LTTE THREAT: FACTUAL OR FALSE ALARM?

Astory published in the Chennai based ‘The Hindu’ newspaper on May 13 about a purported attempt to regroup by the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been given wide publicity in the Sri Lankan media.

“Indian Intelligence agencies have warned of erstwhile cadre of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) regrouping to launch attacks in Sri Lanka, as the country is embroiled in a deep economic and political crisis, the Hindu report said. It added “Besides planning attacks to mark the Mullivaikkal anniversary that falls on May 18, which some groups observe as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, the EX-LTTE cadres were also conspiring to avenge the killings of their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, newsreader Isai Priya and others, who were killed as the ethnic conflict ended after fierce fighting in 2009.”

The news item cited “Indian intelligence” as it source. Indian intelligence services too have not denied The Hindu report. The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry which initially denied these Indian media reports on Saturday, later said that the Indian intelligence services in response to the inquiries have informed Sri Lanka that the information has been given as general information and that investigations will be carried out in this regard and action will be taken to inform Sri Lanka about it. Sri Lankan authorities also have stated that they would investigate into the news reports.

What did the Indian authorities mean by “general information”? The description seems to imply that the information is not serious enough to convey it to the Sri Lankan authorities, despite them having been given to the media. However, an armed attack on “Mullivaikkal Day” and the revenge attack against the killing of the LTTE leader as referred to by the Indian media, would indeed be serious. Because, the remnants of the Tiger rebels have never been able to launch an armed attack of any magnitude since the leadership of the rebel outfit was decimated in May 2009. Hence, if the Indian media reports were correct and correctly sourced, the Indian authorities seems to have failed in their duty by Sri Lanka, by not passing the information on to the Sri Lankan defence authorities, before providing it to the media.

Indian and Sri Lankan media have occasionally been carrying stories, since the defeat of the rebel group in 2009, on resurrection of the LTTE. For instance, Sri Lankan army had killed three former LTTE cadres including a former bodyguard of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran and captured a cache of weapons in an ambush in the jungles of Bogaswewa in the Vavuniya District in 2014. They were said to be preparing an attack against the security forces. The French news agency, AFP said on May 19, 2018 that President Maithripala Sirisena had warned of Tamil extremists regrouping abroad to revive their demand to divide the island nation nine years after the end of its decades-long ethnic war. The Tamil Guardian reported on July 1, 2020 that Sri Lankan security forces have arrested more than a dozen Tamil youth on charges of attempting to “regroup the LTTE.” More similar reports could be found in a simple google search. In fact, it was only in the incident where three former LTTE cadres were killed in 2014 that one can find some factual proof of LTTE regrouping.

One cannot totally deny the reports as there are objective and subjective ingredients for such a regrouping. Frustration over the demands of the Tamil leaders on, for instance, releasing of persons detained for decades, release of lands currently occupied by the security forces, some sort of accountability over the people disappeared during the war have repeatedly been denied.

Subjectively, Tamil people are being emotionally charged repeatedly by the nationalistic propaganda by the Tamil leaders, especially during elections. On the other hand, Tamil leaders are being pushed to glorify the LTTE and its leaders, by the sympathy for the rebels among the Tamil people. During the Northern Provincial Council election in 2013, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, the then Commander of the Sri Lankan army in the Jaffna peninsula, expressed concern over the TNA glorifying the LTTE leaders, citing the possibility of about 4,000 former Tiger combatants, who were still at large without undergoing any rehabilitation programme being reactivated.

However, Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, Mano Ganesan and Sanakkiyan Rasamanikkam had expressed displeasure over The Hindu report, as such reports might create suppressive environments in Sri Lanka. They opine that false alarms might unnecessarily bring in hardships to the people. It must be worth recalling a statement made to The Hindu newspaper by former Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran on the statements made by Tamil Nadu leaders during the 2013 PC election campaign. He said “We get affected by what is being said there, emotional rhetoric only make Tamils here more vulnerable.”

India has assisted Sri Lanka with very vital intelligence during the war and prior to the Easter Sunday attacks. Hence, Sri Lankan authorities can still rely on Indian intelligence reports. Yet Sri Lankans are being confused when media carry serious information which should have been conveyed to the relevant authorities first.