CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

"Tigers Will Negotiate If A9 Opens-TNA"- A Response

By Darmitha-Kotte

An article which appeared in the front page of the Daily Mirror of 28th February 2008 needs comments just in case TNA members have short memories. The two opening paragraphs of the above article states, (quote):"The Tamil National Alliance(TNA) said yesterday it could prevail upon the LTTE to return to the negotiating table in the event of the positive announcement by the Government to resume the peace process. TNA Jaffna district MP N.Srikantha told the Daily Mirror yesterday that it was all the more welcome if the announcement is accompanied by the re-opening on the A9 roas as a gesture of good-will."(end quote)

If the LTTE and TNA are both sincere in their commitment to peaceful negotiations, there is absolutely no need to lay down terms and conditions for the Government to make good-will gestures. The Government can also say that "the LTTE must lay down arms if they want to negotiate" and the Government has every right to demand that to prove LTTE sincerity. The untold misery that people in the North are facing, is not because of the Government but because the LTTE terrorists have been conducting a bloody and brutal war totally insensitive to the suffering of the Northern and Eastern civilian population for the last 30 years! It is they who first and foremost, murdered Tamil civilians to threaten them into subservience. It is they who have deprived the civilians of normal life, education, proper food supplies and health facilities and at the expense of all this suffering profited by extorting " kappang money" from every trader in the North and East. The Government had no hand in any of this. The "good-will gesture" of the Government, is to make every effort to eliminate terrorism to enable ordinary civilians to return to normal life in a safe and guaranteed manner.

Before the 2001 elections, Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe sent special envoys like Dr. Jayalath Jayawardane to the Wanni to conduct discussions subsequent to which he arbitrarily agreed to the Ceasefire Agreement which was drafted by Norway and the LTTE and no sooner than he became Prime Minister, signed it and made every opportunity possible to please the terrorists by not only hurriedly ensuring that the A9 Road was opened and paved the way for "terrorism" to earn a daily income of Rs.4-5million from those entering the Wanni-he also encouraged Southerners to do tourist trips to the North! He also permitted the terrorists to operate their own legal courts in those areas, permitted them to extort money in the form of Kappangs, permitted them to operate their own "police force" and many more such perks- ALL IN THE NAME OF GOOD-WILL. He even agreed to hold peace negotiations in any city of their choice-Geneva, Oslo, Bangkok, Tokyo etc. Did that satisfy the LTTE terrorists and did they honour those gestures on the part of the then UNP Government under Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe? NO- by 2003 with the Tokyo talks, the LTTE found lame excuses not to negotiate! The CFA was already abrogated in 2003 and the terrorists committed every possible heinous crime under the sun against the civilians and The State while foreign Monitors opted to look up and wait! At this time, did the TNA try to prevail upon the LTTE?

No matter what good-will gesture any Government shows, the LTTE terrorists only know armed struggle and brutality, for them to have commanding powers over the majority Hindu Tamils in the North. Without suicide bombs, Claymore bombs -they are nothing and do not represent the Tamil community in this country. It is a shame that the TNA for their own survival as well, is resorting to thuggery in the August House of Parliament to demand things for a group of terrorists who are doing more harm to their own people than others.

The present Government gave the LTTE every opportunity when they first came into power, to prove that they were sincere in their peace negotiations -when it was obvious that peace was not their objective, then as the Government quite rightly needs to do to protect its citizens from terrorism, have now conducted a very successful process to eliminate terrorism from the country. Let that take its course for the majority civilian population and the entire land mass of Sri Lanka to return to peace and harmony without conditions!

Opening of the A9 Road will in no way change the brutal mentality of a small group of terrorists.

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