Crushing LTTE, The Indian way

“President Rajapaksha has stated the government’s two-pronged strategy towards defeating the LTTE vis-a-vis militarily wipe out the LTTE and open up space for political dialogue for lasting peace, is the only way to bring in peace. Whichever way anyone looks at it, it is not different from what Mr. Sen had also said at the UN.”

by Nacholibre

(October 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) India’s permanent representative to the UN, Mr. Nirupam Sen, addressing the 61st session of the UN General Assembly on 28 November 2006, had made it clear what India’s policy towards dealing with terrorism is. After merely two years of Mr. Sen making that statement on behalf of India, it may be appropriate to revisit it amidst the growing pressure from Tamilnadu on Delhi to intervene and stop the ongoing military operations to crush the LTTE terrorists.

Following is an excerpt from the Ambassadors statement.

“Making deals with the Taliban will bring neither peace nor security: the people support democratization and therefore a long-term solution to the problems of the Afghan people is to be found in a judicious mixture of using force against extremist elements, and providing credible and sustained development opportunities to build upon the growing constituency for peace and development, not only in Afghanistan, but across the region. Inaugurating the Second Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described violence in southern and south-eastern Afghanistan, which undermines the security of Afghanistan and the development effort, as a challenge which is “a collective responsibility”. The swamp of terrorist insurgency cannot be drained till the stream feeding the swamp dries up or is at least reduced to a trickle. An important regional and international duty that devolves upon all of us to firmly and decisively act to eliminate not only the agencies of terror themselves, but to stop their backers, prevent incitement of terror and interdict the sources that provide terrorist groups arms and finances. This, I might add, is a responsibility that we have all undertaken to bear, not only in the World Summit Outcome Document, but also in the last General Assembly session in the annexure of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy."

In yet another strong message at the UN in July 2008, Mr. Sen did some hard talking to the on the Afghanistan issue. Mr. Sen opposed the recent peace deals between the Pakistan government and the tribal leaders who are known to provide shelter and support to the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In this more recent instance, he had said the following;

‘"We can't succeed if we send mixed signals through bargains for temporary and local peace while the rest of us contend with the consequences of such deals"

The ambassador has spoken quite boldly and he has spoken quite truthfully in both the occasions, which shows in no uncertain terms that India is clear and of firm resolve about what should and should not be done in the face of the threat of terrorism. He was absolutely spot on with his statement, which implies that no country in the world could afford to pacify terrorists despite whatever concerns they may have, because the consequences of the inability to identify and destroy terrorism in its elements can easily destroy a country, grow like a cancer, and ultimately gobble up a whole region.

If it is appropriate for India to explain what her theoretical stance against terrorism is, India cannot back track on it and find fault with Sri Lanka for putting those words spoken by the Indian ambassador to practice by fighting with the LTTE with an aim to militarily defeat terrorism and usher in democracy to the liberated masses.

The present Government of Sri Lanka has been doing exactly what the India’s ambassador has advocated as sine-qua-non for defeating terrorism, to the very letter. Mr. Sen has not said that Al-Quaeda and Taliban cannot be militarily defeated nor has he said that talking peace alone would do the trick. Sri Lanka too has been fighting with a firm resolve and with an wavering commitment to eradicate the LTTE menace from its soil. President Rajapaksha has stated the government’s two-pronged strategy towards defeating the LTTE vis-a-vis militarily wipe out the LTTE and open up space for political dialogue for lasting peace, is the only way to bring in peace. Whichever way anyone looks at it, it is not different from what Mr. Sen had also said at the UN.

Hence, at this juncture, India cannot afford to turn her back on what she has been advocating at the UN level and try to intervene and stop the successful military operations against the LTTE. It has to understand that Sri Lanka is trying to dry up the LTTE terrorist swamp and eliminate all the backers that strengthen the hand of the terrorists in various guises. In addition, if India is to be true to its own words at the UN, it will not only have to stand up against the Tamilnadu backers of the LTTE but also give material and moral support to Sri Lanka to eliminate the LTTE threat from the region for good.

After all, Sri Lanka is just doing what India has preached and, for that she should be grateful as the big brother of the region. India had spoken boldly and spoken truthfully in laying out the strategy for defeating terrorism at the UN assembly. Only time will tell whether she had also spoken honestly or otherwise. - Sri Lanka Guardian