A N A L Y S I S

Tamil Tigers: New Tactics in Sri Lanka
Gobind Thukral

HAVE Tamil tigers changed their spots or else is it an illusion created to end their increasing isolation and worldwide ban on their activities.  Feeling the squeeze  from several quarters including ban on its activates by the European Union and America, besides India where they often  raise funds and arms supplies, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have  deeply regretted the May 21, 1991 assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and described it as a "monumental historical tragedy." This ban means automatic freezing of assets of the separatists in 25 countries across Europe, its main fundraising theatre and clearly causes change of heart.

Anton Balasingham, LTTE's chief negotiator and ideologue told an Indian television channel, the NDTV “As far as that event [Rajiv assassination] is concerned, I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret and we call upon the Government of India and the people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective."

Balasingham was as yet not prepared to own up that ghastly assassination, yet he certainly went beyond what LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran who is charged with that murder.  Prabakaran at his April 10, 2002 press conference had said: "This is a tragic incident that took place 10 years ago. We don't want to comment further on it."

LTTE was ready to assure India that an event like the Rajiv Gandhi assassination would not happen again. "We have made pledges to the Government of India that under no circumstances we will act against the interest of the Government of India," was Balasingham’s promise. He also wanted India to end its detached role and actively involve in the peace process.

India was quick and sharp in its reaction. Minister of state for foreign affairs, Anand Sharma declared that “Indian could neither forget nor forgive LTTE for that heinous assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.”

Would it mean India is not concerned with on going violence where it had been involved in several ways? So far 65,000 lives have been lost in the 15 year long war. It has cost huge economic and social loss. Tigers in their bid to set up an independent homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and eastern areas of the country had been waging a ruthless struggle.  India until 1980s it trained the LTTE cadres, later went on to fight them in Sri Lanka under the banner of Indian Peace Keeping Force and had to return after the Tigers struck a deal with the Sri Lankan government. Anton Balasingham recognised: "India helped the Liberation Tigers at a particular historical time to train and arm our fighters and to protect our people from state oppression. The intention was not to create a separate state as such, but to help the Tamils protect themselves. And, there was a period of Indian intervention from 1983 up to 1987.”

India, at that time, was directly involved and helped draft the peace accord between the rebels and Sri Lanka. But the Tigers rejected the accord and India sent in its troops, which proved devastating. Since the Indian Peace Keeping Force's misadventure, India's role has been more tacit, both in diplomacy and in military support to the Sri Lankans. India has been cutting off of the LTTE's supply chains, especially in southern Tamil Nadu as political support for the LTTE also withered in India and even the DMK in Tamil Nadu turned away.

The Tigers are being forced to shut down their huge propaganda office in Paris. Western governments were apparently infuriated by the attempt on the life of the Sri Lanka army chief Fonseka and the assassination of popular Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar – both attacks were blamed on the Tigers. There had been series of attacks on army generals and civilians all across Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka government has reacted with selective air strafing. The separatists denied involvement but no other group has the capability to strike with such precision at high-value targets. In October 2005 the EU imposed a travel ban on the Tamil Tigers and the move to shut them out of Europe followed sufficient warnings. These countries could not seem to be adopting different principles for a terrorist outfit whatever avowed aim it might be projecting. Indian ban is now more than ten years old.

The Tigers are wounded, isolated and declared as a global terrorist outfit, yet they have demonstrated that they could strike hard. Also, Sri Lanka today has a more hard liner President Mahinda Rajapakse. His moves to resolve the Tamil separatist war are not very clear. He had defeated pro-peace candidate and former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe by a narrow margin and promised to teach the Tigers some hard lesson.

There are valid reasons for such reaction to the apology from the LTTE.  And India needs not indeed ‘forget or forgive’. But can India really risk not taking active interests which the present Sri Lankan government has publicly asked for or what the present apology signifies.  There are enough reasons for the Norwegian negotiators to feel frustrated and the current ceasefire to get lost in the melee. Cornered the LTTE may become   desperate and have no choice but to resort to terror. This will to the advantage of no one.  It is for this reason that Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh sent his security advisor to Tamil Nadu who met Karunanidhi, the Tamil Nadu chief minister who has stakes in peace cautiously stated, “It was important for India to help Sri Lanka find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”

India has to play a more significant role in the peace process forgetting its wounds in the history pages. Being very cautious on every international move that would not in any way spoil the good relations with the successive Sri Lankan governments, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has said India will stand for Sri Lanka's Unity as a single entity. Yet it can not ignore the ethnic question of Tamil Indians in Sri Lanka as it has a bearing on peace in South Asia itself. America, Pakistan and even China could profit from it.

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