Pro-LTTE Diaspora: Will they miss the bus again?

So much of water has flown under the bridge in the last three decades. We have seen and heard many stories, political views and opinions from all quarters merely to accept the fact that none of these historic versions matter to Sri Lanka anymore or to the pro-LTTE Diaspora, who are yearning to reach a mirage.

Most of them, who left Sri Lanka for whatever reasons, were expected to settle in the greener pastures they had landed on and integrate into the respective societies while retaining their lifestyles and culture.

Many of them were taken for a huge ride by the repeated promises of Prabhakaran that there would be a separate state for them in Sri Lanka.

This was to be a land for a mono-ethnic community or exclusively for Tamils while the Tamils could live freely elsewhere in the country. Where on earth can you find such a land anywhere in the world? We wonder if the pro-LTTE Tamils had ever asked themselves this question at their numerous meetings in their strongholds, particularly in the West.

They fail to ask themselves why Prabhakaran had to kill so many fellow Tamils, if one remembers the thousands of famous lamppost killings. At one stage the analysts were saying that LTTE had killed more Tamils than the Sinhalese in order to find liberation for Tamils! The Diaspora did not see this as the biggest joke frowning at them.

The pro-LTTEers also had an opportunity of seeing the reality when Karuna and his supporters defected from the LTTE, which was an inevitable occurrence given the manner in which the LTTE was operating. The versions expressed then suggested that the LTTE, while reaching its military peak, required enormous capabilities to prevent the organisation from getting porous within, which is bound to happen over a period of time in dictatorial governance. Prabhakaran was more than a dictator going after nothing but blood.

The pro-LTTE Diaspora could not visualise that the majority of the international community would not support a movement which did not have a vision for democracy. The word democracy was never in the LTTE dictionary; nor has it indicated through its past actions any form of democracy in its territory, where people will have the final verdict on their leaders in the north and east.

The LTTE’s killing spree was extremely brutal, beyond explanation. They hacked apart women, children and Buddhist monks to save the bullets. They planted bombs in public transport, killing hundreds of civilians, not to mention the mass destruction of human life and properties in major blasts such as Pettah, Central Bank, Flower Road, Dehiwala train and so on. If the pro-LTTE Diaspora had rejoiced over this, the very karma they believed in seems to have come back to all these butchers one way or another.

Although it was a strategic error (according to Balasingham) to have killed Rajiv Gandhi, it was a wholesale backlash that was brought upon the LTTE for all its killings and it was only a matter of time before that happened. Incidentally, the Gods worshipped by the pro-Diaspora also appear in Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka. The lies they propagated in their country had no substance, which tends to surface sooner or later.

These pro-LTTEers believe that they could ride on the vote of the Diaspora in various constituents, which unfortunately gets submerged by the growing international awareness on terrorism and the need to crush them. Before the attack on the World Trade Centre, some international media called the ‘LTTE attacks on Sri Lankan installations “stunning and spectacular”. Not after the series of terrorist attacks in the West.

The pro-LTTE Diaspora never understood that none of the LTTE attacks triggered a backlash as the Sinhalese by this time had learnt a bitter lesson after the ’83 riots and the consequences. Besides, the rulers in the country afterwards were not responsible for the July riots anyway. The LTTE made a mockery of itself by unleashing attacks, closing Mavilaru, etc, even when the present Government was attempting to revive peace talks.

The LTTE was building its military outfit with all the money collected from the Diaspora, but never built a single house, hospital or school – the very movement which claims to improve Tamil livelihood! Pro-LTTE Diaspora never questioned this when they contributed money. Some pro-LTTE Diaspora was reacting with glee whenever LTTE attacks took place. It was a sad episode.

These pro-LTTE Diaspora has a few things left whether they like it or not. The countries that provided them residence permits are facing problems with integration. They have observed that their demand for a separate state in Sri Lanka would also mean the level of refusal to integrate into the societies in these respective countries.

The bitter reality for them is that the north east is completely liberated. The Tamils who were in the clutches of the LTTE have been resettled. These Tamils will never want to see a gun pointed at their heads again. With the ongoing development, their livelihood is fast improving.

Their obligation should be to support the ongoing development programmes and help the investments. These Tamils have been going through immense hardships under the LTTE while the Diaspora and the LTTE cadres then were having a cushy life. This message is strongly conveyed by the Tamils in the north and east across to the Diaspora. Let’s hope the pro-LTTE Diaspora community will not miss the bus again.

 (The writer is the first Consul General for Sri Lanka, in Norway 1999-2004.)