Gujral raps terrorism, draws LTTE’s anger

COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 14: Former Indian prime minister I K Gujral has been strongly criticised in a pro-LTTE Tamil magazine published in Europe for attending the Neelan Tiruchelvam commemoration here earlier this month.According to a report in the Sunday Island, Eelamurasu, an LTTE mouthpiece from Paris, said Gujral was performing "Sinhala service" by coming here for the January 30-February 1 commemoration which included a series of seminars on issues close to Tiruchelvam’s heart. Gujral participated in the inauguration of the commemoration, calling for a strong condemnation of terrorism. Tiruchelvam, who was associated with the Sri Lankan government in drafting a new constitution incorporating more power-sharing with Tamils, was killed by a LTTE suicide bomber last July. Several eminent scholars, lawyers and civil society representatives from all over the world attended the three-day commemoration held to coincide with his 56th birthday.

Eelamurasu compared Gujral to Tiruchelvam, and described him as apolitician who "enjoyed power through the back door". Tiruchelvam was castigated as a "traitor" to the Tamil cause by pro-LTTE sections of the Tamil community both when he was alive and after his death. Referring to an interview given by Gujral to the state-owned Daily News, the article went on to say that Gujral had sounded like a "joker" when he described President Chandrika Kumaratunga as one of the most distinguished leaders in South Asia. This is the first time after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination that the LTTE has publicly voiced criticism against an Indian politician. So severe was the backlash against the LTTE in India in 1991 that it went quiet, refraining from openly making any adverse comments about the Indian government, leaders or its policy on Sri Lanka. However, it never failed to send messages of felicitation to every new Indian government, including that of Gujral’s. Last year, following intelligence reports that there was a threat to Sonia Gandhi’s life from LTTE, the group issued a denial,stating that it would not act in any way "prejudicial to Indian national interests".

Tamil politicians here said the attack on Gujral by Eelamurasu was made perhaps because he is now perceived as being on the margins of the Indian political establishment. "The LTTE probably thought it was okay to attack him now because he is unlikely to be part of India’s main decision-making process again," said one. While Eelamurasu criticised the "celebration of the life of Neelan" as the commemoration was billed, an LTTE publication from London called Sooriyapuddalvargal typically celebrated death, hailing its own "martyrs" and giving the gory break-up of how many of its cadres had died and when. The publication detailed the total number of LTTE cadres killed in combat from 1982 to 1998 as 13,3111. Of this, 2,240 were women cadres. The number does not include 292 Black Tigers and Black Sea Tigers, the dreaded suicide strikers of the LTTE, responsible for bombings, assassinations and attacks on military targets at seaand on land.

The huge numbers are not surprising, considering that the separatist group lost 2,146 cadres in 18 months of battle to halt Sri Lanka’s biggest military offensive against the LTTE yet, Operation Jayasikurui. The operation was launched in May 1987 to open a land route to Jaffna peninsula but was called off in December 1998 after heavy losses on the government side as well. The Sunday Island reported that between 1982 and 1998, the government had lost 14,263 officers and men, of whom 2,400 have been categorised as "missing in action".