New dawn in East
Monday's live telecast of the
Janapathi Janahamuwa (Meet the President) was perhaps a unique
programme as it gave the Eastern people, including those in
newly-liberated Vakarai (Batticaloa District), an opportunity to
interact directly with the President via videoconference.
The sentiments of the people in the three Eastern centres
(the others were Kinniya and Lahugala in Trincomalee and Ampara
districts) were similar - they were thankful to President
Mahinda Rajapaksa and to the Government for liberating the East
from terrorism and giving them a chance to breathe freely again.
They also urged the President to accelerate the Eastern
Resurgence drive. They also pointed out some problems unique to
their own areas. President Rajapaksa noted that this was the
very reason why the Easterners needed a separate Provincial
Council and local bodies represented by their own
representatives who know the needs and aspirations of the local
population.
The Easterners were also adamant that the terrorists should
never ever be allowed to raise their ugly head again in the
East. The President vowed that the LTTE would never gain a
foothold in the East again.
The LTTE will be cornered once the civilian administration
takes over and addresses the social and development grievances
of the people. The Easterners have already realised that LTTE
domination resulted only in misery and that only the Government
can offer a comprehensive development and welfare programme.
That goal will be affected if a party that is hostile to the
Central Government is elected to govern the Provincial Council.
Another significant revelation was that the people have had
no trouble from armed groups as alleged by certain parties.
As the President told the Eastern residents, it is time that
we stopped casting aspersions on the TMVP simple because it
remained as an armed group.
This is certainly not the first time that such a
transformation has taken place. Indeed, there are some senior
politicians who had participated in the youth insurrection of
1971.
All Tamil militant parties except the LTTE have entered the
democratic mainstream today. Should we marginalise and criticise
them all because of their past ?
Such a step would be an affront to democracy. It is hard to
imagine now, but even the LTTE should be inducted to democracy
one day if possible. That is the very essence of democracy -
solving problems through the ballot, not the bullet.
Terror funds
It is rarely that we get a glimpse of the secret operations
of the Tigers away from the battlefield. When they do come out,
one can realise the extent to which the Tigers will go to secure
funds for their campaign of death and destruction.
Such revelations are now being published almost on a daily
basis in the Canadian press. According to the National Post,
counterterrorism investigators in Toronto have seized a letter
signed by the leader of the LTTE directing Canadian Tamils to
send him C$ 3 million.
This is by no means a small sum.
It indicates that the extortion of Tamil expatriates remains
one of the most effective for the LTTE to fill their coffers, a
fact that was also highlighted by the US State Department in its
Sri Lanka section of the Country Reports On Terrorism 2008.
Prabhakaran's letter also proves beyond any doubt that the
LTTE operates several front organisations for this purpose, as
it was found during a search of the Toronto office of the World
Tamil Movement, which had earlier denied any links to the
Tigers. In fact, the Canadian Police has described the WTM as
the "Canadian branch" of the Tigers.
International cooperation is vital to check the Tigers' money
trail and for that matter, the money laundering activities of
all terror groups.
The LTTE has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in
Quebec and Ontario and remitted it overseas to pay for arms and
other materials.
The LTTE has been banned in Canada, US, European Union and
many other countries. Hence, it cannot raise funds under its own
name in these countries.
But the LTTE has always circumvented this problem by
establishing so-called cultural or social organisations that
seemingly have no connection to it.
Other countries should follow the Canadian example and
investigate the front organisations of the Tigers.
Cutting off funding is one of the most effective ways of
crippling terror outfits and the LTTE is no exception.
In this context, the UN must move quickly on the urgent
implementation of international laws on terrorist financing. |