| by Nesan
Shankar Raji
( October 12,
2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I recently attended former BBC Correspondent
to Sri Lanka Frances Harrison’s book release “Still Counting The Dead” at
Amnesty International’s HQ in London. This book is an account of the final
stages of the bloodiest of civil wars in modern times of 2009 fought in the
island paradise of Sri Lanka between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) and Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces backed by the Governments of India,
Pakistan, Israel, Britain, USA, China and Russia which also included member
states of the European Union (EU).
The key panel of
guest speakers at this event were Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group
(ICG), Ms. Yasmin Sooka, one of the UN’s panel of experts from South Africa who
was party to the UN’s report on the events leading to the end of the civil war
of 2009 in Sri Lanka as instructed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and
finally former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim who was party to brokering the
peace talks and acting as a negotiator between the Government of Sri Lanka and
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
There have been
a number of articles published in the media via various news channels and
therefore I do not wish to digress in relation to the event on the whole...
Equally I being a Sri Lankan Tamil appreciate, that emotion’s amongst the Tamil
Diaspora is still at an all-time high over the high number of civilian
casualties suffered by our community leading to the decimation of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) within Sri Lanka.
However I feel that one has to analyse the root cause leading up to the
deaths of so many civilians during the final stages of the civil war. Having
had thorough experience in applying the “Root Cause Analysis” methodology, one
can only attribute the cause of such high volumes of civilian casualties to the
key decision making processes of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
including what sections of the Tamil Diaspora would deem “their admirable determination”
(which was clearly flawed…) and the arrogance of its paranoid megalomaniac
leader late Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
For sections
within the Tamil Diaspora who were supportive of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) to then masquerade as though the leadership of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were never at fault and clandestinely attempt to
make a scapegoat out of former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim is futile and
just goes to show the level our sections within our community would go to in
order to “point the finger” and defame someone who had wholeheartedly only
tried his level best to broker peace in Sri Lanka and negotiate a controlled
surrender of LTTE cadres and it’s leadership including the release of Tamil
civilians used as “human shields” by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) to avoid total annihilation by Sri Lanka’s well-trained and armed forces
backed by the Governments of India, Pakistan, Israel, Britain, USA, China and
Russia which also included member states of the European Union (EU).
Just to educate
sections within the Tamil Diaspora and the international community on a few
actual facts…
I accompanied my
late father Shankar Rajee (Senior leader, politburo member and military
commander of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS) in New Delhi when the
terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord were being negotiated between the Tamil groups
(LTTE, EROS, PLOTE, TELO and EPRLF) and the Sri Lankan Government. I recall
being asked to stay in a hotel room for long hours whilst negotiations were
taking place at the Hotel Ashoka. Thereafter I accompanied my late father with
fellow EROS leaders and our cadres from the Indian Air Force Tambaram Airbase
to Jaffna to take part in the arms handover after the signing of the Indo-Lanka
Accord of 1987. The arms handover of EROS took place at the IPKF’s camp in
Palali, Jaffna led by EROS Commander for Jaffna Comrade Shan and EROS military
Commander for the East Comrade Haran in Batticaloa. Thereafter EROS had entered
into the democratic mainstream as with EPRLF, PLOTE and TELO.
As many of you
were aware the LTTE too were party to the Indo-Lanka Accord which they
themselves aside from EROS, PLOTE, TELO and the EPRLF chose to break away from
and “get into bed” with late President Premadasa with the clandestine agenda of
kicking the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) out of Sri Lanka. In the end
President Premadasa too like India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi suffered the
same fate… The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) too lost more than 1,000
soldiers at the hands of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam backed by the
Premadasa government. It is strongly advised for readers to refer to the “Jain
Commission report” published after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
After the Thimpu
talks of 1985 of which all the Tamil groups (LTTE, EROS, TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF)
were party the Government of India singled out the LTTE and invited them to the
“Bangalore talks” omitting all the other Tamil groups which gave an early
indication to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and fed into the ego
of its late leader Prabhakaran that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
could possibly represent the Tamil Diaspora alone.
Thereafter the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) systematically wiped out all deemed
threats to their interests i.e. the massacre of over 200 cadres of the TELO in
1986 (our own people) and the assassination of EPRLF members including Comrade
Padmanaba in 1990 in Kodampakkam, Madras which I remember so clearly living in
Kodampakkam with my father at that time. It was only 2 months prior to this
assassination of EPRLF leaders that I met some of those members in London
accompanying my late father Shankar Rajee at a Wimpy restaurant, which was
their usual rendezvous point.
The fact of the
matter must be accepted by our people and that is the day the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) embarked on a campaign to target our own people beginning
with the TELO, TULF, EPRLF etc… this invariably marked the beginning of the end
of our struggle and played into the hands of the bigwigs of New Delhi and its
intelligence wing RAW.
The reality is
India will never allow “Eelam” to become a reality for the Tamil speaking
people of Sri Lanka and this is something that all the movements (LTTE, EROS,
PLOTE, TELO and the EPRLF) knew very well. Unfortunately for late Vellupillai
Prabhakaran, he would never had settled for anything less than “Eelam” and
therefore any proposed solution or ceasefire for that matter was always only
ever going to be what I would term as “interim”.
The Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) eventually became a multi-million dollar Tamil
rebel outfit and the LTTE chose to play on the naivety of a large section of
the Tamil disapora with their mass propaganda campaign, PR etc… enabling
Prabhakaran to become soon become an icon and effectively de-facto national
leader. The reality is look where this has got us today?
Former EROS
senior leader K.V. Balakumaran, my father late Shankar Rajee, Kuhanendran
(alias EROS Kuhan) of EROS and many other individuals including the likes of
Norway’s Erik Solheim warned the LTTE leadership many a time to change their
strategy and approach but this fell into deaf ears thanks to the sheer
arrogance of late Vellupillai Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and others.
The irony is
that sections within the Tamil Diaspora who were pro-LTTE are still fixated on
an “Eelam” goal when the truth of the matter is this will never materialise,
not if India and other countries have anything to do with it. The world has
changed post 9/11 and it’s high time our community came to terms with it.
Former Norwegian
Minister Erik Solheim tried his level best to convince the LTTE leadership and
late Prabhakaran and failed miserably. He deeply regrets this to this very day
and the deaths of so many civilians haunts him as well. The truth is he is not
at fault… The Tamil Diaspora and elements within the LTTE leadership including
their remnants today are at fault and should accept accountability as well for
what happened to our people in 2009.
Sections within
the Tamil Diaspora leadership i.e. the British Tamil Forum (BTF), Global Tamil
Forum (GTF), Trans National Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) and others
continue to bicker amongst one another because of their huge egos and ill
advise our community till this very day. They too are to blame for the
miserable situation being faced by none other than our community back home.
Whatever the solution for our people, it must be home-grown and not
remote-controlled by the Tamil Diaspora abroad. Our leadership has to emerge
from within our community in Sri Lanka. I for one do not endorse the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) as I see them being a by-product of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and poodles of the New Delhi establishment and
Washington.
 I recently attended former BBC Correspondent to Sri Lanka Fr...){kind=link}