What Questions Are Worth Asking?
by Chandi Sinnathurai, April 27, 2006
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Why is it that all the focus is on Trinco? Does Colombo want all Tamils to vacate Trincomalee?
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 International media reports seem to suggest the attack that took place on the 25th of April in the Sri Lanka (SL) Army HQ complex – a High Security Zone (HSZ) had a prime target. The goal was to assassinate the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. All indications seem to prove that was the case. Our friends in the media, however, have all gone pear shaped by “jumping to conclusions” by putting the whole blame on the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
Soon after this incident initial word came that the Commander Fonseka was mortally wounded. The National Hospital reportedly said, immediately after the operation, even though the commander is still in critical condition, his medical state has stabilised. It’s like saying in Tamil: “Sugam varum anal arll thapathu!” (He’ll recover, but he won’t survive). Reliable medical sources have whispered that this is a euphemism to mean that the commander has slipped into a coma. Among the others who sustained mortal injuries were Major Wickremasinghe, Lance Corporals Jayasakera and D.G Seneviratne along with female officer Sithara Gunatileke. All these military personnels' lives are hanging on a slender thread.
The Sri Lanka intelligence community have unanimously put forward some logical questions. Explosion experts will need to be invited to investigate whether this was truly a human bomb blast. Either way this could very well be an “inside job,” or done with the connivance of “internal forces.” This can of course lead to a series of questions. Is there a dangerous rift developing within the army? Did this come about as a failure to cooperate for an attempted coup? Now, who planted the bomb? Is Sri Lanka moving away from a police state to becoming a military dictatorship? Call it a conspiracy theory, but questions and doubts are currently being raised within the echelons of power and in the Sinhala Street!
 Soon after the HQ attack, the SL forces engaged in revenge attacks. Israeli Kfir jets bombed, while from the land and sea there was shelling and artillery fire. Tragically, their targets were Tamil civilians in Trinco. It is reported that Trinco is in a war situation. BBC has reported that over 35,000 Tamils have been displaced in Trinco. Why is it that all the focus is on Trinco? Does Colombo want all Tamils to vacate Trincomalee?
The International Community is yet to condemn the state terror unleashed on Tamil civilians. Why?
The neighbouring superpower India has not looked favourably on the attacks on the Tamils. China has voiced that she would help Sri Lanka to safeguard her territorial integrity. The EU-rope is watching with alacrity, while it seems the US is beginning to keep her options open! Observers claim that there is room for possible a geopolitical shift.
If the international media allegation against the Tamil Tigers, based solely on the premise of “guilty until proven innocent,” were to be right, then tags along with it some interesting questions which beg serious answers.
Many Sinhala commentators, however, believe that even if the ‘bomber’ were to pose as a pregnant wife of an army official, the guards would have checked her carefully. In the process of a thorough security body check, a female guard would have easily discovered the plot. That was not to be. If the human bomb was a Tamil, suspicions would have doubly risen owing to her accent. Gone are the days of any Tamil army officials in the Sinhala army – no decent Tamil would ever want to join such a genocidal killing system. Was this “human bomb” then a Sinhala? Did the human bomb bribe the guards in order to sneak her in to the complex and to be close to the intended target? What does this story line tell about the security system in the heart of the Army HQ? How did the so-called human bomb glean intelligence, including of the precise timing of the Commander’s exit?
All these questions point one to deduce that this increasingly looks less like a suicide attack, but more like a perfect inside job. This attempted assassination ought to have served someone’s (or a group) sinister plan to capture the seat of power.
Colombo’s sinister plan is two-fold. Firstly is to find a pretext to attack Trinco by air in order to see the defensive capability of the Tigers. Secondly, to immediately frame this incident as a “Suicide attack” and to turn this on the Tamils for their reputation to be tarnished and to implicate them with the international terrorist network. The SL Foreign Ministry would love to see a negative world opinion against the Tamils. Colombo will go any distance to achieve this! The Tamil Tigers have carefully strangulated Colombo’s sinister strategy.
It must be noted that the Black Tigers are an elite suicide squad. There is no need for the Tamils to hide this fact. However, the highly disciplined Black Tiger “Tatkodai padai” [self-giving force employing the concept of uyirautam — utilising life as weapon] always claimed that they attacked solely military targets. Practical and tactical reasons have necessitated the Tigers to form such a force in order to fight against a bigger; ruthless and ferocious enemy called state terror. Tamil Tigers have insisted that they have not breached the Ceasefire Agreement. It is now common knowledge that, even though many civilians died owing to the SL air strikes, the Tigers observed restraint from retaliating.
One must underscore that the Tamils Tigers did not “pull out of the Peace Talks” as the international media are wrongly reporting. Since the Geneva ? Talks, Colombo had no intentions to fulfil any of the commitments that were made in Switzerland. Over a hundred civilians had been killed since first Geneva Talks and many have involuntarily ‘disappeared,’ including the abductions of the seven Tamil Rehabilitation Organization workers!
Its not rocket science to work out that Colombo had twin intentions. One was to seduce the international community by their charm offensive and to engage in a covert and overt genocidal war against the Tamils. The second one was to corner the Tiger by the tail. The latter has failed miserably only to reveal the true intentions of state terror.
Sadly, in Sri Lanka today you can do any horrendous job and blame it on the Tamils. In all of this, Mr President comes across as a colossal failure. With no second thought or any intelligence President Rajapaksha was prompt in ordering the revenge air strikes.
The international community has, of course, a moral obligation to take note and act promptly in protecting the Tamils from state terror.
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