The Ban on Travel: Branding the LTTE as Terrorists

by Wakeley Paul, Esq.

What has caused this sudden hysterical reaction by the EU to an assassination that has resulted in a multitude of indiscriminate arrests without a single charge being filed against a single arrestee?  Has the EU been so swamped and blinded by callous Sinhalese government propaganda that all need for calm analysis has eluded them?

Let us look at some fundamentals surrounding the shooting.  This area by all accounts of the government itself was a highly secured area for two reasons.  It is where the President’s highly vulnerable right hand man, Mr Kadirgamar, lived.  It was also the location of an important European embassy, which called for further maximum security by the government.

The assassin, who carried a rifle and a rifle stand, avoided detection by every member of the security personnel, while not only going into the home from where the assassination was executed, but escaping without detection from the scene of the tragedy.  Does this not cause one to sniff, and immediately arouse some suspicion that this might be an inside job?  Is the EU aware of rumors that are running rife throughout the city that the revered Foreign Minister was having an affair with a woman, which his Sinhalese wife surrounded by Sinhalese bodyguards, deeply resented?  Are they aware of Sinhalese resentment at this Tamil holding such a high-powered post in an essentially Sinhalese Buddhist government?  Can one ignore the fact that only a mere two thousand ardent government supporters witnessed the State funeral which was accorded such fanfare beforehand ?

From a political standpoint, who had the most to gain and the most to lose from this unwarranted action?  The LTTE were doing all in their power to get the International community to back the peace agreement, which carried within it the obligation by the government to restore the NorthEast to its pre-war condition.  The EU supported this position and was urging the government to go ahead and implement its terms  The JVP, as well as the JHU, a party of radical Buddhist monks, were virulently opposed to the very idea of such an agreement being implemented.  The government was tip-toeing its way through these conflicting demands, hoping against hope that it could delay its implementation for as long as possible.  The committed opponents to the peace process, to wit the JVP and JHU, were uncertain as to what position the government would yield to under international pressure and the dire need for international aid.  How easy was it for any of these groups, with the support of the exclusively Sinhalese bodyguards, to have organized an assassination and blamed it on the LTTE, who everyone would conclude without a second thought would be the primary suspect?  Has not the EU fallen into this cauldron of irrationality in taking the drastic step they have taken, with all its dire implications, without a moment of reflection?

All we can ask them is to reevaluate their hasty action, review its unjust consequences, and revise their decision

The branding of the LTTE as a terrorist organization effectively ends the peace process, a result the government has been praying for.  Every EU effort to stimulate the peace process will die on the vine with this hasty action.

The irrational conclusions from the Kadigamar assassination have obscured the government's role in fanning trouble in the East with a view to diminishing LTTE control of the region.  The blame for the violence there has been unjustly shifted to the LTTE. 

Mr Thamilchelvam would no doubt do all in his power to dispel these delusions, given the chance. The child soldier issue is a dead horse the government keeps whipping up to alienate the LTTE from the international community.  Mr. Tamilchelvam will no doubt dispel that false illusion, too.