Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Unfortunately, this is what the world did not know. This is why I argue that Sri Lanka has failed to market the atrocities committed by the LTTE during the last thirty years and hence the microscopic attitude of the western world towards us.

Mumbai 26/11 shook the world

On the other hand, the power of media and creativity of broadcasting channels like NDTV in India, were able to elucidate world attention and even drive global leaders to make sudden visits into the country post Mumbai 26/11 . In fact I feel we need to pick up a few strategy lessons from India on how they sensationalized the Mumbai attack with a continuous flow of information that kept the interest of the viewer almost, almost like a James Bond movie. India was able develop a brand name and register it in the minds of global viewers called Mumbai 26/11 . It became the most marketed event at that time.

Even though the terrorist attack on Mumbai took away only 193 lives as against the thousands of lives in Sri Lanka, we saw the whole world waging war on Pakistan with even US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice making a hurried visit to India and calling on Pakistan to hunt down the terrorist organizations that were operating on from its soil. Sri Lanka, on other hand, has been under threat of the LTTE for the last 24 years, where the LTTE carried out 1/3rd of all suicide attacks in the world, whilst also being the only terrorist organization that had air power capabilities that attacked the capitol of the country seven times. But sadly, we have never had the response from powerful economies that we saw India was able to elucidate post 26/11.

The question is, is it that the world did not know what Sri Lanka was facing or was it the duplicity of the world super powers that was fuelled by the Diaspora in each of those countries?

What the world does not know about the LTTE

If I may pick up the most horrifying facts about the 24-year of life of the LTTE they would be the killing of 120 devotees in the Buddhist sacred city in 1985, 110 people killed in the bomb blast in Pettah, 70 Muslims killed in the Kattankudy mosque, the Central Bank attack killing 86 people and injuring 1,338 which far exceeds the Mumbai casualties on 26/11 which was only a 193 people that got killed.

It would be interesting to analyze the share of media space that Sri Lanka was able to get in the world s media as against 26/11 to determine where Sri Lanka had slipped. A point to be highlighted is that even when the LTTE assassinated one of the greatest sons of India, Rajiv Gandhi, or when in 2007 a group of diplomats accompanied by a cabinet minister came under fire in Batticaloa by the LTTE, we could not garner the media exposure that Mumbai 26/11 attracted. There was much done by many quartets, but the impact did not shake the world. Even after the attack, research reveals that collection of funds by the LTTE in countries like Switzerland, France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the U.S for funding this terrorist organization s activities yet continued. Some estimate that the last LTTE P&L has recorded a profit of 200 million dollars.

Whilst pointing the argurement in this direction, I am not fully convinced whether it was our poor marketing efforts in highlighting the atrocities of the LTTE that we have failed to get the eye of the global leaders, or was it the double standards of the powerful economies play that is causing the issues for Sri Lanka.

What Sri Lanka lost?

If we take a look at the cost of the war on the Sri Lankan economy it exceeds a $200 billion. On tourism alone in 1983, Sri Lanka enjoyed 337,530 arrivals whilst a country like Cambodia had around 200,000 tourists at that time. Today Cambodia has over two million tourist arrivals whilst Sri Lanka is at around 0.5 million with a revenue of 43 billion rupees whilst actually, Sri Lanka should have had around 1.8 million tourist by now if not for terrorism, with earnings touching a 200 billion rupees. On a GDP contribution basis it would have contributed almost eight percent to the country. Some one could argue that by marketing the ruthless activities of the LTTE would it have hurt the tourism industry, but given the marginal growth numbers we can easily determine that collateral damage being very limited.

The impact of FDI s that Sri Lanka could have attracted would have been around 3,000 billion rupees which stacks up to the cost of the war due to Terrorism. If we hypothetically take the 400 billion rupees that that has been spent on the war in the last 3-4 years and divert it to the investment that can be made on Research and Development (R&D) it will be almost 7% of GDP which would have been way above the 4% spend by Industrialized countries like South Korea who have produced power brands like Samsung to the world beating brands like Sony of yesteryear.

SL tried 6 times for peace

Given that I am reading for a doctorate my research clearly demonstrates that a case study must be written on the history of ceasefire agreements that the Sri Lankan governments has entered into and the many times that LTTE walked away. We also need to market this to the world so that we give clarity to this burning issue. I also feel that all universities that teach conflict resolution must take Sri Lanka as a case study where negotiating with a terror organization is a fruitless task.

If I may take you back, the 1st ceasefire was the famous 'Thimphu talks where LTTE came in solidarity with 5 Tamil Groups - the TULF, PLOTE, EROS, EPRLF and TELO. It ended with LTTE unilaterally walking out but during this time LTTE strengthen themselves and secured total control on the Jaffna peninsula which was called 'Operation Liberation .

The 2nd ceasefire was championed by Hon. Lalith Athulathmudali from the 11th to the 17th April 1987, for the Sinhala/Tamil New Year. The LTTE reciprocated by ambushing three buses at Kithuluttuwa in the Polonnaruwa district, separating the Sinhalese passengers from the others and murdering every one of them and in total 127. Sri Lanka never saw any leader visit Sri Lanka even after this disaster which was way above the 26/11 of Mumbai in my view.

The 3rd ceasefire came into effect with the so called Indo Lanka Accord. The LTTE, which pretended to surrender arms (while surrendering only their defective and unusable arms) used the confinement of the Sri Lankan troops to barracks in terms of that ceasefire to engagement and there after went on to murder almost 200 Sinhalese and Muslim civilians along the Eastern seaboard between the 1st and 7th October 1987. Once again the world just watched.

The 4th ceasefire was orchestrated by the then President Premadasa from the 1st June 1989 and 'Peace Talks commenced. The LTTE once again used that ceasefire to strengthen themselves and then abrogated the ceasefire by attacking all police stations in the east on the 11th June 1990 and murdering about 678 unarmed police officers who had laid down arms and surrendered to them.

The 5th ceasefire came into effect under the leadership of President Kumaratunga in January 1995 that once again resulted in the LTTE sinking two naval gun-boats anchored at Trincomalee, murdering 12 sailors and thereafter murdered 264 members of the security forces and 57 civilians in 27 separate attacks over the next 39 days. Subsequently the LTTE with surface to air missiles brought down two Avro aircraft on the 28th and 29th April 1994 murdering 99 persons including two journalists which one again the world watched with the Sri Lankan Economy reeling.

The 6th and last ceasefire that Sri Lanka saw was in 2002 under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that once again the LTTE violated that ceasefire murdering Sri Lanka security force personnel, informants and political opponents and led to the act that LTTE will never forget shutting off water at the Mavil Aru anicut in August 2006.

This was when the turning point to the LTTE atrocities in Sri Lanka came to a grinding halt with the Sri Lanka becoming one to fight the LTTE whilst the world once again watched. Today LTTE is part of the history of the country but its global network remains in tact due to the support of certain global super powers.

Next Steps

Hence it is very evident that Sri Lanka has been marginalized by the global media. But now what is required is quick action to correct the world perception so that Sri Lanka can focus on the development agenda and there by become the Wonder of Asia. Some of the typical steps that can be actioned are as follows

1) Sri Lanka must develop a white paper on the last days of the war with the consultation of terrorism experts Prof. Rohan Gunaratne and my cousin Shanaka Jayasekera who was the Director Policy in the Government Peace Secretariat and now in his final year on his doctorate on terrorism funding.

2) This may sound controversial but we must have a museum on the atrocities of the LTTE that once ravaged the phase of Sri Lanka for almost 30 years. This can be a key visit to the 2.5 million tourists that will come to Sri Lanka in the near future.

3) Set up an Anti Terrorism secretariat for SAARC in Colombo and have a unit that monitors the global funding that happens even today for terrorism in South Asia.

4) KP must be used to engage the Diaspora and thereby induce investment into the North so that a sense of ownership is given to this group of Sri Lankans who can be the ambassadors for New Sri Lanka one day.

5) Develop a Peace Collection of the merchandise from the Vanni and market via a web site or through eBay.

6) Commerrate the politicians that has been assassinated by the LTTE including leading Tamil business personalities.

7) Finally, to build a new attitude towards Sri Lanka lunch a Nation Branding strategy for the country.

A top LTTE operative, deeply involved in the LTTE arms smuggling operations throughout the war, is believed to have taken MV Sun Sea from Thailand to Canada. The voyage took three months while several navies in the region watched allowing the 59-metre vessel, modified for the purpose, make its way to Canadian waters.

Military sources identified the LTTEer as Vinod, widely considered to be among an elite group of cadres responsible for perhaps one of the biggest clandestine arms smuggling operations in the past few decades.

Sources say Vinod and two of his colleagues, identified as Kamal and Gaya, played a pivotal role in the arms smuggling operation, which facilitated transfer of weapons of Chinese origin and other armaments to north-east Sri Lanka.

The infamous North Korean route remained a key mode of clandestine movement before the Sri Lanka navy took the war to the high seas during Eelam War IV.

While Gaya is believed to have been killed in a confrontation with the navy on the high seas, Kamal is now in Canada.

Sources say Kamal, one of the most experienced LTTE operatives involved with arms smuggling operations took MV Ocean Lady from Mundra (an Indian port) to Canada last October. MV Ocean Lady carried 76 persons.

Canada declined to give Sri Lanka access to any of the 76 passengers.

Harin Panich 19 , now renamed the MV Sun Sea carried 492 Sri Lankan Tamils to Canada. Sources say Canada is yet to share information regarding the illegal immigrants with Sri Lankan intelligence services, though there is irrefutable evidence of LTTE involvement in the operation.

Although ordinary LTTE fighting cadres are unlikely to be among the passengers of MV Sun Sea, there can be some key LTTE intelligence operatives, including some of those who escaped from military detention after the end of war in May last year.

Responding to a query by The Island, an authoritative official said that the vast majority of passengers could be those who had supported the LTTE over the years. They re not ordinary fighting cadres, but the elite, who spearheaded operations in South East Asia, he said.

According to him, they had acquired Harin Panich 19 immediately after the extradition of Kumaran Pathmanathan aka KP from Malaysia to Sri Lanka in the first week of August 2009 and the handing over of Rajan, another key LTTE operative to Sri Lankan intelligence services. Fearing the Sri Lankan government would go after key operatives and their families living in Malaysia, Thailand and the neighbouring countries, the LTTE rump had launched MV Sun Sea . The bottom line is that Canada could become the major operations base for the LTTE rump in the wake of Sri Lanka s success in curbing LTTE activity in South East Asia.

Foreign Ministry sources told The Island that Canada had become their automatic choice due to Australia in April imposing a moratorium on processing asylum claims from Sri Lanka citing much improved security conditions in the wake of conclusion of the war in May last year.

Military sources said that the LTTE always favoured Canada due to what it perceived as soft Canadian approach towards illegal immigrants. Apprehension of LTTE owned MV Princess Krishanthalast December by the navy confirmed an abortive plan to rescue top LTTE leadership before the army overran Puthumathalan in May. The LTTE went to the extent of organizing a bogus relief ship to divert navy s attention to facilitate the rescue operation, sources said.

Sources identified the main man allegedly involved in organizing the latest Canadian adventure as the only one to receive a Gold medal from LTTE leader Prabhakaran for carrying out clandestine transfer of armaments from big ships to Sri Lanka waters in the face of the navy. Based in Canada (name withheld), the operative is a Master Mariner, who runs a shipping training school. He is assisted by a UK based operative (name withheld) and Nidiyawan, widely believed to be the most influential LTTE operative in the wake of KP abandoning the eelam cause.

Sources said that the passengers carried by MV Sun Sea could not be likened to any other lot as the LTTE had never tried a similar stunt before. Of course they had no other option but to shift base from South East Asia to the safety of Canada, where a section of the politicians and officials were close to the Tamil Diaspora, sources said.

Sources pointed out that the Tamil Diaspora had got the London headquartered Amnesty International to issue a statement in support of their Canadian adventure. Sources recalled how a visit by senior Amnesty International representatives to Kilinochchi during the CFA was used to build the Tigers image.

On Aug. 9, 2010 The Washington Post published a letter from James McDonald of Amnesty International suggesting that a shipload of Sri Lankans should be given asylum because they faced persecution if they returned to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan officials said that this was part of the LTTE propaganda. The Canadians could accept the entire shipload if they really wanted to accommodate them and encourage asylum seekers, they said. It was Canada s choice, sources said, emphasizing Canada could accommodate as many illegal immigrants not only from Sri Lanka but other countries, too, as it pleased. In the wake of Australia tightening its immigration laws, any country giving into MV Sun Sea could attract smugglers, they said.

Tamil Tiger militants based outside Sri Lanka are turning to human-smuggling operations to raise money in a bid to revive the group, which was decimated by government forces last year, a Sri Lankan terrorism specialist said yesterday.

The rebel operatives who organised a human shipment aboard the Sun Sea cargo vessel that arrived in Canada last week charged up to C$50,000 (Dh31,333) per person, said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The ship had 492 Tamil migrants on board.

Mr Gunaratna, who has studied the Tamil Tigers for more than two decades, said the smuggling operations are part of an effort to raise funds to reactivate the group, whose military capabilities were destroyed by the Sri Lankan military in May 2009, ending nearly three decades of civil war.

The Tamil Tigers shipping and procurement network has transformed to a human smuggling network. Members of this unit have special skills to undertake clandestine transport from one destination to another, Mr Gunaratna said. They had used this to transport arms and ammo and now transport people.

They have two more ships and if the response in Canada (to accepting these migrants) is positive, the rebels will send more refugees to Canada. If Canada is not possible, they ll look for a new destination, he said.

This was the second shipment of human cargo by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 10 months, the first arriving in Canada in October with 79 passengers, 30 of whom were former rebels, Mr Gunaratna said.

This ship was the main carrier of arms and ammunition for the rebels during the conflict with 95 per cent of the arms coming from South Korea, he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The rebels earned C$1 million by smuggling the ethnic Tamils in October, Mr Gunaratna said. Reports from Canadian media said the smugglers earned C$20m from the latest shipment.

Since its defeat, the LTTE has tried to reorganise itself through the support of the Tamil diaspora, elements of which funded the rebels during the civil war, Mr Gunaratna said. About one million Sri Lankan Tamils live abroad, while in Sri Lanka there are three million Tamils out of a population of 20 million. The rebels were fighting for a separate Tamil homeland, and also backed long-time political demands by mainstream Tamil groups for political and administrative power.

Mr Gunaratna said that after their defeat last year, the Tigers splintered into many factions.

Now a faction led by a Norway-based rebel is running the human-smuggling operations and trying to raise funds to resume an armed struggle, he said.

The two ships left from Thailand with mostly nonrebel Sri Lankans who had migrated to India and South East Asia, Mr Gunaratna said.

Tamils claim discrimination in education, land use, language and jobs allocation, and have been seeking more political and administrative rights in the north and east of the country, where they are the majority.

Dinesh Dodangoda, a former opposition member of parliament and now a Ph.D student in terrorism studies at St Andrew s University in Scotland, said that although the government may have destroyed the Tigers military capability, the group will remain a potential threat as long as Sri Lanka refuses to address Tamil political demands.

The Vancouver Sun in a report yesterday quoted Gloria Nafziger, a Toronto-based refugee coordinator with Amnesty International, which is monitoring Canada s treatment of the latest group of migrants, as saying that while the civil conflict in Sri Lanka is over, the country continues to be a very dangerous place for its Tamil minority.

Reports of arbitrary arrest, disappearances and torture of members of the country s Tamil minority are prevalent, as are reports of widespread sexual violence against women by security forces, the article stated.

In the face of continuing discrimination against Tamils, Mr Gunaratna said the government behaves as if there is little threat from the rebels.

He said Colombo is slow in responding to the anti-government propaganda abroad from the Tamil network and should respond to its allegations of mass murder committed against the Tamils.

The fact is that the centre of gravity of the LTTE has shifted overseas from Sri Lanka, Mr Gunaratna said.

There is a lot of talk about opening up the treasures of Sri Lanka s neglected east coast (such as Arugam bay/Pottuvil) to the wider world. However one of the biggest obstacles to such a process it getting there. Currently Arugam bay/Pottuvil is a 8 hour drive from Colombo which doesn t compare well with the 10-11 hour flying time from Colombo to London. The combination of regular domestic air services to Ampara airport and local entrepreneurs can remove this major logistical hurdle to developing this area.

Ampara airport (Air Force Base) is not exactly new door to Arugam bay. Yet it is the closest runway accessible via the existing road network. Current transport services such as the AbaY Taxi which currently specialises in travel from Colombo airport to Arugam Bay are well placed to make the air bridge viable.

The end of the war has highlighted the pent up demand for domestic aviation services in Sri Lanka. Even the Sri Lanka Air Force has got into the domestic aviation market to fill the demand for flights to Jaffna. Currently it seems that the supply constricted by war time restrictions, and is slow to meet the demand. Jaffna understandably remains the political and economically viable priority. Currently the only arial access to Arugam bay seems to be charters via Deccan Aviation (Lanka) which is not for every pocket.

Hopefully, the entry of further actors into Sri Lanka s domestic aviation market will make flight affordable, and additional destinations more viable. Arugam bay s tourism potential, and Ampara airport seems to offers a ready made market for those willing to take the first steps. As with most things in the process will not be so straight forward. Easier access to the wider world will have consequences to the way of life in Arugam bay. Start typing arugam bay into google and you ll notice that among the most popular search term prompts are arugam bay real estate and arugam bay land . Yet the consequences of peace and the inevitable changes must be faced. Ideally with a calm mind and healthy optimism. On the positive side, the basic ingredients of making getting to Arugam Bay and Pottuvil easier and financially viable already exist.