Monday, October 27, 2008

Tamil Tigers [LTTE], Israel and India - 1

Sri Lanka's rebel leader 'killed' Page last updated at 02:00 GMT, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 03:00 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8055015.stm Born November, 1954 - 1972: Founded Tamil New Tigers (TNT), forerunner of LTTE - Wanted in Sri Lanka and India - Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the mujaheddin factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia, kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden, provided millions more. Washington's policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by his successors. His plan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it aimed to foster an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilize the Soviet Union. Brzezinski's grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator General Zia ul-Haq's own ambitions to dominate the region. US-run Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe beamed Islamic fundamentalist tirades across Central Asia (while paradoxically denouncing the “Islamic revolution” that toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran in 1979).

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaSL7XinAvk&feature=channel
When you ignite fire in someone's backyard then to bring you in senses the nature takes its own course. How?

All of us already know it and there is no denying that Sikh Problem was more than a Liberation Movement of Khalisatan and India had alleged that Pakistan was behind this insurgency {it would be wrong to say that USA is not involved because Pakistan in its entire history was more close to USA in those days (1979-1988 i.e. General Zia ul Haq due to Afghan War), so it is evident that US just kept its mouth shut on this so-called Sikh uprising.

Similarly Chinese Leader Chow-en-Li {Correct the spelling} had warned Late. Ms. Indira Gandhi during the East Pakistan Crisis to not to interfere. Similarly the Tamil Affair:

A quote from BY WAY OF DECEPTION An Insider’s Devastating Expose of The Mossad by Claire Hoy & Victor Ostrovsky {Arrow Books 1988}:

“Sympathy for the Tamils runs high in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where 40 Million Tamils live. Many Sri Lankan Tamils, escaping the bloodshed, have sought refuge there, and the Sri Lankan government has accused Indian officials of arming and training the Tamils. They should be cursing the Mossad.” The Tamil were training at the commando naval base, learning penetration techniques, mining landings, communications, and how to sabotage ships similar to the Devora. There were about 28 men in each group, so it was decided that Yosy should take the Tamils to Haifa that night while I took the Sinhalese to Tel Aviv, thus avoiding any chance encounters. The real problem started about two weeks into the courses, when both the Tamils and Sinhalese – unknown to each, of course – were training at Kafr Sirkin.

“ Look, we have a problem,” said Amy. “We have a group of 27 SWAT team guys from India coming in.” “ My God,” I said, “What is this? We’ve got Sinhalese, Tamils, and Now Indians. Who’s next?” Page 130.

The LTTE's early years of struggle reportedly enjoyed considerable sympathy from the Indian government, especially in the state of where there was sympathy for the discrimination against Sri Lankan Tamils by the majority . It is widely believed that India provided the LTTE and other Tamil guerilla groups with monetary and training support. However, with increased violence on Indian soil (including some gruesome crimes ascribed to runaway militants), the organization lost some popular support. {1}

Indian involvement:

India's involvement has been motivated by a mix of issues -- its leaders' desire to project India as the regional power in the area, worries about India's own Tamils seeking independence, and a genuine concern for the Sri Lankan Tamils' plight. Uncoordinated in the , the central and state governments (and even different agencies within them!) supported both sides in different ways. In the late 1980s the Indian government negotiated an agreement with the government of Sri Lanka on the Tamils' behalf (without consulting the armed resistance). India promised military support if needed, and Sri Lanka agreed to concessions, including Constitutional changes to grant more local power (this was eventually enacted as the 13th Amendment). India got agreement from all of the Tamil resistance groups including, grudgingly, the all-important LTTE.{2}

Intelligence Agencies:

As per Indian Express from the beginning of India's involvement with militant Sri Lankan Tamil groups in 1981, until late 1993, its intelligence agencies were actively involved with, and in the promotion of, the LTTE; and for most of this period, the Congress was the ruling party. The recently published book Assignment Colombo by J N Dixit, the former Foreign Secretary and the then High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, is replete with instances of active contact maintained by agencies of the governments of India and Tamil Nadu with the LTTE, even after the commencement of `Operation Pawan' by the IPKF. Dixit is explicit in stating that, but for the armed forces, no other Indian agency conducted itself with honour and integrity during the entire involvement with the Sri Lankan Tamil problem.{3}

Indian Strategic Depths: {Not only General Beg suffers from this syndrome!}

India's earlier support In fact, earlier in the conflict, New Delhi had given support to Tamil militants, under what was often described as a misguided policy. Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi believed that it was in India's interest to show solidarity with the ethnic Tamils. India's involvement in the Lankan crisis has been controversial, with New Delhi first arming and training the LTTE in the 1980s, then outlawing the group after blaming it for the 1991 murder of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) selected and trained the Sri Lankan Tamils, in the use of modern arms in camps organised in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi and elsewhere. The idea was that the Sri Lankan Tamils after being trained and armed would be sent back to northern Sri Lanka to engage the Sri Lankan troops in guerrilla warfare. It was a top-secret operation. Even the State government was kept in the dark. RAW hand-picked those to be trained and ignored the LTTE cadres as not being pliable enough. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), waging a turf war with RAW, promptly stepped forward to sponsor the LTTE and intervened to ensure that its cadres got military training. Kasi Anandan, a member of the LTTE, testified, ``Government of India promised us to give training at Dehra Dun. It was in 1984 when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. There were training camps even in Tamil Nadu at Kulathur near Mettur. About 50 or 60 LTTE boys got training in the first batch at Dehra Dun. Two or three batches after that were also trained. The LTTE also got monetary assistance from the time of Smt Indira Gandhi''.P. Nedumaran, who is LTTE sympathiser, testified: ``RAW started misreporting about the LTTE and it was responsible for the clashes between the different militant groups. RAW was behind the clashes between the LTTE and EPRLF and LTTE and TELO.''

For many years now, Fernandes has been an LTTE supporter. Before he joined the Vajpayee government in 1997, the Socialist leader organised a controversial public convention of pro-LTTE elements in New Delhi. When the home ministry objected to the meeting, Fernandes changed the venue to his official bungalow, where he hosted LTTE delegates from Sri Lanka, India, Australia and France. "The basic purpose of this convention is to make the people of India aware of Tamil Eelam and make them part of their struggle. Their cause is just," said Fernandes as he inaugurated the convention. A few months later, he was appointed defence minister by Prime Minister Vajpayee. In July 1998, he reportedly stopped the Indian Navy from intercepting ships suspected of carrying illegal arms to Tamil guerrilla groups. As a result, three such ships were let off the hook. Later, he is said to have ordered Indian security forces to downgrade their patrolling of the Palk Straits that separates Sri Lanka from India. Fernandes was also a patron of the LTTE-backed Fund Raising Committee, set up to help the 26 accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

As per learned Indian Journalist of repute Mr Praful Bidwai , the Indian Navy allowed gun-runners aboard a vessel to escape and dump their cache at sea. The trawler was reported to be carrying arms for the LTTE. a number of Indian ministers, including Home Minister L.K. Advani and Fernandes, attended a wedding at which were also present LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran's father and Kasi Ananthan, a suspect in the Rajiv Gandhi case. Several pro-LTTE, pro-Eelam speeches were made at the reception. Fernandes has been actively supporting the LTTE cause financially, through the Fund-raising Committee for Protection of Tamils. He was recently praised by the LTTE press as a more reliable ally of the the LTTE than many Tamil politicians. All this has stoked suspicions that India's BJP-led coalition has definite sympathies for the LTTE. There are numerous media reports of increased LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu, and of its growing links with Tamil politicians.{4}

An expert opinion:

Throughout the IPKF episode and until Rajiv Gandhi assassination in 1991, the LTTE continued to maintain a substantial presence in India. When the law enforcement agencies stepped up surveillance, the LTTE moved a bulk of its cadres from Tamil Nadu to other towns such as Mysore, Bangalore and Bombay. Even at the height of the IPKF - LTTE confrontation, the LTTE had twelve sections in India to manage:

(1) Intelligence

(2) Communications

(3) Arms Production

(4) Procurement of explosives

(5) Propaganda

(6) Political work

(7) Food and essential supplies

(8) Medicines

(9) Fuel supplies

(10) Clothing

(11) Transport

(12) Finance and currency conversion



The LTTE had also converted Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu, and nine other Tamil Nadu districts, into centers for war supplies to the LTTE. Each center was linked by a sophisticated wireless network. Individual units carried sanyo walkie talkie sets. The centers of war supplies and other activities were :

(1) Dharmapuri: Procurement of explosives

(2) Coimbatore: Arms and ammunition manufacturing

(3) Salem: Explosives manufacturing and military clothing manufacturing.

(4) Periya (Erode) Military clothing manufacturing

(5) Vedaraniym: Coastal area from where supplies were dispatched for the LTTE

(6) Madurai: Transit area

(7) Thanjavur; Communications center

(8) Nagapattnam: Landing area for supplies from LTTE deep sea going ships

(9) Rameswaram: Refugee arriving area and recruitment

(10) Tiruchi: Treatment of wounded LTTE cadres

(11) Tutocorin: LTTE trade in gold, silver, narcotics and other merchandise goods.

(12) Madras: Liaison with Tamil Nadu political leaders.

The LTTE-India nexus did not secure the geopolitical security New Delhi needed from Sri Lanka. It weakened Indian as well as Sri Lankan domestic security. In many ways, the presence of a foreign military strengthened the fighting spirit of LTTE and weakened the anti-terrorist capability of the Sri Lankan forces, then engaged in an anti-subversive campaign in the South . The organization gained mastery of guerrilla warfare by fighting the fourth largest military in the world. The LTTE suffered heavy causalities but replenished their ranks and gained a confidence paralleled by the Viet Cong and the Afghan mujahidin. LTTE also innovated new weapons, mostly projectiles and mines. Johnny mine, the anti-personnel mine invented by Prabhakaran, has at least claimed 5,000 Indian and Sri Lankan war causalities. Many Tamil Nadu political leaders from Nedumaran to Gopalasamy and Ramakrishnan visited the LTTE jungle base - known as the one four base complex over the years - and expressed solidarity with Prabhakaran. The role of the IPKF in Sri Lanka became a politically sensitive issue. When the IPKF returned to India, under the National Front government of V.P. Singh, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi did not visit the port of Madras to welcome the Indian soldier. Even after the IPKF departed the LTTE continued to maintain excellent relations with Tamil Nadu politicians. The LTTE had managed to preserve Tamil Nadu as a critical base by retaining the goodwill of the Tamil Nadu leaders. In fact, when the LTTE hit teams under the one eyed Jack Sivarasan assassinated the anti-LTTE EPRLF leader Padmanabha and his colleagues in Tamil Nadu, chief minister Karunanidhi asked the Tamil Nadu police and the state agencies to turn a blind eye. A few months later, the LTTE used the very same infrastructure of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu to kill Rajiv Gandhi . {4}

MUSLIMS (DESPITE BEING TERRORIST AS PER US NEOCONS) DO SUFFER AS WELL:

Twelve years ago the Tigers forced 100,000 Muslims out of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, the areas it claimed for an independent Tamil homeland. But one avowed admirer and keen supporter of the LTTE, with very close links with Tamil nadu, has escaped the notice of the Indian Government. He is Mr. S. Thondaman. In the pursuit of its aims, the LTTE has killed tens of thousands of people, including its Tamil opponents, Sinhalese and Muslims. Following the example of Hitler’s pogroms, it has ethnically ‘cleansed’ the North of all Sinhalese and Muslims. It has killed the leaders of India and Sri Lanka. It has brutalised a genaration of Tamil children, forcing those as young as ten years to march to their deaths as suicide brigades. It has trained its women cardres, under an Australian nurse, to spear and kill the children of the villages they attack. Their war against the country has directly or indirectly cost hundreds of thousands of lives. {5}

LAST WORDS:

No pun intended towards Indian or Tamil community. The good thing is that most of the journalists who are critical of their Indian Establishment, {and very harsh} have never been tried, doubted, demonized, whipped, imprisoned and made them jobless {So-called Commander of the Faithful General Zia had done that to several Pakistani Journalists} nobody doubted their loyalty with India and that’s what is needed in Pakistan.

Regards,

References:

1- Tamil Tigers India's involvement.{1}

http://www.thebestlinks.com/Tamil_Tigers.html#India.27s_involvement


3- LTTE's India links were far more dubious than are made out to be Manvendra Singh Indian Express, Thursday, November 13 1997. {3}

http://indianterrorism.bravepages.com/ltte.htm


4- Tamil conflict at India's doorstep Janaki Bahadur Kremmer, Special to The Christian Science Monitor {4}

http://csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/durableRedirect.pl?/durable/2000/05/16/f-p6s1.shtml


5- India gives full support for peace in Lanka {4}

http://www.dailymirror.lk/2002/07/13/frontpage/1.html


6- Analysis: Sri Lankan president in India By Adam Mynott BBC correspondent in Delhi {4}

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1943899.stm


7- "Uppermost in our minds was to save the Gandhis' name" Coomi Kapoor {4}

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971212/34650923.html


8- LTTE's Indian Links and Rajiv Gandhi Assassination {4}

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/opinion.html


9- FERNANDES & Mr. L.K. ADVANI.{4}

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/dec/07spec.htm


10- India sends confusing signals on Sri Lanka extremists By Praful Bidwai {4}

http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/AH06Df02.html


11- A setback for ethnic conciliation

India's guarded response to the heinous killing of Neelam Tiruchelvam is suspicious and points to a pro-LTTE wave in the BJP-led coalition. PRAFUL BIDWAI {4}

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1617/16171070.htm


12- Fernandes: Popular but controversial minister

Mr Fernandes openly supported the LTTE's struggle for a separate state in northern Sri Lanka. {4}

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1223625.stm


13- INDIA'S TERRORIST MINISTER Defense chief George Fernandes raised funds and supplied arms to the terrorist Tamil Tigers {4}

"We could take a strike, survive and then hit back. Pakistan would be finished. I do not really fear that the nuclear issue would figure in a conflict."

http://india.indymedia.org/en/2002/12/2474.shtml


14- International and Regional Implications of the Sri Lankan Tamil Insurgency Rohan Gunaratne {4}.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sinhala/rohan.htm


15- An Outbreak of Peace in Sri Lanka? Ceasefire agreement by Peter Popham April 14, 2002 {5}

http://www.independent.co.uk/


16- An Open Appeal to the Indian Government not to extend support to LTTE supporter Thondaman, in the Indian and Sri Lankan national security interests {5}

http://www.sinhaya.com/Appeal_to_the_Indian_Gov_fromSL_NMAT.html

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