Western nations should banish LTTE from their soil

A. A. M. Nizam

TERRORISM: Political expediency implored J. R. Jayewardene and his Ministers (including Ranil Wickremesinghe) to unleash carnage against the Sri Lankan Tamil population in 1983 and force them out of Colombo and many other areas.

Offended Tamil professionals and others (the Tamil diaspora) thus settled in the western world became sworn enemies of the Sri Lankan State and organised arming and funding the rebel group LTTE and raising it as the most formidable terrorist organisation in the world and bleed the Sri Lankan State in retribution to the pogrom. Their funding and arming subjected the Sri Lankan nation to immense sufferings and hardships retarding its progress by many decades.

However, they failed to visualise that their spiteful actions would eventually boomerang on them and give birth to the establishment of a luxuriant elite tyrannical rogue gang in the North to oppress and subjugate the Tamil population in Sri Lanka and choke the very Tamil diaspora with extortion, intimidation and even with brutal murders.

There are 600 to 800 thousand Sri Lankans living in the Western nations, majority of them living in Canada. In Toronto alone their number is reported to be exceeding 200,000. The UK Tamil population is around 200,000 while Europe accounts for another 150,000. Sri Lankan Tamils living in Australia are 100,000 and in the United Sates there are about 300,000 Sri Lankan Tamils.

Remittances (mostly forced) from these Sri Lankans, funds from the shipping operations, drug trafficking and money laundering have become major sources of income for the Prabhakaran and Company to sustain their luxuriant life and to oppress the Tamil masses in the uncleared areas.

Although there were dissensions in the Tamils living overseas and within Sri Lanka against the terrorist LTTE, apprehension subsided these dissents, as they feared that the fate befell on Mahattaya and his group and many others would ensue them too.

LTTE took undue advantage from this fear psychosis and subjected the Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as the Tamil diaspora in the western nations to extort funds for their war chest and for sustenance of their luxuriant life. Karuna's rebellion could be termed as the focal point that gave potency to the Sri Lankan Tamils the world over to come out courageously from their seclusion and rise against the oppression and atrocity of the terrorist LTTE.

In the recent months there is a growing upsurge in the Tamil diaspora against the terrorist outfit.. Newspapers, radio stations, websites and popular organisations have begun to sprout in the Western countries that daringly oppose and expose the atrocities of the Wanni Tigers. The Pan European Organisation Tamil Democratic Congress (TDC) and the U.K. based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation and Harrow Tamil Welfare Association in U.K. had taken the lead in this effort to "cage the inflated tiger monster".

These organisations conduct protest marches and seminars, particularly in the European capitals. One such fruitful gathering was held recently at the Palace of Westminster attended by a number of prominent British MPs.

Resolutions unanimously adopted at this gathering relates to Human Rights, intimidation, extortion, criminality and cyber terrorism. Several dailies in Canada too including Toronto Star and National Post publish articles and news reports regularly exposing the atrocities of the Wanni terrorists.

Earlier it was the sole voice of Mr. Kadirgamar that stood against the Tiger terrorists in the western political arena. He achieved great success in his solitary efforts but his drive was seriously reversed by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe's terrorist appeasement and elevation "peace trap".

The mounting opposition against the Tiger terrorists and the new government's efforts to canvass support from the western countries through exposition of terrorist atrocities has begun to bring in appreciable returns once again.

The latest 45 paged report by the Human Rights Watch entitled "Funding the Final War" is a great exposition against the LTTE. The report has given detailed accounts of Tamils in Western countries being subjected to inhuman extortions by the Tiger terrorists. It points out that "The culture of fear is so strong that even Tamils who do not support the Tamil Tigers feel they have no choice but to give money, knowing they are funding political killings and the recruitment of children as soldiers in Sri Lanka".

Among other recommendations, the report has urged the authorities in Canada and the U.K. to take stronger steps to protect members of the Tamil diaspora from violence, intermediation and extortion being perpetrated by the Tiger terrorists.

The report received its due publicity in the western media. R. Jayadevan who was responsible for taking and settling Anton Balasingham in U.K interviewed in BBC's "Asia Today" programme to discuss about the report regretted being responsible for helping to build up the LTTE operations in the U.K. He said that in U.K. many Tamils are still reluctant to complain to the police due to the language barrier and fear of the consequences. He disclosed that only after visiting the areas under the occupation of the LTTE he realised the folly of supporting it.

He said until that visit he was not aware of the real and pathetic situation the Tamil people living in those areas faced with Canada's leading daily National Post says "if the new Canadian government needed a reason to move on its election pledge to ban the Tamil Tigers under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act, then Human Rights Watch has just handed it to them. It points out that the report has unearthed the existence of a criminal gang operating with impunity presumably because the victims of its crime are considered to be something less than Canadian.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera's last visit to the U.S complimented in the United States taking a strong stand against the Tiger terrorists, diminishing the war fears floated by the reactionaries and forcing the terrorist outfit to return to the negotiating table after a span of three years.

Similarly he has taken commendable steps to apprise the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, other government authorities, civil society and the British media on the real nature of the LTTE terrorists, government's commitment to find a durable solution with the consensus of all democratic forces and the necessity of imposing strictures by the international community to prevent the LTTE abandoning the talks with flimsy excuses.

He has also pointed out that the LTTE is yet to renounce terrorism and violence, it harbours no dissent and have systematically killed everyone who opposed them.

The government should take maximum advantage from the growing opposition emanating from the Tamil diaspora, critical reports being issued by the Human Rights Organisations and the change of outlook seen in western nations to liberate the people being oppressed by the Tiger terrorists in Sri Lanka and open up a new page to pressurize the western nations to expel the LTTE terror gangs operating in those countries and protect the Tamil diaspora from their atrocities and crimes. This could pay better dividends in the long run.