The Hindu Business Line : Saving the Serendip

While the EU has shown forbearance in dealing with the LTTE, it is now clear that the patience of the international community is wearing thin. It is perhaps time to move the UN Security Council to declare the LTTE an International Terrorist Organisation. India will be justified in proposing such an action given the LTTE's numerous terrorist activities, says G. PARTHASARATHY.

On May 21, 1991, a suicide bomber strapped with explosives, deputed by the LTTE Chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, blew herself up and assassinated the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Prabhakaran, who faces charges of involvement in the Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, still controls the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from hide-outs in Sri Lanka's north-east. Successive governments in India have done precious little, either overtly or covertly, to see that he is brought to face trial for his hand in the killing of one of the country's top leaders in the midst of a national election campaign. Recent coalition governments have soft-pedalled and downplayed the condemnation of the LTTE, because of what are stated to be the "compulsions of coalition politics." Rarely, if ever, do we see forthright condemnation of the LTTE or a vigorous diplomatic campaign by India to secure international pressure on the LTTE to force it to end its campaign of terror.

May 11 attack

Described by a Western analyst as the "most successful terrorist organisation in the world," the LTTE is today the only terrorist group that has acquired maritime and air power potential. On May 11, a squadron of LTTE speedboats piloted by suicide bombers rammed into a Sri Lankan navy troop carrier off the country's northern coast. The Sri Lankan naval convoy was carrying the Head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Norway's Major General, Ulf Henricsson. Seven Sri Lankan navy personnel were killed in the attack.

This attack followed another suicide bomb attack in Colombo barely a month earlier in which the Sri Lankan Army Chief, Lt Gen Sarath Fonseca, was nearly killed. The SLMM and the international community are quite clear that under the cease-fire agreement, the LTTE does not have the right to have a naval armada.

The SLMM demanded that the LTTE immediately cease all operations at sea, as these constituted violations of the cease-fire. The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, backed this demand. Yet, the LTTE brazenly claimed that as the ceasefire agreement was based on its "parity" with the Sri Lankan Government, it had "sovereignty" over the land, sea and air of the "Tamil Homeland" in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

While members of the European Union have shown great forbearance in dealing with the LTTE, it is now clear that the patience of the international community is wearing thin. The US State Department condemned the May 11 attack and urged the EU to "list" the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.

On May 18, the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg passed a unanimous resolution asking all its member-states to freeze all assets of the LTTE including bank accounts, holdings, companies and undertakings. It also called on member-states to prevent the LTTE from collecting illegal tax from resident Tamil communities.

As High Commissioner in Australia, I have been witness to how LTTE supporters virtually extort money from expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils. Apart from calling on EU Governments to "list" the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, the European Parliament rejected LTTE claims that it is the "sole representative" of the Tamils. It noted that the LTTE does not permit other democratic and political voices in the Tamil community to be heard.

The actions taken against the LTTE by the international community have arisen primarily because of its terrorist acts in Sri Lanka. India has, however, not mounted any meaningful effort to get the LTTE declared as an international terrorist organisation, despite its involvement in the assassination of a former Prime Minister. There is reluctance in New Delhi to firmly back democratically-inclined Tamil parties in Sri Lanka, such as the EPDP, or support the efforts of Tamil leaders like "Colonel" Karuna, who have shown the courage to reject Prabhakaran's excesses.

While it is true that there will be concern in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India if an escalating conflict should lead to yet another exodus of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka's north-east, experience has shown that people in Tamil Nadu are not particularly impressed or attracted by Prabhakaran's excesses. Throughout the operations of the IPKF in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1989, efforts to mobilise opinion against New Delhi's policies failed. The Congress-AIADMK alliance, in fact, swept the Parliamentary elections in 1989, when the IPKF was still operating against the LTTE.

Stepping up surveillance

One hopes that the LTTE will see the writing on the wall as it faces growing international isolation and the prospects of severe restrictions being imposed on its sources of funds and its shipping and other activities across the world. It would not be India's interests to allow a terrorist organisation to run its own "Navy" close to its shores. Maritime cooperation with the Sri Lankan navy and other regional countries will have to be stepped up to curb LTTE pretensions about is maritime power. Surveillance on the LTTE's aerial assets will also have to be stepped up.

More important, the time has perhaps come to move the UN Security Council to declare the LTTE as an International Terrorist Organisation under its Resolution 1373. India will be fully justified in proposing such action given the role of the LTTE in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and in its numerous terrorist activities, including gun running and drug smuggling across the world.

Having notified the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, New Delhi cannot obviously sit across the negotiating table with its representatives. But India has an abiding interest in a resolution of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka in a manner that guarantees the island's unity and territorial integrity, while ensuring the security and dignity of its Tamil population.

There can be no question of pandering to the LTTE demands for "sovereignty" or "parity" with the Sri Lankan Government, or endorsing its secessionist objectives. There have unfortunately been reports of excesses against Tamils by the Sri Lankan authorities in Trincomalee and elsewhere.

Colombo will have to be persuaded that an influx of Tamil refugees in large numbers into India will affect the latter's ability to help in isolating the LTTE.

Solution to crisis

There can obviously be no military solution to the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka, and President Mahinda Rajapakse's Government would be well-advised to desist from the temptation of trying to seek a military solution. But it is imperative that the Union Government does not become caught up in helping a friendly neighbour to deal with a terrorist threat to it security and integrity merely because of unwarranted fears about the political reaction in Tamil Nadu.

A nation that allows such considerations to determine the conduct of foreign policy hardly has any right to claim to be a responsible regional power that merits international respect.

(The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)