A deed most barbaric and cowardly

THE LTTE has in ample measure proved its trademark cowardice and barbarism once again. The gory and horrific massacre of nearly 100 unarmed off-duty, naval personnel in Habarana on Monday by the LTTE is clinching evidence that killing and killing alone is the Tigers' business. Brute force is the language they best understand.

It is for these reasons that the Government's resolute commitment to fight and put down LTTE terror needs to be commended. Government Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella is on record that suitable action would be taken against the LTTE.

This is as it should be because the Government cannot stand idly by when the LTTE spills innocent blood and revels in it. The Government has to sustain and uphold law and order. It cannot escape this duty. If the conflict is to be resolved the Tigers have to be disabled and the State is justified in taking tough law and order measures for this purpose.

As should be clear by now, the history of the LTTE is writ in the blood and gore of the innocents. Besides the numberless innocent men, women and children on whom the Tigers have feasted since the early Eighties, one should only recall to mind the massacre of those advocating a path of moderation, to be alerted to the mindless bestiality of the LTTE. Duraiappah, Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran, Neelan Tiruchelvam, Kethish Loganathan, to name a few Tamil moderates, were all brutally slain by the LTTE.

The Tigers also systematically eliminated their other Tamil opponents.

The Tigers brought their bestiality to a chilling climax with the assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a leading light in Sri Lanka's modern political firmament and a doughty advocate of an undivided Sri Lanka which meets the just aspirations of the Tamil people.

The Tigers take a ravenous delight in spilling innocent blood. The Habarana tragedy was not the first time they brutally massacred unarmed serviceman. They first did it in the early nineties after scores of policemen surrendered to them.

A few months back they nearly destroyed a vessel-load of off duty naval officers, even while paying lip service to the CFA. Such is their thirst for innocent blood.

Does the world need any more evidence of the chilling inhumanity and moral degeneration of the LTTE? A hundred defenceless persons have been brutally and cold-bloodedly massacred by the Tigers.

Has not the LTTE made short work of every conceivable civilized norm through these heinous acts? How much more innocent blood should be spilt before the world community galvanizes itself into punitive action against the LTTE?

Those sections which wish Lanka well ought to also impress on the Tigers the futility of having recourse to violence. For, they would continuously come up against the State's law and order measures. In other words, it is an absolutely no-win situation for the Tigers. The safer course would be to cooperate with the State in working out a political solution.

The world should also see in the LTTE's unrelenting terror, its callous disregard for the well being of the Tamil people. By continuing on its violent path, it is delaying the process of finding a solution. To the extent to which this process is delayed the problems of the Tamil people are going unresolved.

Apparently, this is the way the LTTE wants it. To the LTTE, violence has become an end in itself. For the LTTE, a Sri Lanka chronically embroiled in war is more advantageous than a Sri Lanka which has won peace. This demonic agenda must be defeated.

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