The anatomy of an apology

ATTACK: Earlier this week the LTTE used all its skills to salvage its image from the depths to which it fell with its attack on the airstrip at Batticaloa where western diplomats, UN aid officials, and key NGO personnel arrived for discussions on the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons in parts of the East.

The method it employed for this important exercise in image repair was the apology.

That it succeeded in this attempt, at least with the major international news services requiring acceptance.

CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera while reporting the Tiger attack on the diplomats did not fail to give second level prominence to the LTTE’s apology for the incident.

This showed the LTTE’s ability to use even a situation that was a grave threat to it, into one that would work at least partially in its favour.

The apology gave a measure of respectability to the LTTE in a situation in which its image stood in grave jeopardy for having violated accepted norms of respect for foreign envoys, even in what is describes as a war zone.

Having sought safety from the international opprobrium brought upon itself through this wanton and deadly attack, it also sought to turn tables on the Government and the Security Forces by faulting them for bringing the diplomats to a war zone, without prior notice to the LTTE.

Tiger cunning

Therein is seen the cunning of the Tiger. The apology, for all purposes was tempered with the attempt to blame the Security Forces for what took place.

Having carried out the fell deed, with full knowledge of the arrangements to greet the diplomats that had been made in Batticaloa, what the LTTE did was to try and extract the most for itself through a grossly insincere apology issued with the foreign media and international community in mind.

The hollow ring of the LTTE’s apology is seen by the fact that it was confined to the diplomats who were injured or came under threat, but had nothing to do with the large number of other civilians, including school children who were either injured or came under grave threat of injury.

If one is to believe what the LTTE says about established practices of prior notification, one has to raise the question whether it is routine for the LTTE to attack civilian aircraft that comes without such information.

Through its calculated apology, the LTTE has now exposed itself as an outfit that has little concern for the safety of the average citizen.

In its attempt to save itself from the charge of causing grave danger to the lives of several diplomats from the West and Japan, the LTTE has felt it in order to be seen as a constant threat to the lives and day-to-day living of the people.

In fact what it has demonstrated very well through this particularly distasteful apology is that it has never had and never will have any compunction about carrying out armed attacks where civilians can be killed or injured, or if necessary foreign diplomats, with an apology to follow.

De-claw the Tigers

The Washington Times of March 1 in an editorial on the LTTE’s attack on Western diplomats, titled, “De-claw the Tigers” states: “The Tamil Tigers have started trying to absolve themselves and allay the fallout.

The terrorist group went so far as to blame the Sri Lankan Government, through some highly contorted logic, for not warning the rebels that the diplomats were travelling in the area.

Even if this dubious claim were true, it certainly isn’t exculpatory because the Tigers have a history of targeting both high-ranking Sri Lankan officials and foreign diplomats.

Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated in a 1993 bombing, the foreign minister (himself a Tamil) in 2005 and the deputy general of the peace secretariat in August 2006.

Also in August 2006, Tiger guerrillas tried to kill a Pakistani official in a suicide bombing as his convoy drove through Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Pakistani envoy escaped; seven other persons died. Most prominent was the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, which precipitated India’s crackdown on Tamil Tiger fund raising and operations.

The history of the violence that has wrecked the small island cannot be told without assigning blame to both sides.

But resolving legitimate grievances requires constructive dialogue, which can only happen under the auspices of a genuine ceasefire — something the Sri Lankan people, Tamil and Singhalese alike, would certainly welcome.

The Tigers, however, have proved unwilling to talk seriously except when compelled by lack of resources.

The essential role for the United States, Canada, the EU and increasingly India is therefore to enforce their sanctions on operations and fund raising, forcing the Tigers into negotiations.”

Certainly a welcome comment when all one hears today is a chorus for “both sides” to stop the spiral of violence, with the least thought given as to who causes the violence and why.

UNP’s delight

One is not surprised when the UNP in its present mood of desperation seeks to fault the Government for as many acts as possible. But one expects a party that still claims to put national interest first in the issue of war and peace, to act with a measure of statesmanship in a situation when foreign diplomats in this country come under threat from the forces of terror and separatism.

Not so the UNP of today. Its media spokesman Gayantha Karunatillake MP commenting on the LTTE’s attack on the diplomats said the UNP condemned the incident. How simple and who would not?

However, the UNP did not name those who carried it out. That may be understandable knowing the soft corner the UNP leadership has for the LTTE, with our without a secret pact.

However, what is most interesting is that the UNP spokesman’s comments were not just an echo of what the LTTE said, but in fact a virtual repetition of the LTTE position.

Giving his opinion to ABC Radio’s Hiru FM on the evening of the attack, Mr.Karunatillake made it a point to lay the blame for the incident squarely on the Government, as according to him, it bore the responsibility for the safety of diplomats, and it was at fault for taking them to a conflict zone.

Just now the UNP is busy trying of make the most of that wild goose charge made about a secret pact between the Government and the LTTE, which was the alleged cause of the LTTE making what is said to be a “tactical withdrawal” from Vakarai and Sampur. The UNP is free to have its own delights in such fanciful thinking.

The UNP leader is reviving his bad loser, cry-baby image by asserting that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victory at the Presidential Election in November 2005 was due to a secret pact with the LTTE that led to the LTTE ordering its boycott of the polls in the North and most of the East.

We remember him making this lament in the immediate aftermath of his defeat. Although one thought that saner counsel would have prevailed since, that is obviously not the case.

In its present adversarial mood one can expect the most outlandish thoughts to come from the UNP. What surprises me is that neither the UNP, nor the holder to the key of the secret pact with the LTTE, have as yet said that the LTTE’s attack on the diplomats earlier this week was also a part of the same secret pact, or a new pact between the Government and the LTTE, to give the LTTE more international recognition through a wholly fake apology. Watch out for more fancy stuff from the depleted elephant stables.