LTTE's constant betrayal of Tamil hopes
BETRAYAL: There is an array of anti-Tamil acts from harassment
up to genocide, which the LTTE accuses the Government of, in its
attempts to muddy the waters for the Sri Lankan Government when they do
sit down to talks again, in pursuance of the Geneva agreement of March
2006.
All this is meant to take the focus of international opinion away
from the shocking and bloody violations of the Ceasefire Agreement by
the LTTE, confirmed by the SLMM, which poses the threat of sanctions of
a serious nature against it by the Co-Chairs and others of the
international community, as they continue to balk at what the world
thinks of them.
This is an attempt to prove as right the wrong image of Mahinda
Rajapaksa as 'hawk', 'hardliner' or 'warmonger' portrayed many of the
pro-LTTE softies in wire services and the UNP, him prior to his election
as President in November last year.
Readers are aware of the 67 plus serious violations of the CFA by the
LTTE since Geneva One. They also know of the many casualties among the
Security Forces and civilians caused by these deliberate and unprovoked
violations of the CFA.
With all these provocations and attempts to skirt the next round of
Geneva talks, the LTTE has shown the world that President Mahinda
Rajapaksa is an exceptional embodiment of patience and restraint, and a
person with a true commitment to peace.
What surprises one looking at the LTTE's current activities
objectively is its exceedingly hollow claim that it defends the rights
and freedom of the Tamil people.
It may take some bloody delight in provoking a reaction to its
grenade attack near the Trincomalee vegetable market, but even this
satisfaction was limited as the Government acted swiftly to bring the
situation under control.
Even with the number of casualties among Security Forces increasing
daily through claymore mine attacks by so-called "people", the LTTE
failed to provoke violent reprisals anywhere else.
This is proof that its reading of President Rajapaksa's patience and
restraint and his refusal to be drawn by the bait of LTTE provoked
violence, has gone down well among the people too.
Especially those "radicals and extremists" among the Sinhalese, who
the LTTE and its own brand of peace-activists, would have hoped may have
used the occasion to take revenge on Tamil civilians in their midst. The
LTTE will obviously have to be without such delights on its menu of
bloody feasting.
The Hoole factor
My purpose is to expose the treachery of the Tamils themselves, at a
time when the LTTE is making such loud noises about alleged attacks on
the Tamils and their livelihoods and rights by the Government.
The latest contemptible example of this betrayal of the Tamils by the
LTTE is the situation with regard to Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole, the new
Vice-Chancellor of the Jaffna University.
Mushroom organizations of students and other Jaffna "people" have
issued the direst threats of Prof. Hoole, if he dares enter the Jaffna
University as Vice Chancellor, to which office he has been duly
appointed.
Threats have also been made to some of members of the Jaffna
University Senate who voted for his name to be among others recommended
to President Rajapaksa for this office.
Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole's life is now under threat. He has been
warned of suffering the same fate as Rajini Thiranagama, the daring
lecturer in the Anatomy Department of the Jaffna University who
expressed her criticism of the LTTE's politics of terror nearly two
decades ago.
Many are those critical of the LTTE who have suffered the same fate.
I do not want Prof. Hoole, a man of so much learning and a total
commitment to the cause of the Tamil people - much more than those who
use the children of others as child soldiers and send their own children
abroad for study, and still claim to be a Sun God or some minor bloody
deity - to suffer the same fate.
The "Christian crime"
Apart from his not being pro-LTTE in his thinking, the main reason
for the opposition to his appointment, and that his appointment is not
agreeable to the LTTE, one other charge levelled against him his that he
is a Christian and therefore an opponent of Hindus.
In its desperation to keep Prof. Hoole out of the Jaffna University,
the LTTE and its stooges have now even begun to use religion against
him. Was the late Joseph Pararajasingham a Hindu, when he was a proxy in
Parliament for the LTTE via the TNA ?
We understand that there are no limits of degradation that the LTTE
can go to, to achieve what it considers its objective.
Therefore, if it is helpful to use Prof. Hoole's Christian faith
against him, alleging that he is therefore anti-Hindu, that is all part
of the LTTE's betrayal of the Tamil people and their right to freedom of
religion and worship.
However, I am indeed surprised that those who ran full-page
advertisements with strident, provocative headlines screaming
"Christians Awake!" during the Presidential election campaign, with
regard to the support for Mahinda Rajapaksa from those they described as
"radicals" and "extremists" among the Sinhalese, are now so silent and
subdued, when an acknowledged terrorist organisation threatens a learned
man with his life because he is a Christian. Where are these rich
crusaders and their foundations today?
Apart from behind the scenes moves to arrange meetings between Prof.
Hoole and the LTTE leadership, the Catholic and other Christian Bishops
and other church leaders should be far more open in their criticism of
this threat to Prof. Hoole, not only because he is accused of being a
Christian, but because it threatens his freedom of thought and worship,
and that of the Tamil people.
Betrayal by silence
Tamils do give top priority to the education of their children. Most
Tamils who comprise the Tamil Diaspora and those now living in peace in
the "South" of Sri Lanka have mainly left their homes in the North to
escape the war pursued so relentlessly by the LTTE.
I find no excuse for the silence of the Tamil parents living in the
safety of the "South", as well as for those in the Tamil Diaspora, not
protesting loud and clear at what the LTTE is doing to prevent the
helpless children of Tamil parents still trapped in the North from
getting a proper tertiary education at the University of Jaffna.
If the LTTE does stand for the Tamils then it must allow the
education of Tamil students to go on unimpeded by its campaign of
terror.
The many and varied threats to Prof. Hoole and other members of his
family, because of his courageous decision to accept the office of Vice
Chancellor of the University of Jaffna, has now attracted the attention
of Amnesty International.
One would hope that even if the Christian leaders, whether Tamil or
not, and other leading members of civil society in Sri Lanka prefer to
remain silent on this great betrayal of the Tamils and their right to
freedom and education; the threat to Prof. Hoole will prompt more
international organizations to go beyond candlelight vigils in support
of the genuine rights of Tamils that are under constant betrayal by the
LTTE, and organizations of civil society who keep asking for a political
will to achieve peace. |