An Indian Role In Sri Lanka

by Jeanne Jayasinghe

(October 27, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are happy to note that despite the pressure being exerted by pro-LTTE political parties in Tamil Nadu, your government has chosen not to intervene to stop the on going military operations that the Sri Lankan government is conducting against the terrorist LTTE. As you are no doubt aware, if the LTTE is allowed to continue with it’s blood thirsty campaign to separate from Sri Lanka, the resulting destabilisation of Sri Lanka will have a negative impact on South India and even lead to the strengthening of the Tamil separatist movement in Tamilnadu.

India is rightly concerned about the plight of the Tamil people. The Government of Sri Lanka too, is concerned about the plight of the Tamil people, who are citizens of Sri Lanka. The GoSL is concerned by the fact that these people are being held hostage to be used as a human shield and cannon fodder by the LTTE in the areas that they illegally occupy.

As articulated by Senior Members of the Sri Lankan government the Sri Lankan military is following a policy of zero civilian casualties. The fact that this policy is not merely restricted to words is clearly demonstrated by the very small number of civilian casualties that have occurred in the more than two years of military operations conducted to liberate the east and the north of Sri Lanka from the LTTE.

Furthermore over the years successive Sri Lankan governments have provided all the essential items such as food, medicine, educational items, electricity, telecommunication facilities, electricity, teachers, doctors, government administrative staff to the people living in areas under illegal occupation by the LTTE and have paid the salaries of all government staff working in those areas. This is done despite knowing full well that the LTTE seizes most of the items sent to those areas. Hence despite gaining little publicity and almost no praise for it’s unique policy, Sri Lanka has consistently been looking after all of it’s citizens even if they live in areas under the illegal occupation of the LTTE and irrespective of their ethnicity.

On the 22nd of October 2008, the LTTE attacked a convoy of ships carrying food to the North. A UN convoy of trucks carrying food to the people in the war zone turned back when the LTTE began firing at them.

These actions do not show any concern for the people who are supposedly trapped because of the fighting, but, are, in reality being held hostage by the LTTE: one to give credence to their lies that the armed forces are targeting civilians, two: to enable them to use civilians as a shield when falling back from their positions of defence and three: to use the civilians as labourers to dig their trenches and as a last resort to be thrown into battle while trained cadres make good their escape.

In addition to the government’s programme of providing assistance to the IDP’s, many locally founded NGO’s are working on a plan to supply all if not most of the needs of IDP’s who manage to escape from the clutches of the LTTE. The local NGO’s hope to obtain the required items in the form of donations from the general public of Sri Lanka.

This act while augmenting the government’s efforts to protect and assist these IDP’s also serves to foster harmony between the Tamil and Sinhala people of Sri Lanka. In short the government and people of Sri Lanka from all ethnicities are doing their utmost to free their Tamil brethren from the stranglehold of the LTTE.

Over the last twenty years the LTTE has thrown away all of the opportunities that came their way to resolve this issue in a peaceful manner and used the ceasefires that accompanied each attempt at a negotiated settlement as a cover to re-train, re-group and re-arm themselves.

The Indian Peace Keeping Forces felt the full brunt of the LTTE’s brutality as well as their intransigence during their brief sojourn in Sri Lanka in the late eighties.

The LTTE has demonstrated their lack of sincerity and lack of interest in finding a solution that doesn’t violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka and has proven time and again that they are the only impediment to bringing about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.

President Rajapakse’s government has shown good faith by appointing a former child soldier as the Provincial Governor in the East of Sri Lanka once it was cleared of the LTTE and elections could be held. He has also given a former terrorist, who repudiated terrorism for a political solution, a seat in Parliament. This goes to show that, had the LTTE been interested in a political settlement, the Government of Sri Lanka was ready to meet them half way.

The LTTE has left the Sri Lankan government no choice other than to militarily destroy them in order to restore democracy in areas illegally occupied by the LTTE and to free all of Sri Lanka’s citizens from the terror of the LTTE and to obtain the space to address all their grievances and aspirations without violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

It is in India’s interest that Sri Lanka remains a unitary, undivided state, to ensure that India too is not forced to succumb to the demands of the various separatist movements that are raising their heads on Indian soil. It will also be a deterrent to the rise of a greater Dravidian state, which seems to be the dream of some politicians.

We request the Indian government to,

1. Support the Sri Lankan government in it’s noble endeavour to combat terrorism
2. Not to succumb to the pressure exerted by the pro-LTTE political parties in Tamil Nadu

3. To publicly urge the LTTE to allow safe passage into government controlled areas for the people that they are holding hostage.

( The Writer is the President of Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc [SPUR] ) - Sri Lanka Guardian