Here comes Santa Velu !

Velupillai Prabhakaran who is directly or indirectly responsible for the ghastly murders of a near 70,000 people during the last 18 years comes to you this Christmas as Santa Velu. He is bringing hopes of peace and joy to this land which he has drenched with the blood of Sri Lankans of all communities. Prabhakaran has declared that he will spike the guns of the Tigers commencing on Christmas Eve and extend the cease-fire for another month and thus bring in peace not only for Christmas but Ramazan and Thai Pongal as well. Provided the Sri Lanka government plays ball with him and with the facilitator Norway, Prabhakaran says that his terrorist organisation will be prepared to extend the period of peace to create conditions for a stable cease-fire and direct negotiations.

Fellow travellers of the LTTE will no doubt be telling us: Here is a man of peace who has been grossly misunderstood by Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinists. Gullible peace brigades in Colombo, who have demonstrated the naivety on more than one occasion on cease-fires, will be singing:

‘Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners (or is it Tigers) reconciled’

As cynical pressmen, who have been observing and studying the declarations of this Angel of Death closely, we examine his desire to spike guns and store away bombs with much circumspection.

Firstly, why was thus unilateral cease-fire declared so suddenly? Why was it not proposed to the government much earlier so that it could have been examined and a joint declaration made particularly at this time when the Norwegian facilitator was involved in this peace endeavour for over many months?

Secondly is this not one-upmanship and twisting the arm of the government to score points with the ‘International Community’? Having thrust upon a cease-fire proposal on Christmas Eve on the Sri Lankan government, if there is a delay or refusal in accepting the proposal, the LTTE propagandists could score heavily saying: Look who is refusing a cease-fire on Christmas Eve? The Sri Lankan Satan will certainly be seen in angelic light by many.

Cease-fires being implemented within 48 hours of the proposal being known is rare. In military terms it is said that the modalities of a cease-fire have to be worked out. With this conflict raging in the entire north and east and terrorist acts committed throughout the island, a simple declaration of a cease-fire offer from London will not do. The government should consider every implication of the proposed cease-fire, particularly where the Jaffna peninsula is concerned. There the Tiger was on the doorstep of Jaffna just a few weeks ago.

Whether this proposal was motivated by a desire for peace or in terms of military strategy needs consideration, particularly in view of past cease-fires accepted by the LTTE – when they were in dire straits.

During the Premadasa administration with the Indian forces having driven the Tigers out of the Jaffna peninsula to the Wanni and had them cornered, the LTTE agreed to a cease-fire and negotiations called for by President Premadasa. Whether President Premadasa was calling for a cease-fire and negotiations with the JVP or the LTTE – or both—at that time, is doubtful. But the LTTE grabbed the opportunity and bought time to have themselves saved from the Indian forces. Even in 1994, when President Kumaratunga called for negotiations the LTTE was in no comfortable position having been driven out of the Eastern Province and the government forces poised for a take over of the Jaffna peninsula. The government forces driving them out of the peninsula in just eight months after negotiations failed shows how untenable the position of the LTTE was. Thus, the government must consider whether this cease-fire proposal is another strategy for survival.

There are also intelligence reports about arms shipments to the LTTE on the way to Sri Lanka. If those shipments are detected by the navy, should the navy let the shipments in and save the cease-fire or attack the ship and violate the cease-fire? Clever, Prabakran.

An equally important consideration is the present status of the LTTE in the west. The United States three years ago proscribed it. In Canada too it is being considered a terrorist organisation and now the Canadian opposition is demanding that action be taken to stop contributions to LTTE fronts. A well-known Canadian newspaper the National Post is exposing the many fronts of the LTTE in Canada as being sources of funding terrorism. In Britain too, the media has awoken to the LTTE being a terrorist organisation. The Sunday Telegraph, one of Britain’s leading newspapers quoted The Island reports and exposed how British schools have been used to propagate LTTE terrorism. Under the new Anti-Terrorism Act passed in Britain this year, a list of organisations that would be categorised as terrorist organisations is being prepared and the LTTE is under scrutiny, British spokesmen have said. It would indeed be difficult for the LTTE to escape the tag of ‘terrorism’ considering its past record.

If Britain categorises the LTTE as a terrorist organisation and takes appropriate action, other nations of the European Union are bound to follow. That would mean the end of the LTTE’s major success of funding and the end of the terrorist organisation itself.

Thus Santa Velu will be singing for peace on earth and Sri Lanka not in a Christmassy spirit of goodwill but for survival of himself and the LTTE. In this context the speech made by Prabhakaran in 1987 (at a rally in Jaffna) when he was compelled to accept the Indo-Lanka Agreement is worth recalling:

‘I do not think that as a result of this agreement there will be a permanent solution to the problems of the Tamils... I have unrelenting faith in the proposition that only a separate state of Tamil Eelam can be a permanent solution...Let me make it clear to you beyond any shadow of doubt that I will continue to fight for the objective of attaining Tamil Eelam. The forms of struggle may change but the objective or the goal of our struggle is not going to change’.

With international pressure on the LTTE, the forms of struggle may change and that is why Prabhakaran the terrorist is waving the olive branch to avoid proscription of his organisation in Europe which will mean Kaput to him as well.

In this festive season when emotions get the better of logic and reason there will be those who will call to ‘forgive and forget’ and say that the Bible speaks of the day when ‘the lamb shall lie with the lion’. A cynic observed that while this might be a good example of peaceful co- existence, only the poor lamb will know the risks he is taking. Those who await the day when Sri Lankans sleep with the Tiger should consider the plight of the lamb.

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