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The police have established that most of the luxury vehicles robbed in the South are smuggled into the North and sold to the LTTE for a song. The LTTE leaders appear to be enjoying life just like the politicians in this part of the country. Comfort appears to be the common denominator!

Goodies for the Tigers have never been in short supply from the South. President Premadasa once played Santa to the Tigers by showering gifts on them. He gave them money, arms and building materials and went to the extent of calling LTTE leaders Mallis (younger brothers) and the Mallis in the end trained their guns on Aiya (elder brother). He was assassinated in a bomb blast. President Kumaratunga offered the entire Northern Province—as if it were a part of her Horagolla estate—to the LTTE for a period of ten years but the Tigers rejected it. She stopped short of donating arms and ammunition to the LTTE as such, but her mismanagement of the war effort resulted in the LTTE overrunning military camps and seizing large quantities of weapons. The Tigers would have accounted for her as well but for her stars. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe gave the Tigers duty waivers for the sophisticated communication equipment imported through the Colombo Port and for the luggage brought in through the airport. (Whether President Rajapakse will follow suit remains to be seen. The Tigers have, so far, got only chopper rides and escorts from him.)

So, when the old crabs are moving sideways, how can the young ones be expected to go straight? That provincial minister may have thought of following the tradition and emulating the leaders.

Recently, a failed LTTE mission in Colombo led to the arrest of a businessman in Negombo, who had been providing the outfit with high powered boat engines. The LTTE also gets its fuel supplies from the South through various persons. The mine blast that killed several civilians in the Wilpattu National Park recently is believed to have been an attempt by a group of racketeers to scare visitors away so that they could carry out timber and paddy business with the LTTE without hindrance. An army officer was arrested a few weeks ago while bringing a large amount of heroin from an LTTE held area in the North to the South. Some big businesses in the South are believed to be laundering money for the LTTE. It is also said to have made a huge investment in the real estate sector in Colombo through various fronts. It gets duty free vehicles imported through the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).

There is hardly anything that the LTTE cannot acquire in this part of the country. How a suicide bomber gained access to the Army Headquarters to make an attempt on the Army Commander’s life is still a mystery. Her identity is far from established. It is being asked whether the LTTE had bribed its way through. Given the rampant corruption in the Defence establishment, one need not be surprised even if that turns out to be the case. When the government launched air strikes on LTTE positions in the aftermath of the failed assassination bid, the LTTE had prior information of the attacks. About half an hour before the air raids, the Tigers had asked to people to leave the area, and their cadres to vacate their positions, thus minimising damage. Who leaked out that top military secret, which only a handful of Defence and political bigwigs were privy to?

The LTTE is fighting its real Eelam war not so much in the North and the East but in the South, with the collusion of corrupt military/police officers, politicians and businessmen. The provincial council minister accused of having sold his duty free vehicle to the LTTE is only a fry, though a thorough probe is called for into his alleged transaction with the LTTE. There are bigger fish to fry. A prerequisite for effectively countering LTTE terror is to sever its links with the South.

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