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Why didn’t the LTTE or LTTE diaspora develop the north when the LTTE ruled it?

25 Sep 2022

By Shenali D. Waduge   There is much hype of late about the Tamil diaspora helping finance Sri Lanka’s development. While this may be music to the ears of some, it completely forgets to ask why the LTTE or LTTE diaspora did not develop the north when the LTTE ruled the area. According to Janes’ intelligence report, by 2004, the LTTE’s annual profits amounted to some $ 400 million. This was during that infamous Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) signed in 2002 between the Government and Prabhakaran, giving territory to terrorists.  The CFA resulted in Sri Lanka’s armed forces being confined to barracks while LTTE members were allowed to go anywhere they pleased, carrying arms and ammunition, and in some instances the Sri Lankan armed forces had to provide terrorists ‘security’. The LTTE was the de facto ruler of the north from the mid-1990s to May 2009. The Government dispatched essentials to the citizens of the north but most often these were confiscated by the LTTE at its infamous Paranthan Junction, where it had its own tax system, so private lorries were double taxed.  The LTTE diaspora indulged in numerous campaigns overseas raising funds and promoting the LTTE. How else would a terrorist movement make $ 400 million in annual profits? What happened to these funds? How large is the LTTE kitty now sans the expense for arms/ammunition and the upkeep of combatants?  What did the LTTE diaspora do with this saving? Was a dollar or a pound spent on ordinary Tamils? Did the LTTE diaspora help the poor and low caste from the Wanni from whom the LTTE plucked its combatants – kidnapping children from low caste and poor Tamil homes and turning them into child soldiers? More importantly, even post the LTTE military defeat, has the LTTE diaspora looked after the living LTTE combatants and their families, in particular the injured as well as the families of the deceased LTTE members? Why didn’t the LTTE or LTTE diaspora teach them, provide them schooling, send them to university, and give them jobs instead of turning them into brute killers and murderers and even training them to commit suicide? Imagine how many young and bright futures were destroyed because of teaching youth to kill. What could these youths have become if they had not been given guns? When the LTTE had all the wherewithal to develop the north as no Government officials or Sri Lankan military personnel were stationed in the north, why didn’t the LTTE build roads, schools, infrastructure, etc.? The LTTEers built themselves sophisticated bunkers and they even had a massive swimming pool inside the thick jungles. Some areas of the north did not even have electricity or televisions and were using transistor radios. They were so cut off from the country that they were only fed LTTE propaganda and naturally they were taught to hate or fear the Sinhalese. For decades, the LTTE and LTTE diaspora who had the funds and the ability to develop the north under their entire watch chose not to do so, but now they claim to want to invest and develop the north. Something is just not right. The LTTE and LTTE diaspora built plush bunkers and homes for LTTE leaders. We saw how LTTE families were even eating pizza and chocolates when Tamil civilians forcibly taken by the LTTE as hostages and human shields were begging for some ‘kanji’ (porridge). The accounts of Tamil civilians who came out of the conflict zone were full of praise for the Sri Lankan military, who even gave their lunch packets to the hungry Tamils. The accounts of embedded foreign journalists showcase the humanity of Sri Lankan soldiers. This was a stark comparison to the LTTE and LTTE families confiscating the food, medicines, and other essentials sent from Colombo for civilians but kept to be used by the LTTE and their families.  None of these LTTE diaspora came forward to even look after the parents of LTTE Leader Prabakaran. In fact, they feared the Tamils so much that the Sri Lankan military had to keep them in a separate place for safety. When Prabakaran’s body was released, not a single LTTE diaspora organisation or individual came to even accept the body and the burial too had to be done by the Government with the Sri Lankan armed forces.  These are the people who now claim to want to develop the north?   If they didn’t do so when they had all the means to do it, when everything was virtually under their control, for what reason are they coming forward now?   


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