CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Free-Media Humbugs Proved They are Pro-LTTE

Dilrook Kannangara

Where are the dogs that howl till the cows come home about free media? They are all in pretended sleep when Thushara Peiris was assaulted. This young film director has produced a blockbuster that will hit the local and foreign audiences with a big bang. The theme of the movie is very appropriate and the movie is a timely production that can tell the world the other side of the story they have seen in a popular video sharing website. When the TV footage of the LTTE suicide bombing in an attempt to kill Hon Douglas Devananda, MP was put on this video sharing website it became an instant hit with over half a million views. It may be world’s first such live footage that can provide immense food for thought for terrorism experts. However, most viewers would have been laymen who must be wondering what is going on in Sri Lanka, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. where suicide bombers blow themselves with morbid aspirations. Thushara’s film “Prabakaran” is a marvellous endeavour to enlighten them.

LTTE started its ‘liberation campaign’ in 1972 but the large majority of Tamil people didn’t want to join it. They went to extraordinary lengths to avoid it. Many left the North-East of Sri Lanka to avoid the LTTE; many more left the island. Although most Tamils are forced to finance the LTTE, they shun it like poison and as a result no Tamil with reasonable means join the LTTE’s armed conflict. This has dealt a very heavy blow to the outfit.

The fact that North-East Tamils are a shrinking population in the island is not helping the LTTE either. To make things even horrible for them Sri Lankan security forces have expanded to over 200,000 personnel. This formidable force is going to annihilate the LTTE unless the terror outfit looks to other avenues to source cadres. It first eyed the upcountry Tamil population of Sri Lanka who are the descendants of Tamil Nadu plantation workers who came to the island during British rule to work in plantations in the hilly central region of the island referred to as ‘upcountry’. However, they are well dignified people although poverty has haunted them for long.

They flatly refused to join the barbaric campaign of the LTTE. Then the LTTE targeted South Indian Dalits who are heavily discriminated against by the Indian society based on a cruel caste system. Although this provided a good source of cadres until 1987 things changed thereafter as India didn’t allow the LTTE on its soil for the fear of own safety. Then the LTTE had no choice but to abduct children from schools, brainwash them, put a necklace with a potassium cyanide capsule around their necks; tie C4 explosives and other suicide devices to their bodies and send them to kill.

The United Nations has acknowledged the use of child soldiers numbering a few thousand by the LTTE and has repeatedly warned it. However, Tamil Tigers (LTTE) continues to use child soldiers to meet the ever increasing challenge posed by the security forces. Emotional and human considerations of using children as cannon fodder were never the subject matter of artistic depiction before although documentaries like “No More Tears Sister” did explore the ruthlessness of the LTTE in some depth.

The war between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE is gradually increasing and set to reach mammoth proportions in the months to come. The more difficult it becomes for the LTTE, the more it will forcibly recruit children to carryout suicide bombings. This is the reason why the world community must be enlightened on this. Many terror outfits around the world are using child soldiers and suicide bombers. But it is only the LTTE that has combined the two evils. Chances are that many more terrorist outfits around the world are going to adopt this highly effective, cheap and easily manipulable terror tactic.

Those great ‘free’ media warriors, the pro-LTTE politician who eats human rights for breakfast and the Anglican priest who howls about media freedom have all gone dead silent. As a matter of fact peoples’ media got to be freed from the clutches of these shameless LTTE supporters. This further strengthens the cause for broad-basing media ownership and implementing strict guidelines for media men to rekindle law and order, patriotism, Sri Lankanness and national values in the society.

Thushara Peiris should be further emboldened by the barbaric act of these Tamil Nadu thugs. It shows how effective the movie has been even before it was released! The movie must have not only a Tamil copy but also English and French copies as well. LTTE cannot hide in the jungles of Vanni and indulge in barbarianism without getting exposed to the world. Future Tamil generations will sing the praise of Thushara Peiris and the actors of this movie if it can effectively highlight to the world the plight of Vanni Tamil children today and save them from the stranglehold of Tamil Tigers.

FMM simply doesn’t have a backbone to criticize their paymasters! So is the Anglican priest who howls about media freedom. Pro-LTTE politicians are regretting that their Tamil Nadu thugs couldn’t finish off the movie maker. As the popular Lankan mediaspeak goes, a brand new hell must be established for these humbugs.

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