Disarming LTTE is Harmful to Our Interests

Aladi Aruna

AT the outset. I pay homage to our Tamil militants and others who have sacrificed their lives for the great cause of Tamil Eelam. The valiant people who have been killed by the Sri Lankan forces and the IPKF, have become martyrs in the history of our freedom movement. I proudly salute our brother Prabhakaran for leading this movement with unique courage and chivalry against the repressive forces of Sri Lanka and India.

After independence, in 1948, the Sinhalese started to claim that Sri Lanka was a country of the Sinhalese and that Buddhism was the state religion of Sri Lanka. Sinhalese chauvinism and religious fanaticism have raised this cry, depriving the life and liberty of the Tamil minority.

The suppressed minority now has no other alternative than to fight against the majority. India and other neighbouring countries are aware of the peaceful movement under the leadership of Thanthai Chelva. The majority totally failed to understand and acknowledge the legitimate claims and rights of the Tamil minority. After the demise of Thanthai Chelva, that chauvinistic Sinhalese majority escalated repressive measures against our Tamils.

The civil movement was given up, not because we prefer violence or militancy but because the Sinhalese rulers have forced us to resort to direct action to preserve, protect and save the rights of all Tamils. It is our birth right. No power on the earth has the right to take away our fundamental rights.

The whole world has witnessed how the Sinhalese army ruthlessly massacred our people, looted our property and destroyed our houses. What was ruthlessly and mercilessly done by the Sri Lankan army has been shamelessly repeated by IPKF against our own people.

India took the role of mediator between the Tamils and the Government of Sri Lanka. The mediator is expected to draw up a proposal or understanding on the conscience of both parties, but in the case of India, the mediator himself put a precondition for negotiation. India imposed a precondition that the Tamils must accept a solution within the integrity of Sri Lanka. What warranted India to put forward such a precondition? Has it not waged a war for the freedom of Bangladesh, has it not extended support to the freedom of Namibia, has it not recognised PLO? Then why should it put forward such a precondition for the settlement of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue?

The very basic policy of the movement, my friends, was changed, damaged and castrated, not because of our enemy but because of our so-called friend, India. President Jayawardene successfully brain-washed Mrs. Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi into believing that the formation of the sovereign state of Tamil Eelam would lead to the secession of Tamil Nadu from India. This is baseless. There is no evidence or basis or justification for such a fear. But unfortunately, Jayawardene has succeeded in his manoeuvring; therefore the attitude of India is always adverse to the basic policy of our freedom movement.

The stance of India is the creation of a Tamil province within the integrity of Sri Lanka with powers equivalent to those of the states of India. Now three questions arise out of this stance.

(1) Whether this stance will fulfil the aspirations of the Tamils?

(2) Whether President Jayawardene has already asked for this stance? (3) Whether the Indian states are autonomous. The rasping fact is that the states in India are not autonomous. If you study and examine the powers of the States in India, with those of the States in Canada, United States of America, Switzerland or Australia, we could easily see that the Indian states are almost glorified municipalities. The very existence of the States eventually is at the mercy of the centre. The dagger of dissolution is always hanging above the head of State governments under Article 356. Therefore, creating a State in Sri Lanka equivalent to the Indian States can never solve the Tamil problem.

After 1983, all political parties except the Congress and Communist parties appealed to the Government of India to take direct action against the Government of Sri Lanka to protect the interest of the Tamils. Military intervention in the beginning was ruled out by the Government of India. It repeatedly assured us of only persuasion and negotiation, and persistently refused to take military action except dropping of food stuffs. But today the Government of India firmly and tenaciously wages war against our Tamil brethren. It has refused to declare cease-fire. It is reluctant to negotiate with the Tamils. It is adamant and belligerent. The point which I want to stress is that the Government of India which had refused to take military action against Sri Lanka has now launched a military offensive against our Tamils only because the Government of India is anti-Tamil.

The operation of killing of the Tamils has been handed over to Rajiv Gandhi while President Jayawardene is conveniently and comfortably thinking of amending the Constitution to enable him to get a third term as President. So far, President Jayawardene has been successful not because of our blunders, nor because of our lies, but because of the betrayal of India. India entered as a mediator between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamils. Now the mediator has become a traitor. That is why for the last 10 months in the name of disarming our militant people, under the pretext of implementing the Accord, IPKF is allowed to continue to massacre our Tamil people, to destroy our property and loot our houses.

Mr Prabhakaran is ready for unconditional talks but India still refuses to have the dialogue directly and it imposes two conditions. If this situation is allowed to continue I fear that the Tamil race will be wiped out by the IPKF. Therefore, how to overcome this deadlock is more important.

All the political parties, and all the political leaders, must appeal to India to declare a cease-fire, but India refuses to accept our requ t. But it imposes two' conditions.

1. LTTE must surrender its arms.

2. LTTE must end this opposition to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

Under what right, under what international law, does India compel the LTTE to accept these two conditions? Is it the way of protecting the rights of India? No doubt, it is one of the terms of the Accord. But the LTTE is not a party to the Accord. Neither have they been consulted nor have they given their consent to this Accord. In the absence of such consent to the Accord from the LTTE, India has no right to compel them to accept the Accord. To mislead the public through the help of the media, India deliberately, wilfully and maliciously claimed that it had obtained the consent from military groups. This is distortion of facts and a travesty of the truth.

The ridiculous role taken by India is that India signed the Accord on behalf of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. These Tamils of Sri Lanka are not the citizens of India. 'They are the citizens of Sri Lanka. So how can a sovereign country sign an Accord on behalf of the people who are citizens of another country? The attitude of India is highly imperialistic in nature. According to the Government of India, the LTTE are acting against the Accord. That is their claim. So this has necessitated the Indian Peace Keeping Force to launch a direct offensive. On the other hand, the Government of India has totally refused to realise that the Government of Sri Lanka has not come forward to implement the Accord. India itself has admitted it in a statement on the floor of the House. It is very particular to enforce the Accord only on the LTTE but not on the Government of Sri Lanka. Neither the merger of the provinces, nor the devolution of power under the 13th Amendment of the Constitution has been implemented.

The point I would like to make is that whilst President Jayawardene, who signed the Accord acts against the Accord, a person who has not signed the Accord is compelled to accept the Accord. It is a ridiculous situation but India is not realising it. It means that India has been trapped by President Jayawardene.

So, what I appeal for is the withdrawal of the IPKF for the following reasons:

1. The offensive of the IPKF is dead against the very objective of the Accord.

2. IPKF is more dangerous than the Sri Lankan army. Our LTTE are capable enough, brave enough, potent enough to defeat the Sri Lankan army but not the Indian Army. That is why the IPKF must be withdrawn in the interest of our movement.

3. The role of the IPKF is hated by both Tamils and Sinhalese.

4. IPKF are fighting not for the interest of the Tamils, not for the implementation of the Accord, but for India to have a treaty at the expense of the Tamils. That is the secret move on the part of India.

If the militants are totally disarmed, the very next moment the Government of Sri Lanka would ask the Government of India to withdraw the IPKF. Then who is going to protect the interests of the Tamils? Who is to safeguard our interest? So the only agency in the past and present capable of protecting the interests of the Tamils is none other than the LTTE. If they disarm our LTTE we will not be safeguarded by any agency. What is the guarantee that the proposed State government of the Tamil province would be allowed to rule freely by the centre of Sri Lanka? You know well the history of India that State governments are not allowed to function freely. They are always under the threat of the centre. The LTTE alone will protect the interest of the people. Disarming the LTTE is harmful to our interest.