| News |
||||
|
HSZ withdrawal: Beware of LTTE trap! By S.L.Gunasekara Yet, in an
act of lunacy unparalleled in the long and lamentable history of
human folly, the UNF Government actually appointed members of that
very gang of terrorists, the LTTE, to a sub committee to review
those very High Security Zones This is akin to a householder, who
sets up a system of burglar alarms to protect himself and his family
from an identified gang of thugs, inviting some members of the very
gang to review that system. To make matters
worse, that sub committee is co-chaired by Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary
and a LTTE terrorist named Karuna. A terrorist was thus accorded
a `rank' or `status' equivalent to that of the Defence Secretary
of the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka. It is pertinent to observe
in this connection that while the LTTE is represented on a sub-committee
to review the Government's High Security Zones, there is no corresponding
sub committee to review any of the LTTE's High Security Zones in
areas under its illegal control. What the Government
thought it would achieve by this act defies imagination. Even the
Government could not have been so naïve as to believe that
the LTTE would ever agree to the continuance of HSZs or a compromise
formula whereby the Government agrees to the relaxation of HSZs
in return for the LTTE disarming itself to an extent sufficient
to secure the safety and security of the security forces, the security
installations etc. which those High Security Zones were designed
to protect. This was the formula Major General Sarath Fonseka very
rightly, rationally and properly proposed. Whatever may
have been the `fond' hopes of the Government, the LTTE lost no time
in destroying them once and for all by rejecting that compromise
formula, stating that "disarming of LTTE cadres and decommissioning
of weapons are non-negotiable issues" and effectively calling
for the unconditional disbandment of the HSZs. The reason
for the LTTE insisting on retaining its weapons can only be because
it intends using them against the security forces and the Sinhala
and Muslim civilians across the board and against those Tamil civilians
who do not lick its boots. Let us not forget how the LTTE, without
warning, scuttled the so-called `peace talks' in 1990 and 1995.
In 1990, the LTTE murdered 1120 security forces personnel, inclusive
of about 678 police officers who surrendered to them, and wounded
412 within a month of treacherously breaking off the ceasefire without
notice. In 1995 it murdered 557 security forces personnel and wounded
473 within four and a half months of breaking off the ceasefire
in like manner. It is evident
therefore, that the aim of the LTTE is to cause our security forces
to weaken their defences and to correspondingly increase the LTTE's
striking ability to such an extent that the LTTE will be able, whenever
they desire, to slaughter not 1120 members of the security forces
as it did in 1990, or 557 as in 1995, but all 30,000 to 40,000 who
are now stationed in the Jaffna Peninsula or, at the very least,
to hold the threat of such slaughter as a `Sword of Damocles' over
the head of the Government to blackmail it into giving into its
outrageous demands at forthcoming rounds of talks. It is pertinent
to recall in this regard how the LTTE, having inveigled Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe to agree to the disarming of all Tamil groups
who were opposed to the LTTE, waited quietly till they were disarmed
and then launched cowardly attacks on offices and members of the
now unarmed and helpless EPDP to drive them out of the Northern
and Eastern Provinces. Bona Fide conduct and fairplay are things
that are totally unknown and foreign to these unrepentant terrorists. The demand
of the LTTE for the unconditional disbandment of the HSZs is in
breach of the Ceasefire Agreement entered into between Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe and the terrorist Velupillai Prabhakaran in
that that agreement provides that "the Parties reserve the
right to deny entry to specified military areas" (Clause 1.11);
and also that "The right of the GOSL (the Government of Sri
Lanka) to deny entry to specified military areas applies" (clause
1.12). The HSZs are
"specified military areas". The LTTE was well aware of
their existence and of the displacement of civilians from those
areas at the time the Agreement was executed. Thus, neither the
LTTE nor its lackeys in the TNA can be heard to complain about the
continued existence of the HSZs as they were at the time of the
execution of that agreement. The conduct
of the LTTE in this regard is virtually identical to its conduct
during the so-called `peace talks' of 1994-5 when Prabhakaran, having
signed an agreement entitled "Declaration of Cessation of Hostilities"
with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (on 5.1.95) which
provided, inter alia, that "the Security Forces and the LTTE
will maintain their present positions on the ground…."
and contained no provision for any cadres of the LTTE to move about
the East with arms, the LTTE demanded the total removal of the Pooneryn
Army Camp and that cadres of the LTTE be allowed unrestricted freedom
of movement in the Eastern Province with arms before the ink was
dry on that agreement. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
to her credit, had the courage and the sense to refuse those outrageous
demands and that refusal was one of the key reasons advanced by
the LTTE for its treacherous abrogation of that agreement. Is history
about to repeat itself ? In a virulent
and totally unjustified attack on Major General Sarath Fonseka,
the LTTE with its customary hypocrisy makes great play about its
concern for the humanitarian issues concerning those displaced from
their homes by the establishment of HSZs and the need to return
to restore "normalcy". What the LTTE has failed or refused
to recognize in its hypocritical outburst of concern for humanitarian
issues are the self-evident facts that HSZs had to be established
only because of the terrorism of the LTTE, and that "normalcy"
connotes a situation in which the entire country is ruled by the
lawfully elected Government and the only armed forces existing in
the country are the Armed Forces of the Republic of Sri Lanka. If therefore,
there is a trace of genuineness in the LTTE's expressed concerns,
it has only to surrender its arms and disband its armed terrorist
cadres - for then, "normalcy" will return to the country
and HSZs will be a thing of the past. Let not the LTTE and all concerned
ever forget that it is the LTTE that is responsible for the undoubtedly
miserable plight of those displaced by the HSZs and the absence
of normalcy. One basic fact
of which both this Government as well as previous governments have
lost sight is that members of the security forces are entitled in
equal measure to all the human rights to which civilians are entitled,
and that these include the right to life and limb. This means that
members of the security forces are not "dispensable pawns"
who may be sacrificed at the `altar' of political expediency. Another
such basic fact is that it is only the members of the security forces
that are capable of saving this country from vivisection and the
subjugation of a part or even the whole country to the despotic
rule of the terrorist Prabhakaran - that is clearly not something
the civilians can do. Thus, it behoves the Government to desist
from taking any step that might compromise the safety and security
of our security forces and their military capability to defend the
country against the LTTE. If this means
(as the writer believes it does) that the HSZs must be maintained
unless the LTTE complies with the conditions laid down by Major
General Sarath Fonseka, they must then be so maintained despite
the hardship caused to those displaced by the HSZs - for the imperative
of securing the security of the State. The lives and limbs of members
of the security forces must necessarily take precedence over the
need to alleviate the sufferings of those civilians What has been
stated above does not mean that the sufferings of those poor civilians
must be ignored: they are as much victims of LTTE terrorism as Sarojini
Yogeswaran, her husband V.Yogeswaran, A Thangadurai, Dr. Neelan
Thiruchelvam, A.Amirthalingam, Dr. Rajini Thiranagama and the countless
Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims who were murdered by the LTTE. The acquisition
and requisition of private land and houses for public purposes is
something that has been known and practised in this country since
colonial times. Those whose lands were so acquired or requisitioned
are entitled to the payment of compensation. There is no reason
why these same principles should not be applied in respect of those
whose were displaced by the HSZs. They should
be compensated and compensated fully for having been deprived of
their lands and/or houses in the same way in which others are compensated
for the loss of their lands and/or houses by acquisition or requisition
by the Government with but one difference. In their case at least
half the compensation should be paid by the LTTE because the reason
for their lands being required for High Security Zones came about
as a direct result of the terrorism of the LTTE. If the LTTE is genuinely concerned about the plight of these people it could not possibly have any objection to paying such compensation. (The writer is president of the Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya) |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
High Security Zones were established to protect our security
forces, security installations, sensitive weapons and equipment
etc. and hence the country and the people from the LTTE.
