Beware of imminent LTTE massacres of civilians in Jaffna

Satchi Sithananthan

LTTE: At a time when the Tamil Diaspora is being bombarded with massive waves of misinformation, Dushy Ranetunge has analyzed the current scenario in quite a matter of fact flowing style, the action, realities and consequences of what the LTTE has advocated as their Final War! And what a portentous prediction!

At the way events are unfolding, "Final War" it will be, and "Final War" it has to be, the only difference being that there will never be a Mafia State of Eelam when the last of the guns are silenced.

The only worry now is that the LTTE in its anger may commit a series of massacres of innocent people and, even worse - and mark our words - we will loose all the children and young people the LTTE have as their armed cadres and suicide bombers.

What were GCE Ordinary Level students doing Monday morning 6.40 AM in a campsite when they should have been in their homes getting ready to go to their respective schools?

Why were they staying overnight - and it seems for two days as claimed - at a place surrounded by areas suitable for military training, and at a time when there was considerable fighting in the vicinity? If they were orphans how did they have parents living as reported in one of the pro-LTTE websites? And where were their teachers?

No female child especially girls who have come of age would be allowed by the parents to stay overnight or to travel to another place on their own or even in the company of their peers.

It was therefore strange that 17-year olds and above were at that particular spot on Monday at 6.40 AM. Whatever activities schoolchildren have to follow are the responsibility of the school and its teachers who work on the schemes prepared by the Department of Education.

Therefore our question clearly is: What was happening at this site through the weekend and the fateful Monday morning? And who was conducting the First Aid classes? The SLMM personnel should have checked these factors before even opening their mouths to make a statement.

We have time and again reported that these so-called orphanages are indeed child soldier farms and facilities for suicide bombers. We drew the attention of the UNICEF to this fact and even suggested they take a convoy of coaches to Kilinochchi and demand that the children be freed.

We fear it is too late for them now. We are quite certain that among the number of LTTE cadres killed, most of them would be children and young people. So much so, within the next few days the LTTE will claim that they have no children and young people in their fighting cadres.

The Tamil Diaspora still has not woken up to the stark realities in Sri Lanka.

They tend to believe some of the reactions from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission personnel who often get misled into making an instant observation far from the truth and then begin to repair the damage done by further statements very reluctantly. Why were no Education Department officials allowed to this site for their observations and report?

Reacting to Monday's tragedy involving a large number of GCE Ordinary Level children who, in the first place should not have been at that site and that too at 6.40 AM, one of the SLMM's personnel first indicated that it was a school but later had to admit that there were areas around it that could be used for military training.

However, he never mentioned the name of the school. He could not have, because it was not a school.

Incidentally, this area at the last Local Council Elections to Pradeshiya Sabha elected the EPDP but the LTTE has prevented them from functioning there. This area was considered too sensitive to allow being controlled by the EPDP.

All the schools in Wanni are run, managed and supported by the Ministry of Education and why was not the name of the school stated?

The LTTE runs no school in Wanni; only as they claim, orphanages. No child has been known to have emerged from these orphanages into civilian life.

We have been informed by our editors in Canada that the pro-LTTE CMR/TVI (Community Multicultural Radio/Television International) has asked the Tamil Canadians to observe August 15 as a Day of Mourning and hold meetings with the request that at least one White Canadian be present.

According to them, it appears that only when a White Man is involved there is legitimacy to a cause and may be because of that they hang on to Jim Karigiannis, a Liberal Party Member of Parliament known to have expressed his feelings against the Government of Sri Lanka by baring his back in public.

No wonder, to the LTTE and its supporters, the Norwegians are gods.

It has been our relentless observation that Norway has played foul and people like Erik Solheim have supported the LTTE that is determined to set up a mafia state and a terror outfit that exploited children and young people with impunity. The Norwegians should have been packed off from Sri Lanka lock, stock and barrel long ago.

We have also observed with a great deal of concern the recent visit of the Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer to whom we suggested he takes a measuring tape to ensure that he meets the real Prabhakaran five foot and an inch tall and not the dummy.

There is every chance of the LTTE running amok in Jaffna and will surely and certainly try to use the civilians as human shields. They will group in small numbers in various villages and townships and fire their guns at the army to provoke retaliation.

This is the kind of Eelam War IV the LTTE has been planning to facilitate by the setting up of the Wanni enclave and the Ceasefire Agreement enabled by their Norwegian godparents.