Point of view

     Why the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should unconditionally surrender

By Dr. Ranjit Perera

It is now quite evident that the Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of militarily defeating the LTTE, which was one of the most efficient and well organised terrorist organisations in the world.  The donor Co-Chairs involved in trying to resolve the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE have called upon the LTTE to surrender and release the civilian Tamil population they are holding as a human shield.

Yet as we all know, defeating the LTTE militarily itself will not resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka. But it could go a long way towards a resolution of the conflict just as much as the military defeat and the unconditional surrender of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War, and the German and Japanese armed forces in the Second World War, led to peace and resolution of the issues that caused those conflicts.

As the Government of Sri Lanka has also more recently acknowledged, that for lasting peace and development in Sri Lanka there needs to be a political solution, wherein everybody in Sri Lanka whether they be Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher by ethnic origin,  or Buddhist, Hindu or Christian in religion, should be reasonably assured that their basic human right to equality, freedom and justice is not infringed or denied.

However the LTTE, inspired and led by Velupillai Pirapaharan a psychopath terrorist with a hegemonic vision of violently establishing a racist mono ethnic Tamil state called Eelam, has completely lost any credibility, to be a part of the solution.

Particularly, the manner in which the LTTE has been using innocent civilians as human shields, and  sending a female suicide bomber to exploded herself among civilians killing 30 persons including 20 soldiers north of Visuamadu and just few days before that, sending a 13-year-old girl with explosives strapped to her body and blasted her near a group of frontline soldiers, is clear evidence of the LTTE’s complete disregard for basic human rights of even the Tamil population, including women and children they claim to represent.

Gruesome reprisal

Also these suicide bombings initiated by the LTTE are a gruesome reprisal against civilians for defying the LTTE orders as well as a desperate attempt to trigger a backlash. Probably the manner in which the LTTE is using the Tamil civilian population as a human shield, is a grave crime against humanity, similar to what Hitler did to the Jewish people in German occupied parts of Europe, and what Pol Pot did in the killing fields in Cambodia.

If all those who have previously been supporting the LTTE, irrespective of whether they are part of the diaspora, or even part of the LTTE cadre still fighting against the armed forces of the Government of Sri Lanka, have any semblance of empathy to the Tamil civilian population, they should either pressurise the LTTE to unconditionally surrender, and or stop supporting the LTTE.

If  Pirapaharan still continues to use civilians as a human shield, the remaining LTTE cadres should  lay down their arms and surrender themselves. It is encouraging to note, that the Government of Sri Lanka has offered an amnesty to the LTTE rank and file, if they laid down their arms and surrendered.

In this respect it may be helpful to bear in mind that Elara, one of the greatest Tamil kings of Sri Lanka, very concerned about the lives of his subjects, decided to personally confront King Dutugemunu in battle, even though he would have known that he may most probably lose. He was an older, peace loving person, and probably not as agile as the young Sinhala King, but he was more concerned about his people than his own personal life. The dignity and respect he thus commanded ensured a surrender with dignity for all his subjects.

Even if we take the case of Japan, after the United States dropped two nuclear bombs, Emperor Hirohito or Emperor Sh’wa as he is fondly known in Japan, surrendered unconditionally. The  Emperor then cooperated with the reorganisation of the Japanese state during the occupation of Japan and lived to see Japan becoming a highly urbanised democracy and one of the industrial and technological powerhouses of the world.

Unconditional and immediate surrender 

As indicated in Encyclopedia Wikipedia, in “the American Civil War, Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army received a request for terms from the fort’s commanding officer, Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Grant’s reply was that “no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.”

When news of Grant’s victory — one of the Union’s first in the Civil War — was received in Washington, D.C., newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Ulysses Simpson Grant’s first two initials, “U.S.,” stood for “Unconditional Surrender,” which would later become his nickname. 

In this respect we should also bear in mind, that unconditional surrender only means surrender without any mutually agreed conditions, but conditions provided by international law would still hold.  Furthermore, as Sri Lanka is a democratic country bound by Rule of Law, the conditions provided by the law of the country would also still prevail.  

Certainly, Velupillai Pirapaharan and the high level leadership of the LTTE would have to face being tried for the alleged murders of  Rajiv Gandhi a former prime minister of India, Ranasinghe Premadasa a former president of Sri Lanka, Lakshman Kadirgamar a former foreign minister of Sri Lanka and numerous politicians both Tamil and Sinhala, and civilians killed in suicide bombings initiated by the LTTE.

These other Tamil politicians were often genuinely concerned about the plight of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, and were courageous enough to oppose the Tamil population in Sri Lanka being subjugated by Velupillai Pirapaharan, a psychopath like Hitler and Pol Pot, with a hegemonic vision of violently establishing a racist mono ethnic state.

Certainly, there is a strong case to be made for Velupillai Pirapaharan and the senior cadre of the LTTE being tried for crimes against humanity for their terrorist acts, forceful confinement and use of Tamil civilians as human shields and indiscriminate killing of civilians and Tamil leaders who worked tirelessly for a peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. But one need to go before an International Court of Justice, if they cannot be reasonably tried before the courts of the country concerned.

In the case of Sri Lanka, this would not be the case, as Velupillai Pirapaharan and the senior cadres of the LTTE could be tried before both the courts in Sri Lanka and for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi, in the courts in India.

Commit suicide  

The only other alternative that Velupillai Pirapaharan and the senior cadres of the LTTE may have is to commit suicide, as Hitler and some other senior members of the Third Reich did when faced with imminent defeat by the combined allied forces in the Second World War. Even worse than Hitler, Velupillai Pirapaharan, and the senior cadres of the LTTE, have prevailed upon the  LTTE rank and file to carry cyanide capsules in necklaces around their necks and to commit suicide when they were about to be captured, and hundreds have done so.

The question is, will  persons like Velupillai Pirapaharan and the senior cadres of the LTTE do what they have prevailed upon their rank and file to do? That is however a personal choice that is best left with them to decide.

An unconditional surrender by the LTTE leadership may perhaps be in the best interest of the entire Tamil population in Sri Lanka. It would certainly be the most effective way to protect the civilian Tamil population held as a human shield in the remaining area that is still controlled by the LTTE.

One could reasonably argue that the LTTE came into existence, mostly due to the discriminatory measures adopted by the post independence governments of Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was called in those years. One can also make the case that discriminatory measures adopted in the past, by the governments of Sri Lanka, were in effect equal opportunity initiatives, adopted to correct the preferential treatment that the Tamil population in Sri Lanka had received during the British colonial period.

Something that is often ignored particularly by the Western media, but something one needs to recognise is that since 1983, successive governments in Sri Lanka have made significant efforts to mitigate the discriminatory measures they had adopted in the past, including making Tamil a national language of the country.

However, the security measures adopted by the government to protect its population from terrorist threats of the LTTE, is a significant inhibition to the full exercise of the basic human rights in Sri Lanka and particularly for the Tamil population in Sri Lanka.  Irrespective of one’s racial and ethnic origin, one must recognise that most of the security measures adopted in Sri Lanka are a necessary element, given the terrorist threat posed by the LTTE.

In more recent times the racist mono ethnic mindset of the LTTE leadership, the terrorist activities initiated by the LTTE and the fact that even though the Sinhalese population is a dominant majority in the country in geopolitical terms — when one includes the large Tamil population of South India — the Sinhalese population will be a minority, has led to the emergence of parallel countervailing, racist, mono ethnic, nationalistic aspirations among some segments of the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka, as well.

Mutually respectful atmosphere

With the defeat of the LTTE, one can reasonably hope, for the fear that is giving rise to the above mentioned mindset among the majority Sinhalese population to be somewhat mitigated, and that it would allow a more tolerant, and mutually respectful atmosphere to emerge.  At the same time one needs to be mindful as not to let the defeat of the LTTE lead to a hardening of the racist, mono ethnic, nationalist mindset among the majority Sinhala population.

An unconditional surrender by the LTTE, would also provide an opportunity for a new Tamil leadership to emerge, who would be able to work more effectively with fair minded segments of the majority Sinhala population in Sri Lanka, and co-operate in making Sri Lanka a truly multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country. A country where whether one be a Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher or a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim by religion, one can live in an environment of mutual respect, is what we all hope for.

The extent to which this hope can be realised will depend on the extent to which the Tamil population in Sri Lanka and the expatriate Tamil population around the world, support and allow an alternative credible Tamil leadership to emerge. It would also depend on the extent to which the majority Sinhala population, would support fundamental changes that may be necessary to enable Sri Lanka to be truly a multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country where an atmosphere of equality fairness and justice prevails.

Some may feel that I am naïve to believe that the LTTE would unconditionally surrender, that a new Tamil leadership could emerge that would work more effectively with the fair minded segments of the majority Sinhala population, and that the defeat of the LTTE would not lead to a hardening of the racist, mono ethnic, nationalist mindset among the majority Sinhala population. But contrary to such sentiments of naivety, we need to realise that much has been achieved by naivety  and one’s “Audacity to Hope.”

 It was Mahatma Gandhi’s  ‘Audacity to Hope’ that led to India gaining independence from the mighty British Empire. It was Nelson Mandela’s ‘Audacity to Hope’ that brought about the end of the racist Apartheid Regime in South Africa. It was Barrack Obama’s ‘Audacity to Hope’ that led to a black American being elected as president of the United States of America.

What one needs to bear in mind is that in matters concerning basic human rights and ensuring that the Tamil population in Sri Lanka can live in an environment of equality, fairness and justice, more can be achieved through peaceful, non violent means, than through terrorism and violence that the LTTE has adopted as a means of carving out a racist, mono ethnic Tamil state within Sri Lanka.       

(Until he retired in December 2002, having served in the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for 27 years, Dr. Ranjit Perera was the Associate Director General of the Human Development Division of the Policy Branch of CIDA in Ottawa. Since he retired he has been visiting Sri Lanka every year and has been involved in promoting peace and development in Sri Lanka. The opinions expressed in this article are Dr. Perera’s own personal views.)