NINETY DAYS AFTER THE D-DAY
More than ninety days have passed after signing the MOU between Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe and the fascist murderer Prabhakaran under the auspices of the Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka, who was formerly in charge of Red Barna when it was busy with settling Tamils from the up country in Vanni. It is said that the so-called leader of the political wing of the LTTE, Thamil Chelvam comes from one of the families that were settled in Vavunia by Red Barna. In the LTTE who gives orders to whom? What is the more important "wing" of the LTTE? It cannot be the political wing as then Prabhakaran who is supposed to be the leader of the armed wing of the LTTE would be getting his orders from Thamil Chelvam. Unless Anton Balasingham is running the show from London, with the assistance of the Norwegians and the British Labour government, the so called political wing of the LTTE must be getting its orders from Prabhakaran. In other words if that is the case Prabhakaran must be the leader of all the wings of the LTTE including the political wing and Thamil Chelvam is merely a puppet in the hands of Prabhakaran. Of course, after watching Prabhakaran at the so-called international press conference in Vanni, there are many Sinhalas who believe that Prabhakaran is also a puppet in the hands of the Christian western world, whose link/agent in the LTTE is Anton Balasingham, a Tamil Christian who had worked in the British High Commission in Sri Lanka. The so-called political wing of the LTTE is a big joke. It is something that the LTTE has invented in order to get recognition as a political party. Even the armed "wing" is the result of a political decision and one should not get carried away with expressions such as leader of the political wing. There had been leaders of the political wing before Thamil Chelvam and nobody has heard of the "political" wing meeting to oust "leaders" such as Yogi and Mahaththaya. Incidentally who appointed Thamil Chelvam as the leader of the "political Wing"?
My intention is not to present a balance sheet, ninety days after signing of the MOU. Neither do I want to take clause by clause of the MOU and present facts as to what the LTTE has gained by violating them and how the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) headed by the Norwegians has kept quiet. Even without going into details, it is clear that at the present rate the government would lose not only the northern and the eastern provinces but the whole country to the LTTE in the next nine hundred days if something extra ordinary does not happen. In order to realise what has happened during the last ninety days I quote from the LTTE website eelamnation.
"After LTTE entered Yaazhppaanam, it is destroying pornography movies and hardcopies, which were made available abundantly by the SL Forces. Hundred and fifty copies were collected from the area and burnt today in front of local people and community leaders. The LTTE warned yesterday that they would take stern action against those who involve in spoiling the rich Thamil culture and traditions.............The Army and Quisling groups supporting the government permitted illegal and immoral activities such as theft, murder, rape, prostitution and free flow of pornographic films, pictures, cigarettes and alcohol. The then government also encouraged these activities. While marinating an economic blockade, it allowed these items to be shipped to the North at a time when the people were starving without food." (25th May 2002). It appears that all these days the government has kept the people in Jaffna food hungry but not sex hungry. The government has encouraged the Sri Lankan Forces to distribute pornography movies and hardcopies in Jaffna (Note the spelling Yaazhppaanam - is it deSanskritised pure Tamil?). It may be that the Sri Lankan Forces are not engaged in these activities in the other parts of the country, as there are others such as post modernists, enlightened media personnel including chairpersons who are determined to change the thinking patterns of the Sinhala people. In any event, nobody including modernists, post modernists, ultra modernists, progressives, socialists, communists, liberals, those who want to live in the 22nd century now itself, do not accuse the LTTE of echoing reactionary fundamentalist ideas such as "spoiling the rich Thamil culture". If a Sinhala person or organisation had said something about Sinhala traditions or ancient Sinhala culture, then the western sociologists and social scientists in general, NGO intellectuals, western press, the apologists for the Catholic and other Christian churches and the others would have had a field day and made a big noise on the fundamentalism of the Sinhala Chauvinists.
However, it is not the distribution or burning of phonographic material that I am interested in. The eelamnation website clearly states that burning began after the LTTE entered Jaffna. The question is how did the LTTE enter Jaffna? We all know that the LTTE was in Jaffna before 1996 and after the armed forces took control of Jaffna when Mr. Anuruddha Ratwatte was in charge of defense, the LTTE was mainly confined to a region in Vanni. All of a sudden without firing a bullet the LTTE has entered Jaffna. They have not only entered Jaffna but started burning phonographic material in the name of rich Thamil culture. Apart from burning these material it is also known that they extort money from the vendors and others in these regions. The LTTE has managed to enter Jaffna and engage not only in political activities, like a recognised party, but in extorting money claiming that they are taxing people, thanks to Norway and the SLMM. The PA government had at least the courage to ask Norway to keep away from so called facilitation work and Solheim to keep away from "peace", I believe, for the sake of peace. As a result of that and also because they had not kept the people informed of what was happening the government fell with Mr. Hakeem acting as the agent of the non national forces. The UNF government has no guts to ask the Norwegians (that is why they were helped to form a government) to wash their hands off from the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
As we and many others have mentioned the proscription of the LTTE has been lifted for all practical purposes. After 90 days from the so-called D-day all the members of the LTTE can engage in political activities in the northern and the eastern provinces. Though they are not a recognised political party, the LTTE has more "powers" than any political party including the UNF. Is there any political party that can extort money from people, "officially", claiming that they are collecting taxes? It is pointless complaining to the SLMM quoting article 2.1 of the infamous MOU as it is a case of "naduth hamuduruwange baduth hamuduruwange". Are there two ministries of finance in this country? (If there are two presidents and two prime ministers, according to Anton Balasingham why not two ministers of finance). There are henchmen of leaders of the governing political party, who collect "kappan" from people, but that is not done in a "formal" way as the LTTE terrorists do. It is clear that the eminent lawyer in Mr. Choksy is not in a position to do anything about it. Ninety days after the "D -day" the LTTE has entered the Jaffna peninsula and is in control of the lives of the people in the region.
Having entered Jaffna with the help of the Norwegians and the other westerners who are interested in depriving Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country the LTTE is now saying that only "Thamil eelam" has the right to lease out the Trincomalee oil tanks. The eelamnation web site on the 20th of May said: "Amidst moves to lease out a section of the 1000-acre oil tank farm in the heart of Trincomalee to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Thamils have mounted strong protest saying that only Thamil Eelam has the right to make decision whether to lease out the farm or not. The Sri Lankan government has no such right. Local and foreign media have reported that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, would discuss the lease of oil tank farm with Indian leaders and he will sign the lease agreement during his stay in India next month. The government is expected this week to approve the proposal to lease out the tanks to Indian Oil Corporation. But the newspapers failed to say a word how the government could lease out the tanks located in the heart of Thamil homeland without the concurrence of the LTTE. Thamil organizations and Thamil interest groups in the Northeast of the island have staged massive protest saying that no one should intervene in the internal affairs of Thamil Eelam. It's up to the Thamils of Thamil Eelam to decide whether to lease the oil farms to foreigners. In the guise of peace talks, Sri Lanka should not interfere with the land rights of Thamils."
According to the LTTE,it is the Tamils in the so-called Tamil eelam who have the right to lease out the oil tanks. Since the LTTE is the sole representative of the Tamils it follows that only the LTTE has the right to make deals on the oil tanks in Trincomalee. Sound logic assuming that there is an entity called the Tamil eelam. It is clear that the LTTE has defined what it means by internal self determination, the term that Mr. Wickramasinghe and Dr. G. L. Pieris saw as a much promising concept to emerge from the press conference of Prabhakaran (and Balasingham) in Vanni. Even the leasing out of oil tanks in Trincomalee becomes an internal affair of Tamil Eelam. Internal self determination is nothing but the establishment of a confederation that paves way for an eelam.
The leasing out of oil tanks is going to be a thorny problem. Both India and USA are interested in these tanks and the government could not only get some revenue by leasing them out but could ask the governments of USA and India to look after the security of the tanks. However, in the long run it is going to affect the sovereignty of the country and also by leasing them to India or to USA or to both countries we could become the target of attacks by other countries that could engage in war with these countries. However, what is more alarming is the stand taken by the LTTE. Having defined internal self determination they now claim that it is the so-called Tamil eelam and hence the LTTE, that has the right to lease or not to lease the oil tanks and not the Sri Lankan government. Ninety days after the so-called D-day the LTTE is in control of Jaffna peninsula in particular and of the northern and the eastern provinces in general extorting money, imposing a so-called tax on the users of A9 road, and demanding the right to lease the oil tanks in Trincomalee. The Norwegians and the SLMM are responsible for all these developments and when one considers the fact that Norway was the first country to exercise the right of self determination, (however the situation was entirely different with respect to Norway and Sweden) one doesn't have to be a so called expert on international relations to see where we are heading.
The MOU is supposed to be a ceasefire agreement. It was signed three months ago. Within 160 days of the "D-day" the conditions imposed by the MOU have to be fulfilled by the government. On the otherhand, with the set of monitors who keep on coming, very soon there will be forty eight of them, supporting the LTTE and helping them towards the establishment of a separate Tamil Christian eelam, the LTTE has no responsibilities and has only power to gain. The next move by the LTTE would be to get the army to withdraw to the main camps giving up all the camps in the periphery protecting the main camps. This would make the main camps a sitting duck to the LTTE attacks and within six months of the "D-day" the armed forces would be back in the camps in Colombo and other places outside the northern and the eastern provinces. The MOU would go into the history as a "ceasefire agreement" that handed over the northern and the eastern provinces to the LTTE on a platter to establish an eelam. It is not a ceasefire agreement, in essence. A ceasefire agrement should not change the positions, forward defense lines, the strengths of the armed forces. Once the armed forces are compelled to withdraw from the peripheral camps located in schools and other such places, under the pretext of releasing these buildings, the positions, forward defense lines and strengths are changed. The SLMM that turns a blind eye to the violations of the MOU by the LTTE would force the government to comply with the articles in the MOU and withdraw the armed forces to the main camps in the Jaffna peninsula. With that the LTTE that has already entered the peninsula would attack the main camps and establish an eelam without going to Thailand to discuss the so-called interim administration. Why go to Thailand to discuss interim administration when they have already got the "permanent solution". The Sinhalas, unless they realise the danger and organise themselves would have one more contender to the title of the betrayer of the Sinhala nation. As Don Juan Dharmapala's betrayal pails into insignificance the Sinhalas would not even enjoy the luxury of choosing the winner.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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