Giving the LTTE dubious respectability

Yesterday our front page drove home the point in no uncertain terms that pictures do indeed speak louder than words. At a time when Sri Lanka is confronted by forces that are decidedly inimical to her and in this situation where the controversial Darusman report has, in a blatant effort at whitewashing the murderous LTTE, attempted to portray the organization as one of the 'world's most disciplined militant groups', our pictures on page one, proclaimed the truth about the Tigers in the most graphic and glaring of ways.

The pictures of some of the worst atrocities carried out by the Tigers in this country and even in India, where they cold-bloodedly assassinated former Premier Rajiv Gandhi, were the most effective rebuttal of the shockingly false claim made by the report about the LTTE.

Far from being the 'world's most disciplined militant group', they were the exact opposite and truly, a monstrous cancer which was calling out to be wiped out in the most clinical of fashions. This task was manfully taken up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and as a result, the whole of Sri Lanka is today breathing the salubrious air of freedom.

This needs to be borne in mind by those sections of the international community which are currently picking on the President for taking up this challenge of wiping out the LTTE and making Sri Lanka habitable once again. The President and the government headed by him were taking on the world's most ruthless terror organization which did not care a shred for human life. From the time the Tigers launched their so-called liberation struggle, they wiped out lives in every community in mind-numbing numbers. The savagery at Aranthalawa and Kent and Dollar Farms, the massacre within the sacred city of Anuradhapura, the Habarana and the Muttur blood-lettings, and numerous and countless other instances of LTTE brutality bear witness to the base and degenerate nature of the LTTE. They drove home the point that the state had no choice but to wipe out the LTTE. The organization's degeneracy was so great that it simply had to be neutralized.

Moreover, President Rajapaksa at the beginning gave every opportunity to the LTTE to enter the democratic mainstream and to work out solutions to what they saw as their problems, at the negotiating table. A good instance of this statesmanship on the part of President Rajapaksa, were the Geneva talks which were nonchalantly scuttled by the Tigers.

It was only when the Tigers proved impossible to manage that the decision was taken to neutralize them militarily.

Those sections of the Western world and some spokesmen of international organizations who are currently singling out the Rajapaksa administration for criticism of the most stinging kind, need to bear this in mind.

What would their leaders have done in the face of LTTE type intransigence? Indeed, what are their law enforcers doing at this very moment when confronted with this dilemma in our neighbourhood? What their states have decided to do in these situations is most apt in consideration of the fact that the intransigence of the militant groups concerned is so great that the states have no choice but to neutralize these militant outfits by military means.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Inasmuch as Western governments are compelled to use military means to establish law and order, the Lankan government too had to use law and order measures to protect its civilians and to make life safe for the latter. Why then is Sri Lanka being subjected to the most inconsiderate criticisms? Worse, why are attempts being made to make the LTTE look a shade respectable?

These and many more posers incline the impartial observer to the conclusion that moves are indeed afoot to undermine Sri Lanka's sovereignty and independence. How else could one account for the unreasonable criticisms being directed at Sri Lanka, coupled with efforts to whitewash the Tigers?

The powerful of the world now need to help out in the normalization process in Sri Lanka. A bright future awaits this country and the government could do with some constructive support. Likewise, the state should redouble efforts to weld Sri Lanka into one nation by making Sri Lanka a paradise of equity and social justice. It is through the latter means that stable peace would be enabled to reign in this country.