Screaming A-Niners beat the genocidal drums of the Tigers

Jacinta CRUZ

As for the question of genocide, speaking in Paris two days ago, the Tamil leader Anandasangaree has appealed to the international community to help liberate the Tamils from the Tigers. If there is indeed genocide against the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Tigers are at the forefront of this deadly quest.

Appropriately referred to as the "Kappang Highway" by an intelligence team working within Wanni, A9 is a major highway known as the Kandy Road that branches off at Anuradhapura west to Colombo and east to Trincomalee.

The stretch in question begins in Omanthai and goes through the rebel area up to Muhamalai, a distance of about sixty miles.

During the four years from 2002 when the Ceasefire Agreement was signed, the LTTE became the proverbial highwayman of this stretch subjecting all passers-by to severe extortion and even illegal and burdensome taxes the way the Wanni rebels determined from time to time on just about every piece of item taken to the peninsula from the mainland.

There were also body taxes on visitors as well as on vehicles of every kind that went through this stretch. A transport van with a complement of 20 passengers would be paying Rs. 3000 per trip merely to cover this stretch of this road.

On top of it, each local passenger was made to pay Rs. 500 and an overseas visitor would pay Rs. 1000. Whatever goods they carry will also be taxed. The LTTE income from this has been estimated to range from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 million a year.

"Kappang Highway" apart from being a facility to transport weapons was also a major route for the LTTE black market activities. It is almost four months since the "Kappang Highway" became closed for purely security reasons.

Despite going through rebel territory and often being harassed by Tiger officials, it was the main supply route for all the needs of the people of the north. Since these goods were taxed illegally by the LTTE, traders in Jaffna passed on that cost to the people.

In other words, what it cost a particular item in other parts of Sri Lanka would be much more in the north. Traders also exploited this even further by either running certain items into the black market or making them far more expensive based on their demand.

There were traders who have been hand-in-glove with the LTTE and even now they are the ones who have made shortages of certain items by manipulating supply but making them available in the black market at a much jacked-up price.

The irony of the situation in the peninsula is that while army personnel are running civilian shops in Jaffna to make essential items available to people at the right price but at great risks to their lives, it is the Tamil traders in Jaffna who are fleecing their own people.

This period of nearly four months is not the first time that this stretch of the A9 has been closed. The LTTE kept it closed and that too under utterly ruthless conditions for over 10 years subjecting the people of the north to immense hardship. But this hardship was not food shortage.

The government ensured these needs were met adequately and there were no complaints whatsoever in respect of goods and material whether food, medical supplies or other essentials were concerned. Supplying Jaffna by sea is easy, perhaps a lot cheaper and they could be in greater bulk.

But what affected the people of the north were the inhuman controls the LTTE placed on them especially in respect of movement between Jaffna and the rest of the country.

They were held prisoners on the peninsula and when it came to young people, the LTTE refused travel even on compassionate grounds. The entire transport arrangement was controlled by the LTTE and they used fragile boats overloaded beyond capacity and fleeced the people pitilessly.

This was the first time most Sri Lankans heard about a small coastal village called Kilali from where the shallow waters of the peninsula were crossed by night.

In order to seize the opportune moment people have waited for days under trying weather conditions, either burning sun or raging monsoons in open spaces. And Velupillai Prabhakaran was never, even known to be possessed of even an iota of compassion.

He is a man who has earned a reputation as having been responsible for a new word in the English language, "Frendicide*, one who kills a friend. It could be Mathayah, Chetti, Sri Sabaratnam and even Nadarajah Raviraj!

When the A9, rather the "Kappang Highway", was closed for 10 long years, there were no screamers about people of the north starving and badly affected.

Where were the Catholic Bishops at that time? Where were all the LTTE admirers, especially among the Tamil Diaspora? Did their kith and kin in Sri Lanka not ask them to carry on a campaign to get A9 opened by the Tigers?

The utterly sick man of Tamilnadu politics Gopalaswamy, obviously in the pay of the Tigers, is threatening to hold demonstrations in India demanding that A9 be opened.

It is believed he is even toying with the idea of raising a mercenary force in Tamilnadu to invade Sri Lanka as if this is all possible and New Delhi would tolerate such an idea.

But Gopalaswamy has to serve his paymaster and for one to whom political fortunes have dipped into the drains, flirting with Prabhakaran is the only avenue open to exhibit his political machismo and oratorical skill. He must, however, be careful as to how far he can go reaching out to the Tiger tail. He should forever be reminded of the fate of Mathayah and several others.

The very same LTTE that talks about the suffering of the people in Jaffna is the one that is preventing them from having access to their needs especially the essential ones.

They have through threats and certain measures of actions including artillery fire have attempted to prevent supplies reaching the people. But equally determined is the government that wants supplies to reach the people.

Even just yesterday (Saturday, Nov. 18), the LTTE prevented truckloads of essential goods reaching displaced folks in a village on an uncontrolled area of rebel-held territory, Mankerni. These were attacked obviously by the Tigers.

Then an attempt was made to report that the trucks were looted by the Sinhalese under guard by the army and paramilitary persons.

There are no Sinhalese living in this area and also it is rather hard to believe that the very personnel that were delivering the goods under dangerous circumstances would have conspired to loot them. And for whom!

Certain local reports indicate that some of the trucks indeed were looted but the looters were LTTE personnel giving the impression that they were local civilians badly in need of food. The trucks were looted to replenish the falling supplies of the LTTE to feed their own cadres.

As for the question of genocide, speaking in Paris two days ago, the Tamil leader Anandasangaree has appealed to the international community to help liberate the Tamils from the Tigers. If there is indeed genocide against the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Tigers are at the forefront of this deadly quest.