India’s failure to disarm Tamil armed groups led to disaster -Thambimuttu
Faulting the government of India for providing military training to Tamil youth in the early 1980s, Arun Thambimuttu, SLFP Chief Organiser for Eastern Batticaloa District on Tuesday (Feb 25) said that many people believed the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) would disarm all terrorist groups in the wake of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord (ILPA). India deployed troops in the Northern and Eastern districts consequent to the ILPA signed on July 29, 1987.
Thambimuttu was addressing a gathering at the launch of the coffee table book ‘1975-2014’ Sri Lanka authored by Malinda Seneviratne, Editor, The Nation, at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS).
Click the link below to listen to speech delivered by Mr. Arun Thambimuttu at the launch of the coffee table book by Malinda Seneviratne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Having cheered and appreciated the Indian action, they expected the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to disarm armed groups, Thambimuttu said. Instead of withdrawing weapons, India ended up arming more youth, including children to fight the LTTE leading to massacre of children. The SLFP organiser said that he knew what was happening in Batticaloa as he lived there.
Thambimuttu was referring to bloody battles between the LTTE and the so-called Tamil National Army (TNA) created to prop up the Indian backed NE provincial administration of Varatharaja Perumal.
Referring to both domestic and international calls for external investigation into the final phase of the conflict, Thambimuttu asserted that a comprehensive war crimes investigation would plunge the country into an unprecedented crisis. Estimating the number of ex-militants belonging to the LTTE as well rival groups living in the Batticaloa District now, Thambimuttu said that the launch of an investigation would change the situation there overnight.
The SLFPer reminded the international community that some of those who had committed atrocities during the conflict now lived overseas. Thambimuttu said that he knew of one such person who had received German citizenship though many others lived in London, Toronto and Berlin.
Commenting on post-war national reconciliation efforts, Thambimuttu said that some believed addressing the grievances of those living in the Northern Province, comprising the administrative districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu would be the panacea for all problems faced by the community. Only 900,000 lived in the Northern Province but much more Tamils lived in other areas, he said, underscoring the need to reexamine the situation.
Thambimuttu reiterated his belief that Sri Lanka should have a domestic mechanism to address accountability issues and support national reconciliation efforts.
by Shamindra Ferdinando
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