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.'
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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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