"India with Lanka in war against LTTE" -- Rajapakshe. LTTE is banned by India -- Swamy.

India with Lanka in war against LTTE" -- Rajapakshe. LTTE is banned by India -- Swamy.

‘India with Lanka in war against LTTE’

Sutirtho Patranobis (Hindustan Times)
Email Author
Colombo, October 13, 2008
First Published: 00:58 IST(13/10/2008)
Last Updated: 01:01 IST(13/10/2008)

Sri Lanka is getting the maximum support from India in its ongoing war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a top Presidential aide said.

He added that Sri Lanka was also closely considering the concerns that India has raised about the situation of the Tamil civilians in the embattled north.

“The government, which has destroyed the LTTE, is getting adequate support from our foreign friends. Here, the support from our neighbour is very vital. India has been always with us. We got maximum support from India to crush the LTTE,’’ senior adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa, told the Sunday Observer newspaper. Basil Rajapaksa is the President’s brother.

On the issue of Sri Lanka’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi being summoned by the National Security Advisor, MK Narayanan, Rajapaksa said that the UPFA “is seriously considering these concerns (of India) now.” He added that the President had already instructed that “to take some measures to address their concerns.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=73b72109-e018-4358-aadf-8bec8cee4da5


The Moment of Truth for India on the LTTE

Mon, 2008-10-13 07:09
By Dr. Subramanian Swamy,

Recently there have been some hectic efforts to get the Government of India to pressure the Sri Lanka government to end the “genocide” of Tamils and to enter into negotiation with the LTTE.

Dr. Subramanian Swamy: "We Indians have to take stock now and decide what to do to remove the fault line in our policy towards the LTTE, and secure our geographical neighborhood."

Is there genocide going on in Sri Lanka? Not if one goes by the United Nations definition of genocide. The 1948 International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide signed by 135 countries including India and Sri Lanka has elaborately defined the term “genocide”. By this definition that is available to any literate person by just going to the Google search engine, we can say there is no genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

There are a large number of Sri Lankan Tamils who say that there is no genocide in their country, well known persons such as V. Anandsagaree of TULF, S.C. Chandrahasan of Ofer, Douglas Devananda presently a Minister and Karuna MP. May be the pro-LTTE parties in India have a new definition of genocide, which is that if the Sri Lanka army kills then it is genocide, but if LTTE kills then that is part of a Freedom Struggle. We in India need not bother about such a laughable contortion of the definition of genocide.

The truth is that the internationally banned terrorist organization, the LTTE, is losing in the battlefield, and it is only matter of time before its headquarters in the jungles of Jaffna is overrun by the Sri Lankan army. This has activated certain political groups in India who depend on the LTTE for monetary support.

Why is the LTTE on the run? In one word, it is because of their hubris. These terrorists killed at will even Tamils who were not only for Eelam, but also were opposing tooth and nail the Sri Lanka majority hegemonism: Gandhian leaders like such as Amrithalingam, Yogeswaran, Neelam Tiruchelvam, and militants such as Sri Sabaratnam. Why ?

Because the LTTE Chief Prabhakaran thought he could get Eelam alone. He of course welcomes cheerleaders like Nedumaran and Veeramani, because they slavishly serve him, but not independent Tamil leaders working for the goal of self-respect and autonomy for Tamils. Rajiv Gandhi sent 100, 000 troops to the island and defacto carved out a North and East Tamil area in Sri Lanka, with a full fledged Tamil Chief Minister who was elected in an election. The IPKF did not allow a single Sri Lankan soldier to enter the region.

But that was not good enough for the terrorist LTTE because Rajiv Gandhi wanted political plurality and leaders to hold office via elections. Since the LTTE believes in a single party Marxist state, so Prabhakaran decided that Rajiv Gandhi should be killed.

Hence, he decided to assassinate Rajiv as soon as he found Indian collaborators who he mistakenly thought could protect him post the dastardly deed. That is called hubris. His collaborators could not protect him however because Rajiv Gandhi had more courageous friends than he had thought, and his collaborators were cowardly to the core. As a consequence, Prabhakaran is a now an internationally wanted criminal, a proclaimed offender for whom the Interpol is in search.

Should India intervene to prevent the inevitable decimation of the LTTE ? That is the question of importance for us. Now is the moment of truth for clarity and transparency.

At present, there is confusion in our approach to Sri Lanka because of a hidden compulsion of the UPA government. The confusion is manifested in the following contradiction: On one hand, the Indian government has banned the LTTE as a terrorist organization because of it’s murderous activities, including the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, yet on the other hand, despite the continuing assassinations by the LTTE of pro-Indian Sri Lankan politicians and it’s open interference within India by financing pro-LTTE politicians and training other terrorist organizations, the Indian government pontificates that the “peace dialogue” of the Sri Lanka government with the LTTE must take place, which talks in the past have ended up legitimizing the terrorist outfit and thus making the ban meaningless.

Hence, we Indians have to take stock now and decide what to do to remove the fault line in our policy towards the LTTE, and secure our geographical neighborhood.
We have to regard the LTTE a part of the problem in the Sri Lanka crisis and not a part of any solution of the crisis because of that outfit’s links with India’s terrorists such as PWG, Naxalites, and ULFA, and with ISI of Pakistan and even Al Qaeda [ which now has established camps in Chittagong, Bangla Desh], as well as with defacto separatist Indian political parties such as DMK, PMK, Dalit Panther and not mention 38 paramilitary connected terrorists outfits roaming the forest areas of Tamil Nadu.

Thus, India has a national security imperative and an unavoidable moral obligation to get involved to free Sri Lanka of the LTTE’s treacherous terror, if for nothing else than to secure our own security environment and punish those seek to overawe our people with terror.

I see five specific reasons why India has this obligation to assist in the elimination of the LTTE:

First, India had trained the LTTE in 1980s and created this Frankenstein monster. Hence, India has to atone for it by actions to disband and unravel the LTTE.

Second, despite enjoying India’s hospitality for years, the LTTE betrayed India by entering into a shocking alliance with the Premadasa’s government and killing more than a thousand Indian army personnel of the IPKF sent to the island to enforce peace and create an autonomous North and East Tamil region. The betrayal and loss of lives of our valiant jawans have to be avenged to keep up the morale of the Indian armed forces.

Third, for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi, India is obligated to search for Prabhakaran and to teach the LTTE a lesson in a language they will understand, and to immobilize them enough to deter them in the future from engaging in any murderous and terrorist activities against India and Indian interests.

Fourth, the LTTE interferes in the internal affairs of India by financing stooge Indian political parties, in providing training to Indian militant and extremist organizations. It also launders black money of Indian politicians through it’s illegal Eelam Bank in the Jaffna area. India cannot allow such erosion of law and order within it’s own borders due to such money laundering.

Fifth, the LTTE is a part of the international terror network and is aided by ISI of Pakistan to smuggle narcotics into India, circulate fake currency notes to buy medicines and diesel, to smuggle out antiques to Italy, and engage in passport fabrication, and hawala operations.

The question thus is: To discharge these obligations what should India do ? The Tamils are squeezed between the devil [LTTE] and the deep sea [Sinhala chauvinists].
Hence first India has to initiate action to assist the Sri Lankan government to take out the LTTE, and the same time tell the Sinhala majority that following the end of the LTTE, India reserves the right to intervene militarily if they do not implement a proper devolution of powers for the Tamils under the Constitution of Sri Lanka.
Second, India must assist and nurture the democratic elements in the Sri Lankan Tamil population, those that have demonstrated capacity to stand up to the LTTE such as S.C. Chandrahasan, Anandsagaree, Douglas Devananda and breakaway LTTE group that had opposed Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, viz., the Karuna group, etc., to form a non-violent and democratic alternative to work out with the Sinhala majority the federal constitution that would serve the purpose of power sharing.

Time is at hand for India to effectively contribute to the war against terrorism and in promotion of democracy by targeting the LTTE sincerely and effectively in the larger national interest of security and national integrity. There is today a window of opportunity due to international consensus against the LTTE, and we must seize it now. Let the pro-LTTE parties sing for their supper. We need to pay no attention them.

[The writer is a former Union Law Minister]
- Asian Tribune -

http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/13691

Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, President of the
Janata Party


The so-called "All Party Meet" on Sri Lanka convened by the TN Chief Minister is turning out to be a pathetic flop. It is bereft of any legitimacy since the principal opposition party in the State, the AIADMK led by the former Chief Minister, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa has boycotted the meeting, calling it a hoax on the public. The meeting as it now turns out is a gathering of parties who have been rendered by the Tamil Nadu public as agents of the LTTE. No amount of rigged opinion polls can convince anyone with any touch with the public that the LTTE is not a hated terrorist organisation in Tamil Nadu. As it is, any resolution passed by this motley crowd of parties would be only a reflection of their own political impotence, since the DMK and PMK are not prepared to walk out of the UPA on this issue. We have already witnessed their abject surrender for the crumbs of power in the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, after pompously predicting that their patron saint Ms. Sonia Gandhi would flag off the first ship via the proposed channel on November 1st 2008 and that too after rupturing the holy Rama Setu besides collecting their hefty illegal ommissions from international dredging companies. But the people have a right to protest against this ill-fated "All Party" Meet since the tax payers money is being wasted to plead for a foreign terrorist outfit, the LTTE, which killed a former Prime Minister of India. The whole exercise is futile because mainstream India has decided that LTTE is part of the problem of Sri Lanka, and cannot be a part of any negotiated solution of the problem.

13 Oct. 2008