JUNE 2, 2000 VOL. 28 NO. 21

Editorial: Time To Tame The Tigers
The world must pressure the to talk peace in Sri Lanka

Sometimes the means invalidates the ends. Consider the Tamil Tigers' 17-year fight for an independent state in Sri Lanka. Yes, it deserves the attention of international peacemakers, who have been scrambling to head off an impending bloody battle for Jaffna town, the former Tiger stronghold lost to Colombo's forces in 1995. Last week the Asian Human Rights Commission called on the U.N. and the E.U. to intervene. But when one recalls the ruthless lengths to which the Tigers are willing to go in pursuit of their goal, the prospect of them taking control of an independent country, complete with diplomatically immune embassies around the world, seems nothing short of nightmarish.

Indeed, what they have been able to do without full statehood is already - depending on one's appetite for carnage - terrific or terrifying. With just 6,000 or so hard-core fighters, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by founding commander Velupillai Prabhakaran, have waged a relentless conflict that has caused upwards of 50,000 deaths. When a peace pact was forged in the late 1980s under New Delhi's auspices, the LTTE drove out Indian peacekeepers and wiped out rival Tamil factions. Years later its suicide bombers killed Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for sending in troops, and Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa for breaking off peace talks. That and the near-killing of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga last December make the Tigers the only known terrorist group, as designated by Washington in 1997, to have assassinated two heads of government and very nearly a third.

Unwilling to compromise on their goal of independence, the LTTE has spurned peace overtures again and again. It has wiped out opponents in Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain and Canada, as well as moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Tigers arm children and send them into the teeth of enemy fire to sap the ammo and spirits of opposing troops. They strap bombs on women who offer garlands to politicians before detonating. The suicide-bomb technology has been shared with or copied by Algerians, Kurds, Punjabi Sikhs, and Arabs in Israel.

Don't turn away. Law enforcers in several countries have accused the Tigers of drug-running, forgery and extortion. LTTE operatives are reckoned to have launched the first worldwide terrorist cyber-attack, paralyzing embassies' communications some years ago. All that and more have prompted India, Malaysia, Canada and the U.S. to formally ban the LTTE. In Switzerland and at least two other European countries, Sri Lankans may not carry weapons. With their lawyers, lobbyists, PR agencies and front organizations, the Tigers tried vainly to fight the bans. In London, the acknowledged heartland of "LTTE International," another prohibition is being debated. The rebels may now be eyeing South Africa as a base.

Despite the bans, the Tigers and their front organizations operate with much freedom. They have offices in London, Paris, Toronto and New Jersey, and propaganda units in Sydney, Norway and Texas. Their network raises over $2 million a month from 38 countries. The LTTE boasts ocean-going ships, which only the PLO and the IRA, among other rebel groups, have. Such organization and resources make few nations willing to take on the Tigers. But the world must pressure all sides in Sri Lanka to talk peace, if necessary by blocking money flows. If ruthlessness is allowed to triumph on the island, it will spawn imitations elsewhere.

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