Although the war on terror unleashed by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka could have been ended in a few years, it dragged on for years due to foreign powers insisting on useless PEACE TALKS! I don’t think there ever was a terrorist group like the Tamil Tigers that would have knowingly kept fooling a gullible Sri Lankan administration, furthering their hunger for more killings.
All this started in July 1983, when the bodies of 13 Sri Lankan Army personnel were killed in Jaffna by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were brought to Colombo. This was the cause of the riots that occurred in Colombo, resulting in the 30-year war against LTTE terrorism.
In 1987 the Sri Lankan forces were almost close to capturing LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran but India intervened to prevent it. This was done to appease Tamil Nadu’s racist politicians who were adding fuel to the fire. India even initially gave military training to the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups for the same reason.
India’s intimidation using its Air Force, violating Sri Lanka’s air space followed by dropping food parcels to the terrorists compelled the then Sri Lankan President to order the withdrawal of Sri Lankan troops from the North. The next step of the Indian Government led by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was to force to an Indo-Lanka Peace Accord on Sri Lanka, compelling President Jayawardene to ‘invite’ Gandhi for signing the so-called peace accord. Under the accord ‘Indian Peace Keeping Forces’ (IPKF) arrived in Sri Lanka to monitor the situation in the North and enforce law and order.
In the North and East Sri Lankan soldiers were confined to barracks.
This shortsighted Indian policy eventually boomeranged on Rajiv Gandhi when an LTTE female suicide bomber blew herself up on the pretext of garlanding him in May 1991 when he was on an election campaign tour. Several others in the vicinity too died in the blast
On May 1, 1993 during a May Day Rally R. Premadasa the then Sri Lankan President too was killed along with many others by a suicide bomber in Colombo. In 1994 another suicide bomber killed UNP Presidential Candidate Gamini Dissanayake with several others when he was addressing an election rally in Colombo.
Despite all this carnage the farcical peace talks continued. When Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga became President, she made the mistake of appointing Vasantha Raja (later LTTE’s London spokesman) the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, the Government TV channel! But soon, he began speaking for the LTTE. He even gave interviews in Canadian networks after the government’s peace talks with the LTTE collapsed in 1995 when the Tigers resumed attacks on the Sri Lankan military.
In 1996 the LTTE bombed the Central Bank in Colombo, followed by the bombing at the Dehiwala Station. Many civilians died in both these terrorist attacks.
Thereafter an LTTE suicide bomber made an attempt on the life of President Kumaratunga herself though she had a lucky escape but lost one eye.
In spite of such unmitigated terror, peace talks still continued! They were facilitated by the Norwegian government’s ‘peace envoy’ Eric Solheim. The latter was rumoured to be a “drinking buddy” forming a trio with Adele and Anton Balasingham who were leading LTTE agents. The talks took place in Thailand, India, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. While these were continuing, an LTTE sniper assassinated the well respected Foreign Minister Mr. Kadiragamar, in the premises of his house in 2005. He was a Tamil who immensely contributed to expose the LTTE’s false global propaganda and earned the wrath of the Tigers.
At the end in May 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces crushed the LTTE, despite stiff opposition from Western politicians who were beholden to Tamil Diaspora votes for holding onto power. The troops showed their mettle. The so-called Tiger ‘Supremo’ Prabhakaran died along with his unrealized dreams of a separate Tamil State – the so-called Tamil Eelam.
It reminds us the words of the famous World War II U.S. General George S. Patton who said when addressing his soldiers, “Your duty is not to die for your country but make the enemy die for his.”
Written by Kandy Lamissi
(Adapted from an article by former Lake House Journalist, Janaka Perera)
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