Be Alert and be Alarmed
NGO's and Sympathisers begin an Orchestrated Campaign to Whitewash Tamil Tiger Terrorists and Denigrate the Government of Sri Lanka and the Armed Forces

SPUR (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc)
Reg: A003 0777 M
P.O. Box 4066, Mulgrave VIC 3170, Australia
Phone: (03) 9548 0276
E-Mail: djayasur@bigpond.net
Website: www.spur.asn.au

Be Alert and be Alarmed
NGO's and Sympathisers begin an Orchestrated Campaign to Whitewash Tamil Tiger Terrorists and Denigrate the Government of Sri Lanka and the Armed Forces

Of late, a number of organizations (some even hiding behind the tag of human rights campaigners) in the Western capitals as well as in Australasia have begun a concerted campaign to shift the attention from LTTE's brutal ethnic cleansing and violations of human rights by painting them Lilly White, portraying them as the 'victims' of the Government's excessive force applied to maintain law and order. Simultaneously, these fronts, subject the democratically elected Sri Lankan Government which has Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims as members of the parliament and cabinet ministers, to harsh criticism stating that Tamil civilians living in areas illegally occupied by the Tiger Terrorists are neglected and in need of basic essentials such as food.

In Sri Lanka, less than 15% of the Sri Lankan Tamil people live in areas illegally occupied by the LTTE. Professionals such as doctors, teachers and engineers loath to work under the jackboot of the LTTE in areas under their occupation in the East such as Mullaitivu and in the North such as Killinochchi. The LTTE, which relies totally on the gun for control have neither a democratic mandate nor a pluralistic political set-up for the people to enjoy their fundamental rights under Sri Lanka's constitution. The LTTE's despotic goals are to strengthen the war machine, abduct and train children and young women to be soldiers and sex slaves, collect taxes from merchants selling essential food commodities, explode bombs to maim and kill Government forces and Sinhalese civilians and cause misery to the Tamil civilians. They have the audacity to then claim that they are fighting the Sri Lankan Government with the primary objective of creating a racist, mono ethnic, separate state for Tamils within Sri Lanka, the very souls that they are currently holding hostage in their illegally occupied areas such as Vakaraii and Verugal in the East and in the Mulativu jungles in the North.

The Sri Lankan government, irrespective of their ethnicity, considers the whole population of Sri Lanka including the Sri Lankan Tamils living in the areas illegally occupied by the LTTE as their own citizens. Hence the government of Sri Lanka has been providing necessary essential commodities such as food, and services such as education, health facilities and public amenities to the Tamil civilians living in the areas illegally occupied by the LTTE. However, it is no secret that the LTTE forcibly seizes the major part of material sent by the Government for the use of the Tamil civilians to sustain the LTTE's terror machine. This siphoning of Government aid to internally displaced personnel is carried out in addition to fully utilizing the funds sent to LTTE fronts operating in Sri Lanka by the Tamil diaspora in the West in the guise of humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watch from New York stated that a minority of Tamils give willingly whilst most others, contribute under duress in fear of their family's welfare in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE fronts masquerading as human rights organizations attempt to draw the attention of the unsuspecting public in the Western countries and their Governments about the issues facing the Sri Lankan Tamils in areas such as Jaffna and in a few pockets in the East whilst purposely neglecting to state that over 80% of the Tamils have opted to stay in areas under Sri Lankan Government control. The most vocal Sri Lankan Tamil critics of the Government of Sri Lanka, also prefer to live in government controlled areas away from the LTTE, as they do not wish to be completely manipulated by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists.

The shortage of supplies in the Jaffna peninsula has been forced upon the Tamil civilians living there by the LTTE. Repeated attacks by the LTTE on the Muhamalai entry point to the Jaffna Peninsula which is controlled by the armed forces of the government of Sri Lanka, has left the government with no option but to temporarily close the entry point on the A9 road until the security situation stabilises. The government of Sri Lanka has been using air and sea routes as means of transporting essential food items and ferrying civilians. The LTTE who pretend to be the "guardians" of the Tamil people have attempted to attack some of these ships carrying food and Tamil civilians. Furthermore they successfully scuttled a plan by the government of Sri Lanka to import and ship essential items from Tamil Nadu in India. They have refused to allow ICRC personnel or the SLMM representatives to travel in ships moving between Trincomalee and Jaffna. The LTTE has also rejected the Government's offer to open up an alternative route to Jaffna through Pooneryn and the Sangupiddy jetty. The LTTE has rejected all alternatives offered by Government while continuously applying pressure on the government to open the A9 land route because they are currently losing almost Rs. 30 million a day in illegal tax extorted from all travellers on the land route to the Jaffna peninsula.

The government of Sri Lanka has continued to supply the Jaffna peninsula with essential items in spite of many obstacles placed in it's way by the LTTE. Further proof of this commitment is exemplified by the recent decision by the government to open the A9 land route temporarily to allow the movement of essential supplies. The LTTE's duplicity and total lack of compassion can be seen by their rejection of this offer.

SPUR welcomes this magnanimous gesture of President Rajapaksa. However, we urge the President, the head of the Peace Secretariat Dr Kohana and the armed forces to be vigilant and insist on placing stringent conditions for opening up the A9 route to transport essential commodities to the Jaffna peninsula. After all, the Government was fully justified in closing the A9 route.

Whilst agreeing to opening up the A9 route SPUR insist that the government:

1. Request the Co-Chairs of the peace process to convey to the LTTE, that any obstacle to the transport of essential commodities to Jaffna from Omanthai on A9 would be considered as a grave violation of the Ceasefire Agreement and that they will consider this as an act of crimes against humanity carried out by the LTTE
2. Ensure that unarmed nominees of the Sri Lankan Government and representatives of the ICRC and the SLMM travel with the convoy of food carrying vehicles to prevent them from being looted by the LTTE
3. Broadcast live commentary by Government representatives so that the Government, the international community and the armed forces all know that the food is reaching the desired destination and not waylaid by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists
4. Reject paying any taxes for the goods carried or pay illegal entry fees for passing through Tiger territory
5. Limit the convoy to a once-off event until the LTTE is capable of demonstrating to the world that they are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the people in Jaffna when they speak about hunger and food shortfalls and they are not hijacking the food meant for the people of Jafna for feeding starving LTTE carders.

The international community must be vigilant of the LTTE's behaviour and the conduct of the Norwegians and the Norwegian dominated SLMM during the food transfer. There is news breaking that the LTTE has rejected the use of A9 for the sole purpose of delivering food for the people of Jaffna. All these days they were clamouring for extra food for the Jaffna Tamils hiding behind the guise of protecting human rights.

The outright rejection of the Government's offer to open the A9n route has exposed the LTTE for what they are. It should be clear to the Co-Chairs, India, the EU and others that the LTTE is not interested in human rights, the welfare of the Tamil people or even peace. They are nothing but a bunch of terrorist rapidly losing any relevance to ushering in peace to Eastern Sri Lanka, only interested in collecting taxes and transporting fighting cardres and military hardware between tiger controlled areas in the East and the North. Hopefully, the LTTE's waning power and impotency in the East will very soon infect the North, signalling the beginning of the end for this long lasting tragedy in Sri Lanka.

It will be interesting to see the stance taken by LTTE funded NGO's in Sri Lanka, the Bishop of Jaffna and the Tamil diaspora on the Government's offer to temporarily open the A9 route. In the name of democracy and pluralism, SPUR urges the democratic Tamil groups to understand the LTTE's hypocrisy and help unmask the greatest violator of human rights and the Polpot of South Asia, his band of criminals and his blind supporters in the west and Australasia. The democratic forces and the Tamil diaspora must unite to stand up to the jackboot of the LTTE's terror.

DASARATH JAYASURIYA 22-11-2007
PRESIDENT, SPUR
AUSTRALIA