Truce Saved Ten Thousand Terrorists
to Fight Another Day
Dilrook Kannangara
Foreign ministers of five Nordic countries, which had contributed truce
monitors to Sri Lanka, have claimed that the ceasefire agreement (CFA),
which the Sri Lankan government abrogated earlier this week, had saved
an estimated 10,000 lives in the first three years of its existence.
(IANS news) Did it? Then why on earth it collapsed?
First of all, the shrewd attempt to merge the two words cease and fire
in the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) must be exposed. Two words ‘cease’
and ‘fire’ taken as such (shortened to CF) have a completely
different meaning to ceasefire (one word). Ceasefire gives the connotation
ceasing of fire. This is exactly what did not happen in the case of
the CFA in Sri Lanka.
According to published information 65,000 deaths were reported in 19
years of war from 1982 to 2001 with an average of 3,421 a year. For
three years on average it would have killed 10,263 persons. This may
be the 10,000 Nordic monitors are talking about. However, the Sri Lankan
CFA was marked with fire, firing and blood from its start. The statement
that the CFA saved 10,000 lives is an insult to thousands of law abiding
citizens of Sri Lanka who were killed and whose killers were never brought
to book during the first three years of its ‘operation’ (if
at all a ‘ceasefire’ was in operation). Dozens of Tamil political
activists were killed and the SLMM failed to take any note of them as
if they were lesser human beings. They were compelled to note down this
genocide of Tamil democratic politicians only when the dead body of
a fallen Tamil political activist was brought to a SLMM office and forced
the Nordic monitors to take an account of the death due to an act of
terrorism committed by the LTTE. Therefore apart from the hundred of
Tamil political activists killed during the first three years, only
a fraction was recorded by the SLMM.
No police investigations, no apprehension of killers and no justice
resolution took place as the SLMM was solely in charge of the matters!
The war had killed about 20,000 terrorists by then which is about 31%
of the total killed. For three years it is 3,158 terrorists. They were
saved by the CFA as no terrorist die during the first three years of
the CFA. However, the first three years of the CFA was marked with the
Global War on Terror. LTTE which had close connections with their Afghan
cousins were also a banned terrorist organisation then. Sri Lanka with
international help could have crushed the LTTE when the iron was hot.
However, thanks to the CFA, LTTE escaped sure extermination and managed
to live another day to kill and kill more. This is a fact conveniently
forgotten by the Nordic monitors.
Had Sri Lanka given its chance to join the Global War on Terror in 2002,
there would be complete peace in Sri Lanka by now. But the CFA and the
SLMM nurtured the terrorists to survive through tough times. Therefore
the ‘truce’ saved tens of thousands terrorists and no a single
civilian. In fact civilian casualties yet to happen are also the fault
of the SLMM and the CFA due to their inaction to ensure LTTE infiltrations
into the South. Claiming that they saved 10,000 lives before the war
is over is too early.
Then in 2002, just a few months into the CFA, Sri Lanka witnessed the
worst ever ethnic riots the nation has seen after 1983 in the industrial
city of Valachchenei. Hundreds of Muslims were brutally killed and tens
of thousands of civilians were displaced by the incident. No justice
was done to the perpetrators, victims and to the nation thanks to the
SLMM and the CFA. What a funny ceasefire it was! Starting from this
incident, the LTTE was actively engaged in killing Muslims in the East
with impunity. At least a handful of Muslims were killed in Muttur,
Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee areas every week and nothing was
done to stop them. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress which was a constituent
party to the then government decided to join the Opposition reducing
the UNP-led government to a minority government in less than a year
later it was elected to office.
Sinhalese were also killed in Colombo and in the East in large numbers
especially those belonging to the secret services and the armed forces.
The elite Special Forces lost at least 80 of its top rankers in the
first three years into the ‘ceasefire’. The killing of the
defenders of the people made it certain that the ‘ceasefire’
was nothing less than a death trap for the nation and its law abiding
citizens. Police officers were killed inside metropolitan police stations
and nothing was done to stop the recurrence of such incidents driving
fear and terror into civilian lives.
Then came the internal split in the LTTE; Colonel Karuna broke away
with a number of loyal cadres. An island-wide brutal and barbaric killing
spree was initiated by the LTTE to hunt down Karuna loyalists. The government
could not do anything to stop it as it was tied to the suicidal and
self-destructive CFA.
However, the LTTE gained heavily during the first three years of the
CFA; as the Nordic monitors have pointed out zero was indeed the number
of LTTE casualties during the first three years although they killed
scores of innocents. Shiploads of weapons arrived for the tigers and
the SLMM barred the Sri Lankan authorities from taking any action against
this joke. Norway donated money to pro-LTTE organisations which was
in turn used to buy weapons. The LTTE also started building new camps
in Manirasakulam, Muttur, etc. Sri Lanka actually became a failed state
thanks to the SLMM and the CFA run by warlords, international mediators
and a weak elected government unable to execute the law and protect
its citizenry.
Thanks to the CFA many LTTE ‘sleepers’ crept into cities with
their deadly bombload to kill civilians when the time was right. Nordic
monitors took no action whatsoever as if they were driven by morbid
desires!
Norway actively supported terrorism during this time; visiting LTTE
terrorists were taken to weapons manufacturing facilities in Rene in
Norway; they were also provided with communication equipment to enhance
their terror capabilities and a bunch of terrorists were treated in
par with elected legislators.
The CFA was never approved by the people, the President, the parliament
and the Cabinet. It in fact violated many provisions of the supreme
law of the land – the Constitution. How can such an illegal agreement
do any good to a democratic country? The CFA achieved nothing concrete;
the ‘peace talks’ that started following the agreement collapsed
within the first two years. If not for the tsunami that caused most
of its damage to LTTE controlled areas (not to mention lack of reconstruction
that followed where all the monies for the TRO ended up in the deep
sea bed aboard LTTE weapons ships), Sri Lanka would have plunged into
an insurmountable dungeon of chaos. Mysteriously the ‘first three
years’ the SLMM refers to ended up with a death toll of more than
35,000!. Some patriotic Sri Lankans believe that it was an act of God
Upulvan (similar to the Viking God Thor) who caused the tsunami to lash
out at the shores wiping out many LTTE top bunkers along the Eastern
coast. Legend has it that God Upulvan will defend Sri Lankan interests
using violent means if required.
Norway had its own intentions in accepting the ‘peace’ mission.
One main reason is the fact that Norway and other Nordic countries had
a sizable Tamil population. Most of these Tamils were subjected to LTTE
propaganda and were hence supportive of killing Sri Lankans (obviously
sparing the tigers), disintegrating Sri Lanka and the creation of a
mythical Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka. In this context, the
Norway-led mission did very well to advance Tamil terrorist interests
in Sri Lanka much to the detriment of all others.
Terrorists’ vandalism reached ridiculous proportions in August
2006 when LTTE terrorists cut down water to more than 10,000 farming
families in the East near Mavil aru in an attempt to cause ethnic cleansing
and genocide. When the government complained to the Nordic monitors
they replied back that the CFA was not violated because no violence
was committed by the LTTE and warned the government not to use military
might to solve the issue. What the monitors implied was that the 10,000
families without water must die for peace. That is about 50,000 people.
Indeed 50,000 people would have died without water had the government
not disregarded the SLMM’s warning and went to war with the terrorists.
LTTE terrorists were massacred by the Sri Lanka Army thus allowing the
50,000 civilians to live in peace in their homes. To this date they
have water thanks to the government violating the self-destructive CFA!
V Anadasangaree who welcomed the decision to abrogate the CFA was the
fiercest critic of it from the time it was signed. He was awarded the
UNESCO peace prize in 2006. If the CFA was instrumental in bringing
in peace, it would have been the LTTE leader and the Sri Lankan then
PM would have been the winners of the peace prize! This is undeniable
evidence that peace and the CFA were exact opposites.
Most Sri Lankans saw and continue to see the Nordic mission as agents
of morbid intentions.
Dear Nordic failures go tell your claims to the Marines!
CC - Royal Norwegian Embassy Colombo
CC - Foreign Ministry Norway
CC - Ministry of Defence Sri Lanka
CC - Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sri Lanka
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