Media Release - Saturday, 24 December 2005

Chopper attack meant for EU countries

It must now be amply clear to anyone who cares to look at it impartially that the Tamil Tigers are not your friendly neighbourhood terrorist, who is only asking for justice. Even the most die-hard Tamil Tiger fan should condemn the latest use of Tiger muscle where a visiting dignitary from a friendly country was targetted by the Tamil Tigers.

No matter that the dignitary was not in the chopper at the time it was attacked by the Tamil Tigers, the intention was to embarrass the Sri Lankan government and scare the European Union into removing the recently imposed ban on Tamil Tigers travelling in Europe.

Even though many western governments have placed the Tamil Tigers on a list of banned terrorist organisations, these governments are not taking enough action to crack down on the front organisations and support streams of the LTTE that are active in their countries. This makes the LTTE believe that whatever dastardly deed they commit in Sri Lanka will be overlooked by the western governments as has happened so many countless times in the past. Even the most heinous acts of pure genocide by the LTTE have been ignored in the west.

Many a time when the Sri Lankan army was poised on total victory over the LTTE cadres the Sri Lanka government was forced to pull back the troops as a result of “friendly” foreign intervention, thus giving the LTTE much needed time to re-group. Or each time the LTTE weaponry and cadres were depleted; they sue for a unilateral ceasefire. This is what happened in 2002, in the much-vaunted CFA that the Tamil Tigers keep threatening to break should the Sri Lankan government not dance to its tune.

It is not for us to instruct the European Union on the possible course of action. The inaction of the western countries in general and European Union in particular in the past has led to the situation today where Tamil Tigers can attempt to assassinate a foreign dignitary visiting Sri Lanka with impunity and expect to get away with it too.

It is high time that the western governments, the UN and the European Union took effective action to sever the Tamil Tigers financial supply lines and disable their propaganda machines that are operating without let or hindrance in such countries as Norway, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland Italy and Australia, to name but a few.

Freezing bank accounts and making it a crime to in any way be associated with the LTTE will go a long way to ensuring this menace that has stalked Sri Lanka for nearly thirty years and has mentored many other terrorists groups that are now menacing the rest of the world, will eventually wither away and die off.

The Sri Lankan government cannot take effective action against the LTTE unless it can be sure that the tacit support shown to this group by western governments and media is no more. When western nation states treat the LTTE as the terrorist organisation that it is, the Sri Lankan army can liberate the Tamil people who are now under the fascist jackboot of Prabhakaran and his ruthless terrorist outfit.

Malin Abeyatunga

Secretary

Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR)

Reg No. A 003 07777 M

PO Box 4066

Mulgrave    VIC 3170

Australia

The URL of this Media Release is http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20051224_Chopper_attack_meant_for_eu_countries.htm