Another Tiger plan goes awry
Editorial
The Island
Courtesy The Island 05-02-2008
Prabhakaran’s plan to derail the Independence Day celebrations
went awry. All that he succeeded in achieving with terror attacks in
the run up to yesterday’s ceremony was the gratification of his
bestial desire for ethnic bloodletting. His terror strikes only strengthened
the resolve of the country to battle terror with might and main. A grief-stricken
mother who had lost her daughter in the LTTE bomb attack at the Fort
Railway Station on Sunday called upon the government to remove the scourge
of LTTE terror, regardless of what the consequences might be, for the
sake of future generations.
A similar call was made by a grieving father at Tanamalwila in the
aftermath of the recent massacre by the LTTE. He said the only way to
stop brutal killings of that nature was to put an end to the LTTE. In
other words, both parents were asking the government exercise its Right
to Protect (R2P) civilians against terror attacks. That kind of reaction
of terror victims’ parents and kith and kin bears testimony to
the fact that Prabhakaran’s attacks on civilians have become counterproductive.
Instead of being frightened into submission, the people are being emboldened
to fight back, as they know appeasement is an exercise in futility.
The end result of LTTE attacks on civilians has been the mobilisation
of the people against terrorism. Rohana Wijeweera, too, made the blunder
of attacking the people to the point of their rising against him and
urging the then government to crush his terror campaign.
Unbridled terror against civilians always causes the people to stand
up to terrorist outfits however ruthless they may be. This is happening
in the Wanni as well. As we said in these columns on Jan. 21, the resentment
of the people under Prabhakaran’s jackboot is only too well known.
This is what the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna)—the
UTHR (J)—says about the public mood in the LTTE-held terrain: "Several
LTTE leaders who deal with the people know the extent of resentment
and the curses uttered out of their hearing. Instances of popular jubilation
have also been reported when air force bombers hit an LTTE target. At
a place 12 miles north of the frontline, a senior LTTE leader told some
friends, "Should the Army advance this far, the people would rebel
against us!" (UTHR (J) Special Report No: 28, Dec. 04, 2007).
Prabhakaran has not yet realised the limitations of his terrorism which
has lost, so to speak, its magic. It was he who plunged a wavering President
Mahinda Rajapaksa into the Mavil Aru anicut and made a hero of him by
forcing him to either swim or drown. He chose to swim and is faring
well. At that time, a deep-rooted myth was that the LTTE was invincible.
Even President Rajapaksa seems to have believed that. He said in his
address to the nation yesterday at the Independence Day ceremony: "In
short, two years ago, no one believed that terrorists could be defeated.
But, during the last two years we made it a reality in our motherland."
Now, the need to defeat terrorism is foremost on his agenda. He said
in his speech, where he referred to terrorism sixteen times, "As
I see it, among important measure that should be taken to enrich freedom
are the defeat of terrorism, development of the country and consolidating
trust among all people."
He made special mention of the Mavil Aru anicut, where he picked up
Prabhakaran’s gauntlet, having tried his utmost to appease the
LTTE in spite of many a provocative act. "Just as every drop of
water released from the Mavil Aru anicut since its liberation,"
said the President, "every plant we grow and nurture in our villages
under the theme "Let us grow to build the country" is a gigantic
step to nurture the country’s independence and freedom."
President Rajapaksa is also marketing his war effort to the developed
world affected by the scourge of terrorism. "The defeat of the
most ruthless terrorists of the world in Sri Lanka is also a victory
of the developed world, which, too, is a victim of terrorism…,"
he said in his address adding that the confidence placed in his government
by the international community had not diminished at all.
Having spurned Provincial Councils, the Regional Councils and then
federalism since 1987, the LTTE has got a choice between Provincial
Councils and fighting once again after twenty years. President Rajapaksa,
who was bending over backwards to accommodate Prabhakaran’s demands
two years ago has said in no uncertain terms that the LTTE won’t
get anything more than the Provincial Councils: "Friends, our solution
must be based on what could be implemented in this country. We cannot
offer solutions that are experiments. We cannot experiment with solutions
when so much blood has been shed and tens of thousands of lives have
been lost. That is why we selected a solution which can be implemented
and about which we have experience. This practical solution is to bring
the provincial administration closer to the people within the framework
of our Constitution."
The President knows his limits where devolution is concerned. Antagonising
India is the last thing he can afford in battling the LTTE. And the
beaten track is said to be the surest and safest. So, he may have opted
for the path of least resistance—the Indian remedy. The federalist
lobby that put all its eggs in the LTTE’s basket and banked on
the international community to hatch them is naturally disappointed.
They must have let out a string of expletives when the President said
yesterday, "This commitment of ours is to go forward as a single,
unitary state." (Emphasis added)
A prisoner of his own violence, Prabhakaran has no need for a political
solution, short of a separate state, which he can turn into something
like Cambodia under Pol Pot or Afghanistan under Taliban. He will go
on unleashing violence and hoping against hope.
The LTTE blasted a bus yesterday, too, in Weli Oya killing 20, while
these comments were being written. Its desperation knows no bounds and
it is likely to ratchet up such cowardly strikes in time to come until
it runs out of the huge stock of claymore mines smuggled in during the
first few years of the recently ended truce.
But, its goal will remain a mirage!
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