Voting with the feet in the Vanni

Throughout the period of the Cold War and before the fall of the Berlin Wall the western media was keeping a close watch on the citizens from East Germany who were braving many hazards, including heavily armed troops with orders to shot at sight, land mines and many other obstacles to cross over from East to West Berlin.

There were many examples of daring crossings which were reported at length and were the topics of books, feature films and documentaries on the Berlin Issue.

People

Those who crossed over were described as people who were voting with their feet.

East Berlin was in Europe in the Western Hemisphere and the Cold War was not just big news but the very strategy of containing and hopefully defeating the power of the Soviet Union, using the labels of freedom and democracy outside it. Therefore, even a single arrival across the Berlin Wall was an event to be reported worldwide, with all the powers of the media being in the West.

Political

If there was political repression in East Germany, which is not in doubt under the Stalinist regime of Walter Ulbricht, what is going on in the rapidly shrinking area now held by he LTTE is much worse than that and hardly bears comparison. The East Germans were not using its citizens as a human shield, they were not conscripting children to carry arms and be cannon fodder. The East German troops were not known to loot the food and medicines the State provided to its citizens, for themselves, as the LTTE cadres are doing in their fast diminishing territory today.

As this is being read there will most likely be nearly 60,000 Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka who would have crossed over to the safety of Government held areas, in the Mullaitivu region of the Vanni, and more will follow despite all the obstacles.

They have dared to come to the safety of the Sri Lankan State braving many threats, including being fired upon by a desperate terrorist group who see any safety for themselves only with the presence of enough civilians in their midst.

They have shot at busloads of fleeing civilians, killing many and injuring much more, fired at boats carrying them to safety, again leading to death and injury; and even sent suicide killers to the camps of the escaped IDPs to drive fear into those who may dare think of escape from tiger terror.

Injured

They have even fired missiles at helicopters carrying the sick and injured for medical care, and have fired upon vessels that are bringing food the people in the IDP camps and those still trapped in the No Fire Zone. But the people have kept coming, and will continue to do so for as long at this military operation to rid the country of terror goes on, as it will until the desired goal is achieved.

Although the world may pay little attention to them today, preferring to divert international attention to the false stories of heavy casualties in the No Fire Zone, due to alleged heavy shelling by government troops, the Tamils who face every hazard before them and cross over to the safety of government territory, at great risk of life and limb, are the true heroes of freedom and democracy today. They have all voted with their feet against the terrorism and fascist domination of the LTTE, in Prabhakaran’s dream world of Eelam, which has now become a nightmare to the Eelamists, and an actual hell hole to the citizens forcibly held there.

The Tamil citizens in the IDP centres in Mullaitivu today have all voted with their feet, in a growing and massive vote against the compulsive and determined terror of the LTTE that claimed to be the liberators of the Tamils.

This search for peace and security seems to be lost an a wide range of unwavering critics of Sri Lanka and votaries of the LTTE, who claim to speak on behalf of the innocent Tamils in the North of Sri Lanka. That the Tamils are innocent is not questioned. What is at issue is not their innocence, but the guilt of those who are holding them against their will, as expressed by the many thousands who have and will be voting with their feet in the days to come, to escape the frenzy of terrorists who see defeat staring in their faces.

Guilt

This is a guilt that is not seen by Jayalalitha, who has done a spin turn on the issue of Tamils in Sri Lanka’s for what she believes are the compulsions of Tamil Nadu politics in the face of upcoming elections. This guilt is not seen by Human Rights Watch as it echoes the strategic thinking of the US State Department on South Asia, caught as it is between the growing influences of India and China in the region.

This is also not seen by Mexico, where more than 6,000 have been killed last year alone in its US-backed war of drugs, but is keen to raise the issue of Sri Lanka and the treatment of innocent Tamils in the UN Security Council.

It is hard to believe that Mexico’s interests in Sri Lanka’s Tamils is because of the competition from Sri Lanka in the world cinnamon market, but is more likely to be from the pressures from the US State Department that seeks allies to bring into play its own agenda on South Asia.

The plight the Tamils under the LTTE, and the heroism of the Tamils who have fled its bloody grip over them, is not seen by the crooked Labour politician Keith Vaz in the UK, who gives valid cause for suspicion of being in the pay of the LTTE after his sleazy activities in other spheres of influence peddling have been exposed.

Tragedy

This real tragedy of the Tamils under the LTTE and the thirst for freedom of the Tamils who have voted with their feet is also not seen or heard of by Joan Ryan, that other Labour politician in the UK, who is eager to have Sri Lanka suspended from the Commonwealth for alleged acts of “genocide”. Joan Ryan is so blinded to reality that she cannot work out how there can be genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka when so many thousands of people of Tamil ethnicity have risked so much to escape from the LTTE and cross over to the territory of the Government that is allegedly carrying out genocide against the same community.

Meanwhile, let’s salute the thousands who have voted with their feet in the North of Sri Lanka, for they are the true heroes of freedom and democracy.