Tigers reduced to kittens!
Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Three decades of terrorist war waged against the democratically
elected government of Sri Lanka by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam) came to an end on May 18, 2009 when the Sri Lankan security
forces managed to crush the terrorist menace by eliminating the LTTE
(Tiger) leader, Megalomaniac murderer, Velupillai Prabhakaran and all
his henchmen.
LTTE child soldiers |
This laudable deed thus created a new world record registering Sri
Lanka in the Guinness Book of Records as the only country in the modern
history where a democratically elected government eliminated a fast
growing fungus of terrorism from its soil, even after thirty years of
bloodshed, loss of thousands of innocent lives and destruction to
property.
The Sri Lanka Security Forces’ triumph is not a victory for Sinhalese
over Tamils but, against a ruthless Tamil terrorist unit who on the
pretext of looking after their own people managed to lead luxurious
lives by collecting money through coercion from Tamil diaspora abroad
and trying to divide the country and engage in mass killings and drive
the country backwards by many years. Military action was also a
marvellous humanitarian exercise during the last stages of the battle to
rescue hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians who were kept
forcibly under the Tiger boot as human shields.
It was an overall exercise to relieve the entire Nation from the
clutches of terrorism and to create a single country and one nation,
without any racial bias or division, and to promote brotherhood among
all.
Freedom fight
Prabhakaran in early 1970s had gathered a few Tamils from the North
and initiated his struggle calling it a freedom fight. Subsequently he
demanded a separate State by dividing Sri Lanka into two and called it a
liberation struggle and named the outfit as the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Progressively in an ethnic cleansing operation he
massacred scores of Muslims in the East.
In 1975, Prabhakaran personally killed the Tamil Mayor of Jaffna
Alfred Duraiappa and boasted about his personal involvement in the
killing. Subsequently Prabhakaran and his cronies assassinated 13
Sinhala Police officers on duty in Jaffna. To provoke civilians the
terrorists had even chopped off the police offers’ hands and removed
wedding rings from their fingers.
His master plan to incite racial hatred in the South worked as
planned when on July 24, 1983 during President JR Jayewardene’s
administration mob violence took to streets (Colombo mainly) where
Sinhalese in the South went on an orchestrated campaign to kill innocent
Tamils and loot their property.
Prabhakaran |
G. G. Ponnambalam |
The incident has been described as a holocaust by the Tamil community
and this resulted in half a million Tamils seeking refuge in Western
countries - some genuine cases and others mostly for economic
advantages.
It is also mentioned in certain circles that the architect behind
such a ‘holocaust’ was masterminded by none other than Prabhakaran
himself because at the time Sinhalese and the Tamils lived in harmony in
the South of the country and particularly a good affluent majority
Colombo and suburbs.
It was alleged that only Prabhakaran’s agents in the South were aware
of all the details of Tamil households in Colombo and the suburbs.
Prabhakaran was not apparently happy with the elite Tamils who lived in
the South for not supporting his struggle in the North.
He called them ‘Week-End’ Tamils as they visited their folk in Jaffna
only during weekends. In this backdrop an accusing finger was pointed at
Prabhakaran for secretly organising the indecorous incident on July 24,
1983 purely to incite racial hatred and take revenge from those Tamils
who did not support his struggle.
Tragic incident
Some analysts have even put a theory forward to substantiate such a
claim by stating that during the July 24th incident in the South, the
Inspector General of Police was a Tamil named Rajasingham with six
Deputy Inspector Generals under him, all of whom were all Tamils, who
did not take swift action to thwart the outburst but turned a blind eye.
Tigers intensified their atrocities after this tragic incident in
July 1983 which had overnight won the hearts and minds of the world.
Seemingly the organisation which was seen as only a trickle at the
inception was allowed to expand and the Tigers started to breed to an
alarming state and become one of the most ruthless terrorist
organisations in the world.
They managed to give birth to a different kind of offspring such as
suicide bombers, black tigers, sea Tigers, women fighters and started to
recruit child soldiers.
Finally it reached a stage where the LTTE virtually controlled the
North with a rebel army backed by artillery, a self imposed Navy, Police
and a nascent Air Force and their own banks and started printing their
own Eelam currency. LTTE’s tactics inspired networks throughout the
world including Al Qaeda due to either mismanagement or weaknesses of
several administrators and politicians in the South over the years.
Behind the scenes Prabhakaran worked vigorously and effectively to
relate to a vast number of Tamil expatriate Diaspora throughout the
world who had fled the country in the 1983 debacle and settled down
comfortably in the West as refugees. Prabhakaran’s bait of offering his
Tamil community abroad a separate Tamil homeland in the North and East
of Sri Lanka appealed to many Tamils who had fled the country. Kith and
kin who had settled down in foreign lands as refugees soon started to
assist those at home and paved the way for many more Tamils in the North
and East to flee the country seeking refuge in Western countries.
These refugee seekers travelled all the way to Colombo, used the
International Airport, went through Customs and Immigration formalities
like any other ordinary air passenger without any harassment and took
AirLanka and SriLankan flights to the West simultaneously pointing a
finger at the Sri Lankan Government for racial harassment and even
quoting ‘ethnic cleansing’ operations by the State.
Otherwise how could they have qualified for Refugee status in a
foreign land?
On another aspect the LTTE became busy in brainwashing the new
generation of youth who were born after 1983 by calling Sri Lanka an
alien country trying to annex their Tamil homeland.
Tamil expatriate diaspora swiftly went into action and backed
Prabhakaran with all sincerity with funds, technological know how and
expertise in many a field to make the LTTE one of the most richest and
effective organisations with a sophisticated network of communication.
Successful lobbying of politicians in the West was done with
remarkable success to brainwash the international community and
condition their minds with distorted information.
Refugee status
On the other hand, once they had entered foreign lands and sought
refugee status they had to make sure that their cause was genuine to
remain and continue their new found luxurious lives.
Meanwhile, in the South, the self-styled, lethargic, ‘we know all’
attitude taken by the Sri Lankan administers and incompetent Sri Lankan
foreign high commission and embassy staff were in their slumber. By the
time they were whip lashed from Colombo and woken up from their forty
winks, Sri Lankan administration was fifteen years behind their
communication machinery.
Taking the upper hand in the meanwhile the LTTE manoeuvred and
launched false propaganda to concrete their ambitions and actions to win
sympathy of the international community, which they did quite
effectively.
In such a backdrop Norway came forward as a peace negotiator on the
premise of bringing a negotiated settlement between the Tigers and the
Government. In 2002 Norwegians managed to twist the arm of the then
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while blind folding President
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.
Wickremesinghe entered into a so-called ‘Cease Fire Agreement ‘(CFA)
with Prabhakaran secretly even without the knowledge of his own Cabinet.
This was widely acknowledged and criticised by many as giving an
upper hand to the Terrorists to dictate terms to the Sri Lankan
Government and Security Forces when demarcation of land was made and
given to terrorists on a plate as LTTE territory.
Under the provisions of the ‘Peace Process’ brokered by Norwegians,
LTTE was recognised legally as the sole representatives of the Tamil
minority in the North and East. No Sinhalese were allowed in their
territory while Tamils were free to travel from the North and East to
any part of the South, which made their suicide bombers travel freely
and blast at will. However, Prabhakaran’s monumental and self-centred
leadership style did not permit the freedom of speech within the outfit
which was thought to be his most foolish mistake in his decision-making
process.
This was clearly seen during the 2005 Presidential elections of the
country when the architect of the Peace Process Ranil Wickremesinghe’s
plea for his support from Prabhakaran was brushed aside by the Terrorist
Leader and instead enforced a boycott of the Presidential Polls in his
‘territory’ marked as LTTE areas under the CFA.
It prohibited the Tamil voters in the area from participating in the
Presidential poll which gave an added advantage to Mahinda Rajapaksa,
who was Wickremesinghe’s rival.
President Rajapaksa in his election manifesto did not mix words but
categorically emphasised his desire, willingness and the promise to
eliminate terrorism from the Sri Lankan soil despite several failed
attempts by four former Sri Lankan Presidents.
Several endeavours in 1984, 1987, 1990, 1994 and 2002 had been made
by the previous Colombo administrators extending a willing-hand to the
Tigers to come forward towards a peaceful settlement which Prabhakaran
purposely ignored all the time and made use of every such occasion to
mark time, regroup and stock pile more and more sophisticated arms and
artillery.
Peace Talks held in Geneva in 2006, under the Presidency of Mahinda
Rajapaksa too ended up, as before, when the LTTE team walked out of the
negotiating table giving lame excuses.
However, when the LTTE attempted to assassinate the Army Commander
General Sarath Fonseka, who nearly died out of a LTTE suicide bomb
attack in Colombo, followed by another suicide attempt on the life of
the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapksa who escaped death narrowly,
President Rajapaksa became more adamant to deal with the LTTE, but still
kept all doors open for a peace settlement. By this time the terrorist
organisation had become notorious internationally with their
indiscriminate killings, coercion and money laundering exposed, and 32
countries including USA, European Union and Canada had proscribed it
calling the LTTE as one of the ruthless terrorist organisations in the
world.
In 2006, Tigers waged Eelam War IV with the help of newly acquired
modern artillery, armour and high-tech communication systems which were
believed to have acquired during the CFA mainly with the assistance of
Norway.
Democratic approach
Mavil Aru blockage by the LTTE was the greatest blunder Prabhakaran
ever made in his self-style, autocratic thinking by blocking the
waterway which irrigated thousands of paddy fields, thus affecting
thousands of farmers’ lives. President Rajapaksa had no choice but to
act swiftly. He took the whip firmly into his hand and decided to go the
full hog against the LTTE.
Prabhakaran was suddenly caught up in two different dilemmas.
Firstly, he had under-estimated the impact on the LTTE after his
Batticaloa Commander Karuna Amman deserted him in preference to a
democratic approach having convinced that President Rajapaksa was
genuine in his methodology to help the sufferings of the Tamil folk in
North and East who were suffering under Prabhakaran. Secondly,
Prabhakaran completely undervalued President’s resolve to wipe out the
LTTE completely.
Defensive strategy
As the Commander in Chief, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, gave a free
hand to Army Commander, General Fonseka to go hammer and tongs in
eliminating the terrorists. A close coordination between the Defence
Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the three commanders - Army, Navy and
Air Force and the Inspector General of Police, the final offensive was
launched with all its might showing no mercy on the enemy. LTTE, at this
stage, rather than becoming aggressive adopted a somewhat passive
defensive strategy with a series of earth bunds.
Security Forces
True that these earth bunds acted as defensive mechanisms and helped
to deter the incoming enemy but they provided only a limited delay
before Security Forces approached the foe strategically with heavy fire
power.
Blowing up of such earth bunds not only paved the way for the
security forces to proceed forward towards the enemy but those provided
as gateways for hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians, who were
detained by the LTTE as human shields, to flee into No Fire Zones
created by the security forces.
Despite heavy criticism, condemnation and pressure exerted by the
International media, up to the very final hours before the terrorists
perished, some foreign countries and INGOs who had a vested interest in
the LTTE, and a mysterious affection to save Prabhakaran, the mass
murderer, President Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary stood firm in their
steadfastness and encouraged the Sri Lankan forces to demonstrate their
skill and show to the whole world how trapped civilians could be rescued
safely from the LTTE control, which the gallant soldiers did
effectively, an example all the world can emulate in their current
individual ongoing predicaments.
Finally on the 19 May 2009 the final nail on the LTTE coffin was
driven by the fearless forces despite heavy artillery from the enemy on
one side and the government coming under enormous pressure from the
international press and bullying tactics from powerful western countries
who seemed to think Sri Lanka was still a colony.
It is said that Prabhakaran tried his utmost best even in the
eleventh hour through the Red Cross to persuade the Government to come
for a negotiated settlement to save his and his family members’ skin
which did not receive any positive response from the government.
The Sri Lankan historical victory has thus exposed and denuded the
double standards adopted by Western pundits who seem to preach: ‘Do what
we say but don’t follow what we do’!
Today Sri Lanka stands proudly on the map of the world as an
independent unitary country. To quote President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s
words, it is a new independent country where there are ‘only two types
of people - Those who love this country and others who have no love for
this land of their birth.”
Freeing the country from terrorist clutches marks a new era for Sri
Lanka where history will be re-written in golden letters highlighting
the extraordinary role played by a remarkable leader and a committed
politician, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who managed to show his mettle
and forge forward with his own agenda with one pointed ambition - to
bring peace and harmony to Sri Lanka, by annihilating the LTTE, amidst
enormous pressure from some super powers of the West and USA who
demanded to halt military operations against Prabhakaran up to the final
moments, which only exposed their blatant hypocrisy and duplicity while
denuding themselves shamelessly.
Sri Lankan are generally warm hearted and sensitive people who sob
and cry at funerals. Sri Lankans do not consider a person’s death as an
occasion for ‘jollifying’ or engage in ‘Thamasas’.
The level of their compassion was seen on television when the whole
country in unison collected food and water to be sent to the displaced
Tamil people in the North despite their gruesome memories of the past of
LTTE atrocities in the form of suicide bombings and indiscriminate
killings.
The festive atmosphere throughout the country by lighting crackers,
jumping for joy and waving the national flag upon seeing the perished
terrorist leader Prabhakaran and his lieutenants’ bodies has sent a
clear message to the world at large about the true feelings of a nation
with no more barriers or demarcations of their Motherland.
Healthy children
After thirty long years of suffering, bloodshed and mayhem in the
country Mother Lanka today has stood up firmly and strongly. For thirty
long years she has been weeping for not being able to feed her children
properly.
Her breasts had been withered and only blood came out to feed her
loving children, but today her mammary glands are full of nourishing
milk and she expects her children to suckle them and grow up as healthy
children in the future.
The main Tiger has been laid down for good from Sri Lankan soil, but
still there are kittens who are scattered around the world who used to
follow the big cat. It is up to the Sri Lankan authorities, especially
the Foreign Ministry, to ensure that these kittens are not allowed to
grow up and metamorphose into the category of Tigers again.
In this regard Sri Lankan diplomatic missions must be on alert and
take an active role and brief the appropriate governments in the
countries they have been posted to, on a tour of duty, to do exactly
what they are expected of. |