CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

The fine art of speaking through your hat

Ramanie de Zoysa

Yes. The Tamil terrorist ‘Tigers’ have perfected it and they win the supreme award!

Ex common cop and now LTTE’s replacement ‘political commissar’ has assumed duties with a vengeance with the astonishing statement that the LTTE was "ready to implement every clause" of the now abrogated Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). The said document was signed by the LTTE in 2002. Since then, for six years, this terrorist group has violated every clause, every implied moral obligation therein. So when was the LTTE going to start this “implementation”? It was just a few months ago that Nadesan’s predecessor, the barber’s apprentice turned LTTE’s ‘political commissar’ late Suppiah Tamilchelvan who said publicly that the ‘CFA is a dead letter’ – confirmed in no uncertain terms by the chief executive of the terror organisation V Prabhakaran, in his so-called ‘Maverrar day’ speech in November 2007. While it is said that the public have short memories, the LTTE seems to be of the notion that public have complete dementia rather than short memories going by the contempt they are treating the public with.

Here is the list of some of the public assassinations carried out by the LTTE since signing on the dotted line of the CFA in February 2002 (information courtesy of http://mawbima.blogspot.com/):

Aug. 2005 - Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is shot dead at his home in Colombo.

April 2006 - Army Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka is badly hurt in an abortive suicide attack on Army HQ in Colombo.

May 2006 - Kethesh Loganathan, deputy head of the government's peace secretariat, is shot dead by a suspected Tiger gunman at his Colombo home.

June 2006 - Army Deputy Chief of Staff Parami Kulatunga killed as suicide bomber rams a motorcycle laden with explosives into his vehicle outside Colombo.

June 2006 - A mine attack on a civilian bus in the central district of Anuradapura kills 64.

Oct. 2006 - Nearly 100 people, mostly navy sailors, are killed in a suicide bombing on a convoy near the town of Habarana, northeast of Colombo.

Dec. 2006 - Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, narrowly escapes a suspected Tiger bomb attack on his convoy in central Colombo.

April 2, 2007 - A bomb blast hits a civilian bus in the eastern district of Ampara, killing 16 people, mostly women and children, during a Buddhist holiday.

Nov. 28, 2007 - Suspected Tamil Tigers kill 18 people in two bomb attacks in the capital Colombo.

Dec. 5, 2007 - Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels kill 16 people in an attack on a crowded civilian bus, 45 km (28 miles) from the town of Anuradhapura.

Jan. 1, 2008 - Main opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian T. Maheshweran is shot dead at a Hindu temple in Colombo.

This list is however incomplete as it does not include many other attacks such as the suicide attack of Anuradhapura army base destroying billions of Rupees worth of aircraft and killing many soldiers, suicide bombing attack on Tamil Cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda where three innocent people died, claymore bomb attack of Jan 2008 in Colombo targeting a bus carrying convalescent soldiers which killed 2 innocent children and their mother and one convalescing soldier while many more were (re)injured and many other atrocities committed by the LTTE.

So, that being the case, when exactly was the expected implementation date you are referring to, Mr Nadesan?

The second price goes to Senator Hilary Clinton of the USA. It is a sad day for the United States and the rest of the world when a US Presidency aspirant publicly declares that “you can’t lump all terrorists together.” This blasphemy arises from the same country that invented the sanctimonious pledge “we do not negotiate with terrorists; we hunt them down one by one”. The Clinton statement left people wondering whether there is “one rule for the US (and possibly for the UK and other rich nations) and another for rest of the humanity”; whether terrorists killing non-Anglo Saxon people deserved special treatment not to be hunted down like those who kill Anglo-Saxon people. It also brought to question the moral code of the politics in the US which is home to a grand scale “War on Terror” which they now seem to want to distinguish between “War on Bad terror where collateral damage can not be avoided” and “War on Good Terror where human rights get violated”.

Clinton name is not new in the ‘distinguishing’ game; in fact this distinguished family has it down to a fine art. Ask Hilary’s husband Bill and he will tell you that having a series of physical encounters with a consenting but naïve, half-your-age, young intern can be distinguished from outright adultery depending on the modus operandi of how the sexual act is conducted. In fact a few years ago Bill, the then President of the US looked the unsuspecting camera in the eye and declared categorically to the entire world “I did not have sex with that woman!” with so much self-righteous anger and with such hurt in his eye that billions of viewers across the globe were left looking sheepish with shame for having pointed an accusing finger at him. After the details of what actually transpired came to light viewers across the world learnt a new lesson in the art of ‘distinguishing’; that the whole thing depends on whether you use a cigar or resort to more conventional usage. This family was a close contender for the supreme award in talking through your hat only to be outdone by the ever crafty LTTE.

The third place must be shared amongst the remaining contenders who make up a vast contingent of people plagued by blinkered vision for various reasons- and I must categorically state that this decision will be final and no further correspondence will be entered into on this matter:

The UNP for its claim that the abrogation to the CFA removes the security for the public which necessitates extra security for their members.

The outgoing (thankfully) Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission for stating that their presence and the CFA saved 10,000 lives

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which states that Sri Lanka government has failed to "seriously investigate and prosecute those responsible for the horrific abuses of the past two years – the unlawful killings, the disappearances, the Karuna group’s abduction of children”.

Ms Louise Arbour- UNHC for Human Rights for her insistence in placing a HR monitoring mission in Sri Lanka ostensibly because: “Throughout my discussions, government representatives have insisted that national mechanisms are adequate for the protection of human rights, but require capacity building and further support from the international community. In contrast, people from across a broad political spectrum and from various communities have expressed to me a lack of confidence and trust in the ability of existing relevant institutions to adequately safeguard against the most serious human rights abuses.” Exactly who were these “people from a broad political spectrum” that spoke to Ms Arbour?

The so called ‘moderate’ Tamil MPs who wrote a letter to the Sri Lankan President when 300 transient Tamil men were detained following terrorist attacks in Colombo making the following ridiculous plea; “When protection is not forthcoming from the Government where can these Tamil youths go? They cannot live peacefully in their traditional homes in the North, neither live peacefully in the South with the others. The only place left for them is the Indian Ocean.” Since the detainees were released and search and cordon operations on Tamil ghetto boarding houses in Colombo suburbs were stopped through a court order Colombo and suburbs have been subjected to daily atrocities by the Tamil terrorists roaming around amongst the public.

Mr Pilliyan, ‘special commander’ of the TMVP (LTTE Karuna faction) party stated that the party is “of the firm opinion that the merger of the North and East is a must and if we do not have this merger, then there will be no opportunity for the Tamils and Tamil speaking people of the North and East to have one united administrative machinery and for the civilians in this region to participate in their day to day administrative activities.”

Mr Douglas Devananda Cabinet Minister and the Secretary General of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party who rejected de-merger of the north and east arguing that "since 1989, Northeast province has remained a single administrative unit and the question of de-merger does not arise" also insisting that “such a move will not augur well with the unity, national integrity of a country’s united stand."

Mr. Anandasangaree who insists that the solution to the “ethnic problem” of Sri Lanka must be based on a federal constitution of the Indian Model to pacify “some who are opposed to the terms “Federal” and “Unitary” and to satisfy the People of Tamil Naad who are being misled by some Tamil Naad Politicians” stirring up for Eelaam in Sri Lanka. It is not clear why this ‘moderate’ who consistently looks to India to solve Sri Lanka’s problems thinks that any constitutional model Sri Lanka adopts should satisfy the Tamil Naad people!

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