Government needs Anandasangaree as much as the people in the Wanni

By Ranjit Surendran and Roshanti Arasakularatne in Kilinochchi

(February 09, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mr V Anandasangaree is the legitimate voice of the people of Wanni. As a duly elected Member of Parliament for several years, he was the one who helped in the development of both the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts. He virtually knows the entire electorate as his own backyard.

The denial of his stature as the voice of the Wanni people was effected by Prabhakaran himself who wanted singers and dancers of his numbers that he would ground out like the proverbial grinder got his monkeys to do in market places. They to be felt proud to be the performers. Prabhakaran could not manipulate Mr Anandasangaree not even his own son, an LTTE enthusiast in Canada.

Based on their performance alone, how can the Tamil National Allegiance members speak for the people not even of Wanni where their lord and master was seizing young people to be suicide bombers and front-line gun fodder? We hope no attempt will ever be made to recognize the TNA members as the voice of the Tamils. They may even be culpable of the crimes the LTTE leader has committed against humanity.

Mr Anandasangaree has made a timely request to President Mahinda Rajapakse to give ear to them and convert them into action without any delay. He wants a list of people who have escaped from the clutches of the LTTE to be published regularly and where exactly they are now. The Colombo media will certainly oblige as we are at Sri Lanka Guardian too serving the Sri Lankan Diaspora worldwide. We have our people in action in Wanni. Friends and relatives of these people will be very relieved and even happy to take care of them.

The Dharmapuram suicide attack will certainly be a damper to such an operation and it is quite conceivable that Prabhakaran will send more such missions now than ever before being a wounded desperado on the run and not having the courage to follow his own orders to his cadres as to when to take the capsule. The sooner he takes, the more lives would be spared.

Mr Anandasangaree's second request is to allow the elders, the sick and the children to join their relatives who are prepared to accommodate them at their homes in Vavuniya, even elsewhere. He has in this respect referred to two incidents of persons admitted to the Mannar Hospital who have relatives in Vavuniya and overseas. They have been frantically contacting him and he has in turn got to task without any delay. He has always been very sensitive about his Wanni constituents.

His third request is quite just. The health of a democratic state lies in its transparency and Mr Anandasangaree wants the local NGOs, political parties and social organizations such as the Rural Development Societies and the community centers to be involved in refugee work. This will certainly counter the LTTE-inspired propaganda that youths are taken to unknown destinations, women missing, inmates treated like prisoners, low quality of food and such other reports to slander the government and project the image of Prabhakaran. Naturally there will be the risk of wrong persons taking advantage of this offer but this is part of the hazards of war and risk-takers for the good of the community are the kind of heroes the country will cherish often posthumously.

During the weeks prior to the final onslaught which became imminent, the LTTE made its own plan for the human shield. It was so well-organized that it had representatives who began to give false impressions to the people of Wanni where and how to move in the event of attacks on the LTTE. They were given the impression that they will be wiped along the way of the forces and that is how the armed forces encountered ghost townships and villages as they entered Kilinochchi and worked their ways towards Mullaitivu.

Those responsible for this groundwork included priests as well. They were more effective than the others. Instead of asking them to go to Vavuniya, which was the obvious place of refuge or into the Eastern Province, they were directed towards Mullaitivu and into the jungles around this town.

Some of those who have succeeded in escaping from the LTTE revealed how they were told to run for their lives and in which direction and even to the exact point from where they could be protected by the LTTE. The truth is the very opposite; the Tigers were seeking their shield in the people of Wanni.

The fact that about eighty to hundred thousand civilian people were forced to protect the Tigers was the consequence of a conspiracy in which some people who enjoyed the trust of the Wanni civilians were involved and betrayed them as indeed was their plan. We recommend to the government to investigate this ugly deed and bring these people to justice. This is not a difficult task because the people themselves will speak out and identify them.

Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapakse should recognize Mr Anandasangaree as the right man to help his government not only to get Wanni back to order through rehabilitation and rapid development but also as the legitimate voice of the people of the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts. As a representative of the people, his record is impeccable.

-Sri Lanka Guardian