World must unite against LTTE terror

THE arrest by British Police of one of the LTTE’s prime front men in London, under the British Terrorism Act 2000, A.C. Shanthan, is a most welcome development when viewed against our recurrent urgings that the international community acts concertedly and urgently to cripple LTTE activities abroad.

The Lankan State certainly needs to quicken the process of arriving at a political solution to our conflict, as even urged by sections of the Tamil diaspora in the West who are opposed to the LTTE, but first it is important that the LTTE’s anti-Lanka operations are neutralized.

This is on account of the fact that a negotiated solution is anathema in the ears of the LTTE.

Its deep-seated abhorrence for a peaceful settlement, the LTTE has displayed in a multiplicity of ways, not least of all through the Tigers’ brutal butchery of democratic, Tamil political leaders, such as A. Amirthalingam, V. Yogeswaran and Sarojini Yogeswaran.

The LTTE further underscored its utter and absolute distaste for a constitutional solution, within a united and whole Sri Lanka, through its assassination of Tamil intellectual heavyweights, such as Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam and Kethish Loganathan.

All these LTTE atrocities and more would be brought to the notice of the world afresh, when sections of the Tamil diaspora assemble this week in major European cities, such as Zurich and Stuttgart, to impress on the international community the need to put a brake on all LTTE activities abroad.

However, they would be also stressing the need for a political solution.

Coming at a time when the Co-Chair countries are also expected to meet on the Lankan conflict, these protests could be regarded as most timely.

It is very important that the world sees for itself and on a continuous basis, the most prominent obstacle to working out a political solution in this country - the LTTE.

The world needs to take the cue from countries, such as the US and Britain, who are showing in no uncertain terms that they are strongly intolerant of terrorism.

The world needs to also receive the message that the State of Sri Lanka is ever-willing to work out a negotiated solution, except that the LTTE is unrelenting in its perpetration of terror.

We hope all sections of the world community would think deeply on these things from now on. Without a clear anti-terror consensus, peace in Lanka would be difficult to achieve.

Concrete action would need to be taken by the whole of the democratic world, consensually, to defeat terror. Tiger terror could in no way be condoned. The moment the world acts in this manner, collectively, Tiger and other forms of terror would be defeated.