Shenali D Waduge

Every July & November terrorists contest for the best drama award. This year’s theme has been  to open a former LTTE welfare” office in Vavuniya and use that to commemorate dead terrorists. Whether these are former rehabilitated terrorists” or terrorists that ran away, sought asylum/refugee status and have now returned, I something for state intel to investigate. If they are rehabilitated”and claim to be former LTTE”, then they cannot be lighting candles for LTTE leaders – Anton Balasingham, Thamilselvan, Sivakumar, Thileepan – what a pity they forgot to put Prabakaran’s photo too. Attending the occasion were the 2 main dramatists TELO leader Selvam Adaikkalanathan & former MP S. Kishore. These commemorations happen quite freely, without any obstruction by law enforcement & not a hum from a government that continues to ban the LTTE as a terrorist organization, well aware that the terrorism coupled with separatism remains very much alive. This type of flirting with terrorism cost not only soldier lives but the lives of innocent civilians as well as the loss of childhood for kidnapped Tamil children turned into child soldiers.

While terrorists are happiliy commemorating their dead, we are supposed to simply watch & continue our lives. We may as well give them some fire crackers and ask them to light these to celebrate all the murders they committed across 3 decades too. It has reached such a pathetic state.

The situation has been brought to such a level primarily due to the hypocrisy and bias of international organizations like the UN and diplomats. While they happily watched LTTE commit suiciding bombings, assassinations & mayhem, their response after each tragedy was to talk to the tigers”. They took no pains to prevent LTTE from committing its crimes. These entities and the diplomatic corps were well aware of the numbers of Tamil children kidnapped from Tamil families and trained as child soldiers and even trained to commit suicide and even after appointing a Tamil as special rapporteur not a single Tamil child was saved from becoming a child soldier. This was so because they had a stake in the LTTE & was using LTTE for not only geopolitical goals but other political objectives as well. Thus, when Sri Lanka eliminated the LTTE ground force, it was a bolt to the investment” by these high powers and they sought revenge & that is what is happening using the UNHRC’s legally questionable resolutions & biased statements and actions.

How many Tamils who chose not to side with the LTTE would have been bumped off – are those lighting candles on 9 July also celebrating these murders too. This list included Amirthalingam who fondly called LTTE as our boys” and LTTE shot him inside his own home. The list also included Lakshman Kadiragamar shot dead inside his own home too. The international community shies from counting the Tamils that LTTE killed and instead is bothered about the LTTE that died in the last phase. Not a single attempt was made by the UN to count the number of Tamils LTTE shot dead trying to escape to safety. These deaths are all being credited to Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces.

This is why the Sri Lankan public must stand by its armed forces who are unfairly being targeted and sanctioned without any evidence or facts of committing any crime whereas enough of evidence against the LTTE are overlooked.

LTTE used Tamil civilians as human shields – UN/International community not bothered

LTTE used Tamil civilians as hostages – UN/International community not bothered

LTTE fired from among Tamil civilians – UN/International community not bothered

LTTE blurred distinction intentionally – UN/International community not bothered

LTTE forbid Tamil civilians to leave for safety– UN/International community not bothered

LTTE denied water & food sent by the Govt to Tamil civilians – UN/International community not bothered

We can go on … none of these have been investigated nor is the UN interested to investigate.

Ironically, the same bias used against Serbia was used against Sri Lanka. That magic figure of 40,000 dead was alleged against Serbia too. Serbian leader Milosevic mysteriously died in prison and over a decade later he was cleared of the crimes he was accused of though he was dead.

Without proving 40,000 died (no dead names/no dead bodies/no skeletons/no police complaints/no habeas corpus cases) how can an international organization or countries like Canada claim genocide” was committed and foolishly even include Genocide Week” in school curriculum.

However, these fairytales continue and as a result decorated military officers are being targeted unfairly and the GoSL and its foreign ministry take no effort to set the story straight and demand answers to unpalatable questions that should be asked. This charade and drama cannot be allowed to continue any longer.

The UNHRC took pains to force a Missing Persons Commission but none of the 40,000 dead had their names logged. Then came compensation for LTTE completely ignoring the victims of LTTE. This was followed by a bogus reconciliation” – what reconciliation with terrorists. Now we are taken up another garden path with a foolish Truth Commission that aims to follow the forgive and forget” restorative justice for LTTE & retribution for the national army that ended terrorism & prevented any more loss of lives. What kind of international justice system are we living in? The world wants to give justice to the terrorists and forgive them & completely ignore the victims while punishing the national army that saved the people.

What can the victims of LTTE really do? The government has shown no interest in putting a LTTE War Crimes Memorial for people to see the crimes LTTE committed since 1980s. The youth of today are only seeing LTTE commemorating LTTE and soon they will even come to think of LTTE as some kind of heroes”.

Not only the Government but civil society, academia and even media have failed – none of them have taken pains to show to the world what LTTE did, in reality most of these entities supported LTTE silently as they were all recipients of foreign funding from sources that covertly supported LTTE.

Should we not demand the Govt to create a LTTE War Crimes Memorial at least now where the victims of the LTTE can place their loved ones for the world to know how LTTE cut short their lives. LTTE victims include Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils & even foreigners. Justice has to have a place for them too.

Shenali D Waduge