CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS





 .
 .

 .
 .
.
 

Hated by its own Subjects LTTE Seeks Refuge in International Interferers

Dilrook Kannangara

Vanni is LTTE’s open prison; close to 300,000 people, all of them Tamils, are forced to live and closed to leave. Their conditions are much worse than prisoners and rather closely resemble that of laboratory mice, slaves and farm animals. LTTE's totalitarian rule is very similar to the story line of George Orwell's much acclaimed novella 'Animal Farm'.

This LTTE’s open prison must be busted as soon as possible. Democracy is the only tool that can do that. The democratically elected popular government is trying its best to save its citizens trapped under the jackboot of the LTTE in Vanni where the LTTE still rules. It was reported many times that Vanni dwellers were forced to give blood for wounded LTTE fighters and children were not spared from the blood theft. They are forced to labour without pay in building military installations for the LTTE and used as sleuths by the tigers often resulting in death or serious injury. These crimes are committed on top of child soldiers, forced prostitution and heaps of other cruelty on the same people whom the LTTE claims to liberate.

In a democratic setting LTTE cannot survive a day longer under these tyrannical conditions. Thanks to terror democracy remains a dead beast in Vanni where people are not allowed to vote at elections and democratic political activists are killed in thousands by the LTTE in the good name of peace. Although there are more than 40 political parties including more than 15 Tamil political parties, none are represented in Vanni as the LTTE claims to be the sole representative of its unfortunate subjects.

A very large number of child soldiers (close to 5,000) surrendered to the Sri Lanka Army since 2006; hundreds of thousands of Tamil people walked through heavily mined territory and ran to the open arms of government troops during the past two years (most of them were classified as IDPs but almost all of them were soon resettled in their very own houses); amidst threats of heavy punishment by the LTTE people brave booby traps, landmines and snipers to cross over to government controlled areas even today. After 25 years of war more than 54% of Tamils have settled down in Sinhala (the majority community) majority areas fully controlled by the government hundreds of kilometres away from LTTE controlled areas. Those who are still trapped in Vanni increasingly support security forces to infiltrate into LTTE controlled areas and attack senior LTTE terrorists. How long can the LTTE carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide against the very same people whom it claims to represent? These LTTE subjects are human and their desire to rise against suppression is only human.

Then the important question begs – how on earth can the LTTE still manages to survive amidst so much anger from its own people?

The answer is simple; LTTE compensates the enormous hatred its subjects have towards it by the support it receives from international interferers. Most importantly the large Tamil Diaspora in Canada, UK, Switzerland, France, etc. donate close to US$ 300 million annually (and growing); some are forced to give money (or their old relatives still living in Sri Lanka to avoid the harsh winter of these countries will have their throats slit). LTTE has connections to other terror groups throughout the world and have benefitted from Talibans’ SAMs, Hamas’ suicide kits, North Korea’s attack boat technology, etc. That’s not all; a large number of businesses engaged in the NGO industry, disaster management industry, the humanitarian crises management industry, human rights monitoring industry and related ventures also support the LTTE. Their support is manyfold. At the lowest level there are those who directly support the LTTE cause. Many of these groups were identified and punished by the government of Sri Lanka by not allowing them access. Then there are those who sympathise with the LTTE as it exploits humanitarian crises for its advantage. Many humanitarian groups that came after the 2004 tsunami had unwittingly supported the LTTE by providing them with funds for humanitarian work, material – mainly food and tents that ended up in terror camps and moral backing by merely functioning under the command of the LTTE. Almost three years after the tsunami a large number of affected families still live in refugee camps in LTTE controlled areas whereas the government managed to resettle all displaced people in areas under its control amidst allegations of astronomical levels of corruption. Additionally there are foreign interferers who try to project as independent parties but criticise the government for war and related matters knowing very well that the LTTE is not bound by the International Law and human rights treaties. The more they criticise the government the more emboldened the LTTE becomes as human rights laws are not applied to all parties to the conflict equally. Misusing human rights to silence the government has become a prominent LTTE strategy! Not signing human rights treaties certainly have advantages for terrorist groups and these advantages are substantial.

LTTE’s severe lack of local support is more than compensated by the support it gets from what it calls the ‘international community’.
This conduct of the LTTE very closely resembles the conduct of some Eastern European countries from 1945-1989. East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc. had tyrannical governments that had no real support from their people. However, they survived thanks to Soviet interferences in terms of heavy economic, political, military and cultural intrusion. Unfortunately the very same is happening in the 21st century in Vanni – LTTE controlled area.

How did these East Europeans find democracy and freedom? It dawned on them like a sweet dream the moment international interferers stopped interfering. The same is true about de facto LTTE controlled areas. The international community must understand that there is no ‘LTTE government’ in LTTE held areas. It is a tyrannical administration much worse than communist dictators of former Eastern Europe. As long as the international community recognises the de facto LTTE controlled area as a locality to manage differently and channel economic, political and moral welfare for the de facto LTTE controlled areas through the LTTE, it continues to glorify the LTTE in the eyes of its unfortunate subjects. Terror leaders of the LTTE would turn to their dissenting subjects and say ‘even the foreigners ‘approve’ our ways and who are you to oppose us’. This is the only stick and the carrot the LTTE has today to beat-up and bribe its subjects to toe the line. The moment this lifeline drops, the LTTE drops dead freeing all Vanni dwellers from the 25 year old LTTE open prison.

However, LTTE knows this only too well and hence guard whatever the support it gets from international interferers with all their might. They have been very lucky to have rotten and corrupt fat cats among international interferers who would be glad to see the conflict and division continuing. The moment the division ends, their multi-million dollar pay packs dry-up, their importance suffer a sudden nasty dip and they become nobodies. Their selfish and wicked agendas strike a nice chord with the whims of the LTTE just like the old communist dictators’ desire to remain in power struck a chord with the interests of the Soviet Union.

LTTE terrorists that are at the receiving end of public anger will lose their only support base when pro-LTTE international interferers are silenced.

Sri Lankan government should not tolerate any interfering foreign or local groups meddling with its territorial and sovereign rights. However, there is at a tremendous advantage as the interests of rogue foreign parties and the LTTE converge most of the time. By punishing these unwarranted interferers, the government is killing two separatists in one stone!

As the war hots up LTTE would be under tremendous pressure to keep fighting, continue recruiting child soldiers, further suppressing human rights/fundamental rights of its subjects and to suppress public dissent against it. Its only lifeline today is foreign interferers and the government must do its utmost to cut this umbilical cord that will plunge the LTTE politically and militarily into a morbid spin. LTTE has demanded that the ‘Extortion Highway’ be reopened so that tigers can easily transport weapons to government controlled areas, terrorise people in other areas to move into LTTE held areas and to extort money from travellers. This shows the desperation of LTTE terrorists to strength its human shield, replenish explosives, recruit more children as soldiers and widespread terror.

International interferers must understand that they achieve nothing by pressurising the government to give in to LTTE demands as the government is very heavily backed by the people; it is the LTTE which has no peoples’ backing that should back down giving into the wishes of its own subjects.

LTTE terrorists are dreaming about Kosovo; many attempts are afloat to trick the international community to accept a Kosovo type separation. However, once again it has to fully rely on the international community for all this as its own subjects have already rejected such moves.

Democracy can once again take root in Vanni only on the carcasses of tiger terrorists. As there can be no viable alternative to democracy and there cannot be any compromise on democratic rights, there cannot be any compromise between Sri Lanka and Terroristan; Sri Lanka must prevail and Terroristan must perish. Only then the conflict will end.

Disclaimer: The comments contained within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of LankaWeb.com. .

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 1997-2004 www.lankaweb.Com Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reproduction In Whole Or In Part Without Express Permission is Prohibited.