Thoughts from London

Time to stop pampering those Tigers
How convenient this so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is proving to be for the Tiger leadership. Sri Lanka's Air Force is running an air taxi service for the Balasinghams, Thamilselvans and the more carnivorous of the lot and the army an escort service whenever the Tigers want to accumulate air miles or move a few kilometres by road.

Even the Immigration Department and the Customs bend over backwards, or are made to do so by the political establishment of the day, to accommodate a leadership that consistently chastises the 'Sinhala governments' at every opportunity here and on their frequent visits abroad.

Sri Lankans will recall how the then government of Ranil Wickremesinghe made special arrangements for Anton Balasingham when he first arrived here from London via the Maldives.

Whether 'Anna', as he is called in London, stopped to pick up a few kilos of Maldive fish for his Fuhrer's katta sambol as wags then remarked, is of little consequence now.

What shocked the Sri Lankan public at the time and still rancours in their minds is that the government of the day sent Immigration and other officials scurrying to please and appease the man and bring his 'rented' seaplane down on Iranamadu lake.

The same second-rater with early British connections who has gone out of his way to discredit and insult the country that gave him a free education and an easy passage continues even today with his Goebbelsian lies.

About two months ago Balasingham was one of several interviewed for a BBC programme "Hot Spots". In that this much-vaunted theoretician claimed that Tamils were forced to study Sinhala to gain admission to university, blatant untruth that the BCC carried without demur.

Since Balasingham and his cronies started exploiting the MoU to travel hither and thither in the name of the so-called peace process, other Tiger leaders have been placing even greater demands on the government of the very sovereign state from which it wants to secede - an option the Tigers now admit they have not abandoned. Readers will also recall the unprecedented number of packages that Tiger delegations brought back to Sri Lanka after their trips to discuss peace. Those packages were not even opened to ascertain what was in them and whether it is legal to import whatever they contained without appropriate licenses.

There again the Customs authorities were stopped from performing their legitimate duty under the law and officials connected with the airport and possibly politicians anxious to appease the Tigers, allowed them to pass.

I have often watched Sri Lankan workers returning from the Gulf or elsewhere suffer an hour or more of endurance at the Katunayake Airport. These are people who have undergone numerous difficulties and even physical humiliation to earn enough to bring home 'goodies' that they would never have been able to purchase had they worked at home.

They are bought with their own money, unlike the Tigers leaders who live on donations from the diaspora, donations that some of them are forced to part with under threat, money earned from illegal activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering and credit card frauds.

Is it surprising then that Scotland Yard has had to set up a special desk for Tamil crimes. While the genuine Sri Lankan worker returning home is hassled, those who have committed murders, engaged in or conspired to commit terrorist crimes condemned even by the United Nations are treated with a reverence that puts to shame the government and those NGO mouthpieces who have made peace a lucrative business to keep them in luxury.

As I write this, Balasingham will be blaring forth at Excel in the London Docklands where the flock was gathering on Saturday to sing birthday hosannas to the Fuhrer on his 50th birthday. At this Heroes Day commemoration one will surely hear a tough message to cheer the troops and make them part with more money. One can only anticipate what Herr Goebbels will say. It would not be surprising if the message is not one of conciliation and flexibility. It would perhaps be an admonition to the Sri Lanka government and even to the international community that the LTTE cannot be forced into reconciliation and peace.

If this is the path that the Tiger leadership is going to strike out along, then the government and those of the international community who believe that the LTTE is becoming increasingly intransigent would do well to ask themselves whether the MoU should be treated as one cast in stone.

The crucial question is whether only the Sri Lanka Government is committed to adhering to its provisions and providing facilities to the LTTE while the Tigers themselves are breaching it with impunity.

Some see the MoU as more than an agreement that sets down the parameters of a ceasefire. To claim everything set out in the MoU on the basis that the ceasefire is still holding is a specious approach, if its spirit has evaporated.

A ceasefire exists. But has the fire ceased? Those who adopt the postures of the three monkeys would see nothing and hear nothing of the constant killings of Tamils and others perceived as enemies of the LTTE.

Such actions grossly violate the terms and conditions under which the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration entered into preliminary discussions and later negotiations with the LTTE. The Norwegians, like the heroic Nelson hold the telescope to their blind eye. Britain, while paying lip service to fighting terrorism to please their master across the pond, is even more blind than Lord Nelson.

Call it the Oslo Declaration, Agreement, Accord, Decisions or what you will. That document signed in Oslo on December 5, 2002 by Balasingham, G.L. Peiris and the Norwegian head of the facilitation team Vidar Helgesen specifically states that the LTTE "accepts the right of political groups to carry out political work."

Yet is that what we have witnessed over the last year or more? The LTTE is continuing to do what it did when other Tamil militant groups were on the scene. They eliminated the leaders of every group perceived as a possible threat to their dominance. If such clauses thrashed out in the course of negotiations are dismissed with gay abandon by the LTTE, why is the other negotiating party expected to adhere faithfully to all conditions in every document?

All these terms and conditions were predicated on the premise that the negotiations would move forward to a peaceful political solution. If those negotiations have been stalled for the last two years since the LTTE pulled out of the talks and the Tigers are spending time settling scores with dissidents or those opposed to it, why is Sri Lanka expected to follow the conditions to the letter?

The other day the military refused to provide escort to LTTE peace secretariat bigwig Pulithevan when he returned apparently after a prolonged stay in the West or wherever.

Why on earth should they be given escort? There must be some mighty powerful enemies out there if the LTTE has to turn, ironically, to the Sri Lanka military for cover.

These are people who claim to be the sole voice of the Tamil people. Who do they fear? Just a word before I conclude. Would Thamilselvan, Pulithevan and others please use their Robinson R-44 Astro helicopter without trying to cadge free rides at the expense of the Sri Lanka tax payers.

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