The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting the government of Sri Lanka for over two decades. They have used various tactics, including suicide bombing. They claim that the government has continuously discriminated against the minority Tamils, compelling them to carry out a separatist war.
I am not a supporter of the LTTE's methods and I do not support their cause, but I believe they have genuine gripes, including consistently being discriminated against by the Buddhist majority. Being a die hard proponent of the concept of satyagraha, I firmly believe that civil disobedience would further their cause more than violence ever will.
However, the LTTE has continued its fight and has grown over the years, earning the reputation of being one of the worlds most ruthless terrorist organizations. They have well established funding and weapons smuggling networks and are prescribed as a terrorist organization in many countries including the UK and US.
I am in no way claiming that the successive Sri lankan governments are innocent in all this. In fact, they have been corrupt, inefficient and very much responsible for the sorry state of affairs of my country. Not one of them has had the courage to come up with a solution to this conflict and have been fudging with national security forever. The government though is elected and sovereign whereas the LTTE kills any political opponents while claiming to be the sole representatives of the Tamil people.
This brings me to the point of this posting. On Monday the LTTE carried out an aerial bombing of a Sri Lankan Air force base. This is a terrorist organization, which now has a air force! There is no terrorist organization in the world that has aircraft! This is unheard of and unthinkable, yet it happened. The fact that the LTTE has aircraft and used them to attack should send shivers down the spine of any government. This not only threatens Sri Lankan and regional security, but international security. If one terrorist organization is capable of acquiring aircraft, which terrorist organization is not?
Curiously though, none of these governments seems to have even noticed. In fact, one would think that a "Coalition of the Willing" fighting an "International War on Terror" would in the very least have something to say. Somehow though, there has been no significant reaction from any of these countries.
This is why I have always maintained that the "War on Terror" is a big fat farce. This attack to me is a real test of the "War on Terror". If fighting terrorism is the real motive, in the least there would be strong reactions. Yet, there are none. The fact that an illegal terrorist organization that is more ruthless than any other has now got a functioning air force doesn't seem to be raising any eyebrows.
Too caught up in its own issues and the arrogant belief that its power is infinite, the world's sole superpower is failing to provide leadership that is desperately required. In the process, it is undermining its actions and destroying its credibility. Historically, this has signalled the beginning of the end of an empire.
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3 comments:
there are certain facts are especially about the government. What the so called freedom fighters who say they retuned to democratic participation have achieved through the participation? can they able to persuade the govt to give a system like countries like swiss nad canada. I strongly beleive if the srilankan govt ready to give a system like as i mentioned above every tamil in the island will support to it.Your blog is not a balanced opinion. You all cry for peace why do not you all think the suffering of the minority in srilanka and offer something feasible to consider like countries like swiss and canada
srilanka now harvesting wat they seed against tamils in 1983.
Racism...the world could learn the meaing from rajabakshe...
no country in the world ever did a aerial srike on their own ppl but srilank...
Could anyone justify the sencholai attack of srilanka and the innocent childrens murder...which country ever did this kind???
I kind of knew when I wrote this that there would be some heated response. This is the reason I never blogged about politics in Sri Lanka and still dont. Even this particular post, I wanted to give an international perspective and what I tried to do was build up the history before I got into what I actually wanted to say, ie comment on the authencity of the war on terror.
I am not too clear on what you are trying to say (I am assuming the comments were by different people). However, having had these sorts of arguments back home, I can guess.
I am a muslim and therefore a minority too. I know discrimination and felt it. Maybe not as much as tamils have, but its there. If you are referring to a federal solution, I am with you on that. I dont know whether every tamil will support it, but I am sure majority Sri Lankans will if they are given the facts straight. Negotiation needs time and at one point it became clear that both, the government and LTTE were not interested in it anymore.
Regarding the second post, I agree with you. This is the worst government and is absolutely on a rampage with a madman at the reigns. The bombings have to stop and I personally see no justification for them. However, I reiterate that any entity other than a government maintaining an airforce is unacceptable and the apathy of foreign governments towards this attack has exposed the fallacy of the war on terror.
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