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Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 05.05 GMT |
India obliged to assist elimination of LTTE,
says Subramanian Swamy |
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The time is at hand for India to effectively
contribute to the war against terrorism and
in promoting democracy by targeting the LTTE,
says former Indian Law Minister Subramanian
Swamy in an article in the New Indian
Express today (15).
He gives five reasons why India has an
obligation to assist in the elimination of
the LTTE. The first reason he gives is the
need for India to atone through actions to
disband and unravel the LTTE for training
the LTTE in the 1980s. Killing of over 1000
IPKF personnel during the Premadasa regime
is his second reason. Third is he killing of
Rajiv Gandhi and the fourth is interference
in the internal affairs of India by
financing stooge political parties and
training extremist organizations. The fifth
reason hegives is the conduct of various
criminal actions in India by the LTTE as a
part of an international terrorist network.
The text of the article:
Political Parties in the shadow of LTTE
Subramanian Swamy
15 Oct 2008
Recently there have been hectic efforts to
get the Government of India to pressure the
Sri Lanka government to end the ¡genocide¢
of Tamils and to enter into negotiation with
the LTTE. Is there genocide going on in Sri
Lanka? No, if one goes by the United Nations
definition of genocide. The 1948
International Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of Genocide signed by 135
countries including India and Sri Lanka has
elaborately defined the term ¡genocide¢.
By this definition that is available to any
literate person by just going to the Google,
we can say there is no genocide of Tamils in
Sri Lanka.
There are a large number of Sri Lankan
Tamils who say that there is no genocide in
their country, including well-known persons
such as Anandsagaree of TULF, SC
Chandrahasan of Ofer, Devananda presently a
minister and Karuna MP. May be the pro- LTTE
parties in India have a new definition of
genocide, which is that if the Sri Lanka
army kills then it is genocide, but if the
LTTE kills then that is part of a freedom
struggle. The truth is that the
internationally banned terrorist
organisation, the LTTE, is losing in the
battlefield, and it is only a matter of time
before its headquarters in the jungles of
Jaffna is overrun.
This has activated certain political groups
in India who depend on the LTTE for monetary
support.Why is the LTTE on the run? It is
because of their hubris. These terrorists
killed at will even Tamils who were not only
for Eelam but also opposed tooth and nail
Sinhala majority hegemonism: Gandhian
leaders such as Amrithalingam, Yogeswaran,
Neelam Tiruchelvam, and militants such as
Sri Sabaratnam were eliminated.
Obviously because the LTTE chief Prabhakaran
thought he could get Eelam alone. He, of
course, welcomes cheerleaders like Nedumaran
and Veeramani because they slavishly serve
him, but not independent Tamil leaders
working for the goal of self-respect and
autonomy for Tamils. Rajiv Gandhi sent 1,00,
000 troops to the island and de facto carved
out a North and East Tamil area in Sri
Lanka, with a full-fledged Tamil chief
minister who was duly elected. The IPKF did
not allow a single Sri Lankan soldier to
enter the region.
But that was not good enough for the LTTE
because Rajiv Gandhi wanted political
plurality and leaders to hold office via
elections.
Since the LTTE believes in a single party
Marxist state Prabhakaran decided that Rajiv
Gandhi should be killed. Hence, he decided
to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi as soon as he
found Indian collaborators who he mistakenly
thought could protect him post the dastardly
deed. That is hubris. His collaborators
could not protect him however because Rajiv
Gandhi had more courageous friends than he
had thought, and Prabhakaran¢s collaborators
were cowardly. As a consequence, Prabhakaran
is a now an internationally wanted criminal,
a proclaimed offender for whom the Interpol
is in search.
Should India intervene to prevent the
inevitable decimation of the LTTE? That is
the question of importance for us. Now is
the moment of truth for clarity and
transparency.
There is confusion now in our approach to
Sri Lanka because of a hidden compulsion of
the UPA government. The confusion is
manifested in the following contradiction:
On the one hand, the Indian government has
banned LTTE as a terrorist organisation
because of its murderous activities,
including the killing of Rajiv Gandhi; on
the other hand, despite the continuing
assassinations by the LTTE of pro-Indian Sri
Lankan politicians and its open interference
within India by financing pro-LTTE
politicians and training other terrorist
organisations, the Indian government
pontificates that the ¡peace dialogue¢ of
the Sri Lankan government with the LTTE must
take place. This has in effect ended up
legitimising the terrorist outfit and
thusmaking the ban meaningless.
We have to remove the fault line in our
policy towards the LTTE, and secure our
geographical neighbourhood. We have to
regard the LTTE a part of the problem and
not part of any solution of the crisis
because of that outfit¢s links with India¢s
terrorists such as PWG, Naxalites and ULFA,
and with ISI of Pakistan and even al-Qaeda
as well as with de facto separatist Indian
political parties such as the DMK, PMK,
Dalit Panthers and not to mention 38
paramilitary connected terrorists outfits
roaming the forest areas of Tamil Nadu.
I see five reasons why India has an
obligation to assist in the elimination of
the LTTE: First, India had trained the LTTE
in the 1980s and created this Frankenstein¢s
monster. Hence, India must atone through
actions to disband and unravel the LTTE.
Second, despite enjoying India¢s hospitality
for years, the LTTE betrayed India by
entering into a shocking alliance with the
Premadasa government and killing more than a
thousand Indian army personnel of IPKF sent
to the island to enforce peace and create an
autonomous North and East Tamil region. The
betrayal and loss of lives of our valiant
jawans have to be avenged to keep up the
morale of Indian armed forces.
Third, for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi, India
is obligated to search for Prabhakaran and
to teach the LTTE a lesson in a language it
will understand, and to prevent it from
engaging in any murderous and terrorist
activities against India.
Fourth, the LTTE interferes in the internal
affairs of India by financing stooge Indian
political parties, in providing training to
Indian militant and extremist organisations.
It also launders black money of Indian
politicians through its illegal Eelam Bank
in the Jaffna area. India cannot allow such
erosion of law and order.
Fifth, LTTE is part of the international
terror network and is aided by the ISI of
Pakistan to smuggle narcotics into India,
circulate fake currency notes to buy
medicines and diesel, to smuggle out
antiques to Italy, and engage in passport
fabrication and hawala operations.
To discharge these obligations, India has to
initiate action to assist the Sri Lankan
government to take out the LTTE, and at the
same time tell the Sinhala majority that
following the end of the LTTE, India
reserves the right to intervene militarily
if they do not implement a proper devolution
of powers for the Tamils under the
Constitution of Sri Lanka. Second, India
must assist and nurture the democratic
elements among the Tamil population, those
who have demonstrated capacity to stand up
to LTTE such as S.C. Chandrahasan,
Anandsagaree, Douglas Devananda and the
breakaway LTTE group that opposed Rajiv
Gandhi¢s assassination, viz., the Karuna
group, to form a non-violent and democratic
alternative to work out with the Sinhala
majority a federal constitution that would
serve the purpose of power sharing.
The time is at hand for India to effectively
contribute to the war against terrorism and
in promoting democracy by targeting the LTTE.
We must seize this opportunity.
Let the pro-LTTE parties sing for their
supper.
We need to pay no attention to them !
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