LTTE's exorcism by 'sleight of apology'

APOLOGY: If there is one spectre that has been haunting the LTTE leadership, and its leader Prabhakaran, it's the ghost of Rajiv Gandhi. Now we have it all laid out, by its so-called ideologue, Anton Balasingham.

It's like a ritual of exorcism, which comes by way of a statement of regret about the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister, who sent the IPKF here to maintain peace. A mission that led to Indian troops having to fight the LTTE.

Rambling through an abbreviated history of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka, which suits the purpose of the LTTE, this is how Balasingham proffers his much publicized "apology" to India through NDTV about that fell deed over two decades ago.

"It was followed by the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi...as far as that event is concerned, I would say it is a great tragedy, monumental historical tragedy, for which we deeply regret and we call upon the Govt. of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind...and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective".

After 15 long years Balasingham has gone public with more adornment to the LTTE's regret at the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, than Prabhakaran expressed, at his first ever media conference in April 2002, when the LTTE leader said it was a "sad event".

With its increasing isolation in the civilized world, the LTTE is trying hard to make India and the people of India forget its crime, for which Prabhakaran has still to face justice under the Indian Penal System.

Therefore, we have this call by Balasingham to the Indian Government and the people of India "to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question [in Sri Lanka] in a different perspective."

But Noopur of NDTV is not satisfied with this decorated statement of regret. He asks Balasingham: "Can the LTTE give any sort of assurance to India that that kind of a thing won't happen again?"

Just the question that needs to be asked from a leading member of a terrorist outfit, so glib in expressing regrets for a crime that cannot be forgotten, by a statement of regret, embellished with words intended to fool the listener.

And, Balasingham has an assurance to give. Says he: "We have made pledges to the Govt. of India that under no circumstances we will act against the interest of the Govt. of India and that ever since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, India played a detached role. What we feel is India should actively involve in the peace process".

Ask UNICEF

But what is the worth of these pledges the LTTE makes today, in its desperation to wriggle out of increasing isolation, and hopefully bring India to be actively involved in the Sri Lankan peace process, the way it would like to.

As much as we know that a tiger does not change its stripes, the world knows well that this Tiger is not one that keeps to its pledges. The record of its observance of the Ceasefire Agreement, largely in the breach, is a matter of bloody contemporary experience.

But the better test is to judge its record on keeping to its pledges not to recruit child soldiers. UNICEF knows well how much the LTTE has strayed from pledges given on this issue.

The worst condemnation of the LTTE on the matter of child soldiers came from Olara Otunnu, the UN Secretary General's rapporteur on Children in War. Otunnu said very clearly the LTTE had repeatedly reneged on pledges to stop the recruitment of children.

It must believe the Indian establishment to be naive beyond belief to accept pledges given by such an organization about not acting against the interests of the Government of India.

The interests of New Delhi are many and varied, and one wonders what aspects of these interests the LTTE would not act against in the future.

The other crimes

It has taken the LTTE more than 15 years to admit to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. It comes far too late, as the Indian Supreme Court had already found the LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran, guilty of complicity in this crime.

Prabhakaran is a wanted man in India, and India has not yet pressed Sri Lanka for his arrest knowing the ground situation here.

But, Balasingham hints at the possible de-proscribing of the LTTE by India, with the very likely hope that India would be ready to "forgive and forget" with great magnanimity, the assassination of a former Indian Prime Minister, in a suicide bomb attack, while still using suicide killers among its main weapons in Sri Lanka.

After this expression of regret to India, how long will it take for the LTTE to admit the assassination of President R. Premadasa in 2003, and the attempted assassination of President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999?

There are so many other assassinations and as well as mass killings the LTTE is yet to apologize to the people of Sri Lanka, and also to the Tamil people for the number of Tamil political leaders, intellectuals, teachers, trade unionists and writers it has killed.

When will Anton Balasingham think it is time to express regret over the killing of Buddhist worshippers at the Sri Maha Bodhi, the Buddhist monks at Arantalawa and the Muslims at prayers in their sacred mosques? It is most unlikely that such regrets will come, as there is no strategic interest served, unlike the escape from isolation vis-…-vis India.

My last question is what the British Government, still sadly led by Tony Blair, the lapdog of George W Bush in the War on Terror, will now do about Anton Balasingham? He is a British citizen, residing quite comfortably in London, and has admitted to his organization banned in the UK and EU assassinating a former leader of the largest member of the Commonwealth.

Is the terrorism of Balasingham not worth one hundredth the effort and cost involved in searching the home of Muslims in London, suspected of involvement in a terrorist plot, which turned out to be a costly hoax?

Here is an admitted ideologue of political assassination, who can breathe summer air so freely in London, offering regrets to India for a heinous crime that still haunts the LTTE, and shocks the civilized world.