When the Government runs out of other ammunition to demonise the LTTE their hearts go out in sympathy of the Thamil youth. Hearing of children being used in war does arouse the sentiments of many abroad.

The International community, however, is not above reproach. Most of them have their own hidden agendas. We will deal with this in a moment.

Let us first deal with the two issues. These must be viewed in their true perspective.

There are many reasons for the Thamil youth joining the LTTE forces at such a young age.

For many years every Thamil youth in the North and East has been regarded a potential militant. Thamil youths had been arrested, tortured and incarcerated without trial. Many have disappeared. Mass graves bear gruesome stories. The more fortunate of the youth have gone to other countries in search of greener pastures. Some others have weathered the storms to reach friendly and not so friendly shores to exist as refugees. Many are compelled to remain at home. The parents of such children prefer them to join the militants to fight their cause rather than to be arrested and tortured by the Sri Lankan army.

It is the ultimate choice that mothers make in dire desperation. There are still others who see no future for them in Sri Lanka. Like every other young normal human being they want to make themselves useful and make a contribution, and in this instance to the Thamil cause.

The International Community rarely talks about the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan that recruits child soldiers.

Rarely do we hear of the hundreds of children being killed in Iraq and Palestine.

Recently an Israeli army Officer riddled fifteen bullets into a thirteen year old Palestinian school girl on her way to school. This is just one story that came out because it was told by his own colleague.

Isn’t it worse to be brutally killed unawares than to die knowingly for a cause?

Sinhalese dancing around a Tamil youth, stripped naked, before pouring petrol and burning him to death, Colombo, 23 July 1983

Now to the question of the Thamils giving up their militancy. For more than forty years the Thamils had been asking for a federal state through constitutional means. What had been the response?

The Thamils had to face bloody violence, murder, rape and looting in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983 engineered and sponsored by the governments in power. Is asking for ones rights an act of war? The fact, however brutal, it may seem is that it is only after the Thamil youth in their frustration took up arms that we have now talks of peace and at least an ostensible desire to offer the Thamils their rights. It must be remembered that the Thamils are not asking for concessions but for their due rights. The moment the Thamil leadership drops its arms we will go back to status quo ante as in 1983.

The International Community will not take responsibility for this. Are members of the International Community prepared to give up their arms and pursue peaceful means to achieve their own goals? Was George W. Bush prepared to have a peaceful dialogue with Sadam Hussein to find out whether he actually had weapons of mass destruction? The pre-emptive strike on Iraq was in itself an act of terrorism. What about the destruction of innocent lives and property in the military incursions into Palestinian territory, not to mention Iraq?

The Thamil territory has no attraction to offer but only their just cause for a peaceful existence with justice, equality and freedom. They are indeed suspicious of the hidden agendas of most international advocates of peace.

It is only Norway that has studied the problems of the Thamils in depth and understood the true spirit of the Thamil question. They are therefore in a strong position to appreciate the aspirations of the Thamils.

It for this reason that the Sri Lankan government is jittery about dealing with Norway for they know too much!