Prabhakaran

Prabhakaran states that the LTTE is ready to seek a peaceful solution and blames the governments of Sri Lanka for the failure of peace talks. This is indeed rich; perhaps his remarks are addressed to those such as a former EU Ambassador who, after the current offensive commenced, kept demanding that we negotiate with the LTTE.

Incredible, was the word that escaped from my lips when I read Prabhakaran’s speech, surely if the man is not suffering from Amnesia, the man must be suffering from some mental illness, he must indeed have an ill constituted mind. What other explanation could there be for his accusing us of what he has repeatedly done namely, using every ceasefire to strengthen themselves and to launch Pearl Harbour type surprise attacks on our armed forces. Prabhakaran claims that the LTTE has not conducted any act of aggression against any member of the international community! He conveniently forgets his ordering the assassination of Rajiv, for which he has been convicted. What could be wrong with the man? He lies through his teeth, this is quite unbelievable.

As stated earlier, Prabhakaran blames the governments of Sri Lanka for the failure of peace talks. The man must be mad for he should know better than anyone else how he has deceived all governments of this country. We have negotiated with the LTTE on countless occasions; we ‘talked’, or rather negotiated, with the LTTE through the Indians between 1983 and 1987; thereafter, between May and September 1989. President Premadasa had the IPKF removed from this country at the request of the LTTE and negotiated with the LTTE between May and June 1990, he provided the LTTE with arms to fight the rag tag force, the ‘Tamil National Army’ created by the IPKF, but they indulged in the act of sheer treachery when in June 1990 the LTTE mounted a Pearl Harbour type attack and very nearly killed Foreign Minister Hameed who had gone to Jaffna in good faith for talks with the LTTE.

The next round of Talks was in 1994 when the Kumaratunga Government held talks with the LTTE, they once again having used the period of the ceasefire to rearm and re-train, indulged in yet another surprise attack on our armed forces. Next came Ranil Wickremasinghe’s turn to be duped by Prabhakaran –we held talks again between 2002 and 2003 and the LTTE, once again having exploited the ceasefire agreement to the maximum, and after having obtained fresh stocks of arms, pulled out of talks on the 21st of April 2003. Even this government went to Geneva to negotiate with the LTTE and do we not know what they did?

To revert to President Premadasa’s effort, it would be recalled that President Premadasa had ordered the IPKF out and naively believed that he could reach a settlement with the LTTE. It would be recalled that President JR Jayewardene did not bring in Prime Minister Premadasa into the process or share with him his own experience of negotiating with the LTTE, he shut him out. President Premadasa believed, as stated earlier that he could solve the problem. He trusted the LTTE so much that he ordered 640 policemen in the Eastern Province to surrender to the LTTE on Prabhakaran’s promise that they would be given safe passage out of the east. They were murdered in cold blood. The self righteous international guardians of Human Rights were silent, they neither condemned the LTTE nor did they offer to help us to finish off the terrorists. Incidentally besides providing the LTTE with weapons, President Premadasa also had Prabhakaran’s wife Mathavathany and two children Charles Anthony and Duwaraga brought back from a Scandinavian country and re-united with Prabhakaran. Prabhakaran showed his gratitude by having him assassinated!

In 1990 I was then stationed in New Delhi, When President Premadasa was holding talks with the LTTE at the Hilton hotel, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, who was then out of office (Mr. VP Singh who passed away a few days ago was Prime Minister) repeatedly warned us (High Commissioner Stanley Kalpage and I met Mr. Gandhi at his request, many times as he had an abiding interest in the situation in Sri Lanka) that the LTTE were not engaging in Talks in good faith and would re-launch their war to establish a separate state. He in fact stated that the LTTE would re-commence the war before July 1990, they attacked on the 11th of June. Vartharaja-Perumal, the Chief Minister of the NE Provincial Council which had been dissolved by President Premadasa after their declaration of UDI in February of 1990, who was then a refugee in India, also warned us that the LTTE was using the cement which the government had allowed into the North and East to build bunkers and prepare for war, The repeated warnings given by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, (he told us that the LTTE would attack before July), was conveyed to the President but he preferred to believe what he wanted to believe.

The LTTE has only a one-point agenda and that is the establishment of a separate state; Prabhakaran has repeatedly stated "kill me if I don’t deliver Eelam"—— he is wholly opposed to devolution, he is not even interested in a federal state. It would be recalled that the LTTE even reneged on the undertaking given at Oslo, to explore a federal solution within a united Sri Lanka; they also went back on the agreement to examine the possibility of de-escalation and rejected the Nambiar Report on High Security Zones; they also pulled the plug on the Sub- Committee established to address the urgent humanitarian needs in the north and east after 624 projects had been identified and 170 million US Dollars pledged for the purpose. The LTTE feared that if the hospitals, schools, temples, homes, roads and irrigation works were rebuilt and rehabilitated it would be to their disadvantage; that was how they cared for their people.

The demented man now accuses us of having done exactly what he did. He accuses us of using every ceasefire to rebuild our military –"concentrating on heavy recruitment, refurbishing its arsenal, strengthening its armed forces and conducting military exercises" He goes on to state that "while the Tamil nation was engaged in peace building, the Sinhala nation dedicated itself to preparations for war". Yes the world knows that it is he who has done exactly what he is accusing us of doing.

Whom does Prabhakaran think he is fooling when he states that he is for a peaceful solution? Surely not the world which has followed the record of this notorious terrorist and the LTTE over the years and is well aware of its duplicity? So what could be the reason for his uttering such falsehoods, is it an indication of his desperation? Does he still believe that he could fool the naïve and get the well paid supporters of the LTTE to mount a massive campaign to intervene, if this is his hope he will be disappointed. I feel that he would soon have to swallow the capsule he has round his neck and call it a day.