassinated Minister Kadirgamar bringing them
much disgrace internationally. However, while the LTTE was celebrating the
Kadirgamar's death in Vanni, Norwegians were successful to drag the Sri
Lankan top political leadership to the centre of talks. It provided an
'escape route' to the LTTE and reduced the international pressures on them
within a very short span of time. Their strategy and tactics should be
studied and understood deeply by those who expect to talk with the LTTE when
they compromise at any future talks. 
