Accountability must start with LTTE for killing their own cadres

by Shenali WADUGE

The world needs to be reminded again. Sri Lanka was a victim of terrorism. The LTTE was an agent of terror and it was against LTTE terrorism that the Sri Lanka Armed Forces were fighting. If the West, the UN and all other “humanitarian” organisations wish to ignore the LTTE’s spate of killings over three decades, so be it. Yet, when pressure is being exerted on a sovereign country completely ignoring punishing the LTTE for its acts of terror, the people of Sri Lanka will not remain silent.

Starting with the killing of the Jaffna Mayor in 1975, followed by killings of numerous Tamil policemen by the LTTE. To-date the LTTE has killed 24 Tamil academics and intellectuals, 54 Tamil Government officials and over 80 Tamils involved in some aspect of politics. This excludes the thousands of Tamil civilians that have been killed and maimed by the LTTE as punishments for defying LTTE orders. Is this the Tamil Eelam that was supposedly meant for Tamil people? Can Tamils who have witnessed these LTTE killings upon their own people not fear to live in a Tamil Eelam if it means death if they go against Tamil Eelam policy? So please answer – why did the LTTE kill Tamils?

Thereafter the LTTE went after civilians. The first attack took place in 1984 at the Dollar and the Kent Farms in Weli Oya. It was here that the LTTE slaughtered 62 unarmed men, women and children.

The LTTE was running a defacto governance of its own – LTTE police, post offices, banks, schools and even media stations.

LTTE’s administrative headquarters was in Kilinochchi. The Channel 4 video attempting to discredit Sri Lanka’s Government portrayed one Issipriya as an innocent journalist. It turned out she was a member of the LTTE and her rank “Lt. Col.” and was working in the Voice of Tigers. Her husband Sri Ram was also a member of the Sea Tigers and died in May 2009. Channel 4 has been fooled by LTTE lobby and its channel stands guilty of discrediting its image for money. ABC news Australia too fell prey and had to face the embarrassing truth that the “innocent civilian” that they depicted was in fact a trained LTTE cadre.

We would like to ask one simple question. Is the world telling Sri Lanka to allow a Tamil Eelam where LTTE does nothing but KILL? Has the world forgotten years of LTTE terror killings? 146 pilgrims were slaughtered in the holy city of Anuradhapura in 1985 (May 14th). The LTTE carried out these killings posing as Sri Lanka military personnel wearing the uniforms of Sri Lanka Armed Forces.

One by one these innocent people were hounded down and shot dead. Is this what people are to expect in an Eelam that the West is attempting to carve out in Sri Lanka? May be the West has forgotten the Aranthalawa massacre in 1987. 33 young monks and their mentor were not just killed but were mutilated depicting the heinous nature of the LTTE. We have enough footage of all these gruesome murders and they should be publicly displayed for all to see and never to forget who the LTTE is.

LTTE’s attack on civilians is as heinous as one could imagine. What “freedom” movement butchers people, cuts men, women and children to pieces? The more the dead the LTTE was able to exert pressure on the Government. So they killed and killed and killed – Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims – Race, Ethnicity, Nationality did not matter to the LTTE. This is the type of murderous logic the LTTE used. Yet, the infamous Darusman Report says “LTTE is a disciplined organization”. Can the three panelists that prepared this report explain to us what they mean by the word “disciplined” and connect that with the scores of butchering by the LTTE through three decades? We want answers. May be it was their “discipline” that made them kill over 10,000 innocent civilians and injure an equal number. May be it was their “discipline that the world did nothing about LTTE’s recruitment of over 5000 children turning them into child soldiers. May be it was due to their “discipline” that the LTTE violated the famous 2002 ceasefire over 3,830 times? It is getting a bit tiring to have the West and even the UN and NGO lobbies whitewashing the LTTE completely ignoring its brutal record.

The West, the UN and all other humanitarian organisations need to remember that if they are working towards the betterment of humanity – they must not be taking the side of the murderers. This is exactly what is happening. LTTE has the monetary ability to buy over people. We do not doubt that at all. They raise funds nefariously so they can decide to use this money to buy over, win over and influence people. Hillary Clinton was 'bribed' but she had the presence of mind to return the money. Now Obama is also be 'bribed' and we are yet to hear of his returning the contributions from Tamils for Obama. Similarly, every person who has an official say in Sri Lanka has been approached by the LTTE – from their statements, their actions we the citizens of Sri Lanka know how big the “influence” has been. We are not a nation of fools.

We have seen the LTTE carry out all types of killings – on buses, trains, on economic targets, on villages and places of worship, on VIPs and VVIPs & even on foreign leaders. But we would never have thought that despite the LTTE killing Tamils, it would resort to killing its own men & women who pledged their life towards a movement that they were brainwashed into accepting as being the Eelam promised by a megalomaniac leader called Prabhakaran.

Eyewitness accounts now emerge of how 49 disabled LTTE female cadres were asked to board a bus, they were served tea and without their knowledge the doors were shut and the bus was blasted. This was despite several of their relatives appealing to the LTTE to allow them to take the wounded LTTE cadres to their homes. What the LTTE did in killing their own wounded cadres is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and goes against the Geneva Convention. There are eye witnesses and we are waiting to see what the West will say about this latest act of treachery by the LTTE.

Thiruchelvan Waratharasa of Wattarappalam, a witness of LTTE atrocities during the final phase of the war and eye witness to the killing of 29 civilians by the LTTE which included his son and his sister's son. Waratharasa was rescued by the army on 16th May 2009. Waratharasa had witnessed the gruesome mercy killing of 49 disabled female LTTE cadres who were put into a Rosa bus given a cup of tea and then unknown to these LTTE cadres the bus was set on fire by an LTTE member Nadumaran – killing all inside the bus. The incident took place on 8th May 2009 at Demuniwagala.

Another witness – Kumanan from Puthukudirippu was also one of the displaced and when trying to flee from the LTTE, his wife got injured while fleeing and his aunt died after being shot by the LTTE.

Soon the Tamils, not those living comfortably in foreign shores, or those living happily in the South of Sri Lanka amongst the Sinhalese, but the Tamils that suffered because of the LTTE will begin to feel free to tell their story. These witnesses will be able to nullify all the false documentaries that the LTTE is developing using technical expertise. Truth will always prevail and sooner than later the people will begin to come out & tell the world about who the real LTTE is.

That the West and other humanitarian authorities are biased goes without saying. They did pittance for all of the heinous crimes committed by the LTTE. Now when a sovereign government has eliminated terrorism they are questioning the Government when they have never questioned the LTTE. We want to know why?

Why is the world not punishing the LTTE for its crimes? We demand the world take action against the LTTE for all its crimes. The LTTE leader may be no more but there are enough of second phase leaders – the TNA espouses to take over the Eelam struggle, there are the GTF, the BTA, ITRO, TGTE – all these people can be held accountable for the killing of innocent people by the LTTE over the years. If accountability is the word the West loves to use – we demand accountability by the LTTE for its heinous killings. Accountability must start with the LTTE terrorists for it is they who kick started the rampage of killings in Sri Lanka.