New Dream for Tear Drop Island

Now that the dreaded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, which was all out to set up a separate Tamil state in the predominantly Tamil speaking North and East of Sri Lanka, is crushed the nation is celebrating the victory while northern Tamils remain disillusioned.

There have been numerous sessions of peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE aimed at reaching an amicable solution to the   ethnic conflict that devastated this paradise   island .As proved subsequently the LTTE attended all these talks and even entered into agreements  but to breach it, as their main goal remained the establishments of separate state.

During the last peace talk between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in Switzerland, a senior Sri Lankan government minister happened to meet the LTTE’s late theoretician Anton Balasingham in the corridors of the conference hall. When the minister said “see you” with a   smile, Balasingham had retorted dismissing the minister in a clear demonstration of arrogance and sarcasm with these, words” See you in the battlefield”.

However, Balasingham and his leader Prabhakaran failed to realize that, fortunately for those who wanted a united country and unfortunately for the separatists, the world has changed a great deal and 2006, when this meeting took place, was different from July 1983 when the world sympathy was with the Tamils in the aftermath of the anti Tamil riots-the work of Jayewardene government’s thugs though   the majority community   was wrongly blamed.  

As expected, the last peace talks collapsed due to LTTE’s uncompromising demands. The government was convinced that the LTTE would never accept anything other than a separate state and the occasional ceasefires were nothing but deception to rebuild its armed forces in preparation for war. 

Inevitably, war broke out and the two sides met in battlefields only for the LTTE to face a crushing defeat and its entire leadership, including its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, being wiped out, as reported, on Sunday 18 May, 2009. 

The often raised question is ” how did this happen? ”

Only a month ago  defeating the LTTE militarily would have been wishful thinking in view of the lethal weapons they possessed  and their terror networks  backed by their ability to unleash carnage. However,   it had happened and the LTTE is history.

Many factors which were in favor of the LTTE during its early days turned against them today while, on the other hand, several factors which were unfavorable to the government then turned   in  its favor now.

To begin with the nation as a whole was fed up with the LTTE and its terrorism. People in general wanted a peaceful environment. Thus, the entire nation was behind the government when it launched its military offensive against the LTTE in mid 2006. Sri Lankan troops were backed up with moral and material support from India, China, Pakistan and Russia and blocked the LTTE supply lines.   

Once the death of Prabhakaran was announced  the island wide response was spontaneous  jubilation by Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and all others .People  all over the country were seen dancing , offering sweets and meals in their moment of unspeakable joy.  

This carnival atmosphere was simply due to the terror and fear the LTTE unleashed.   The frightening situation has been such that, in the capital city of Colombo, up to last week one was not sure of returning home alive once leaving home for their normal day-to-day activities.

Political commentators and columnists are unanimous   that the LTTE brought this destruction upon itself by failing to understand the geo political changes in the local, regional and international scenes. Prabhakaran only depended on   violence   and failed to exploit the political opportunities on several occasions to ensure a better life for people whom he claimed he represented.

 During the early days of the LTTE, it was India, antagonized by the then egotistic President Jayewardene’s shortsighted pro American policies that trained, armed and financed the Tamil militants. Indian support was such that it even threatened to militarily interfere to protect the Tamil militancy and foisted the Indo-Lanka Pact on   Jayewardene’s throat pricking his pride. With Indian support, the LTTE had   uninterrupted access to the   sea and freely smuggled weapons, food, medicine, fuel and almost every possible item. 

Most Western and other countries in the world accommodated the Tamils who migrated in the aftermath of the 1983 anti Tamil riots. They became the most important source of finance and some reports stated that the LTTE’s annual income was around   300 million dollars.

The defeat of IPKF, the fourth largest army in the world, with the support of the Sri Lankan government, around March 1990 was an unprecedented boost to Prabhakaran .The LTTE came to posses battle hardened cadres willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Tamil Eelam with the Trincomalee as its dream capital.

Prabhakaran’s stock was at its peak with his donors, Tamil diaspora and the media. 

In his moment of triumph,   Prabhakaran failed to go for a political solution. Instead, he thought Eelam was within his grasp and unleashed a wave of terror. He ethnic cleansed the entire   northern Muslim population and Jaffna Muslims   were chased out within two hours. They were allowed to carry only the cloth they wore   and Rs 150 and  their entire wealth was looted. They still languish in refugee camps in appalling conditions. In the east, he indiscriminately killed Muslims, grabbed their lands and subjected them to untold miseries. He killed President Premadasa who helped him to oust Indian forces from Sri Lanka.

Thus, they failed to exploit many positive factors to build up a better society within a united country as their prime target was nothing but a separate state   at any cost ,knowing very well that Sri Lankan people and the government would go to any length to prevent the creation of such an entity.

For example the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement provided them almost everything and almost a third of the island’s territory under their control. In its wake, a separate state started to emerge in the north and east with a parallel administration,   separate legal courts, police force, tax systems, customs, post offices, a bank and all other such establishments while Kilinochchi was becoming the unofficial capital with Colombo based diplomats and others including European union’s Chris Patten visiting there and meeting Prabhakaran despite his crime records. The LTTE had an army of its own, a navy and even a nascent air wing.

In another development, Prabhakaran’s second in command, Karuna, from the eastern province,   broke away with considerable number of cadres dealing the deadliest ever blow to the LTTE. As proved subsequently, the LTTE lost the east and its decline began with Karuna’s departure.

Despite all these developments, did the LTTE stop their atrocities and try to get   into mainstream politics. NO. Instead, they continued to antagonize the Sri Lankan government with more than 5000 ceasefire violations.

Over the years, LTTE’s terrorist activities came to be a source of embarrassment to many countries in the west that welcomed Tamil migrants and helped them settle. There were also reports of LTTE involvement in arms, drug and human smugglings that brought them huge sums of money. 

So much so United States, United kingdom which backed the Tamils to the hilt from the very beginning, Canada, France and even the “European Union together with Australia declared LTTE a terrorist organization. So far, 32 countries banned LTTE as a terrorist outfit and imposed restrictions on the LTTE’s front organizations and their fund raising activities.

A  Canadian police   report   into the   fundraising efforts of the Tamil Tigers revealed that the LTTE subjected Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada and other Western countries to intimidation, extortion and even violence to ensure a steady flow of funds for its operations. The drying of fund and the ban on the LTTE as a terrorist outfit had their own negative impact on their activities and unlike during the early days, there were no more volunteers. 

Apart from the government determination to eradicate the LTTE coupled with the support many countries, it should be borne in mind that dwindling funds to purchase arms, ruthless manslaughter and enforced child recruits and oppression of the Tamils are the factors that spelt out the death knell for the LTTE.

Though the LTTE claimed to represent the Tamils ,it always used Tamil population as human shield and even towards the end, they held hundreds of thousands starving innocent Tamils as hostages and fired at those who tried to flee for safety. Judged by the pictures of his lifestyle, Prabhakaran and his family lived in luxury while the people starved.