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Article by President Rajapaksa published
in the Wall Street Journal of June 1st 2006:
"Taming the Tigers"
by Mahinda Rajapaksa
In Sri Lanka, the terrorists who first brought suicide
bombing to the world are intensifying their reign of terror.
Despite a cease-fire, recent weeks have seen a series of
brutal atrocities perpetrated by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam, popularly known as the Tamil Tigers.
 In April, a pregnant suicide bomber blew herself up in
the heart of our capital Colombo, killing not only her
unborn child but also several civilians. That's typical of
the callous disregard for the lives of even our youngest
citizens displayed by the Tamil Tigers, who have
press-ganged thousands of children into its ranks.
Again and again, they have tried to provoke a civil war
between the island's different religious groups. Christians
have been assassinated in church during Christmas mass.
Good Friday this year was marred by violence.
Most recently, the Tamil Tigers attacked a ship carrying
700 unarmed troops together with international cease-fire
monitors on May 11, the eve of one of the most sacred dates
in our calendar, when Sri Lanka's Buddhist-majority was
celebrating the 2,550th anniversary of the birth of Buddha.
The Tamil Tigers' strategy is to take control of the sea
off the areas they control in northern and eastern Sri
Lanka. Displaying a contemptuous regard for world opinion,
the Tamil Tigers even warned the international monitors that
they had the right to attack any vessel which passes through
their waters.
That alone makes it abundantly clear that the Tamil
Tigers are no longer interested in pursuing the peace
process.
Instead, they seek to foment inter-communal strife
through unprovoked acts of aggression, in order to boost
their support among the Tamil community and raise further
funds from exiles.
But the Tamil Tigers' efforts have foundered in the face
of the tremendous restraint shown by the people of Sri
Lanka, including our security forces.
We have not fallen into the trap of venting our
frustration through reprisals against Tamil civilians. And
the May 11 attack, which might have provoked such actions if
it had led to major loss of life, was successfully repelled
by our navy.
That has left the Tamil Tigers resorting to the lamest of
excuses to avoid resuming negotiations with my government.
Their leaders even accuse us of not disarming their own
rebel faction, who recently launched attacks on the Tamil
Tigers' leadership. Having initially insisted these
divisions were its own internal affair, the embattled Tigers
now want the government's help.
Unfortunately the international community has been slow
to recognize the seriousness of the situation. Never let it
be forgotten that the world's failure to help combat the
first suicide bombings in Sri Lanka in the late1980s and
early 1990s allowed the tactic to grow into a popular
technique, now copied by other terror groups around the
world, which poses a threat to almost every major city.
The Tamil Tigers have long been exporting terror to other
countries. They were responsible for assassinating former
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and have been
training and supplying terrorists from northern India to
Nepal, as well as engaging in gun-running in Thailand.
In today's global war on terror, every terrorist is a
threat to the world as a whole, and our struggle against the
Tamil Tigers should be seen in this context.
While I welcome the condemnations of the Tamil Tigers'
recent atrocities from the United States and European Union,
as well as our international cease-fire monitors, words
alone are not enough.
Some countries took far too long to appreciate the true
nature of the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization.
Canada, for instance, only banned the Tamil Tigers earlier
this year.
And although the European Union last year imposed a
travel ban on the Tamil Tigers' leaders, it only this week
imposed a full scale ban. I urge other countries to follow
suit, particularly those in the Middle East, where many
Tamil expatriates work and are often forced to illegally
donate funds to the Tamil Tigers. These citizens are
extorted by Tamil Tiger agents in their workplaces, who beat
up workers who refuse to make regular contributions from
their wages.
Foreign governments could do more to crackdown on the
Tamil Tigers' illegal purchase of weapons from places such
as Afghanistan and East European and Central Asian
republics, as well as their arms-smuggling operations in
Thailand.
They could also condemn more strongly the Tamil Tigers'
repeated massacres of innocent villagers. The enforcement of
proposals already before the U.N. Security Council for
sanctions against organizations such as the Tamil Tigers,
that force children to carry arms, would be a good first
step.
Despite my critics' attempts to portray me as a hawk, I
have shown by my actions since taking office that I am far
from a warmonger. My government has shown enormous restraint
in the face of these repeated provocations.
I am a man of peace. I do not believe in war as a
solution to the Sri Lankan situation and I am committed to
walk the extra mile to achieve peace.
However I can not accomplish this task alone. So I call
on friends of democracy everywhere to do their utmost to
assist Sri Lanka's democracy - and the Tamil people
themselves -to face up to the terrorist threat and advance
human rights, dignity and pluralism throughout Sri Lanka.
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