Cornered schizophrenic Tigers

Dushy RANETUNGE

OPINION: The enthusiasm and massive Diaspora funding and support that led to the formation of the Jewish state of Israel has been an inspiration for the Ilavars who aspire a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

Not many are aware that in fact it was Israel, which was the model that the LTTE tried to emulate in the recruitment of child soldiers and in establishing a separate state. Israel has a long history of militarisation of its children for preparation for armed conflict.

Kindergarden introductions in Israel

There is a law in Israel "the Emergency Labour Service Law" according to which every person aged 16, or even 15A 1/2, and above has the duty to be recruited for works in support of the war effort if so ordered by those given the legal authority to give such orders.

It already happened in the past that children were called upon to work in service of the fighting nation, whether under the provisions set out in this law or not.

Such mobilisation was ordered during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War (the Yom Kippur War), and again in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War, when children were sent to distribute gas masks to the population in distribution centres operated by the military.

These cases indicate that children, at least from a certain age on, are viewed by some decision-making bodies in Israel as a labour force reserve that might be put at the disposal of the military.

Israeli High schools normally have a display on one of the walls in the school building with the names and photographs of the fallen among their graduates (but not of Palestinian dead). School field trips, at all ages, are often made to military memorials set up on former battlegrounds.

Official curricula and textbooks also reflect the militaristic attitudes inherent in the Israeli educational system, all the way from kindergarten to the last years of high school, where there is a mandatory programme for all Jewish state-run schools called preparation for the IDF (Israeli Defence Force), that in most cases includes actual military training.

Whole curricular subjects (e.g. Arabic and physical education) are often described to the pupils, and in official documents, as having the aim of preparing pupils, or some of them, to military service. Glorifications of the military and military conquest, and negative or skewed representation of Palestinians, are to be found in many Israeli textbooks.

The LTTE in Sri Lanka emulate many of the above and their militaristic propaganda videos were even screened in British school halls in Wembly, North London after school hours to the faithful. The writer working with a journalist of the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain exposed this particular event a few years ago in the mainstream British press.

Articles have been published by the LTTE supporters equating the struggle of the Ilavars to establish a separate state in Sri Lanka, with that of the Jewish aspiration for their homeland in Israel.

The backbone of the Jewish state was the Jewish Diaspora who funded, and used their influence to lobby US and the British governments in support of the struggle to establish the Jewish state and the Ilavars emulated this by encouraging the establishment of a Tamil Diaspora of their own to fund and influence foreign governments.

Other than the reliance on children, the Diaspora, and the aspiration for a homeland, the Jews and the Ilavars have little in common.

Unlike in Israel, and even Islamic fundamentalism, there are no Diaspora Tamils from the West rushing to the Vanni to fight for the cause. Unlike in Israel, there are no superpowers or even regional powers backing the Ilavars. In fact, there is no one, other than other terrorist groups and the criminal fraternity with which the LTTE have clandestine links.

Even on the subject of children, Prabhakaran's children are far away in Europe, while a child of the Sri Lankan President has joined the Security Forces to fight for the homeland?

While the Ilavars may dream of their own Israel and Trincomalee being their Singapore, significant breaches have opened up in the LTTE flank.

The International community and even perhaps the Wickremasinghe administration have consistently been trying to encourage the LTTE away from its chosen path of a separate state, to a more moderate accommodating position of devolution with the Sri Lankan republic.

It now seems that they have all given up and washed their hands off the LTTE and have reached the conclusion that the LTTE is a lost cause.

In the last 12 months, the proscription of the LTTE in Canada and more significantly by the EU was a watershed by the international community, which now demands that Tamils be separately distinguished from the LTTE.

The International community is clearly charting a separate course, championing legitimate Tamil rights, quite distinct from the LTTE, which it has labelled as terrorist.

The leaders of Britain, the United States and India encourages Sri Lanka to address the legitimate grievances of the minorities, uphold human rights and separately refers to the LTTE as terrorists as a quite distinct entity from the Tamils.

This is the exact opposite of what the LTTE tries to portray itself as the "sole representative of the Tamils".

Unlike in the Jewish Diaspora, there is significant opposition to the LTTE emerging from within the Tamil Diaspora.

Since 1983, foreign governments failed to distinguish between the terrorists and the Tamils. When an incident took place in Sri Lanka, the LTTE propaganda machine would make one of their spokespersons available to the BBC or CNN to project the LTTE view as being the Tamil view.

This phenomenon has finally been broken. Britain today relies on several Tamil Diaspora think tanks to form part of its opinion and all of them are advocating a clear separation between the Tamils from the LTTE, the championing of the rights of Tamils and dumping of the LTTE in the terrorist bin.

This is perhaps partly due to the proscription of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, which in turn is due to the LTTE's own schizophrenic conduct.

The killing of Rajiv Gandhi is considered a major strategic blunder by the LTTE, but in reality the LTTE blunders from one crisis to the next.

Recently we have witnessed the failure of the LTTE in reconciling with Karuna, the closing of Maavil Aaru, depriving water to thousands, the hero's day speech in which Prabhakaran reiterating his commitment to a separate state, etc.

Each one of these incidents has strengthened the Sri Lankan State, the first enabled the State to effectively break the LTTE into two and the second facilitated the eviction of the LTTE from the East.

Every single leader of the LTTE in the East one has heard of including the likes of Soosaipillai Joseph Anthonydas, alias Sornam, Banu, Jayam, Ram, Elilan have all fled the East and taken refuge in the Vanni.

The last bastions of the LTTE in the East are currently under siege by the Security Forces. With the army at present prodding LTTE's defenses in the Vanni, perhaps Prabakaran is preparing the LTTE's defenses, using every single one of his experienced terrorist leaders.

The recent attacks in Colombo backed up by Prabhakaran's speech committing himself to a separate state has once again, prepared the ground for the next phase.

In December 2005 I was informed that the East will be cleared and then the army will go after the LTTE in the Vanni. One year later in December 2006, the Government, and the military have stayed the course.

With the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE facilitated its own exit from India and by depriving water at Maavil Aaru, the LTTE facilitated its own exit from the East.

Now with his famous speech and terrorism in Colombo, the LTTE has facilitated the entry of the army into the Vanni. Only peace talks delayed the inevitable, and peace talks remain the only tool available to the LTTE to stop the Army from reaching Kilinochchi.