Amnesty to Tamil Tigers who surrender!

By Malin Abeyatunga

(May 09, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I recently read in the print media that the Minister for Disaster Management & Human Rights Mr. Mahinda Samrasinghe saying that the Government is ready to grant amnesty to LTTE cadres who surrender. Is he serious? Is he kidding? This will be like granting another life line for them to recoup and recommence terrorist activities at a latter stage. Don’t forget that the Tamil Diaspora is still financially and logistically strong. They have funds to take this war for another couple of decades if we leave the Tamil Tigers free.

The remaining Tamils in the NFZ who are currently confined to an area of 4sq.km can be separated into four categories. The first category is the hard core “do or die” Tamil Tiger terrorists, be they are top rung or the lower ranks. The second category will be adults men & women who have been forcibly recruited by LTTE without their consent or willingness. The third category would be the under aged children conscripted by LTTE by force. There was a girl of 14 who surrendered told the media that she was given AK47 and grenades and put on the front line to fight against the armed forces. This only one case of many. The fourth category is feeble older men, women, children and infants (who will be of no use for LTTE).

Before granting any amnesty to LTTE cadres who surrender, every effort should be made to check to which category of the four mentioned above they belong to. There is no harm, if the government considers granting amnesty to the last three categories who had no choice but definitely not to the first category consisting of hard core Tamil Tiger terrorists. The first category has blood in their hands of massacring innocent sinhale villagers by families, killing civilians in bombing public transport, public and religious places, Commercial buildings and even fleeing civilians from LTTE captivity. Captain Ajith Gamage who was in the front in the operations of helping the fleeing Tamil civilians was shot dead by a Tamil Tiger camouflaged as one of them. There is also no moral justice whatsoever ever to grant amnesty to the Tamil Tiger Terrorists of the first “do or die” category and by that we are not doing any justice to the remaining kith and kin of the thousands of demised soldiers and the innocents who were killed by Tamil Tiger terrorists. If we give amnesty to hard core Tamil Tigers on surrender, we are asking for trouble by making room for the LTTE movement to protract for another ten years or so. Even if the top rank of LTTE is captured dead or alive, there will be another leader born or to take over. We should not forget that LTTE started with a rag tag gang of few members and without any financial support at the beginning., but now they have a well established financial backing from the international Tamil terrorist Diaspora.

Even Daya master and George master who have already surrendered should not be given any mercy and should be brought to justice as they have blood in their hands albeit they talk like saints now. In order receive mercy, they will come out with various false intelligent reports in an attempt to put the armed forces on the wrong track to save their LTTE brethren. However, our forces cannot be hoodwinked any more.

Let us show no mercy to Tamil Tigers even if they surrender but bring them to justice for waging a war against a legitimate Government and killing thousands of innocent civilians. The innocents who were brutally killed by Tamil Tigers will rise from their graves if their murderers are given amnesty. Imagine the trauma of the remaining kith and kin’s of the 639 policemen who were summarily executed by LTTE getting amnesty if surrendered. Karuna and Pillayan are no saints and they also should be dealt with according to the law of the country at some stage. I wish the idea of granting amnesty to Tamil Tigers if surrendered is only a GIMMICK by the Government to hoodwink the LTTE biased international community.

-Sri Lanka Guardian