http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/02/12/fea03.asp


Accountability must start with LTTE for killing their own cadres
by Shenali WADUGE
A LTTE bomb
blast
The world needs to be reminded again. Sri Lanka was a victim of terrorism.
The LTTE was an agent of terror and it was against LTTE terrorism that the Sri
Lanka Armed Forces were fighting. If the West, the UN and all other
“humanitarian” organisations wish to ignore the LTTE’s spate of killings over
three decades, so be it. Yet, when pressure is being exerted on a sovereign
country completely ignoring punishing the LTTE for its acts of terror, the
people of Sri Lanka will not remain silent.
Starting with the killing of the Jaffna Mayor in 1975, followed by killings
of numerous Tamil policemen by the LTTE. To-date the LTTE has killed 24 Tamil
academics and intellectuals, 54 Tamil Government officials and over 80 Tamils
involved in some aspect of politics. This excludes the thousands of Tamil
civilians that have been killed and maimed by the LTTE as punishments for
defying LTTE orders. Is this the Tamil Eelam that was supposedly meant for Tamil
people? Can Tamils who have witnessed these LTTE killings upon their own people
not fear to live in a Tamil Eelam if it means death if they go against Tamil
Eelam policy? So please answer – why did the LTTE kill Tamils?
Thereafter the LTTE went after civilians. The first attack took place in 1984
at the Dollar and the Kent Farms in Weli Oya. It was here that the LTTE
slaughtered 62 unarmed men, women and children.
The LTTE was running a defacto governance of its own – LTTE police, post
offices, banks, schools and even media stations.
LTTE’s administrative headquarters was in Kilinochchi. The Channel 4 video
attempting to discredit Sri Lanka’s Government portrayed one Issipriya as an
innocent journalist. It turned out she was a member of the LTTE and her rank
“Lt. Col.” and was working in the Voice of Tigers. Her husband Sri Ram was also
a member of the Sea Tigers and died in May 2009. Channel 4 has been fooled by
LTTE lobby and its channel stands guilty of discrediting its image for money.
ABC news Australia too fell prey and had to face the embarrassing truth that the
“innocent civilian” that they depicted was in fact a trained LTTE cadre.
We would like to ask one simple question. Is the world telling Sri Lanka to
allow a Tamil Eelam where LTTE does nothing but KILL? Has the world forgotten
years of LTTE terror killings? 146 pilgrims were slaughtered in the holy city of
Anuradhapura in 1985 (May 14th). The LTTE carried out these killings posing as
Sri Lanka military personnel wearing the uniforms of Sri Lanka Armed Forces.
One by one these innocent people were hounded down and shot dead. Is this
what people are to expect in an Eelam that the West is attempting to carve out
in Sri Lanka? May be the West has forgotten the Aranthalawa massacre in 1987. 33
young monks and their mentor were not just killed but were mutilated depicting
the heinous nature of the LTTE. We have enough footage of all these gruesome
murders and they should be publicly displayed for all to see and never to forget
who the LTTE is.
LTTE bombs claimed thousands of
lives
LTTE’s attack on civilians is as heinous as one could imagine. What “freedom”
movement butchers people, cuts men, women and children to pieces? The more the
dead the LTTE was able to exert pressure on the Government. So they killed and
killed and killed – Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims – Race, Ethnicity, Nationality
did not matter to the LTTE. This is the type of murderous logic the LTTE used.
Yet, the infamous Darusman Report says “LTTE is a disciplined organization”. Can
the three panelists that prepared this report explain to us what they mean by
the word “disciplined” and connect that with the scores of butchering by the
LTTE through three decades? We want answers. May be it was their “discipline”
that made them kill over 10,000 innocent civilians and injure an equal number.
May be it was their “discipline that the world did nothing about LTTE’s
recruitment of over 5000 children turning them into child soldiers. May be it
was due to their “discipline” that the LTTE violated the famous 2002 ceasefire
over 3,830 times? It is getting a bit tiring to have the West and even the UN
and NGO lobbies whitewashing the LTTE completely ignoring its brutal record.
The West, the UN and all other humanitarian organisations need to remember
that if they are working towards the betterment of humanity – they must not be
taking the side of the murderers. This is exactly what is happening. LTTE has
the monetary ability to buy over people. We do not doubt that at all. They raise
funds nefariously so they can decide to use this money to buy over, win over and
influence people. Hillary Clinton was 'bribed' but she had the presence of mind
to return the money. Now Obama is also be 'bribed' and we are yet to hear of his
returning the contributions from Tamils for Obama. Similarly, every person who
has an official say in Sri Lanka has been approached by the LTTE – from their
statements, their actions we the citizens of Sri Lanka know how big the
“influence” has been. We are not a nation of fools.
We have seen the LTTE carry out all types of killings – on buses, trains, on
economic targets, on villages and places of worship, on VIPs and VVIPs &
even on foreign leaders. But we would never have thought that despite the LTTE
killing Tamils, it would resort to killing its own men & women who pledged
their life towards a movement that they were brainwashed into accepting as being
the Eelam promised by a megalomaniac leader called Prabhakaran.
Eyewitness accounts now emerge of how 49 disabled LTTE female cadres were
asked to board a bus, they were served tea and without their knowledge the doors
were shut and the bus was blasted. This was despite several of their relatives
appealing to the LTTE to allow them to take the wounded LTTE cadres to their
homes. What the LTTE did in killing their own wounded cadres is a gross
violation of international humanitarian laws and goes against the Geneva
Convention. There are eye witnesses and we are waiting to see what the West will
say about this latest act of treachery by the LTTE.
Thiruchelvan Waratharasa of Wattarappalam, a witness of LTTE atrocities
during the final phase of the war and eye witness to the killing of 29 civilians
by the LTTE which included his son and his sister's son. Waratharasa was rescued
by the army on 16th May 2009. Waratharasa had witnessed the gruesome mercy
killing of 49 disabled female LTTE cadres who were put into a Rosa bus given a
cup of tea and then unknown to these LTTE cadres the bus was set on fire by an
LTTE member Nadumaran – killing all inside the bus. The incident took place on
8th May 2009 at Demuniwagala.
Another witness – Kumanan from Puthukudirippu was also one of the displaced
and when trying to flee from the LTTE, his wife got injured while fleeing and
his aunt died after being shot by the LTTE.
Soon the Tamils, not those living comfortably in foreign shores, or those
living happily in the South of Sri Lanka amongst the Sinhalese, but the Tamils
that suffered because of the LTTE will begin to feel free to tell their story.
These witnesses will be able to nullify all the false documentaries that the
LTTE is developing using technical expertise. Truth will always prevail and
sooner than later the people will begin to come out & tell the world about
who the real LTTE is.
That the West and other humanitarian authorities are biased goes without
saying. They did pittance for all of the heinous crimes committed by the LTTE.
Now when a sovereign government has eliminated terrorism they are questioning
the Government when they have never questioned the LTTE. We want to know why?
Why is the world not punishing the LTTE for its crimes? We demand the world
take action against the LTTE for all its crimes. The LTTE leader may be no more
but there are enough of second phase leaders – the TNA espouses to take over the
Eelam struggle, there are the GTF, the BTA, ITRO, TGTE – all these people can be
held accountable for the killing of innocent people by the LTTE over the years.
If accountability is the word the West loves to use – we demand accountability
by the LTTE for its heinous killings. Accountability must start with the LTTE
terrorists for it is they who kick started the rampage of killings in Sri
Lanka.