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Mahaveer: duplicity of the West on terror

"The tolerance that is shown by Europe's 'liberal' governments and courts towards those who front for terrorist organizations, be it the LTTE or the LeT, the Taliban or Al Qaeda, only serves to underscore Europe's duplicity. While mouthing cliches on the need to fight terrorism, it allows bogus concern for human rights to ride roughshod over genuine concerns in countries (like India and Sri Lanka) which have to deal with terrorists. Ironically, Europe stands to lose the most because of this duplicitous approach.

"Germany allows the LTTE flag to be displayed at football matches and LTTE propaganda material to be freely distributed. The district court in The Hague may have held five Tamils guilty of extortion and other crimes to raise funds for the LTTE's revival, but that does not account for what 800,000 immigrant Jaffna Tamils are up to across the continent."

That is what Kanchan Gupta the well known Indian journalist, political analyst, columnist and activist wrote in a recent edition of The Pioneer. The spark that led to his piece was what he picked up at a grocery store in Berlin, Germany that specialized in Sri Lankan food. Kanchan Gupta picked up one from a stack of flyers printed on glossy paper, which he believes was meant for the store's Tamil patrons. What the flyers showed was 'a solemn' (though slain) chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in his trademark fatigues with a pistol in a hip holster against a black backdrop. The text, in Tamil, called upon all who 'thirst for a Tamil homeland' to gather at Dortmund for a meeting to pay homage to their 'national hero'.

European countries

That is the celebration of Mahaveer Day - the birthday of Velupillai Prabhakaran - in one city in Germany. But Germany is not alone in the celebrations that will be taking place from today in many European countries, as well as in the United Kingdom and across the Atlantic in Canada and the USA too. The countries that are in military alliances to carry on a War Against Terror, and those who have in fact banned the LTTE in their own countries as an international terrorist organization, see no problem in giving full freedom to celebrate the birth anniversary of the man who led what has been described by none other than the US State Department as 'the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.'

German Chancellor
Angela Merkel
Nicolas Sarkozy David Cameron

From colourful flyers to posters and larger cut-outs and well advertised debates and seminars, and a whole range of special media events have been arranged all over the West to mark Mahaveer Day this year. Of course, the going is not without its hiccups, as the situation in the UK where the venue for the main event had to be suddenly changed due to disagreements among leading organizers. And some Tamils have asked important questions about how all the money for these events are being raised, while others have questioned as to how the moneys collected for the Tiger tamashas are actually spent.

Pro-LTTE activity

These are matters for the Tamils in these countries who contribute to this obviously pro-LTTE activity to work out for themselves. But, the issue is not about the honesty of the organizers, but the politics and policies of governance of the countries where all this is taking place. What the leaders of these countries, in their so-called commitment to democracy and freedom of expression have forgotten or prefer to ignore has been well stated by Kanchan Gupta.

"Over the quarter century that he led a horrific campaign of terror for a Tamil Eelam, Prabhakaran set standards for terrorists around the world. The final battle against the LTTE was no doubt vicious and exacted terrible collateral damage, but in the end the evil that Prabhakaran and his organization had come to symbolize were destroyed root and branch. On May 18, 2009, Prabhakaran was killed while trying to escape the military blockade of Mullaitivu. He met a violent end, as did the entire top leadership of the LTTE.

"Not many tears were shed for him in Jaffna or elsewhere in Sri Lanka. If the Sinhalese were triumphant, the Tamil felt relieved. A dark era of death and destruction had come to an end. Sri Lanka had become the first and till now the only country to have won a decisive victory against terrorism. Such was the scale of its defeat that the LTTE became history in Sri Lanka. But in Europe, the LTTE survives, having morphed into various front organizations with seemingly misleading names."

Euro zone

The euro may be having its own problems today, but the Western governments that are affected by the crisis of the euro zone, are ready to deliberately ignore the promotion of terrorism within their boundaries with the free rein given to the Mahaveer Day celebrations.

They demonstrate an unashamed duplicity in their much vaunted battle against terrorism, their hollow claims of support for democracy in the developing countries, and in their call for accountability from countries such as Sri Lanka where terrorism has been defeated, while not showing any accountability of their own as to how they allow the promoters of terror to act with such freedom in their lands.

The answer may not be long in coming for the hypocrisy of the West. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said how shocked she was at the existence of a neo-Nazi terror group that had operated for several years, and killed nine Turkish immigrants and one policewoman. The extreme rightwing parties are gaining in strength in the West, as all political analysis shows, although they may not come within reach of power very soon. But the crisis that Western civilization is facing, as seen by the bailouts, fiscal haircuts and humiliating austerity being imposed on people, and an increasing lack of unity among European leaders, is providing very fertile ground for the germs of terror to be spread. The germs are already incubating in the West, among those who have been engaged in it in Sri Lanka, and funded it for so long from the West.

Immigrant communities

To look at the Mahaveer Day celebrations as just another birthday bash by some immigrant communities remembering a dead leader is duplicity that is wrapped in danger. The forces of terror, disarmed in Sri Lanka, but with much power all over the West, and especially in Europe, can be a bigger contagion than the looming economic crisis in the years to come; as the European system begins to crumble with both Merkel and Sarkozy being irrelevant, and David Cameron trailing far behind, in the midst of a larger crisis of their own making.

What the Mahaveer players in the West will be doing for the next week, beginning today, is to help spread the message of terror far wider, although coming from migrants and asylum seekers from what was 'this Other Eden' till their terror made it bloody.

These are manipulative immigrants with funds to buy up politicians, think-tanks and the media and there can be rightwing extremists, neo-Nazis, call them whatever, like the Norwegian who massacred 77 youth, who can do much with the funds, bomb making expertise, suicide jacket designing and propaganda skills they possess. In the Western duplicity on the battle against terror, Mahaveer Day will stand out as an invitation to terror amidst a civilization in crisis.

 

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