Sri Lanka - the only nation to have defeated the LTTE & ended Terrorism

Shenali Waduge

No congratulatory messages from world leaders – No applause for Sri Lanka’s military – No mention for the world’s biggest humanitarian rescue operation by the armed forces that rescued almost 250,000 Tamil civilians from LTTE clutches - No plaudits for the Only Nation to have crushed the world’s worst Terrorist movement….Did we not say that barring a few friendly nations, world leaders remained hostile towards Sri Lanka preferring instead to play fiddle to the LTTE’s "liberation" "discrimination" "genocide" tune. Sri Lanka has proved the world and these world leaders wrong and as the nation continues to celebrate and rightly so there are a few key messages that need to be highlighted.

What is left for a country to do when its State land is illegally held by an armed group – which imposes taxes upon the people who live in the area, which doesn’t think twice about killing those who speak or act against them (their own people), which having no volunteers ends up conscripting by force anf even creating a separate wing for child soldiers, which makes millions of dollars through illegal and illicit dealings internationally but doesn’t use a penny for the welfare of the people who they had to eventually use as human shields?

A nation cannot have two Governments. A nation cannot have two armies and a nation cannot have two national flags. Will talks and negotiations ever concede the territory illegally held by the LTTE back to the State? Talks, negotiations and ceasefires are meant for compromise and absolutely nothing has resulted from any of these discussions held in Sri Lanka or overseas even with the biased participation of moderators and peace facilitators like Norway! The refusal for compromise only deduces that the LTTE was never interested in a political compromise but interested in nothing but a separate state which in its lengthened and delayed forms provides the perfect means to run a terrorist-cum money spinning enterprise the perfect ploy for the continuity of the movement and the assurance of VIP status and recognition and the means to hold not only a country to ransom but even thousands of people. This is the reality that lies behind a movement that has prevailed in Sri Lanka for almost 3 decades.

The confusion that has arisen from this debacle is the unfortunate decision by Tamil political parties who have chosen to hide under the skirt of the LTTE making the international community and the world in general to think that the separatist movement and the political grievances are one and the same. The fault also lies with the general Tamil public (not the destitute Tamils who have been hellhole by the LTTE) but the others who lead comfortable lives very much amongst the Sinhalese and who silently watch the lies by LTTE preferring not to speak the truth for the presence of an "ethnic" situation provides them means to apply to leave Sri Lanka and eventually obtain permanent residency in those western countries and bring the rest of their families as well.

How else would 800,000 Tamils be living in the West and why are some now feverishly worried that their foreign terror campaign may be over – thus the attacks on Sri Lankan High Commissions and temples abroad – they realize their days of terrorizing non-LTTE Tamils is soon to be over and the nations that silently watched LTTE crimes take place because their Governments had indirect gains will now come down heavy upon them and many soon are likely to end up in foreign jails for these countries will have no reason to curry flavor with the LTTE propagandists since now they have no clout whatsoever in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE allowed this confusion to prevail as it suited its existence and the ethnic-based Tamil political parties tagged alongside the LTTE’s lines of thought for it would ensure their lives were saved. Neither the LTTE nor these Tamil political parties would ever say what these grievances are! It is pointless speaking of or referring to things that took place decades ago – for bridges to heal things that are irrelevant need no repeated reference. Its relevance becomes a necessity if it is repeated – there is no Sinhala Only Policy taking place in the present, there is no legal or constitutional provisions that pinpoints to Tamils specifically and deny any rights to them….the question that need to be straightforwardly asked of these Tamil political parties as well as the general Tamil public is where are the exclusive denials to Tamils (in the present) when Tamils can live anywhere they like, when Tamils can own property anywhere they like, when Tamils can go to public schools, private schools, international schools are Tamils denied education, when Tamils can enter medical colleges and even top the marks list where has been the discrimination?

When Tamils can join the public service and private sector climb the corporate ladder, hold professional memberships and portfolios and even join any of the political parties that are not ethnic-based and secure even cabinet portfolios where is the discrimination or denial to Tamils…..Has Sri Lanka not had Central Bank Governors who were Tamil?, Inspector General of Police who was Tamil, Chief Justice who were Tamil, a Foreign Minister who was Tamil?.... moreover merit should take precedence over ethnic-based allocations. Have the 250,000 Tamils not suffered enormously even living in a defacto Tamil Eelaam….look at these people who have been saved…they are in appalling conditions and the LTTE, the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora are totally responsible for their plight.

In the milieu of this unhealthy-marriage of sorts with Tamil political parties and Tamil people in general choosing to remain mum over LTTE atrocities a considerable number of Tamils ended up having to suffer under duress. These are the 250,000 Tamils that the Sri Lankan army has rescued – when the world says these people are malnutritioned – they are so not because the Government has denied them food, but they are fleshless and bones because the LTTE has stolen the food for their own consumption. Many of us has noticed the high numbers of pregnant women and little children and it only suffices to assume that the LTTE were ensuring they had enough stocks of child soldiers for their gullible terror movement and provides a baseless conclusion to the ceasefire agreement entered upon in 2002 – what a farce of an agreement that only left a nation having to be humiliated by a piece of document that provided the means to bring in shipments of arms and weaponry as Sri Lankan officials were left only to silently watch with orders coming from the top with instructions to allow these shipments to go untouched to LTTE territory.

Our army has a task to unearth thousands more of these weapons and arms brought during the ceasefire agreement and all those party to that treachery that took place should have sleepless nights for their role in the deaths of the innocent lives that were lost because of their silence.

What needs to be continuously reiterated is that within this hyped up grievance scenario targeted against the Sinhalese it was a pathetic reality that Tamils outside the war zones and Tamil political parties chose to side with the LTTE while the 250,000 or more Tamils ended up bait for the 3 decade long existence of the LTTE, the existence of Tamil leaderships and for other Tamils to go abroad…. the Tamil Diaspora stands guilty of not sending a penny for the IDPs while they descended in large numbers on the guise of giving tsunami aid to bring replenishments for the LTTE – some of these LTTE front organizations that disguised themselves as Charitable Organizations are banned – Tamil Rehabilitation Organization , World Tamil Movement. the unhealthy tie ups to foreign MPs is enlightened through their association with these “charity” organizations and the puzzling question of why these MPs would speak for a terrorist movement banned in their own countries shows how these very MPs have misused public expenses…should we be surprised at their association with the LTTE….these MPs who have no ethics and are no better than the LTTE….we all know how to judge people like Mrs. Clinton, Miliband, the French foreign Minister, the foreign lawyers who were paid handsomely by these terrorists………and politicians who could easily be bought over for money and all these people and their nations have the audacity to tell Sri Lanka what to do….can the US accept their role for killing almost a million Iraqi people through their occupation without UN mandate?

Is that no different to the damage the US is doing in Afghanistan and now even in Pakistan where a democratic Government prevails but has to silently watch as the US carries aerial attacks on supposed Al Qaeda or Taliban? Can any foreign military boast that it has completed a military operation as well as saved thousands of innocent lives….in an operation where we are dealing with the world’s most terror outfit there are bound to be deaths…no military operation can take place without deaths but without appreciating that the military has saved almost 250,000 people countries media channels enjoy promoting small numbers of death picturing a human catastrophe situation. Are these people who have been saved not been looked after and fed daily….think of the logistics that goes towards feeding people three meals….looking after the children…keeping them occupied through the day is no easy endeavor & it is the army who first took up the task of cooking the food & feeding the people – not many even praised the army for their caring.

In the renewed calls for "post-war peace" – national reconciliation the world must now open their eyes wide and clear and the pretence must stop. The Government to its credit did right to ignore the false and fabricated moves by US, UK, EU, Norway to provide oxygen for a movement that provided side benefits to those Governments.

Calling a spade a spade ensured that a 3 decade conflict unnecessarily dragged on ended in 3 years – the responsibility for the 3 decade situation falls upon many & even some of Sri Lanka’s leaders in the Opposition are accountable for many preferred to use the conflict for their gain – political and monetary. In this scenario that the present Government chose instead to go against the practices of former leaderships and openly declare it will militarily defeat the LTTE is commendable for we have reaped the results in just 3 years – the megalomaniac is dead having become an instrument of his own movement for he eventually ended up just a guineapig of those providing the funds and those providing the armory – without this he was no better than a jungle thug. In actuality he was just taken for a ride by the Tamil Diaspora the LTTE lobbysists who live luxurious lives using a pretentious "ethnic conflict" scenario and who have no requirement for even a separate state as they are unlikely to ever make a home in Sri Lanka even if it were separated.

Amidst this there are some others however who become tagged to the LTTE movement who actually believe in a separate state for Tamils – this group of thinkers are those who picture a larger Eelaam with even Tamil Nadu included – a final homeland for the 80million Tamils of the world. Yet, this is a scenario that India will never allow therefore when even Tamil Nadu barring its atypical politicians has clearly showed through their vote that they do not desire a separate homeland (in Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka) we can be happy to look forward to a peaceful future. We are extremely happy that India has a good solid Government for it nullifies the pressures brought up by coalition partners….things look good for India and Sri Lanka…and we can never forget friends like China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Libya & even the South American nations who stood by Sri Lanka in its darkest hours.

Things are clear for those who can view things clearly – in drawing up any changes we need to ensure that we do not formulate policies that will create new problems and it is precisely for this reason that we need to firmly accept that Tamils living in the South – the Tamils in Jaffna will have different problems to those Tamils in the East – mostly related to infrastructure, development etc – all not exclusively applicable to only Tamils, the Sinhalese and Muslims who also live in the East will have similar problems….there are no Sinhalese and Muslims in the North as the LTTE either chased or killed those who had lived and worked there. In a developing nation such as Sri Lanka the majority of the people who belong to all the ethnic groups will naturally have problems to complain about – better education, better schools, healthcare, better roads and bridges, employment etc….is the Government expected to solve these issues first or cater to the very different problems that the richer Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils together are likely to pinpoint?

Governments come to power by the strength of the rural vote base – these are the people who remain the forgotten lot but it is from these people that even the armed forces are made up of. Similarly, it is from the 250,000 Tamils that the LTTE were able to year after year replenish their Tiger cadres…is it a surprise that the women being rescued are either pregnant or carrying small children…these are the children who will end up brainwashed and sent to fight the Sri Lankan armed forces. Year in and year out this has been the fate of these people…so for the country to rescue them finally and eliminate the LTTE men and women who subjected these people to inhuman standards of living is something that must be repeatedly mentioned and the army to deserve appreciation.

Therefore the Government must actually take into account what changes need to be brought to the lives of these people FIRST….Starting off by compromising on shortcomings that Tamils who comfortably live amongst the Sinhalese first will lead to dire repercussions and will only lead to further discord amongst the other communities for they too will have similar problems to project.

Therefore it is extremely essential that our politicians identify that changes need to take place in the North where over 250,000 Tamil people have been denied education, proper healthcare facilities, employment, loans to help them upgrade their livelihoods, better homes….these were denied to the Tamil people by the LTTE, silently watched by other Tamils in Sri Lanka & artfully orchestrated by Pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora. These people whom the army has rescued have been the guinea pigs throughout the LTTE’s reign – is it a surprise that realizing the reality of the situation it is the Sinhalese who came forward to provide food, clothing anf other essentials when it became apparent the Government was facing difficulty with pressures coming from the West to declare a ceasefire so that the LTTE would be able to regroup as it has done in the past – No Western nation or Government did anything to help rescue these people except declare that a ceasefire was needed knowing very well that the LTTE was keeping these people as hostages, they did not even force the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora to allow these civilians to flee the LTTE and even the UN need to now feel ashamed for its role & the mannerisms of its representative heads who provided false statistics and attempted to create a humanitarian disaster situation.

For years the UN has been compiling reports year after year on LTTE child soldiers…nothing was done against the LTTE...the decades of reports are of no use now that the LTTE has been wiped out…its evil leaders are all dead including Prabakaran who has been shot alongside his two key men – Pottu Amman and Soosai…poetic justice for a killer who has killed thousands and ruined the lives of thousands of others. As crackers are heard in all corners of Sri Lanka – a nation that is jubilating that the army has eliminated the curse of terror those LTTE backers who now emerge to project a guerilla scenario should perhaps come to terms with the pretence that they have lived with and accept their follies and emerge a better citizen by accepting that Sri Lanka’s decision to militarily defeat the LTTE has been a right one – lives have bee lost especially those of our brave soldiers but at least their parents can be proud that they died in the final battle that has rid Sri Lanka of LTTE terror – only Sri Lankans will know the magnitude of the jubilation they are feeling, only Sri Lankans will feel in their hearts the relief that we can move forward without the shadow of LTTE behind us….Sri Lanka has endured, Sri Lanka has weathered the storms and Sri Lanka will prevail a better, more prosperous and peaceful nation. Terrorism will never be allowed to enter our lives again.

"This is my home and no one can defeat me in my home"

- Asian Tribune -