Source: Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order - Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Republished for information and discussion only. This report does not necessarily reflect the views of Mike Hitchen Consulting. i On Global Trends bears no responsibility for the ideas and opinion expressed by contributors other than the publisher.
News reports from London said at least 100,000 people marched in London on Saturday to demand an immediate end to Sri Lanka 's military offensive against the dying terrorist organization, LTTE that is holding over 70,000 men, women and children as human shields.
Waving the red Tiger flag of LTTE, a banned terrorist organization in Britain, and crying about an invented genocide, protestors demanded an end to the offensive and called for a ceasefire while their brethren, being held as human shields by the very same outfit languished in a hot sandy strip of land fearing their so-called saviours' wrath and guns if they tried to leave the desolate land and seek life elsewhere.
Why does the Tamil Diaspora call for a ceasefire now?
According to the FBI Tamil Tigers are among the most [http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html] dangerous and deadly extremists in the world. The LTTE was never interested in peace but craving out a mono ethnic separate homeland that bows down to the cult of its leader's personality. They used each and every ceasefire in the past 25 years to build up their outfit. Every ceasefire ended with a new attack on the Sri Lankan people or with a new military offensive.
During the Norwegian government brokered ceasefire period from 2002 -2007 Tigers used billions of dollars, about 200- 300 million dollars a year according to Jane's Defence Weekly, funnelled willingly or unwillingly by the sections of Tamils living outside Sri Lanka, to procure sophisticated lethal weapons including artillery guns, surface-to-air missiles, RPGs, anti-aircraft guns, to build extensive underground facilities and earth bunds, to acquire aircraft and submersible vessels and to set up high-tech communication facilities.
LTTE's intent to use the ceasefire, from its inception, to strengthen their outfit was clear when they prevented the Tamils in the Northern region from voting in 2005 presidential elections. Blessed with the leeway given to it by the ceasefire LTTE was sufficiently armed and manned and ready for the Eelam War I . It had no interest in continuation of the peace process.
Since the election of the new government, LTTE escalated ceasefire violations and boldly forced the government into the war by closing the Mavil Aru sluice gates that supplied water to 15,000 families and damaging over 30,000 paddy lands in Eastern Province. LTTE unfortunately miscalculated the Rajapaksa government's resolve and finally faced a humiliating loss which freed the Eastern region from the Tiger terror and went downhill since then to the 20 square kilometre land of sand in the north-eastern coast now they are boxed in.
Every time they get weakened the LTTE calls for a ceasefire and they are calling for a one now as they are decimated to less than 500 cadres, cornered in a strip of land surrounded by the Sri Lankan Army and the Navy and running out of ammunition while all their sophisticated weaponry purchased with the billions extorted money from Tamils around the world, are in the possession of the Sri Lankan Army.
Sections of the Tamils sympathetic to the LTTE living outside Sri Lanka (Diaspora Tamils) who funded the LTTE with their hard-earned money is in panic now as their dreams of a homeland lay shattered with no hope of reviving unless of course they can save the remaining leaders from annihilation by the Sri Lankan forces. They need the ceasefire so badly, not for the sake of their people who are trapped but for the sake of resurrecting the organization which is on the death row now.
If it is the people they care then the LTTE can let them leave on their own free will and the conflict would be over within a day. But that would be the end of the LTTE too and the Diaspora has to cling on to the separate homeland dream and cannot let that happen. The moment the conflict zone is devoid of civilians the Sri Lankan forces are ready to finish off the terror that plagued the country for three decades. The LTTE and the sympathetic Diaspora are fully aware of the outfit's fate and by all means fighting to stop the demise.
The call for ceasefire does two things. It encourages the LTTE to hold onto the civilians so that it can buy the time to form strategies, as they know that the Sri Lankan Army will not be launching offensives for the fear of hurting civilians. The ceasefire ruse along with the make-believe genocide story, the Diaspora and LTTE believe, can hoodwink the international community further into supporting their goals and to impose restrictions on the Sri Lankan government's effort to free the civilians and finish the war.
There is another hidden motive in the Diaspora's efforts to stop the war against the LTTE terror. A substantial number of Tamils living in Canada, Britain and other European countries are asylum seekers. They live in these countries on the pretence that the conditions in Sri Lanka are dangerous for their lives. If the Sri Lankan government finishes the LTTE terror and establishes the democracy in the North as it did in the East these asylum seekers will lose their asylum status and have to repatriate. That is a stronger motive for their outcry against the Sri Lankan government than the plight of the civilians.
The latest tactic of the LTTE is to scream that hundreds of civilians are killed daily by the Army shelling, a charge that Sri Lankan army vehemently denies. In fact, the Army has not fired any shells since they captured Puthukkudyiruppu and entered into the narrow land strip, as it was logistically impossible to fire heavy weaponry in the short range.
Certain humanitarian organizations and news agencies citing the so called government health officials, who, while shells are falling within few meters of them, provide daily phone updates on civilian casualties in the no-fire zone, have given credibility to the LTTE's misinformation campaign which is geared to agitate the international community including officials of Western governments against the Sri Lankan government.
If the LTTE was genuinely concerned about the civilians why did they herd the civilians like cattle to wherever they went in the first place? LTTE had so much time and opportunity to set the civilians free before they were forced into the government declared no-fire zone. Even now the LTTE can simply allow the people to seek the safety in the government-controlled areas instead of hiding behind civilians. LTTE does not need a ceasefire to do that. The Sri Lankan Army has opened up several safe routes for the civilians to enter into the cleared areas.
What international community, especially Western governments should realize at this time is, a ceasefire, even temporarily, would prolong the misery of the civilians. Instead of a call for ceasefire, if the genuine concern is for the people, the LTTE should be urged to free the civilians as the United Nations and the United States have done. They should be urged to lay down their arms and surrender. Even if a ceasefire is declared there is no guarantee that LTTE would allow the civilians out of its grip. As long as the Diaspora is chanting the ceasefire and genocide mantras the civilians will suffer at the hands of the LTTE.
Nearly 60,000 Tamil men, women, and children have braved the LTTE fire and already walked into the government controlled areas. They would not have made that trip if there were genocide as LTTE and the Diaspora claim.
