Beware! Thamilselvan May Have His Eyes On Maveerardom!

Poorana Moorthy For Subidcham In Colombo, fully endorsed and acolladed by "Hindsight By Sunil Kumara for LankaWeb "as words of perception and wisdom in the best interests of Sri Lanka

October 23, 2006

It would be very wrong to expect the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to serve the LTTE in any form especially after the suicide attack on unarmed sailors at Habarana. Even more, it would be an insult to all the members of the families and friends of the fallen sailors and to the people of Sri Lanka. Reading the report, given below in The Nation, one gets the impression that it is the Norwegian Embassy officials in Colombo who are calling the shots in Sri Lanka. Enabling the LTTE team to get to Geneva once again on what would be another futile mission is one thing but making demands how it should be done is another matter.

S P Thamilselvan behaves as if he is the Head of State of a sovereign nation and Norway extends that kind of privilege to him and expects the Government of Sri Lanka to do the same. Norway conducts itself in a manner that is most reprehensible. This country’s representatives must behave in a honourable and dignified way; they have not been doing it. If Norway is so keen to help the LTTE delegation that represents only the rebels and not the Tamils – REPEAT NOT THE TAMILS – it’s ambassador in Sri Lanka should discuss with the Sri Lankan government a plan by which the LTTE delegation could be picked up at Omanthai and taken to Bandaranaike International Airport under special escort either by road or by a privately chartered aircraft, and certainly not by an SLAF copter or aircraft. And forget about any diplomatic privileges.

It would be very wrong to expect the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to serve the LTTE in any form especially after the suicide attack on unarmed sailors at Habarana. Even more, it would be an insult to all the members of the families and friends of the fallen sailors. Since Thamilselvan heads a rebel group that practices brutal suicide missions as its ruthless specialty, he and his team and all their belongings should be subjected to extensive checking before they are allowed to board a civilian carrier at Bandaranaike. The passengers on that aircraft should not be exposed to any risk.

There are two possible risks. Firstly, Thamilselvan has his own enemies in Wanni and they may make some plans to bump him off using some device or other while on flight. And secondly, Thamilselvan, so rooted in the “hara-kiri” concept even for Tamil children and young people (other peoples’) may want to commit the Japanese Seppuku and take along with him to Maveerardom, the Tiger heaven, the entire fellow passengers and the crew. After all, ahead of him is the possibility of having to face the International Court at The Hague on various charges for committing crimes against humanity. In this way, he may think is the best way to avoid being shamed for life.

It is quite possible that his leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who sends thousands to death without a second thought may have ordered Thamilselvan to commit Seppuku, which in Japanese tradition, is a more honourable way to end one’s life rather than hara-kiri. Sri Lankan authorities should be wary of Thamilselvan and his ways and whatever meetings they wish to have with the Tigers, could have been held in Sri Lanka particularly this will have no bearing on the interests of the Tamils.

The Tigers do not represent the Tamils and it should be remembered that whatever decisions that may be taken as applying to the Tamils could be successfully challenged before the Supreme Court because the LTTE has no representative status in the country. We present the news item from The Nation and our comment is based on it.

Brattskar to accompany Tiger negotiators in SLAF chopper Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar will accompany the Sri Lanka Air Force to Kilinochchi to pick up the Tiger negotiators to be brought to Colombo before they board a flight bound for Geneva for the impending discussions with the government.

The government agreed to the Norwegian request, after rejecting it at the initial stages, saying it would not be conducive for the SLAF to fly to Kilinochchi under the prevailing conditions.

However after much insistence, the government agreed to pick the LTTE negotiators from Kilinochchi after Ambassador Brattskar decided to accompany the Air Force.

Accordingly, an Air Force chopper will be utilized for this purpose next week. Norway has also insisted that the LTTE negotiating team be driven up to the airport in a DPL vehicle from the hotel, allowing them to bypass normal immigration channels.

According to protocol, only the President is privileged to drive up to the tarmac. Initially the government indicated that the LTTE would have to be picked up from Omanthai rejecting calls by the SLMM and Norway for the SLAF to land in Kilinochchi.

It has been agreed between the government and Norway that the procedure for transport of LTTE negotiators from Kilinochchi to Bandaranaike International Airport will be the agreed upon procedure, to ensure that there will be no surprises.

Last Thursday, the SLMM discussed such a procedure with the Peace Secretariat and agreed on a new modus operandi, which is a modification of the earlier one. However it has now been learnt that the procedure given by the Norwegians to LTTE was not the modified version but the original plan proposed by the SLMM, where they would be picked up by the SLAF in Kilinochchi and this has caused unnecessary difficulties for the government.

But later, the Norwegians having denied the existence of a modified version of procedure had reportedly backtracked when confronted with the details of the discussion the SLMM had with government officials. Highly placed sources said, that later the Norwegian Embassy wrote to the Defense Ministry insisting on the implementation of the original agreement to pick up Tiger negotiators from Kilinochchi, which in some way challenges the sovereignty and security of Sri Lanka.