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by Janaka Perera

Raja joined the LTTE at the age of 11 and underwent extensive training. Recounting an attack on a Muslim village, he described how he held a child by the legs and bashed its head against a wall and how he enjoyed hearing his mother screaming. He said they deserved to die.

- Children in South Asia Amnesty International Index (04.01.1998) summary of extract from page 38

Two significant developments this week have boosted Sri Lanka's struggle against these barbarians.

U.S. Embassy Charged' Affaires Lewis Amselem's assurance of continued support for Sri Lanka in her anti-terrorist campaign as well as the disclosure of growing links between Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida terrorist network and the LTTE have underlined the stark reality that this scourge cannot be wiped out without a global politico-military alliance.

Professor Yonah Alexander of the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies, USA, during a visit to Sri Lanka in April this year, warned that the worst of global terrorism was yet to come.

His words were prophetic. What happened in the U.S. on September 11 is now history. The professor emphasised that unless a global anti-terrorist strategy was worked out expeditiously civilization itself would disappear.

The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington convinced the world - as never before - that the much vaunted 'liberation fighters' and 'holy warriors' who claim to fight for the world's oppressed peoples have no moral right for such a claim. As for the LTTE it has made a virtue of brutality. Yet, like the Devil quoting the scriptures they and their supporters have the nerve to talk of human rights!.

So it goes without saying that this is the most opportune time for the Sri Lankan authorities to strike hard at the LTTE in the international political and diplomatic spheres even more than at the battle front.

Strike while the iron is hot, they say:

Now, that Sri Lanka has offered all possible assistance to the U.S. in the war against terrorism, the first and foremost step should be secure international assistance as far as possible in cutting off all funding for the LTTE under whatever pretext and freezing bank accounts of all Tamil Eelamist groups.

Fund raising:

It's now more than three years since the Tigers relentlessly engaged in using the Internet for their fund raising activities. Before the UK ban on the LTTE came into effect, they were raising around 250,000 sterling pounds a month from Sri Lankan Tamils living in Britain. The LTTE's world-wide monthly income at that time was around 1.25 million sterling pounds - the bulk of which went for arms purchases and other Tiger military requirements, according to a 'London Times' report.

Prabhakran, the grandmaster of terror, has always been ready to teach his tactics and offer his services to anyone for hard cash. It wasn't long ago that the Tigers were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the Bangaldeshi Prime Minister.

The process of blocking funds to the Tigers could begin from Canada and extended to those European countries which have displayed a lackadaisical attitude to separatist terrorism and harboured LTTE sympathisers posing off as refugees. The case of one of them in Canada - Muralithrana Nadarajah alias Swiss Murali - was highlighted in this column on September 14. Now three more have drawn the serious attention of the Canadian intelligence service. They have been identified as Thalaysingham Sivakumar and Tharmalingam Shanmugam - two notorious LTTE operatives, according to 'The Toronto Star'.

It was three years ago, on April 15, 1998, that Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar speaking to an invited audience

at Chatham House, called for the introduction of legislation to prevent the abuse of asylum as envisaged by the UN Declaration.

The German Government has today grown wise to the tricks of bogus asylum seekers from Sri Lanka. The German authorities have estimated the number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers to be over 64,000. Strong suspicion prevails that the majority of them are Tamil Eelam sympathisers giving covert support to LTTE operatives.

The 'economic offensive' against the LTTE war machine needs top priority if the Government wants to negotiate for a political solution from a position of strength, if an when such an opportunity dawns.

The LTTE's double game in the context of the terrorist attack in the U.S. became evident soon after the incident, when the pro-Tiger Tamil Net operating from Colombo, pretended to be sorrowful over the tragedy. At the same time an LTTE Front, the so-called Canadian Tamil Coordinating Committee, appealed to Tamil Eelamists to donate blood to the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the U.S.

The Tigers however revealed their true face when they issued a statement here (Daily News Sept. 15) hailing the terrorists involved in the attack and blasted the U.S. Government for branding the LTTE as terrorists.

Determination:

The terrorist attacks on the USA also strengthened the American unity and determination in contrast to LTTE terrorism's impact on Sri Lanka. Here, while the Government is fighting terrorism other groups living within Government-controlled areas try to do everything possible to openly undermine that effort and justify Tiger terrorism under cover of the 'right to self-determination,' which even our giant neighbour has not recognized. The NGO pundits have even gone to the extent of lambasting the U.S. for opposing separatism in Sri Lanka!

Among the Sinhala apologists for the LTTE on Australia is a vociferous half baked academic. In the 1970s he was hated by Peradeniya University students for making false allegations against them. The nephew of a convicted murderer, this 'doctor' hoodwinked many international organizations, including the Nuffield Foundation in the UK to secure funds for so-called research. But a good part of the funds were spent on himself. This was the arch traitor who spearheaded - on the LTTE's behalf - the unsuccessful campaign against the appointment of Major General Janaka Perera as Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in Australia. When the Melboume-based Tamil newspaper, 'Uthayam' carried the High Commission's reply to the allegations against Major Gen. Perera, LTTE supporters destroyed 400 copies of the paper in Sydney. The incident prompted the Uthayam Editor to make the following remarks in a editorial on the vandalism.

"Is it not a shame that the very people who complain that their freedom has been taken away by successive governments in Sri Lanka choose to crush other people's freedom in a free country where they are kindly permitted to live? Is it not a blatant example of hypocrisy?'

These are the so-called freedom fighters whom the Pararajasinghams have chosen to support in the name of Tamil liberation!

They should take it to their heads that the current world scenario is a far cry from the days when the U.S. troops got bogged down in South Vietnam. Then there was widespread opposition - both within and outside America - to Washington's Vietnam policy.

Fascism:

In contrast, the situation today is reminiscent of World War II when the Western democracies and the Soviet Communists joined hands to defeat fascism. Countries such as India, Russia and Central Asian states which are usually critical of U.S. foreign policy, have today extended support to Washington's global campaign against terrorism.

In the 1970s when extremists and their terrorist sympathizers hijacked civilian airliners - in defiance of all civilized norms - and killed passengers and crew members who resisted, some Sri Lankan 'revolutionary' pundits cheered. They said it was a "damn good lesson for the Zionists and the U.S. Imperialists." When Sri Lanka's Sepala Ekanayake hijacked an Alitalia Airliner and terrorised the passengers some of these pundits saw him as a hero. The question is are these same people prepared cheer the LTTE if their suicide cadres hijack a SriLankan Airlines airbus and crash it into the Colombo's World Trade Centre?

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