by Rajkumar Sivapatham ; published March 30, 2004
As the Eelam Tamils’ face historic changes, undoubtedly it is to be expected that Tamils will also be faced with challenges. These challenges are expected to come in various forms and from various directions. The Karuna crisis is certainly one of them. The dangerous crisis is the post-Karuna reaction of the Tamils. I am not privy to know who was behind the Karuna crisis, but strongly believe that it was not just Karuna alone. I also believe that whoever originated this crisis wanted a permanent rift between the Tamils of east and north.
So far, the media, people of Eelam, Tamils outside Eelam and most importantly the LTTE have done very well to keep calm and show unity. A special tribute has to be paid to the Tamils in the east to work out the real situation and keeping their cool. It shows the political and social maturity and advancement of the eastern Tamils compared to other races in other parts of the world. There is no doubt that all the Tamils, inside and outside of Sri Lanka, have to learn from eastern Tamils in this regard. Hats off to our eastern Tamil brothers!!
As Karuna’s revolt is expected to fizzle out, eventually, the originators of this crisis will definitely look for other avenues to weaken the Tamils and the LTTE,again. The selection of Karuna, the exploitation of east and north and the timing of the crisis show that these originators are not push-overs. They appear to have used modern techniques such as profiling the enemy and identifying any weaknesses, etc. Therefore, next time the crisis will be la ot more severe than the Karuna crisis. Tamils and the LTTE better be prepared for it.
Harrow, UK