Tamil Tiger Terrorist Attacks Heighten Tensions In Sri Lanka

The Tamil Tiger Terrorists have carried out 76 separate attacks during the last six weeks from December 2, 2005 to January 14, 2006 mainly targeting Sri Lanka’s security forces causing the death of 78 service personnel and further injuring 107 others. The civilian casualties in the same period numbered 36 killed and 30 injured, most of whom are Tamils considered political dissidents by the LTTE, whilst 8 Moslems and 2 Sinhalese are amongst those gunned down. The details of the incidents could be viewed at the following website, the url for which is http://www.spur.asn.au/After_signing_the_so-called_JM.htm

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has as usual denied responsibility for the attacks on the armed services, claiming that it is the work of disgruntled civilians demonstrating their anger against the security forces. These denials have been totally rejected as the civilians would not be resorting to claymore mine attacks nor would they have explosives laden boats for suicide attacks at sea. However, it is true that a section of the civilians including students have been instigated to attack the security forces with grenades given to them by the LTTE, and such civilians used as human shields for armed attacks by the terrorist cadres on military checkpoints and camps with the specific intention of provoking retaliatory attacks that would result in civilian casualties.

The LTTE has violated the Ceasefire Accord (CFA) from the day they signed it in February 2002, with the total violations exceeding 7000 up to now, including the killing of over 550 civilians and security forces personnel, abduction and forced conscription of over 3500 children, and a host of human rights abuses such as torture, assaults, threats, extortion. etc., as reported on by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, UNICEF and Human Rights Watch.

Unarmed LTTE cadres were permitted to freely move into all parts of the island to engage in political activity in order that they may transform themselves from a purely military outfit into a political party ready to take its place within the democratic framework in terms of the CFA, although ironically all others were debarred from entering the areas illegally controlled by the LTTE according to this lopsided accord drawn up with the help of the Norwegian peace facilitator. The expected transformation of the LTTE into a democratic political entity during the internationally supervised peace process never took shape, with the LTTE taking advantage of the free movement allowed to it to establish armed cells everywhere capable of causing serious damage to public security and order.

The upsurge of violence and the threat of resumption of hostilities by the LTTE has made it necessary for the state to urgently carry out cordon and search operations in the interest of public safety, to flush out suicide bombers, pistol gang members, trained assassins and any hidden arms and ammunition in the capital city and elsewhere. The security forces are under orders to use force only in self-defence as the state is obliged to uphold the ceasefire even though an undeclared war has been unleashed by the terrorists. Faced with confrontations orchestrated by the LTTE and daily attacks causing death and serious injury to servicemen giving rise to mounting tension, there have been allegations of a few incidents of human rights violations on the part of the armed forces which are being investigated by the authorities. The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) in their Briefing Number 5 indicated that some of these show signs of LTTE involvement with the intention of pinning the blame on the security services. We too join other Sri Lankan communities in calling on the authorities to speedily investigate all allegations, and to prosecute those responsible with the least delay.

The security forces are required to maintain law and order in most trying and difficult circumstances by putting their lives constantly at risk in the face of provocative attacks by these brutal Tamil Tiger Terrorists, and uphold a non-existent CFA which is being blatantly violated by the LTTE on a daily basis. They refused to renounce violence and terrorism, and have used the peace process to buy time to establish a fascist dictatorial administration in the un-cleared areas of the Vanni presently controlled by them. They kept away from the Tokyo peace talks in June 2003 which would have required them to commit themselves to a human rights code, and avoided further talks thereafter. The LTTE reneged on the peace deal mediated by India in 1987 and have unilaterally broken off peace talks on two other occasions, as they are pursuing the same goal of a separate mono-ethnic Tamil state by force of arms, which goal has eluded them for a period in excess of two decades

We are dumbfounded to say the least as to how the international community which does not negotiate with or tolerate terrorism aimed at their interests, made up of the Norwegian peace facilitator, the SLMM (Nordic Monitoring Mission), and the major powers who are the co-chairs of the Sri Lanka peace process, are powerless to restrain the terrorism of the LTTE, (with some among them including Canada allowing the Tamil Tigers to fundraise and carry on propaganda within their jurisdictions) other than making periodic calls asking the parties to resume the farcical peace process. The Asia Times reported in their On Line edition of December 22, 2005 that the very same LTTE was smuggling weapons for use of the Al Qaeda and Taleban in the Afghan theatre against NATO forces operating there in exchange for Afghan heroin and money, vide url http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GL22Df01.html . The international community should realize that they cannot be selective in the treatment of terrorists, and the resulting destabilization in any region will have a debilitating impact on other regions as well.

Yours very truly,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Honorary President