The Island in its today's editorial scoffs at the LTTE's recent claim that its acquisition of 2-3 light aircraft would give the statehood to the areas under its control. The National English daily says the LTTE is "still where it began over two decades ago in terms of achieving its objective", though it could inflict enormous damage to the Tamil community that would take generations to recover.
Read below the full text of the today's Editorial of The Island:
LTTE military spokesman R. Illanthirayan has told the Hindustan Times that the outfit's newly acquired limited air capability will help bolster its claim of statehood. Its air actions, he has said, open up new possibilities in the military, political and diplomatic fields. "We have territory, administrative, judicial, and law enforcement systems, an army, a navy and now an air force. Let's call a spade a spade; we are a state," he is reported to have said.
Wow! What miracles light aircraft are capable of! They can turn an illegally held territory into a separate state! The Taliban should also acquire Zlin planes and ride to statehood by dropping a few crude bombs on the occupation forces! Hello, hello, Mr. bin Laden can you hear the Tigers? Why should you eye jumbo jets? The smaller, the better!
The acquisition of Zlin aircraft may have added some zing into the LTTE's separatist project but it is nothing but will-o'-the-wisp that it has catapulted the outfit from a pocket of terror to a fully-fledged separate state.
Never mind aircraft. The LTTE is trying to make an omelette without eggs. It claims statehood on the basis of many things but the most important feature of the modern state-sovereignty. How can there be a state without sovereignty? It is not something that can be imported from Norway or smuggled in!
The LTTE, no doubt, has a formidable fighting force. But, it consists mainly of forcibly recruited children and youth. If the LTTE thinks it has a legitimate army, it should apply for officer training at Sandhurst! True, it has a fleet of stolen trawlers reinforced with armour plates, fitted with heavy guns and carrying its flag. It has, to give the devil his due, a group of dedicated cadres, some of whom are even ready to die for its macabre cause. But, if the LTTE thinks it has a legitimate navy, it should approach the Britannia Royal Naval College, Darmouth for training! It has acquired light aircraft and demonstrated its ability to unsettle the Sri Lanka military to some extent. But, does an air force mean only a few illegally acquired aircraft used for terrorist activities? Well, if the LTTE thinks it has an air force, it should send its 'air force officers' to Cranwell for further training. It may also try Scotland Yard for honing the skills of its 'police'! Or, it must place the order for spares for its aircraft in London or in New York!
A butcher, it should be seen, can never aspire to be a surgeon. He also uses a table and a knife, wears an apron, and inflicts cuts just like a surgeon. But, can he claim FRCS on the grounds of those similarities alone? A legitimate state is like a surgeon and a terrorist group a butcher. They are poles apart!
The LTTE's claim to statehood, which is being flaunted in some quarters, gets exposed for what it really is-a damn lie-when it is viewed against the backdrop of how the world is relating to it. The report of the LTTE claim coincided with the arrest of a top LTTE leader in the US. Will a senior leader of an outfit with a legitimate right to statehood get arrested in a democratic country?
The newly acquired air capability has, the LTTE says, opened up new possibilities in, inter alia, diplomatic fields. We don't know about those countries that are sympathetic to its cause for reasons best known to them. But, the air power has come at the expense of whatever support the LTTE may have enjoyed in the democratic world, which abhors terrorism. Its air power is widely considered a new threat to global democracy and has posed a new challenge to the nations battling terrorism. The article on the opposite page by R. Raman, a former Additional Secretary to Cabinet Secretariat, India, sheds light on how the democratic nations have taken the LTTE's air power. Note this particular observation therein:
The LTTE, despite its bravado, cannot use its planes frequently. Loss of aircraft due to ground fire or accidents would impair its air capability. The law of probability of loss of aircraft would operate more effectively against the TAF ['Tiger Air Force'] than the SLAF...
The LTTE is sadly mistaken, if it thinks the Zlin planes have helped it clear all hurdles on the path to separation. It is still where it began over two decades ago in terms of achieving its objective with the wheel of its terror having turned a full circle. It has got banned even in the countries that were once sympathetic to it. France has begun raids on its offices and resistance is emerging even in Norway to its terrorist activities!
The LTTE only makes the discerning laugh when it stakes a claim to territory. Yes, it has some areas under its jackboot. But, has it forgotten that it is at present confined to just only two or three districts, whereas there are 24 administrative districts in this country? How can it reconcile its present position with its much advertised goal of carving out a separate state encompassing one third of the country's land mass?
Today, it has become a prisoner of its own violent project. It has killed many more Tamils than those who perished at the hands of Sinhala hordes in 1983, while claiming to be their liberator. It has deprived the country of the best Tamil leaders and intellectuals. The Sinhala goons set the Jaffna Library ablaze in 1981 in a dastardly bid to deal a blow to the education of the Tamil community. But, the LTTE has gone a step ahead of those criminals and deprived tens of thousands of Tamil children of education over the years by abducting them and turning them into killing machines. It can no longer deceive the world into the belief that it is a liberation organisation.
Prabhakaran has crossed the Rubicon in his armed struggle. He is killing to live and living to kill. He has no way of entering the democratic mainstream. Therefore, he never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, as we have seen over the past so many years. How many peace processes has he scuttled? He will go on fighting for his own sake on false pretext. The acquisition of aircraft is only part of his 'war-for-myself' programme.
Let those who may still believe his promise of liberation or a light aircraft ride to statehood heed this counsel:
"If we are interested in Tamil well-being and Tamil education, we must obtain control of a federal area through negotiations. Time is against us. Another few years of war, through death and migration, there will be no Tamil people left to speak of. The war must stop before we are totally destroyed as a people." - the concluding remark of a lecture delivered by Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole at the Toronto University recently.
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