SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

                                                                Box 55292, 300 Borough Drive, Toronto, Ontario, M1P 4Z7 Canada

                                                                Website:   www.sluna.org              E-mail:   sluna@idirect.com

MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                            November 12, 2008

Internally Displaced Tamils Being Used as Human Shields by Tamil Tigers in Vanni 

The Tamil civilians who were virtually enslaved by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists for the last two decades within the usurped territory in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka are being held against their will by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are retreating in the face of retaliatory military measures carried out by Sri Lanka’s security forces. 

The Government of Sri Lanka has made arrangements to provide safety, security and all essentials to all of the displaced Tamil civilians in the neighbouring Vavunia district, which is roughly 30 km south of the LTTE’s stronghold of Killinochchi, and provided a security corridor for unhindered movement for the IDPs to reach the temporary shelters till such time as they may be rehabilitated in their former villages.  Meanwhile, the Government continues to ship adequate tonnages of food, medicine and other essentials for distribution to the displaced civilians by the Government officials in convoys ranging from 30 – 50 trucks each week, accompanied by representatives of the International Red Cross and the World Food Program.  The IDPs estimated around 120000 to 150000 have not been able to move en-masse to the safer location in Vavunia away from the battle grounds around Killinochchi and the town of Mullaitivu, as the LTTE are holding them for replenishing their fighting cadres who are being killed or injured at the frontlines, and as they are also valuable to the cowardly terrorists in the form of a human shield.

Crocodile Tears of the Tamil Tiger Tormentors:

It is both ironic and sadistic on the part of the LTTE that is keeping the Tamil civilians from venturing forth to safety where the Sri Lankan Government, UN Relief Agencies, INGO and NGO organizations are waiting to receive them with necessary facilities for their care, crying out loud about the suffering of the IDPs forcibly held by them and speaking of denied human rights. The supporters of the LTTE in Canada and the rest of the western countries that financed the terror and violence of the LTTE are also seen conducting vigils such as the ‘Canadian HART Campaign’, attempting to mislead the public living in lands that are many thousand miles away from Sri Lanka into believing their repeated and much publicized lies.

Final War of the LTTE which Backfired:

The LTTE which entered into a Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in February 2002 with the Government of Sri Lanka to seek a negotiated settlement of their perceived grievances using Norway as a peace facilitator, was ruled by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in 2007 of having violated the CFA on 3830 occasions including over 400 murders in addition to the forcible recruitment of 5800 underage children into their fighting units as reported by UNICEF, withdrew from the peace talks in April 2003.  Renewed talks in February and March 2006 in Geneva and Oslo were boycotted by the LTTE delegates who travelled there presumably to participate, only to give lame excuses and avoid resumption of peace deliberations.   The LTTE were never interested in peace but merely used the CFA to rebuild their forces and weapons stockpile in order to militarily carve out a mono-ethnic, mono-political, separate state in Sri Lanka exclusively for Tamils to be dominated by them.  Human Right Watch reported in March 2006 of extortion of members of the Tamil Diaspora on a massive scale for the purchase of weapons in pursuit of their goal. 

The LTTE launched their so called ‘Final War’ of secession in December 2005 killing over 200 members of Sri Lanka’s security forces personnel, and started on their well planned move to capture the Trincomalee Naval Base which was the closest port from which food and supplies were ferried by ships to about 500,000 civilians and a further 35,000 troops defending the Jaffna peninsula.  The initial step taken by the LTTE in their grand design was to conjure up a fake dispute by cutting off water from Mavil Aru in the east, depriving both irrigation and drinking water to 30000 farming families dependant on this source.  The Government had no alternative but to deploy troops to dislodge the LTTE forces to restore water to the affected people.

 This failed move by the LTTE was followed up by them with a lightning strike on Muttur within artillery range of the Naval Base of Trincomalee, and other military manoeuvres to stall the security forces. The counter attacks launched by the Government forces in retaliation resulted in the withdrawal of the LTTE, ultimately leading to their being completely defeated and driven out of the usurped territories in the eastern province. The region so retaken from the LTTE was speedily de-mined and restored to rehabilitate the displaced civilians, and thereafter holding both local government and provincial council elections in the east within one year of the defeat of the LTTE. 

The Government took the decision to formally withdraw from the lopsided and faulty CFA in 2007, and launched military strikes against the LTTE terrorists to rid the country of this festering canker which has robbed the nation of nearly 70000 lives and an inestimable amount of valuable property over the past 32 years.  The whole nation is supportive of the armed action against the terrorists who have been forced to retreat from many areas of the Vanni region, and are today restricted to a tiny area in the Killinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.  The LTTE is now a spent force and faces total elimination in the next little while. In desperation they sought another ceasefire which has been rejected by the government, and before long the Tigers will be called to answer for the countless crimes committed against all of the communities in Sri Lanka.

A look inside the Tigerland:

The quick advance by the security forces into Tigerland has given the world an opportunity to see the state of affairs inside the Tiger Chief Prabhakaran’s utopia.  Despite the LTTE dominating the area for a period of 20 or more years, there is no development to be seen anywhere.  The civilians live in abject poverty undergoing forced military training. Further, they are compelled to deliver one or two family members into the LTTE’s fighting ranks.  The funds raised through their varied criminal activities ranging from narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, passport racketeering, credit card fraud, extortion, etc., estimated at over Dollars 300 million annually by Jane’s Intelligence is used entirely for weapons procurement and enrichment of the top rung cadre.  Other than well laid out cemeteries to bury the brainwashed cadres who have sacrificed their lives, there were no sign of any development projects to assist the captive civilian population.

 Even boats and other material supplied by various INGO had been pilfered for the LTTE’s use. Bags of rice shipped to feed the civilians had been used in the fortification of bunkers whilst concrete meant for house construction had been diverted for constructing bunkers spread throughout the Vanni.  Equipment belonging to Norwegian People’s Aid had been taken by the LTTE to construct 10 foot deep trenches and 20 foot high earthen barriers extending over 20 km to obstruct the advance of the security forces.  The role of the INGO and NGO serving in the Vanni needs to be fully investigated, as there appears to have been some degree of collusion in aiding the terrorists whilst the civilians were neglected.  The so called de-facto mini-state established by the LTTE in the Vanni only taxed and exploited the captive civilian population, whilst the Government of Sri Lanka continued to provide the needed food, medicine and all other requirements, and paid for the education and medical facilities, and the whole range of government services including salaries, pensions and other allowances totalling several billion rupees, even though the LTTE continued to wage war against the state causing immense death and destruction.  The truth will soon be out, and those who have throughout been engaged in a campaign of disinformation and supporting the terror machine of the LTTE will have to take responsibility for the enormous tragedy that they unleashed on Sri Lanka including members of their own Tamil community, and have something better to give back than the bogus propaganda and crocodile tears.

Yours very truly,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Honorary President