By

Udaya P. Gammanpila

Minister of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, D.M. Swaminathan had tabled a wonderful Cabinet paper at the last Cabinet meeting. He had sought Cabinet approval to pay compensation for terrorists who died and injured during the war. If the proposal was approved, it would be a bad precedence in encouraging terrorist activities. No nation has paid compensation for terrorists. The USA did not pay compensation for the Al Qaeda terrorist who attacked the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001. Similarly, India did not pay compensation for Kashmir Guerillas who blasted bombs in Mumbai in 2008.

Compensation typically means payment of money as a recompense for loss, injury or suffering. It contains an element of admission of guilt. The government pays compensation for victims of a bomb blast as they suffered as a result of government’s failure to provide security for the general public. Have we committed any crime on the terrorists to pay them compensation using our tax money? Although terrorists have committed crimes against us, we have done no wrong to them. Hence, the government must release all prisoners in prisons before payment of compensation for the terrorists as nobody has committed grave crimes worse than those of terrorists.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera met leaders of Global Tamil Forum (GTF) including Fr Emmanuel and Suren Surendran in London. S. Sumanthiran of the TNA, Eric Solheim, special peace envoy of Norway and representatives of South African government joined him in the discussion. According to unofficial sources, the subjects of the discussion were introduction of a federal model and investment of funds of Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka.

Global Tamil Forum

The GTF is a proscribed organization in Sri Lanka because of its involvement in terrorism and separatism. In terms of Article 157A of the Constitution, any engagement with such an organization is a severely punishable offence. Who empowered Minister Samaraweera to initiate such an illegal activity? What action does the President take against the Minister? The President should realize that when he leisurely spends hours for choosing slippers, the separatists are quite busy with their separatist agenda.

According to media reports, it has been decided at the discussion to hold a seminar and a carnival of Tamil separatists in Colombo. This recalls us ‘Pongu Tamil’ held in Colombo in September 2003 under the patronage of the LTTE. The first function was held in Vavuniya. The participants sang songs about emerging Tamil Eelam, sacrifices made for the so-called liberation struggle and the so-called military brutality. They invited the people to join hands with them to establish Tamil Eelam. There was a huge military boot prepared by the organizers at the function site. In the end, females were invited to spit at the boot. Youths were invited to attack it. Finally set fire to the boot. It was a psychological operation to eradicate respect and fear in people’s mind towards the military.

After the first Pongu Tamil in Vavuniya, it was subsequently held in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Nuwara Eliya. Finally, they came to Colombo in September 2003. It was held at the Public Library Hall. There was a clash between Sihala Urumaya activists and the organizers. Although Sihala Urumaya activists were arrested by the police, the organizers stopped the function thereafter. Through my own experience, I must warn that if the government is planning to hold a function of Tamil separatists in Colombo, it will be an invitation for a disaster.

LTTE insurgency

People are fully aware of the role played by the global Tamil community in the LTTE insurgency. They financed the LTTE to kill and wound tens of thousands of innocent people. The LTTE destroyed billions of rupees worth national assets with explosives and other logistics provided by the community. Hence, people are genuinely angry with the GTF and other allied organizations and the function will be a forum for the people to express their sentiments such as sorrow and anger for the first time.

The TNA, which was the political wing of the LTTE, openly supported the present government at the last presidential election. Hence, the government is now under obligation to appease the separatist forces. The above three instances are the latest such actions taken by the government. There is a long list of actions taken by the government in the post-election period.

The previous government had barred the Tamil Net website as it was instilling the separatist ideology into Tamils’ minds. The present government withdrew the restriction within 24 hours of coming to power. The banned items for the Northern Province were reduced to three from 16. The Military Governor of the Northern Province was immediately replaced with a civilian, meeting a long overdue demand of the TNA.

Allen MacRae, who was banned to travel to Sri Lanka was allowed to visit the country to shoot an anti-Sri Lanka movie. Donald Gnanakone who was also under a travel ban by the previous government, has been in Sri Lanka for the past five months building a huge NGO network in the North. He is mobilizing northern people making use of his social work through the NGOs. This can be used against the nation at any time considering his past track record.

Int’l network

Jane’s Defense Weekly of August 2008, estimated the annual income generated by the international network of the LTTE to be about $300m. Human, drug and weapon smuggling, money laundering, antique smuggling, retail Tamil shops, television channels, fuels stations and share market investments are the main income sources. Before 2009, they had two main expenditures. The maintenance of their pseudo government with police and Judiciary setup is the first expenditure. The maintenance of the war machinery such as weapons, explosives, medicine and military related equipment was the other expenditure. Both these expenditures ceased to exist in May 2009. However, income sources are still intact.

The Tamil separatists presently use their massive income to secure the loyalty of influential politicians in Sri Lanka and abroad, diplomats of international organizations, journalists and NGO activists. Nevertheless, they still possess huge amount of excess funds which have been invested in different ventures. It was recently discovered a plan to bring Sri Lankan economy under their grip by investing their funds in strategically important ventures in Sri Lanka. As an important step of this plan, all arrangements are underway to establish a commercial bank under the name of ‘Bank of Jaffna’. Further, negotiations have been commenced to acquire all hotels and restaurants owned by military forces in the North by a pizza outlet chain in the United Kingdom.

If ventures in our strategically important economic sectors such as banks, insurance, energy and transport are under the control of the separatist forces, the results will be more disastrous than establishing Tamil Eelam. Hence, the government should be more cautious about its dealings with Tamil separatists. Almost everybody who helped the LTTE in the past was destroyed by the LTTE. Rajiv Gandhi, Ranasinghe Premadasa, A. Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran are a few to name.

Some Ministers try to pretend as nationalists by fighting with Minister Swaminathan for his Cabinet paper for the compensation. They shout at Minister Samaraweera for his dealings with the GTF. They conveniently forget that unless they brought Maithri – Ranil government, nothing in this sort would take place. Fortunately, the public still remember who triggered the Tiger Awakening by bringing President Sirisena to power.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today