WEST RESPONSIBLE FOR SRI LANKAN SCENARIO

With the exception of Taliban who wants to propagate Islamic tenets and enforce Sharia law all over the world, terrorism is a product of deprivation. Tamils, forming almost 15% of the Sri Lankan population, have been, in the past, targeted and discriminated by the majority Sinhalese community and were always treated as second class citizens. Successive governments abetted in the crime.

What started as a small movement called TNT led by a group of young men under the leadership of Prabhakaran, it grew into LTTE, a powerful force to be reckoned with. As a ruthless terror group, they organized their own army with naval and air wings and had excellent logistical support, leave alone the dedicated suicide squads willing to strike in the name of their cause.. It took the government more than decade to dismantle the outfit.

The USA and UK are now calling for measures to combat the humanitarian crisis. Where were they for the last 30 years when the LTTE was fighting the Sri Lankan govt., when the Tamils were fighting for a legitimate cause? Where were they when the genocide was going on in Burundi and Rwanda where Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtering each other? Where were they when the Black Africans in the erstwhile Rhodesia and South Africa were mercilessly butchered and mutilated?

I find the western attitude very difficult to understand. You religiously watch as things happen and cry foul when all is over. If the healthy, wealthy, developed and influential nations of the world cannot take initiative in arresting an impending humanitarian crisis, what kind of legacy we are leaving behind. When a 9/11 strikes USA or terrorists bomb London, they call upon world nations to fight terror, but turn a blind eye to the problems elsewhere.

When a child wielding a toy gun makes a mock threat, we ignore him. Now that the child has grown up and the toy gun has been replaced by AK-47, we all panic in that we have been caught off guard. This is what has happened in Sri Lanka. The UN, of course, has been reduced to a non-entity.