LTTE not guilt free vis-a-vis ceasefire termination

LTTE forced the SLMM monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden to withdraw

By Panchamee Hewaviseenti

Foreign Secretary, Dr. Palitha Kohona said it was the LTTE which forced the ceasefire monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden to withdraw in early 2006 after the European Union named the Tigers as a terrorist outfit.

"The hypocritical wringing of hands by those who could be expected to know better, at the termination of the CFA is difficult to comprehend. Let us look at the facts.

In 2006 the LTTE forced the SLMM monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden to withdraw by refusing to give them assurances of protection and effectively truncating the Mission," he said.

Dr. Kohona, said the LTTE also withdrew security guarantees from the SLMM and the ICRC with regard to sea monitoring forcing the SLMM to stop sea monitoring. "This happened following the attack on the ship, the Jetliner, in the middle of a cease fire. I cannot recall any agonised protests at the time by those who seem so concerned now," he said.

He said the then Government entered in to the CFA in good faith to form the basis of a negotiated peace, but the LTTE "maliciously and unscrupulously exploited it to regroup, rearm and launch massive attacks on Government forces" in 2006.

He noted that the LTTE itself called these "Unceasing Waves - Elam War 4" and smuggled in huge quantities of weapons including heavy weapons and aircraft, developed a massive naval capability including state of the art suicide boats, and forcibly occupied areas such as Silavathurai and Sampur.

Silavathurai became a major base for smuggling weapons and Sampur was used to establish a pendent of deadly fire for the key artery to the North and the East - the Trincomalee Harbour.

"Where were these defenders of the CFA at the time?" he questioned. " I cannot recall denunciations of the patent violations of the CFA by the LTTE when they interdicted the water supply to 65,000 villagers at Mavil Aru, or when massive attacks were launched on the FDL at Muhamalai, or when Muttur was attacked resulting in the expulsion of 53,000 Muslim residents or when Trincomalee was shelled from Sampur. Where were these defenders of the CFA when the LTTE, since 2002, methodically eliminated government intelligence operatives and hundreds of moderate Tamil leaders including the former FM Kadirgamar or my own deputy, Kethish Lognathan?," the former Peace Secretariat head continued.

Dr. Kohona said when civilians were being massacred by the dozen at Kebithigollawa or hundreds of unarmed sailors were being targeted, like at Dambulla, the CFA minitors were helpless. "The SLMM itself has recorded over 8,500 CFA violations by the LTTE, including the recruitment of over 5,700 child combatants as opposed to around 800 violations by the security forces. The CFA had become a nonesence, a useless piece of paper, a fiction to the average citizen. A democratically elected, representative government could not continue to sustain this obscene fiction any longer," he charged.

The Foreign Secretary said the belief that the CFA could somehow be the basis of a negotiated peace either reflects supreme naivety or hypocrisy.

"To continue to think that the LTTE could be coaxed back to the negotiation table on the basis of the CFA despite all these grievous violations defies logic. To treat the LTTE with kid gloves when we are all aware that it is a brutal and incorrigible terrorist organisation, only serves to encourage it in the belief that terrorism and violence, if sustained for long enough, will help it to achieve its flawed goal. This would indeed be a welcome signal to other terrorist outfits around the world," he concluded.

[email protected]