Sri Lanka Government should not agree to another Cease Fire Agreement.

by Charles.S.Perera

(November 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The war against terrorism in Sri Lanka has to go on. At the present stage when the terrorist Prabhakaran is cornered into a live or die situation, a ceasefire would be a lease of life for further terror, brutality, murder by suicide bombs , claymore explosions, and many more deaths of civilians. And the people of Sri Lanka will continue to suffer for many more years to come without knowing what the out come of it would be.

It would certainly be a hard and a sad decision to continue the "war" against terrorism, but un fortunately there is no going back on it now, as far too many soldiers have given their lives to see and end to the terrorism in their bellowed motherland. Therefore, to declare a cease fire now would be to make in vain the death of thousands of those youths from every village in the South of Sri Lanka, who were drawn into the battle against terrorism.

The war is not an alternative to a peaceful dialogue. But a dialogue is between two "warring" parties. If one party refuses to have a dialogue, or agrees only for a semblance of a dialogue, without laying down arms, merely to take time to gather force, to collect weapons, and plan new strategies to go back to "war" again, there cannot be a cease fire.

The battle against terrorism should end only when Prabhakaran, Pottuamman, Soosai and the rest of the terrorists surrender to the army, or are killed in battle. The Government Forces have carried out an exemplary "war" against terrorists, avoiding harm to the Tamil civilian population, kept as human shields by the terrorists.

The often repeated report that the civilians are going deeper into the terrorist held areas to avoid the Government Forces and bombardments, have been proved wrong in the absence of any proof of large numbers of civilians who have been killed in the bombardments, or artillery fire of the government forces.

In this respect one should take account of the article under the caption " Tigers release photos of Kugnchuppavanthan battle" appearing in the TamilNet website on 25 November, 2008. The article accompanies seven photos, two of which show six dead soldiers on the ground, with two terrorist cadres looking on in one, and two terrorist cadres walking past the same six dead bodies of the soldiers in the other. There is another photo with four dead bodies of soldiers and nine terrorist looking on. One other photo is of a terrorist cadre using a heavy artillery. The rest of the photos show, an identity card of a dead soldier, and shells, and military accessories seized by the terrorists.

There have been no photos, in the TamilNet- the website of the terrorists, of Tamil civilians killed in bombardment, or artillery fire by the Government Forces. If there had been any TamilNet would have made maximum use of the photos of them to draw the attention of the International Community, and the Tamil Nadu Tamils.

On the other hand, there had been large numbers of civilians from the terrorist held areas, streaming in to areas liberated by the government forces, asking for protection and shelter. There is proof of this in the numerous images that have been published in different websites.

Therefore, if the Indian Government is looking for proof of the statement of the President of Sri Lanka, that he had asked the Government forces to avoid the Tamil civilian population in their bombardments and artillery fire, there is ample evidence for that, in the failure of the terrorists to produce substantial proof of death to Tamil civilians.

India which is also an object of terrorism, and where many deaths to people and damage to property had already been caused by several bomb explosions by terrorists, should be careful in attempting to stop the Government of Sri Lanka from its successful attempt to free itself from terrorism. Sri Lanka's problem to-day, would be India's problem tomorrow.

Therefore, India should not give in to Karunanidhi, whose ruse is to save his terrorist friends who helped him to see the end of an Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi, who dismissed him twice from his office of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Karunanidhi's other political partners had seen through his ruse, and noted that his call for a cease fire just now, is not at all to help the Tamil civilians, but to pay his debt to Prabhakaran for eliminating Rajiv Gandhi. That my be why they did not participate in the last all party meeting Karunanidhi had called for. - Sri Lanka Guardian