rapa
08-17-2006, 11:01 AM
Editorial
Don’t blame the LTTE!
The LTTE stands condemned for its brutal and savage attack on the Pakistan High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Bashir Wali Mohamand on Monday. It is a dastardly crime of the same severity as the assassination of India’s former Prime Minister Rajv Gandhi. Mr. Mohamand’s escape was a miracle; his car was damaged in the claymore mine blast. Sadly, some of his security personnel perished in the attack.
The first sign of the LTTE targeting a person is a propaganda attack on him. A few weeks ago, the pro-LTTE media went on a vilification campaign against Mr. Mohamand, calling him various names. Before all high profile assassinations, including that of Rajiv, the Tigers had used its propaganda cubs to tarnish the image of their targets. The intelligence bigwigs must be asked why they failed to read the signals.
The frustration of the LTTE knows no bounds. Its battle plans have gone awry and it has suffered ignominious defeats in the East. In the North as well, it cannot justify its offensive, given the heavy casualty figures and its failure to achieve the target. Its wrath has got the better of reason and the outfit is blind to the consequences of its action, which is highly unpredictable. Who thought it would ever kill Rajiv?
The LTTE never forgets or forgives. It has every reason to target a Pakistani VIP as Pakistan is one of the few countries that have stood by Sri Lanka right throughout, without a hidden agenda. But for its support, Sri Lanka would have lost its war against terror a long time ago. In 2000, when the Tigers marched up to the gateway to Jaffna, firing as they did, multi barrel rocket launchers, which wreaked havoc on army positions and enabled them to score a virtual walkover in the North, Pakistan rushed to Sri Lanka’s help. The desperately needed big guns were airlifted within hours and the LTTE was pinned down in the outskirts of Jaffna.
Today, the LTTE is making a fresh attempt to capture Jaffna and its failure is mainly due to the newly acquired capabilities of the army from countries like Pakistan. So, as the government says, the outfit may have thought of warning Pakistan by assassinating its High Commissioner, though such a strategy may seem so naííve to the discerning. The Tigers usually aim at two birds with one stone. Now that they are desperate to win back sympathy in India, where they stand banned, they may even have sought to capitalize on the post Mumbai anti-Pakistani sentiments among some sections of Indians by taking on Pakistan, albeit symbolically. Al Queada, it should be recalled, followed a similar strategy by taking on the US to endear itself to the Muslim world and sell its terror to millions the world over.
The LTTE is, as we have pointed out, ‘more equal than’ other terror groups. For, irrespective of its crimes, there are foreign powers to look after its interests. Even after Rajiv’s assassination, it found a safe haven in countries like Norway, the UK, France and Canada. The assassination of President Premadasa, the attempt on President Kumaratunga’s life and the assassination of Foreign Minister Kadirgamar meant little to those countries, which continue to pressure Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE, knowing very well that its intransigence will put paid to any peace effort.
The UK has frozen the assets of the suspects in an alleged plot to blast airplanes and the British police have orders to shoot any terror suspect in the head with no questions asked. But Britain has the audacity to ask Sri Lanka to put up with terror and talk to the LTTE!
So, in a way, it is not the LTTE that should be blamed for its crimes but its foreign sponsors whose envoys here are more in Kilinochchi than in Colombo. Their mollycoddling has made the Tigers cocky that they can commit any crime with impunity.
The UN loses no time in issuing statements condemning the killing of LTTE leaders. So do the Co-Chairs. It is intriguing why neither the UN nor the Co-chairs promptly issued a statement on the attempt on the Pakistani High Commissioner’s life. The US tucked it away in a press release, which rightly condemned the killing of Kethesh but only expressed sympathies to the families of those who had perished in the attack on the High Commissioner’s motorcade. This reaction is rather strange as Pakistan is a country which is in the forefront of fighting America’s terrorists. At least that dastardly crime should have been condemned unreservedly, let alone the perpetrator being named.
Given such leniency on the part of the world powers that claim to be on a crusade against terrorism, is it surprising that the LTTE has got emboldened to target even an envoy of a nuclear capable nation?
Don’t blame the LTTE!
The LTTE stands condemned for its brutal and savage attack on the Pakistan High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Bashir Wali Mohamand on Monday. It is a dastardly crime of the same severity as the assassination of India’s former Prime Minister Rajv Gandhi. Mr. Mohamand’s escape was a miracle; his car was damaged in the claymore mine blast. Sadly, some of his security personnel perished in the attack.
The first sign of the LTTE targeting a person is a propaganda attack on him. A few weeks ago, the pro-LTTE media went on a vilification campaign against Mr. Mohamand, calling him various names. Before all high profile assassinations, including that of Rajiv, the Tigers had used its propaganda cubs to tarnish the image of their targets. The intelligence bigwigs must be asked why they failed to read the signals.
The frustration of the LTTE knows no bounds. Its battle plans have gone awry and it has suffered ignominious defeats in the East. In the North as well, it cannot justify its offensive, given the heavy casualty figures and its failure to achieve the target. Its wrath has got the better of reason and the outfit is blind to the consequences of its action, which is highly unpredictable. Who thought it would ever kill Rajiv?
The LTTE never forgets or forgives. It has every reason to target a Pakistani VIP as Pakistan is one of the few countries that have stood by Sri Lanka right throughout, without a hidden agenda. But for its support, Sri Lanka would have lost its war against terror a long time ago. In 2000, when the Tigers marched up to the gateway to Jaffna, firing as they did, multi barrel rocket launchers, which wreaked havoc on army positions and enabled them to score a virtual walkover in the North, Pakistan rushed to Sri Lanka’s help. The desperately needed big guns were airlifted within hours and the LTTE was pinned down in the outskirts of Jaffna.
Today, the LTTE is making a fresh attempt to capture Jaffna and its failure is mainly due to the newly acquired capabilities of the army from countries like Pakistan. So, as the government says, the outfit may have thought of warning Pakistan by assassinating its High Commissioner, though such a strategy may seem so naííve to the discerning. The Tigers usually aim at two birds with one stone. Now that they are desperate to win back sympathy in India, where they stand banned, they may even have sought to capitalize on the post Mumbai anti-Pakistani sentiments among some sections of Indians by taking on Pakistan, albeit symbolically. Al Queada, it should be recalled, followed a similar strategy by taking on the US to endear itself to the Muslim world and sell its terror to millions the world over.
The LTTE is, as we have pointed out, ‘more equal than’ other terror groups. For, irrespective of its crimes, there are foreign powers to look after its interests. Even after Rajiv’s assassination, it found a safe haven in countries like Norway, the UK, France and Canada. The assassination of President Premadasa, the attempt on President Kumaratunga’s life and the assassination of Foreign Minister Kadirgamar meant little to those countries, which continue to pressure Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE, knowing very well that its intransigence will put paid to any peace effort.
The UK has frozen the assets of the suspects in an alleged plot to blast airplanes and the British police have orders to shoot any terror suspect in the head with no questions asked. But Britain has the audacity to ask Sri Lanka to put up with terror and talk to the LTTE!
So, in a way, it is not the LTTE that should be blamed for its crimes but its foreign sponsors whose envoys here are more in Kilinochchi than in Colombo. Their mollycoddling has made the Tigers cocky that they can commit any crime with impunity.
The UN loses no time in issuing statements condemning the killing of LTTE leaders. So do the Co-Chairs. It is intriguing why neither the UN nor the Co-chairs promptly issued a statement on the attempt on the Pakistani High Commissioner’s life. The US tucked it away in a press release, which rightly condemned the killing of Kethesh but only expressed sympathies to the families of those who had perished in the attack on the High Commissioner’s motorcade. This reaction is rather strange as Pakistan is a country which is in the forefront of fighting America’s terrorists. At least that dastardly crime should have been condemned unreservedly, let alone the perpetrator being named.
Given such leniency on the part of the world powers that claim to be on a crusade against terrorism, is it surprising that the LTTE has got emboldened to target even an envoy of a nuclear capable nation?