Who is responsible for weakening the LTTE

- R Jayadevan

News reports give undue credit to the President of Sri Lanka as solely responsible for creating a situation for defeating the LTTE in the near future. The government machinery and the Tamil hating JVP and JHU are euphoric that defeat of the LTTE in the hands of the government forces is not far in sight.

A dissection to find the contributory factors causing the present predicament of the LTTE will reveal many important players effectively playing their due role that has helped the GOSL to falsely claim the undue credit.

First of all, credit for exposing the ugly face of the LTTE must go to the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe. By signing the peace agreement with the LTTE in 2002 when he became the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe knowingly or unknowingly opened the Pandora’s Box of the LTTE’s credentials to claim itself as the sole representative of the Tamil people. During the four years of relative peace since signing of the peace accord, the LTTE came under considerable exposure. The Tamil Diaspora which funds the LTTE came to know its true colours and the international community too found it is hard to work with the LTTE, as they were not interested in finding a lasting resolution to the conflict through peaceful means.

The Diaspora Tamils were exposed to the highhanded conduct of the LTTE and progressively started to criticise and distance itself from supporting them. Countless killings, kidnappings, threats and intimidations of the LTTE against its own people became knowledge to the Diaspora Tamils, which led to considerable dissatisfaction being expressed within the community.

During the peace time, many Tamils from overseas went to visit their relatives in Sri Lanka. Leaving aside the experience they underwent at LTTE checkpoints, they were able to hear first hand account of the aggression of the LTTE against the Tamil civilian population. This unexpected engagement was not helpful to the LTTE. When the Diaspora Tamils went to the LTTE controlled areas and Jaffna, they were pursued for money by the LTTE and some of them were put through harrowing experience. Even those who flew to Jaffna were followed from the Palali Airport in motorcycles and intimidated to pay large sums.

When the LTTE fundraisers knocked at the doors of Diaspora Tamils on their final war for Eelam project, many people slammed the doors and some even flatly refused to pay. The police too received complaints against the LTTE. The LTTE activists went on with their tried and tested methods of intimidation and coercive tactics without realising laws of the lands are becoming focussed on them.

LTTE’s aggressive and illegal campaigns reached the corridors of the governments, many non-governmental organisations and the media. The arrogance of the LTTE failed to realise the pressures that was building against it and attempted to confront them with its thick skinned approach. Human Rights Watch report on LTTE fundraising published in early 2006 opened the pressures on the LTTE. Following this, Canada and the EU effectively proscribed them. The US took definitive steps against the fundraisers and their arm procurers. The British government too decided get into action by implementing the ban on the LTTE.

The LTTE’s effort to head on challenge the governments to continue with its dictates earned the wrath of many countries, resulting in the arrests of scores of its leaders under terrorism charges.

The international governments realised the need to deal with the LTTE as its violent campaign in Sri Lanka was causing serious anti-social problems and debilitating effect on the Diaspora community. LTTE writ was suppressing the Diaspora community to such an extent that violence, threats and intimidation were becoming part of life for the Tamil people.

With the governments taking effective measures against the LTTE, its Diaspora fund bank started to dry up and the LTTE became acutely constrained without recourses.

Pirabakaran’s trusted man Col. Karuna packing his bags from the LTTE was another major contributory factor for the decline of the LTTE. Karuna’s leaving, progressively denied the eastern front for the LTTE. Sri Lankan forces for over two decades were fighting on many fronts to retake the LTTE controlled areas without success. Karuna’s departure was easy victory given in a golden platter for the government.

If the status quo pre 2002 remained unchanged for the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government would not have had hope in hell chance of claiming its subjective victories. The GOSL and the so called racist Red Boys JVP and its parallel Monk Boys JHU are euphoric about the present situation and are drum beating for the blood of the LTTE. Their agenda is not only the LTTE blood and is for every Tamils blood in the LTTE controlled Vanni for remaining with the LTTE. The government forces records on massacres and random shootings against the Tamil civilian population are unforgotten experience for the Tamils.

Any future government war in Vanni must be carried out under international scrutiny, as the government’s blood thirsty mission to suppress the Tamils will help extend its decades old anti-Tamil fervour to further its Sinhalzation policy.

[Source: http://www.independentsl.com/cgi-bin/newsscript1.cgi?record=2667 ]