| by Sebastian
Rasalingam
( October 16,
2012, Ontario, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mr. Eric Solheim has used the book launch of
BBC's Frances Harrison to claim that he
and the international community' offered an "organized end to the war
which included the LTTE handing over weapons, registering LTTE cardres and
every single Tamil civilian supervised by international authorities and the UN,
US, India, etc." He claims that this was "not heeded by Prabhakaran". He claims that the `international community'
could have done this even if the majority of people in Sri Lanka backing the
Rajapaksa government did not want the self-appointed `international community'
to intervene. Clearly, Mr. Solheim thinks little of national sovereignty.
Does Mr. Solheim
know that neither the Sinhalese, nor the poor Tamils (who have had the capacity
to inform themselves and) living in the Vanni have much trust in him, or the `international
community'? Even Prabhakaran knew that Solheim's word was only as strong as pie
crust. Can Solheim give one example where the `international community'
delivered the promised goods in any such conflict that they waded into? Starting
from the `international community' interventions in the Suez crisis headed by
Anthony Eden, to Korea, Vietnam, Congo, Sudan, Angola, Somalia, Bosnia, or the
Afghanistan/Iraq effort headed by Bush, they, like the proverbial bulls in the china
shop, have wrought pure havoc in their ttempts to create
`peace'.
Mr. Solheim
knows very well how he heeded war-mongering Anton Balasingham at every step,
aided and abetted the Tigers to arm, secured them international recognition and
respectability. By moving up the Tigers, and making himself essential to the
Tigers, he too raised his profile and became a key player rather than the minor
Norwegian parliamentarian who was known for some botched up missions in Africa.
Solheim knows
how the Norwegians secretly delivered powerful communication equipment to the
terrorists, foiled attempts by the Sri Lankan navy to destroy Tiger ships that
brought in arms by leaking intelligence to the Tigers. Every time the Tigers killed
a prominent Tamil dissident, or even a
person like Minister Kadirgamar, the Norwegians, and their mouth pieces in the
Colombo NGOs would attempt to excuse the Tigers, and demand that the `peace
process' should go on. The `peace process' had become a killing reprieve for
the Tigers!
Solheim knew
that the LTTE has killed more Tamils than all the armies of the south even from
Dutugamunu's time. Solheim knew that Prabhakaran came to power by assassinating
the leadership of the Tamil United Liberation front (TULF) that the Tamils elected
in 1977 to lead them. So they were usurpers who had absolutely no legitimacy to
speak for the Tamils. From then on, the intellectuals, teachers, journalists,
kururals - in fact any Tamil or Sinhalese- who talked of peace or
reconciliation was assassinated by
Prabhakaran, Anton Balasingham and their
buddies, while Mrs. Adele Balasingham busied herself in training female suicide cadre and
encouraging the recruitment of our own
children as soldiers.
Not only was
Prabhakaran's gang killing the Tamils, they were also decimating the next generation of
Tamils.
Most of the
upper-caste Tamils and those who had means had migrated or moved to the south
and live among the Sinhalese. Long used
to manipulating the northern Tamils to fight their battles, these Colombo
Tamils were ready to forget the assassinations and join Prabhakaran's
bandwagon, justifying it as countering state-terror with Tamil terror.
So the carnage
and the jackboot of thr LTTE fell squarely on the lower-castes and the
impoverished Tamils who remained in the North because they could not afford to
move. Even the Tamil members of Parliament were forced to become mouth pieces
of the Tigers, and lived in the South for their own safety. This reign of
terror on the Tamils, as well as the Sinhalese, went on unabated for three
decades. The `international community' continued to demand that the Colombo
government go on talking
`peace' to an
intransigent terrorist.
During this time
the rich Tamils migrated to the west, to form the `Tamil Diaspora'. They
hijacked the international community with the aid of the LTTE extortionist network.
They targeted the swing-vote electorates to twist the arms of politicians. They
used Christian Tamil pastors to influence western Church leaders and capture
the `human-rights' organizations. Young immigrants were funded to come into the West by subterfuge and
they became the activists, extortionists and fraud experts of the organization.
In effect,
democracy, justice and human rights were turned upside down within the ethnic enclaves of
Toronto or London. Even in Toronto, Tamil writers who tried to put reason and constructive
criticism ahead of Prabhakaran-worship faced attacks and possible death. A
terrorist group that held its own
community to ransom for three decades
presented itself as the leaders of
human rights! Money collected in the name of `charity' or Tsunami reconstruction was channeled via the `Tamil rehabilitation Organization' for buying arms and laying deadly mines in the Vanni.
Mr. Solheim knew
about all these. He knew that there had never been elections in the Vanni to
get even a token legitimization of the Tiger regime. The upper-caste Tamils
dreaming of the glory of a neo-Chola kingdom that would over-arch south Asia, supported
the Tigers emotionally, and justified terror as the
antidote to
`state terror. When they talked of a `federal solution' they meant federating
with Tamil Nadu, with Eelam in the driver's seat! Thirchlevam's assassination was
justified because he tried to dilute the
`Eelam concept' with federalist and devolutionist treachary.
And so, when
Solheim and his friends crafted the cease-fire agreement (CFA) a la
Balasingham, there was no requirement for the Tigers to lay down arms, to register every combatant, or even allow the ordinary Sri Lankans or even
pilgrims to legitimately enter the
region occupied the Tigers. Arbitrary
taxes, kangaroo courts, and
expropriation of land owned by Tamils
who did not willingly hand over their children and their bodies to the Tigers could now be legitimized, thanks to Solheim's wonderful CFA. The Sri Lankan army
was shackled. The Sri Lankan
government had to supply food, pay and maintain hospitals, schools, roads, and the civil administration of the Tigers! This was an
amazing CFA.
In contrast, the
Tiger cadre need not obey the laws of the land. Even a cricket match was daubed
a `sinhalese match' and disrupted. With the CFA the Tigers could go anywhere in
the south, carry daily suicide attacks,
set up safe houses, assassinate many
government ministers, build up child-soldier
cadre, import weapons, and finally even taunt
the central government by cutting off
the water to 15,000 farmers by shutting
off the sluices at Mavil Aru. Even at that point the Norwegians, the international community and
the NGOs tried to `defuse' the
matter, without recognizing the need to
bring to heel this Tiger who was above the law, and fully ignored the
very CFA so dear to Mr. Solheim.
Mr. Solheim and
other speakers at the book launch had talked of bringing criminals to justice,
some day. Clearly, this is not the `truth and reconciliation' language of
Bishop Tutu. But if we are to punishes crimes against humanity, why not start
in London and bring Mrs Adel Balasingham to give a chance to defend herself in
court. Why not try the long standing bosses of the Eelam organizations of the
Diaspora for aiding, abetting and
celebrating the assassinations of the Tamil leaders since 1975 with Dureiappa, through 1977, and right up to 2009? How do we
punish the sadists who taught our young children the poisonous poems of Kasi
Ananthan and others of his ilk, and
trained them to kill?
What Mr. Solheim
has said at the book launch is that he and the international community were
ready to formulate another CFA for the Tigers when the Tigers had surrounded
themselves with a human shield numbering some 300,000 people. His New CFA would give yet another chance to
the Tigers, and the Tigers would be able
to manipulate the situation again so
that they can carry on their carnage for
another 30 years, killing all the Tamils by slow attrition, and waging war with the Sinhalese
to the point of chronic despair, just as
they did after the hold-back in Vadamarachchi, the next hold-back after the IPKF, then again after the CFA. How many chances
should a serial killer get?
No one would
have gained anything. The people, be they Tamils or Sinhalese, would have ended
up in dire straits, just like Haiti which has been subject to many
interventions by the `international community'. But Mr. Solheim could have
claimed a personal victory and bagged a Nobel Prize for ushering in `peace',
while the Tiger would have regrouped with Norweigian aid.
Even if that Nobel Prize be no longer
possible, Mr. Solheim, Mr. Harrison, Yasmi Sooka, the Directors of Channel 4,
and others could cover up their own guilt in shielding the Tigers for decades, as
well as make a mint of money by book sales, TV and Drama productions. Perhaps
the Eelam Tamil Fronts may put up seed money for all this opportune commercial
activity?
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