Oh! International community! What is your response?

by Editorial, Uthayan Daily, Jaffna (English translation off the LTTE Peace Secretariat website), 1st December 2005

The leader of the LTTE, in his Maveerar Day talk, has given some clear, definitive messages to Sri Lanka's new political leadership. At the same time, those who have analyzed his talk in some depth will also see that, beyond the messages given to the Sri Lankan leadership, the LTTE leader has also attempted to clarify some matters for the benefit of the international community. In this respect his Maveerar day speech is also a lesson to the international community that has given them some solid facts.

The LTTE leader points out at the very start of his talk that he is disappointed and saddened that, not only the Sinhala nation, but also the international community has failed to understand the immense sacrifices made by the Tamil people for the liberation of the Tamil nation, the spiritual strength and greatness of those sacrifices, and their historical importance.

The LTTE leader also explained in his speech that, although Tamils knew that they would not get justice from the Sinhala political leadership, and that Tamils were determined to fight for their own rights, it was because of the international community that the Tamils agreed to hold peace talks with the Sinhala leadership.

At some point the pressure given by India,and, later, the pressure given by the international community, was seen as an opportunity to gain international acceptance as a liberation movement, an opportunity to internationalize the freedom struggle and thus gain recognition for that struggle, to show to the world that the LTTE is not a war mongering group, but is one that firmly believes in the soft approach, and to prove to the international community that Sinhala leaders will not put forward a just solution to the Tamil aspirations. These are the reasons for LTTE participation in the peace talks says the LTTE leader.

In other words, the LTTE leader is reminding the international community that it is because of that international community that a national liberation movement halted its struggle and kept opened the doors for peace talks.

What did the international community do for the Tamils? How did it conduct itself? The LTTE leader brings out in the open the answers to these questions.

When the Sinhala leadership failed to participate in the peace talks with honesty, behind the peace illusion suppressed the freedom struggle, and secretly let loose a shadow war against that liberation movement, thus practicing its customary thuggish conduct, the international community pretended not to see it and was watching it with amusement.

It is not just this, the international community is going beyond this to cause further harm.

Sinhala leaders are ignoring the ground reality and the political truth that the LTTE is a liberation movement fighting for the liberation of a people, and is trying to portray it as a terrorist organization. “We are disappointed and sad to note that some international governments, having been influenced by this false propaganda, continue to retain our organisation on their terrorist list.

Biased positions taken by powerful nations acting as guardians of the peace process, in excluding and alienating our liberation organisation as a ‘terrorist outfit’ and supporting the interests of the Sri Lankan state, severely affected the balance of power relations between the parties in conflict at the peace negotiations.”

The LTTE leader, by stating these truths, is pointing his finger at the international community.

He brings out yet again, this time in the Maveerar Day talk, the international community's grave mistake in misusing the term "terrorism" by giving it a wrong meaning and then using it against political struggles that are just.

“The international community cannot ignore these proclamations of a unified nation calling for the recognition of their right to self-determination, of their right to rule themselves. Our people aspire to determine their own political status. Having been subjected to decades of systematic state repression, they call upon the international community to recognise their political aspirations.”

Oh! international community!! what is your answer?