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Approximately 15 years before the news of Prabhakaran’s sudden death filtered through to Colombo, on May 17 this year, and the thunder of fire crackers echoed throughout the country, I had bought 100 fire crackers, in wishful anticipation of this event. Of course, no such thing happened then, and two years later, I lit the crackers for some other more regular occasion before they went stale.
In those days it was considered eccentric to anticipate such an event and expect to celebrate it. At the time, Prabhakaran and the LTTE were popularly considered invincible. Battles between Sri Lanka’s armed forces and LTTE cadres only changed the balance of power temporarily. Political commitment to defeat the LTTE in battle was never paramount. The juicy carrot of ceasefires and negotiations offered by the LTTE were always grabbed by governments despite a long history of treacherous let downs by the Terrorists, who were only waiting for more opportune times to do battle again.
Negotiations, to the LTTE meant war by other means. What couldn’t be won in battle, could always be won at the negotiating table. Most importantly however, valuable time could be bought. The LTTE (at least Prabhakaran) never said they would settle for anything short of a separate State, carved out of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, successive Sri Lankan Governments believed they would. The LTTE always brought the battle to the Sri Lankan armed forces, never the other way around. Their wish to negotiate was only evident when they suffered major setbacks in the battlefield or wished to re-arm and re-train using the lull in fighting afforded by peace talks.
My generation had lived with the constant reminder of LTTE terror since our school days, and it formed the unpleasant back-drop to the greater part of our lives lived on this island. When the news of Prabhakaran’s death and the comprehensive military defeat of the guerrilla organization that he headed reached Colombo, it took days for the full significance of what had happened to sink in. Jaded by living in a land at endless war, many expressed disbelief at the news, and still others didn’t know how to react. So why did so many Sri Lankans celebrate Prabhakaran’s demise so joyously? To answer this satisfactorily, we need to review the history of the LTTE.
Prabhakaran built the LTTE up from a rag-tag band of youth initially led by Kuttimani, into the feared and well equipped fighting force it was to become years later. In the mid 1970’s the group started murdering unarmed, unsuspecting policemen on duty in Jaffna, using stolen revolvers. They soon graduated to robbing banks, such as Neeraveli and by the early eighties, were able to over-run an entire police station such as Chavakachcheri, killing all the occupants and robbing the armoury. This was all well before the infamous anti-Tamil riots of 1983, the preferred date used by all western media organizations, and unfortunately some in our own media establishment, as the start date for the Tamil insurrection.
To use this date to calculate the length of time that the Sri Lankan state has been at war with the LTTE and other terrorist groups, is to play into the hands of calculating Eelamists, who like to make the July 1983 riots the raison d’etre for a violent uprising against the state by Tamils. Any Sri Lankan with a conscience who is interested in objective facts will know that apart from the politically prominent murder of Mr. Alfred Duraiappah, the Mayor of Jaffna, in 1975, Tamil Terrorists had murdered dozens of citizens, Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim. They ravaged the Jaffna Peninsula, and even bombed an Air Ceylon plane on the tarmac at Ratmalana, long before the riots of 1983.
It is due to the folly of successive Sri Lankan Governments in the nineteen seventies and early eighties that, this incipient, and soon burgeoning insurrection, led by ruthless killers was looked at as a law and order problem caused by criminal elements in society. However, the concept of Eelam was long in the planning by the greying ranks of ambitious, opportunistic, Tamil politicians and bloody in its execution by their sons and daughters who were willing to spill blood.
There were always Tamil politicians ready to make excuses for this violent campaign of terror. To these perfidious individuals the "boys" were only engaged in the legitimate struggle of the Tamil people to secure "traditional Tamil homelands". These "moderate" politicians, nurtured, sheltered, protected and lied on behalf of the LTTE and other violent groups and thereby facilitated the so-called "armed struggle". This was in accordance with the "legitimate aspirations of the Tamil nation". It is sad to note that this self-serving, unholy alliance represented the Tamil people, both here and abroad for more than three decades, and have only (literally) hot ashes and rivers of blood and large-scale internal displacement, to show for what they have gained for the ordinary Tamil civilian in this country. However, most of these two-faced politicians pre-deceased Prabhakaran (most by falling foul of the LTTE and being ruthlessly gunned down by them). However, the ones who have survived him show some real promise.
Remember the TELO, the PLOTE and EPRLF? The bloody slaughter of thousands of cadres of these armed groups, both in the Jaffna Peninsula and in the East and the murder of their leaders by the LTTE are now a part of the history of this blood-soaked land. In time to come these groups who were once as powerful and influential as the LTTE, will barely be given a foot-note’s worthy of mention. Ruthless as they once were, Prabhakaran and the LTTE proved to be more ruthless, cunning and capable.
Prabhakaran’s LTTE had made indiscriminate urban bombings part and parcel of life in this island since the mid 1980’s. Long before the phrase ethnic cleansing was coined for what Serbs were doing to Bosnian Muslims in Europe, in the Bosnian war of the early 1990’s, the LTTE was practicing it here in the form of the systematic slaughter of Sinhalese men, women and children among peasant farmers throughout the Eastern Province and beyond. Latterly Muslim civilians were to also experience the LTTE’s ethnic cleansing in Jaffna and Mannar.
It was the LTTE that pioneered the use of human bombs, using them with great frequency, deployed as pedestrians or from motorcycles, to devastating effect. They also pioneered the use of suicide jackets, suicide boats and female human bombs. They were, until recently, also the world’s most prolific users of truck and car bombs against both military and civilian targets. They were world leaders in attacking places of religious worship with the hope of eliciting a violent response from the adherents of the targeted faith. Long before Sunni extremists targeted the most sacred Shiite shrines in Iraq, the precedent had been set by the LTTE, attacking the most sacred Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka. They also regularly used parcel bombs in civilian buses and trains, indiscriminately killing dozens of civilians. By the end of the 20th century their use of claymore mines, as roadside bombs was spreading into areas outside of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. In the last few years they were used to devastating effect against VIP targets as well as ordinary civilian transport. Over the last thirty years, the destruction they wrought on the country’s infrastructure is incalculable, as is the loss of tourist revenue and potential foreign investment.
As an international terrorist organization their tentacles were spread far and wide. For over 25 years they ran a narco-terror network smuggling heroin from Asia into Europe and North America as well as cocaine from South America into North America and Europe. Apart from being a very financially lucrative trade, they also exchanged drugs for arms. They also facilitated the free flow of illegal drugs into Sri Lanka, especially the non-Tamil south. They also made contact with and maintained ties with several extremist organizations abroad that practiced terror. The LTTE’s active proliferation of the techniques and technology of terrorism and the resultant global impact cannot be under-estimated. Despite the Sri Lankan State’s, repeated requests and warnings, the LTTE was allowed unhindered access and activity abroad for so many years. Although the LTTE is effectively a spent force today, the innovative knowledge they passed on will extract a bloody death toll in many lands for years to come. Realistically, that particular legacy of the LTTE is now somebody else’s problem.
Following the "war on terror" that began with 9/11, the LTTE was listed and banned in the USA followed by Britain and Canada, and a few other Western nations due to a renewed threat perception of this global terror group. They were suspected to have transferred technology to al-Qaeda and Indonesia’s Abu Saif, as well as Jaamat Islamiyah, and other allied Islamic terror groups that were sworn enemies of the West. With their global reach and mastery of the technology of terror, they were seen to pose a threat to any world leader if given either the motivation or the right incentive. As to be expected, it was America’s and Britain’s own self interest that eventually brought about the ban, and not the more than 25 years of terror and mayhem perpetrated on this island.
To us in Sri Lanka they should have always been terrorists. Not rebels, militants and least of all freedom fighters. These were all obfuscating, inaccurate, partisan and less than honest names for what the LTTE always did. They were a guerilla organization that mostly used hit-and run tactics that was a time tested strategy in asymmetrical warfare, from as far back as the American Revolution (war of independence 1772-1776) and our own Kandyan wars with European powers. More than any other guerilla organization in the world however, what marked them out from the beginning, was their willingness to use deadly violence against unarmed civilians. They unleashed terror, indiscriminately, ruthlessly and with cold-blooded efficiency. Over the years, they targeted and killed, non combatants in their thousands, with bullets, explosives and edged weapons such as swords kethas (bill-hook knives), and axes. This was their stock in trade. Even as they systematically suppressed all dissenting voices within the Tamil populace, many saw fit to back them. If ALL of us Sri Lankans whether living in Jaffna Colombo, Matara or elsewhere, cannot see that Prabhakaran did more to polarize this nation than any man, dead or alive, we as a nation will find it hard to put the past behind us and build a new future together.
To my mind the island of Sri Lanka and the nation are but one. The legitimacy of grievances and the experience of discrimination may be very real. The inability, or unwillingness, of Tamil politicians to successfully negotiate power sharing at the centre with their Sinhalese counterparts or reasonable autonomy within a unitary state does not mean that separatism was, or is a viable option. Nor does it mean that first white washing and then placing your faith in a terrorist group that ostensibly represented minority interests, but achieved nothing short of a polarization of attitudes on both sides, following a blood bath, is valid or defendable. We, the Tamils and the Sinhalese, are not two nations but one.
The legitimacy of grievances both perceived and real will always be subject to debate, but not exempt from an honest solution.
Since early British colonial times we have allowed, and uncritically accepted, the British re-definition of our own ethnicity whether Sinhala or Tamil, which suited their divide and rule policies but is not conducive to nation building in a post colonial context. It is also high time that we all moved away from the opportunistic and short-sighted politics of G.G. Ponnambalam and his unrealistic call for "50-50"(50% parliamentary representation for a 12% minority) for Tamils, followed by S.W.R.D Bandaranaiake’s Sinhala Only policies and all they stand for. Fanning the insecurities of your own ethnic group in order to become popular may net you an unprecedented number of votes, but can also send a country backwards and over the abyss. Down the years, dozens of politicians on both sides of the "ethnic divide" as well as across party lines have jumped on this exclusionist, easy vote getting, bandwagon and the folly of that legacy is only too clear today. All this political opportunism, has strengthened the hand of extremism on both sides and has had disastrous results for all peace loving Sri Lankan citizens.
Terrorism has simple subjective definitions in any dictionary. It is strange how nations have such a difficult time agreeing on one. The myopia within our own country and our inability to see terrorism for what it is, is also astounding.
Prabhakaran’s and the LTTE’s big mistake was under-estimating the Sri Lankan Army’s resolve to fight back and continue fighting, despite taking enormous casualties. Over the years the LTTE had systematically made the Sri Lankan Army into an essentially Sinhalese army, apart from a few Muslim/Malay officers and soldiers. The LTTE offered a traitors death to you and your family if you were a committed Tamil soldier in the Sri Lankan Army. At the same time they offered you an alternative Tamil "army" to join. This insidious sub-nationalism did more to make the Sri Lankan armed forces essentially Sinhalese, than any other mechanism. The mono-ethnic character of the Sri Lankan army had tremendous propaganda value to be peddled abroad as well. It was especially useful in promoting the grand fiction of an ‘Army of Occupation’. This fiction was invaluable in explaining the presence of Sinhalese soldiers in the "Tamil homeland" and thereby a generation of young Tamils were brainwashed and sent to kill and die for the "cause".
To meet the increasing LTTE threat, the Sri Lankan army burgeoned from 12,000 ceremonial soldiers to a disciplined fighting force of 200, 000 well equipped troops. We are now South Asia’s most militarized country. This expansion has come at enormous cost to country already straining to improve the lives of its 20 million citizens, many of them barely above the poverty line.
It is important to understand that the Sinhalese are a majority people with a minority perception. Across the narrow Palk Straits, they see more than sixty million Tamils living in India’s Tamil Nadu state, politicized for decades by Eelamists here and abroad and, as a direct result, often hostile to the Sinhalese of this island while being supportive of Tamil insurgency here. It was also foolish of Prabhakaran and his supporters to under-estimate the deep ties that the Sinhalese have to this ancient land. When a Sinhalese soldier fights up in the North with hundreds of kilometres of land behind him, in his mind he is still fighting with his back to the sea. He also knows that whether he fights in the North or the East of the island he fights in defense of a land that is littered with the ruins of Sinhalese and Buddhist ancestors, notwithstanding the fraudulent historic claims made by Eelamists for a traditional Tamil homeland.
They feel if they lose this land they have absolutely nowhere else to go. Eelam in the Sinhala mind is only a stepping stone to total conquest of the island by Tamil militancy. Over the last 30 years, Eelamists have deliberately and systematically sullied the good name that Sinhalese had abroad; therefore quite ironically the perception of Sinhala isolation is even greater.
The current political and military leadership gave the Sri Lankan forces real self-belief and out of that belief emerged real bravery. As we all know the end came swiftly for what has proved to be a paper Tiger. Years ago this same paper tiger and their diaspora support base, had come to believe their own propaganda, that the Sinhalese soldier was in essence cowardly. This too was a fatal miscalculation. Many in the forces knowingly and willingly went to their death so that other Sri Lankans can live in a land at peace. Their sacrifice is inestimable. You and I who live in this island, now free of the scourge of terrorism after more than three decades, owe them a deep debt of gratitude.
No longer do Sri Lankans have to frantically check on the safety of their loved ones after every bomb explosion. No longer is there a daily tally of war widows and children losing their parents, and parents their children, to say nothing of the ceaseless stream of disabled men and women in the prime of their lives. Freedom of movement and eventually full freedom of expression will return. Most importantly, freedom from terror is over for millions in this land. These are hard-won freedoms and should never be taken for granted. This is also a real opportunity for all patriotic Sri Lankans to unite and build a better, more equitable nation for all, irrespective of ethnicity and divisive politics. It hardly needs to be said that our children and grandchildren should inherit a better nation than the one we inherited from our parents.
Being of known mixed ethnicity, it is hard (or is it easy?) for me to see myself as anything but a Sri Lankan first. Being a Sinhalese, Tamil, Moor or Burgher is secondary. Living on an island with a colonial occupation of 450 years, a recorded history of 2,500 years and a settlement history of another 500 years super-imposed on a human pre-history of 30,000 or more years, most of us are of mixed ethnicity. This island sits astride international trade routes and has seen settlers and conquerors arriving in successive waves over the centuries from all parts of South Asia and beyond. The allure of this land is such that even conquerors sometimes disbanded their armies and decided to stay on. To be Sinhalese is more a cultural and linguistic identity than an ethnicity that can be tied to blood lines. We can choose to highlight ethnicity and stay divided in ethnic enclaves of the mind, or forge a common Sri Lankan identity that will unite us. As His Excellency, the President recently said, there is no majority community and no minorities - only patriotic and unpatriotic Sri Lankans. The choice is ours.
(The writer had a Tamil grandfather born in Jaffna and a Sinhalese grandfather born in Colombo in the first decade of the 20th century.)
