What was said three years ago about dealing with the LTTE

(May 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Note by the Editors of Sri Lanka Guardian: We are grateful to Udara Soysa for the sentiments he has expressed about brave Tamil writers to whom a united Sri Lanka is precious and have bravely taken up the gauntlet to confront whatever that goes against that ideal.

Friends: Here below is what our fellow writers at Subidcham said 3 years ago commenting on an excellent feature by the Colombo journalist Tisaranee Gunasekara! This report was filed at Subidcham and Independent on June 2006! I personally remember uploading this article at the Independent server! Those were memorable days!

While we pay tribute to our Sri Lankan Forces, we must also play tribute to the brave Tamils who at a difficult time came forward with the first multi-barrel attack against the Tigers with their powerful weapon, the pen.

The growth of anti- LTTE voices in mid 2000 from the Tamil community definitely strengthened the hands of the government. Again my salutations to the brave Tamil writers of Subidcham.

Take the Tigers in their den and put them on the defensive

Satchi Sithananthan, Subidcham

In an excellent insight into the recent Trincomalee flare up, another effort by the LTTE at butchery to provoke communal riots of the 1983 type, Colombo writer Tisaranee Gunasekara concluded as follows:

'It is necessary to respond to Tiger attacks - not by targeting Tamils but by taking the war into the Tiger territory, with selective attacks on important Tiger targets something the government can do with the help of the anti-Tiger Tamils. The Tigers do not care about the safety of the Tamil people; but they do care about their own skins; therefore that is the way to teach the Tigers a lesson.'

This feature which appeared in The Academic is also being presented by us by the courtesy of this website.

Tisaranee Gunasekara has pointedly said that the Tigers do not care about the safety of the Tamils, a perennial factor so true of this terror outfit those parades as the saviours of the Tamil community. The Tamils who have always been aware of it but were terrorized into silence by threats, intimidation and murder are now increasingly expressing their stand and it is for the Government of Sri Lanka to support their stand. But for the courage of some in Canada, the LTTE would not have been banned there.

What is needed now as Tisaranee Gunasekara has pointed out is to take the Tigers in their den and not to allow them anymore to commit provocative acts especially in areas of mixed inhabitants in the East.

First such move should be to free the A9 Kappang Highway and declare all acts of tax collecting and other fees laid on visitors to be illegal. The Kondavil Nanthavanam headquarters of the LTTE that has been functioning as an exhortation point must be closed. There is no need for an internationally banned terror organization to conduct political activities on any Sri Lankan territory.

There are several ways to handle operations against certain selective Tiger facilities without exposing the civilian population to any danger. No foreign organization should be able to talk for the Tigers. They can speak on behalf of the Tamils but not the Tigers because the Tigers are the worst enemies of Tamil interests.

Having said all these, it must be emphasized that it is the responsibility of the Government of Sri Lanka to help support and promote the interests of the Tamils and offer a just solution to the ethnic crisis.

-Sri Lanka Guardian