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Prabakaran faults world on support to Colombo

COLOMBO: Making a strong appeal to the international community to “change its approach” to the Sri Lankan government, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran on Tuesday claimed that the world today is “making the same mistake” India made vis-À-vis Colombo several years ago.

In his “Annual Hero’s Day Speech” telecast and broadcast from the jungles of the LTTE-controlled Kilinochchi district, Mr. Prabakaran complained that the “partisan and unjust conduct” of the international community “severely undermined confidence of Tamil people”. “Propping up the genocidal Sinhala State is counterproductive,” he said.

The speech, copies of which were sent to the world media through e-mail by the LTTE, came an hour after the Air Force bombed the “Voice of Tigers” broadcasting station in Kilinochchi.

The annual speech, a routine followed by Mr. Prabakaran since 1989, is regarded as LTTE’s “policy statement” and would be read closely by observers this year due to the heightened war.

The international community and its alleged complicity with Colombo is the recurring theme of the speech.

Accusing the international community of being brazenly one-sided in the “fight of Tamils right for self-determination,” the LTTE leader said the approach paved way to a “breakdown” of ceasefire and peace efforts. Claiming that the LTTE has been fighting non-violently and through armed struggle for a very long time against national oppression, Mr. Prabakaran said the Tigers were not “terrorists committing blind acts of violence impelled by racist or religious fanaticism”.

“Our struggle has a concrete, legitimate, political objective. We are struggling only to regain our sovereignty in our own historical land where we have lived for centuries, the sovereignty which we lost to colonial occupiers. We are struggling only to re-establish that sovereignty and rebuild our nation. The Sinhala nation is continuing to reject our just and civilised demands for freedom. Instead, it has declared a genocidal war on our land and our people. Behind the smokescreen of fighting terrorism, it is creating immense human misery.”

Mr. Prabakaran said “Tamil people” were intimately familiar with the Sinhala State and its “deceptive politics” and a long history of bitter experiences.

“We explained to India then that the aim of the Sinhala State was not to find a solution to the Tamil question and bring peace; but to occupy the Tamil homeland, destroy its resources, and enslave the Tamil nation. India refused to accept this reality. As a result, our land witnessed great sorrow and destruction. Today, the international community is making the same mistake that India made many years ago,” he said.

He complained that even the countries that are the “guardians of the peace efforts succumbed to the deception of the Sinhala State” and listed “our freedom movement as a terrorist organisation”. “What we find most incomprehensible is the fact that these same nations, which labelled us terrorists, not so long ago fought in defence of their own freedom.”

The LTTE leader claimed that the “Sinhala nation” was unable to stomach the support of the diaspora for the “Tamil freedom struggle” trying hard to shatter the bond between “our people in our homeland and our diaspora.” He alleged that some countries were also assisting “amoral effort of Sinhala chauvinism.”

“These countries are denouncing, as illegal activities, the humanitarian actions and political protests of our people abroad – actions that are carried out according to the laws of those countries. These countries have imprisoned and humiliated Tamil campaigners and representatives. These countries have ridiculed their protests and their efforts to seek justice,” he said in an oblique reference to the recent decision of the U.S. to ban the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).

Mr. Prabakaran said the “generous military and economic aid” the international community had given to the “Sinhala State” and their diplomatic efforts to “prop up the chauvinistic Sinhala State” had encouraged the Sinhala nation further along “its militaristic path.” He said this was behind the confidence of the Rajapaksa regime in continuing with its “unjust, inhuman war of occupation of our land.”

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