Scotch LTTE propaganda

Regard Tigers as terrorists, not liberators:

by Shenali WADUGE

If the LTTE was representative of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka taking up arms against Sri Lanka’s Government because of Sinhala discrimination why should thirty three (33) countries list the LTTE as a terrorist group? If the LTTE is listed as a terrorist group why should the Sri Lankan Government not have the right to eliminate this terrorist movement and why was it forced to engage in negotiations?

Rajiv	Kadirgamar	Jeyraj	Sivasithaamparam	Amirthalingam

The negotiations led nowhere because the LTTE had no legitimate “discriminations” to put on the negotiating table! - what legitimate right does the LTTE have to declare itself “sole representative” of the Tamil people having annihilated the respected and potential Tamil leaders of Sri Lanka? It is finally time to separate fact from  fiction.

The US banned the LTTE in 1997, followed by the United Kingdom in 2000, Canada in 2006 and the 27 member EU countries also in 2006. Malaysia has also banned the LTTE and Australia has listed the LTTE as a terrorist group in 2006 under UN Resolution 1373. India was first to ban the LTTE in 1992 for the assassination of its former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. If banning alone has not sufficed we are finally able to see some arrests taking place. The Interpol has listed the LTTE on its wanted list for offences related to human trafficking and drug trafficking. Complementing the US State Department ban, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailed the LTTE as more dangerous than the Al Qaeda.

In major busts on LTTE front organisations, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation set up to help the tsunami victims was banned in Sri Lanka, US, Australia and UK. The Australian Government has even raided educational establishments where LTTE operatives have been employed. Canada recently banned the World Tamil Movement. There is also evidence of asylum seekers creating problems for the police in those countries with crimes related to credit card scams and street crimes increasing. In the UK Tamil youth gang rivalry resulted in the use of samurai swords and some say these Tamil youth are worse than the Brixton blacks! France is also experiencing a similar surge in attacks which are working hand in hand to raise funds through arm-twisting means for the LTTE. French author Jerome Pierrat has written a series of books on the subject.

Thus, we see cracks in the Tamil Diaspora - some are objecting to the fundraising drives by the LTTE - the manner of their intimidation, threatening of their families, while others now having gained PR status wish to make use of the present conflict climate to enable the rest of their families to join them. This essentially requires the continuance of the conflict and explains why the Tamil Diaspora wish to keep the funds flowing to a now battered LTTE.

The LTTE has over the years adopted nefarious means to ensure that it has an annual budget of USD 300m while some of it comes from the Tamil Diaspora the rest is earned through human trafficking, illegal arms sales, narcotics, credit card scams, and extortion and even contract killing. LTTE have mastered the art of using preferred terminology of the international community to highlight acts of “human rights violations” by the Government, “racism” by the Sinhalese, “discrimination” - Norway perhaps may have helped in establishing the “self-determination” placard which was how Norway came into being.

Is it not a surprise how some of the UK, Australia and Canadian local politicians have come to the rescue of these supposedly beleaguered Sri Lankan Tamils in exchange for their votes of course. If any politician is seen speaking on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils plight and whitewashing the LTTE, it would be advisable to first check the politician’s constituency and then deduct how votes can make speeches and garner political support!

Many of these pro-LTTE supporters have conveniently mellowed their speeches to revolve round the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement. If terminology is correct a ceasefire would mean cessation of hostilities but how would it explain why the LTTE has over 3000 cases of ceasefire violations recorded by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission tasked to monitor the truce?

Obviously the architects of the ceasefire had not taken into consideration how the LTTE had violated previous ceasefire agreements for other than documenting the cases the SLMM were nothing but observers and LTTE suffered nothing but a formal request to abide by the agreement. Its response was later to even assassinate Lakshman Kadirgamar, a Tamil and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister. Were not the Government accused of discrimination! But then is the world aware that there are Tamils in key positions in the Government - though the other prominent Minister and Chief Government Whip also a Tamil was blown to smithereens by the LTTE in early 2008. Needless to say the ceasefire agreement did not stop LTTE child recruitment as shown in the 2004 Human Rights Watch report.

According to Human Rights Watch and the UNICEF, the Tamil Tigers abducted 5,666 children between 2001 and 2006, although they speculate only 1/3 of cases are actually reported to them. However, in a most recent blow the US State Department has in a resolution passed in Congress decided to take action against militants using child soldiers - despite bans when LTTE still operates in the very countries that have banned it we can only wonder how this new resolution will affect the LTTE.

These “friends” of the LTTE - important persons in their own right, holding respectable positions need to be seriously questioned about the stands they have taken in projecting themselves as “soft” on terror. Why should their respective Governments turn a blind eye to their activities as there are enough footage to prove their presence on top of LTTE stages.

All the foreign MPs who have projected a pro-terrorist stand should have first sought to nullify the terrorists recruitment of children, of denying them their childhood and adolescence and right to employment all aspects of the UN Rights of the Child instead of siding with a lost cause which has gained nothing in its 25 year existence - and is left with a gangrened leader having to annually keep alive his “promise” for a separate homeland that has been nothing but a mirage in the desert.

Separatist idealism was alive even before the LTTE came into existence.

Facets of this is the legacy left by the colonial rulers with their divide and rule policy which ensured greater prominence and privilege to the minority and so even upto early 1960s the State sector was predominantly dominated by Tamil public servants. So we are talking about over 100 years of benefits accrued to the minority by the colonial powers interchanging through system change - where the Sinhalese is supposed to have benefited for less than 50 years. This is certainly not the correct scenario and many Sinhalese do have their own sets of grievances as must all other citizens in their respective countries against the ruling Government. Yet, nothing today in public or private service occurs based on ethnic ratio but purely on merit. This again nullifies any argument that the State discriminates Tamils.

That system changes would upset Tamil leadership was understandable but that their desire to reign as leaders and continue to maintain the same privileges that the colonial rulers unfairly bestowed upon them came to be absorbed into a separate homeland drive was indeed unfortunate. It is this desire that created the real division amongst the two communities over and above anything else. Sivasithamparam and Amirthalingam and the likes are accountable for this.

The LTTE actually hijacked the idea of separatism from the Tamil leadership of the late 70s and turned it into a militant outfit later to internationalise it as well as commercialise it - it nullified the right of democratic thought by eliminating all moderate thinking Tamil aspiring leaders forcing others to remain in stoic silence or face similar fate, it hampered the education of Tamil youth - only those that could afford somehow escaped LTTE clutches and came to Colombo or flew to foreign climes leaving the poor and average Tamils to suffer - 30 per cent of LTTE comprises children whose families have had to sacrifice a child unable to afford to fill the LTTE kitty.

If the North suffers mediocre development is it not the fault of the LTTE? - If the LTTE’s desire was to uplift the Tamils they should have spent from the USD 300 million fund towards developing at least the areas under their control - should they not be feeding the civilians under their custody? Why do Tamil civilians want to flee to Government territory - why did the Sri Lankan Tamils brave LTTE shooting to stream into Government camps in the East? Today, a former LTTEr is the Eastern Province Chief Minister - a person who has entered a democratic path. Has the US been able to transform any area under militant control and display example of reformation and democracy? All through the 25 years of conflict the Government of Sri Lanka has been feeding its citizens of the North even the LTTE.

With the present Tamil leadership often accused of as being proxy LTTE in parliament it necessitates to alienate them from any mainstay decision making in the future for they continue to carry forward “separatist” thought and have never had the interest of the larger Tamil populace. Can the Tamil people even after eliminating the LTTE continue to have confidence in the present Tamil leadership who have continuously taken a pro-LTTE stand and who follow Delhi instructions? Recently in the Eastern province Tamil people blocked the road and held placards against a Tamil parliamentarian coming to their area - so we can assume how much these leaders have lost their touch. These very leaders bemoan racist thought while living in Colombo, accepting Government salary and being protected by the State. Had they lived in the North with the LTTE and bemoaned the situation of Sinhala discrimination it would have looked a little more credible but given the present scenario it doesn’t give them much credence.

The main reason for the present conflict to last this long was the confusion in identifying what the LTTE stood for and why. The LTTE’s annihilation of all other Tamil groups and Tamil leaders made the LTTE “sole representative” by default. LTTE’s Eelam is only for those who accept LTTE domination and LTTE rule - all others will know their fate, given this scenario in this 21st century would people like to live in Hitler’s times? It has been convenient for “interested” groups especially the Diaspora abroad to carry forward the “LTTE our saviour” theme - LTTE’s reign of terror in Sri Lanka will not be easy to replicate in foreign nations.

Then there are others who have benefited by LTTE disbursements but none of these entities have helped the ordinary Tamil people and these are the people that have suffered over 25 years being used by LTTE as human shields, being used as bargaining tools and having no say in how they want to live. The INGOs/NGOs seem to think that their removal from the Wanni is likely to affect 200,000 Tamil civilians - are these people now under the protection of the INGOs/NGOs because if they are, then it would be easy for them to bring these people to safety. But obviously they are not - then what is the fuss? The people are being kept forcefully by the LTTE which should in effect generate pressure upon the LTTE to release them instead of accusing the Government and inflating scenarios.

So what must the world do first - we urge them to first correct the wrongful notion that Sri Lanka suffers an ethnic problem. We suffer from a terrorist problem which started out as a covert operation and that needs to be dealt with severely. The LTTE cadres are welcome to return to normal living but they must give up notions of separatism and their dependency on the gun to have their way. The needs of the people of Sri Lanka are many and are not confined to Tamils - but essentially what the Government needs to do is to come to the rescue of the most affected people - of all communities and ensure their return to basic living conditions and launch development programs as has been done in the East. The country needs a call for new Tamil leadership and it should not be imported ones belonging to the Tamil Diaspora who may be ready to come once LTTE domination is over.

In any case leaders of all communities should realize the golden words of Abraham Lincoln and remember them at all times “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time”

Courtesy: Asian Tribune