Wake-up call to the West

Just when some sections of the West began to believe that they could go soft on the LTTE and its operations abroad, two vital news reports have emerged to shatter this complacency. One is the news that some pro-LTTE propaganda of Chennai origin, headed for Canada, has been seized by the local authorities in Colombo. The next is the information that LTTE inspired extortion rackets are thriving in the Netherlands.

These are wake-up calls which the West could ignore only at its peril and at that of the world. The West and the rest of the world cannot really fall into a slumber over the LTTE in the belief that it is over and done with. Nor can they continuously cling to the misconception that the LTTE, which in the view of some is an underdog, could be ignored as being ineffective now and as posing no dangers to law and order.

To be sure, the Tigers, as a military force, are no more in Sri Lanka, although anyone in this country would be naive in the extreme to believe that Eelamism was dead and buried along with this LTTE fighting machine. The two news reports just referred to are two bits of evidence of the flourishing nature of the LTTE ideology and of its consequences for law and order here and abroad. These developments could be merely the tip of the iceberg. The fact is that Eelamism and its defenders are very much up and about, both locally and internationally, and they are, indeed, working surreptitiously but at a hectic pace to regroup and to get back into contention once again. So-called transitional governments have also been set up.

May be all this is not news for the Sri Lankan authorities, but the West in particular would do well to sit-up and take notice and do something about it, without further ado. To the credit of the Lankan state it must be stated that it has not put down its guard against the LTTE, even as it marks the second anniversary of the crushing of the LTTE war machine in Northern Sri Lanka.

However, the degree of naivete of sections of the West over the LTTE and its doings is illustrated graphically - among other things - by the controversial Darusman Report which seeks to pillory the Lankan state but lets the Tigers off the hook with relative ease.

While Darusman and his team were feverishly and complacently filing their 'horror story' against Sri Lanka, the 'Tiger rump' has been apparently busy, not only reorganizing the LTTE's terror structures abroad but also putting their financial machinery in place with the intention of getting their anti-Lanka moves into top gear once again. The torment being visited on the 'Dutch Tamils' is just one bit of proof of all this.

Let not the backers of the LTTE in the West descend to the position of molly-coddling their Frankenstein monster. The LTTE poses a clear threat to law and order in the West and this fact must be countenanced by the relevant governments. All hell could break out in the West if the LTTE is not hunted by its law enforcers and put down for good. Besides, it is plain to see that the Tigers who are outlawed in many of these countries are back at their money-raising effort. It will be only a matter of time before they intensify their drug and human-smuggling machinations and operations.

However, those sections of the West who have been enamoured of the Tigers have been really in a state of somnolence and the Darusman Report is one proof of this. While it is plain to see from the Report, that the panel has been stretching every sinew and nerve to frame Sri Lanka, the LTTE has been attempting to get its act together under its very nose.

This is utter stupidity on the part of the LTTE's backers in the West. While the Lankan state has only been exercising its legitimate right of defending itself against an internal enemy, the panel, while ignoring the nonchalant violations of International Law by the high and mighty, is looking with scorn at Lanka's efforts at successfully quelling terrorism.

This could, indeed, be a case of rank envy and an attempt to needlessly victimize a law-abiding state. As we have said over the last few days, Sri Lanka must unrelentingly take its case to the world. It must stand tall amid these attempts to humiliate it and constantly expose the hollowness of the claim that Sri Lanka is wanting on any score.

If attempts to victimize Sri Lanka are to be wrecked completely and exposed as baseless, the issues facing all our communities have to be redressed systematically.

This is a task the Lankan state can no longer postpone. For starters, as we have pointed out, the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission have to be implemented on a fast-track basis.

Meanwhile, the completely laughable nature of some of the contentions of the Report need to be exposed by the Lankan state. It could be seen that the Report has had great difficulty trying to even pinpoint the exact number of casualties, the conflict in its last stages claimed. How, then, could any serious allegations be levelled against the Lankan state and its armed forces?

The Lankan External Affairs Ministry would need to do more to enlighten international opinion on the grave dangers posed to the world by the so-called LTTE rump.

There needs to be a kind of no-holds - barred opinion-moulding effort by it since LTTE sympathizers' minds need to be disabused on an urgent basis.

Besides, the inherently contradictory nature of moves by sections of the international community to take a soft line on the LTTE, while taking-up and supporting the Report against a law-abiding state, needs to be highlighted. Untiring efforts need to be made to defuse these anti-Lankan manoeuvres.