Shenali D Waduge

The deportation of MDMK general secretary Vaiko for links to the LTTE must be embarrassing news for the Sri Lankan Government that has since January 2015 being taking an appeasing approach to handling an internationally banned terrorist group. LTTE remains banned in 32 countries including Malaysia. The GOSL has to the surprise of all using the flimsy argument of reconciliation deproscribed 8 LTTE fronts while also releasing unrehabilitated LTTE cadres as well as holding direct discussions with leaders of these groups. While the GOSL has been going overboard with reconciliation there has been no reciprocation by LTTE fronts or LTTE appointed political parties & their representatives making an entire mockery of reconciliation with the public increasingly disappointed at the manner the GOSL is handling affairs of the state.

Malaysia’s immigration stopped Vaiko as his name figured in the ‘list of dangerous persons posing threat’ to Malaysia. The Malaysian authorities did not stop there. Vaiko had been questioned for hours for links with LTTE. The Malaysian authorities did not budge even though Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng attempted to convince immigration officials. Sri Lanka’s public officials please take note! Since January 2015 several controversial and questionable LTTE linked personages have travelled to Sri Lanka with authorities asked to not take action against them. These include representatives of banned LTTE fronts as well. These banned LTTE fronts are even dictating terms to the GOSL on how it should run the country. Lets not forget that LTTE fronts overseas that supported violence in Sri Lanka pledged its support for the common candidate Mr Maithripala Sirisena including the ones based in Canada, US, UK and Norway.

Who exactly is Vaiko (formerly V. Gopalsamy)?

He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) in 1993. He supports right to self-determination of Tamils in Sri Lanka and also supports the LTTE. The LTTE was categorised as a “terrorist organisation” under POTA after the legislation was passed on March 26, 2002, at a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Vaiko was the first member of Parliament and chief of a registered political party in the country to be detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 spending 18 months in prison.

In 2008, TN CID arrested him on charges of sedition.

The Church agenda in making use of Vaiko and the LTTE is clearly established by Radha Rajan https://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/tamil-nadu-politcs-cancerous-church-eats-into-dravidian-parties-radha-rajan/

In 2006, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi told the Tamil legislators in Chennai that his attempts to find a solution to the Sri Lankan issue in 1989 were thwarted by Vaiko’s illegal visit to Sri Lanka. In February 1989, Vaiko slipped into Sri Lanka illegally by boat and met Prabhakaran without the knowledge of DMK president M. Karunanidhi. Vaiko was in Sri Lanka illegally from 6 February 1989 to 4 March 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx-QOQ8uZ8c&t=1s

However since 1989, Vaiko has been visitng the US too. He was in US in 1998 invited by the Federal Government of USA as a Member of the International Visitor Programme and then in 2008 presented the book ‘Yes, We Can’ to President Obama.

In September 1992 Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao seeking a ban on the LTTE. That was after the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) took out a rally in Chennai, the processionists glorifying Dhanu – the belt-bomb assassin of Rajiv Gandhi – and waving portraits of Prabakaran.

At an MDMK rally at Tirumangalam he said: “Yesterday, I supported the LTTE. Even today I support the LTTE. Tomorrow, I will continue to support the LTTE. I am not afraid of POTA. I have faced laws even more draconian than POTA.”

The groups that were supporting LTTE in Sri Lanka over the years both foreign and local are now all out to demand the repealing of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka too.

An article by D.B.S. Jeyaraj in 2011 claimed Vaiko wanted a UN supervised referendum for worldwide Sri Lankan Tamils on the question of Tamil Eelam”. This comes in the backdrop of GOSL banned TGTE holding elections with LTTE lawyer Rudrakumaran declaring himself President of a utopian Eelam government without a country and questions why the US authorities are not taking action using the US laws against a US citizen who has been providing material support to the LTTE while living in the US and openly canvassing for separatism.

In March 2014, the Sri Lankan government proscribed 424 individuals and 16 Tamil diaspora organisations. In November 2015 the government de-proscribed 8 of these banned diaspora organisations and 269 individuals. The new gazette on November 9, 2016 amended the Schedule to the November 2015 gazette de-proscribing a further 69 individuals. Eight Tamil diaspora organisations, including the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) and the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) remain proscribed. Pro-LTTE diaspora are now openly conducting side-shows inside the halls of the UN. In fact, confirming the conflict of interest issues raised against the former UNHRC head, no sooner she completed her term, one of her first visits was as Chief Guest organized by a proscribed pro-LTTE front in Canada.

However, the US State Dept claimed in 2015 that the LTTE international network was very much in place and active. Nevertheless, the GOSL began releasing LTTE cadres as part of the assurance made to those that helped them to come to power. The fact that even foreign leaders have become prey to LTTE illegal money can be seen in the transaction made for the former US Presidential candidate who as Secretary of State wanted IMF to stop funding Sri Lanka ahead of the military defeat.

A plot to assassinate TNA MP Sumanthiran came to light early this year and 5 former LTTE members confessed to it being hatched by LTTE diaspora living in Norway http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/51478

There have been numerous arrests too. In July 2015, Tamil Nadu police arrested an LTTE cadre with 75 cyanide capsules. In March 2016, police arrested a former LTTE cadre with suicide vest and ammunition. http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/45940. In April 2016, former Batticaloa LTTE leader Ram was arrested. In September 2016, Indian police arrested an LTTE cadre with $1million. In October 2016 another LTTE cadre was arrested in Vavuniya. These arrests and the fact that money and arms are in their possession seriously raises the question of how prepared the GOSL is to LTTE cadres regrouping especially in the light of the GOSL virtually weakening the country’s intelligence network by arresting military intelligence personnel and exposing their names and operations in the public domain. These childish actions of the government will have serious repercussions in the eventuality the LTTE does spring a surprise. Remember, Sri Lanka did not know that Tamil groups were being trained in India clandestinely and we did not know the scale of the problem or the countries, organizations, individuals that were supporting it from behind the scenes.

While the GOSL is going overboard in its appeasing and the LTTE fronts and their support groups continue to make unverifiable allegations and continue their eelam demands even the US has retracted – in May 2015, John Kerry US Secretary of State speaking in Colombo declared Let me be very clear about this: It is sometimes necessary to go to war…we clearly understood the necessity of ridding this country of a murderous terrorist group and the fear it sowed”. This was the very group that the TNA and LTTE fronts had been supporting and the very group that Vaiko was also supporting. That did not stop the LTTE fronts from lobbying the US government to delist LTTE as a terror group. LTTE remains proscribed by the US since 1997.

Can the GOSL explain itself for carrying out open dialogues with these LTTE fronts especially so when none of them have been investigated for links to the LTTE and their names cleared by a recognized body. We cannot expect other countries to take action against LTTE, LTTE fronts and LTTE supporters if Sri Lanka’s own government is too chicken to do so.

Shenali D Waduge

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/06/09/denied-entry-to-malaysia-vaiko-deported-to-chennai/