rs since the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the humanitarian rescue operation that saved close to 300,000 Tamils held hostage by the LTTE. While many have different notions about the decades of terrorism that prevailed, let us look back at how it all happened. Why doesn’t the Sri Lankan delegation – or even Sri Lankan organisations representing Sri Lanka’s interest – present a copy of India’s Jain Commission Interim Report following the LTTE’s assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991? The first assassination by Prabhakaran took place in Jaffna outside a kovil when he killed Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah. He became the first victim of Prabhakaran. He was a Tamil. This was in July 1975, three years after Prabhakaran formed the Tamil New Tigers (TNT), which he rechristened as the LTTE in 1976 immediately after the Tamil political leaders sought a separate Tamil state via the Vaddukoddai Resolution. Prabhakaran was only 18 years old when he formed the TNT and only 21 years when he shot dead Alfred Duraiappah. Prabhakaran had not even passed his O/Ls. His second victims were also Tamils. This time his gun was turned on Tamil public servants and the main targets were Tamil policemen on duty. These two crimes completely nullify claims of Prabhakaran representing Tamils, when he began his reign of terror by killing Tamils. Within a span of a few years, Prabhakaran, the youngest in a family of four, formed a movement, committed his first assassination at 21, and went on to make the LTTE the world’s most feared terrorist movement. No one has yet broached the subject as to why he targeted Tamils initially or towards the later stages as his movement grew bigger and deadlier.   Caste issue   No one has looked at the topic of caste being part of the LTTE psyche as most of the combatants came from low caste families. How many combatants came from high caste Tamil homes? How many rich and high caste Tamils did the LTTE kidnap and turn into child soldiers? Who can answer? If all LTTE combatants were from low caste and poor homes, did this not reveal a bigger problem within their own system? Was this not evident during times when high caste Tamils refused to share toilets with low caste Tamils inside refugee camps? Isn’t the caste issue more prevalent now? Where the LTTE gave powers to the low caste Tamils on account of them holding the gun, the tables have now turned and the high caste Tamils rule. The issue goes beyond caste too as differences prevail based on provinces as well. Jaffna Tamils never see eye to eye with Batticaloa/Trinco or even Estate Tamils. They will not even entertain them in their homes! Have we been ignoring a bigger problem? So the first question that should be answered is, exactly why did Prabhakaran form the TNT in 1972 and why did he change it to the LTTE in 1976? Interestingly, Prabhakaran’s TNT was formed on the same day as Sri Lanka’s Republican Constitution – 22 May 1972. In the same year he travelled to India and lived there till 1974. The following year he assassinated the Tamil Mayor of Jaffna. Was this a coincidence or was there a reason? While the 1983 July riots are often cited as the reason for the LTTE to carry out an armed struggle, the LTTE’s records prior to its formation should nullify this claim.   Indian involvement   It is also important to clearly understand that India was involved with Tamil militants far before the 1983 riots. The riots became a sort of ‘excuse’ or ‘justification,’ which next raises the question of whether it was intentionally staged to launch militancy in Sri Lanka for other reasons. If so, Tamils became a convenient scapegoat. India’s intelligence agency entrusted Chandrahasan (son of S.J.V. Chelvanayagam) to recommend militant groups to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of the foreign intelligence agency of India for training. RAW wanted to have direct links with the LTTE. The LTTE wanted direct links to the Government of India. This irked RAW and led to many scuffles. It would be interesting to find out why RAW wished for LTTE to liaise only with them and not the Government of India. Did RAW have a separate agenda? Tamil Nadu Police Intelligence Director General K. Mohandas in his affidavit 64/92-JCI states that after training, Tamil militants were to be given arms and sent to Sri Lanka to fight the Sri Lankan troops, which the Tamil Nadu Government and intelligence agencies were aware of. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi in affidavit 187/94 claims camps were opened since 1982 as a policy by the Government of India and Tamil militants were allowed their own training camps. “I state that the Congress Governments under the Prime Ministership of late Smt. Indira Gandhi and late Thiru Rajiv Gandhi encouraged, trained, and supported the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups.”   LTTE camps in India   There are some other facts that cannot be forgotten. Tamil Nadu’s M.G.R. Ramachandran admitted to giving the LTTE and other militants Rs. 4 crores. In 1984 the LTTE was held responsible for a bomb blast at the Madras Airport in which 30 people were killed. Will the UNHRC take up this crime? Mohandas gave a breakdown of the camps in his affidavit:

• Six training camps – LTTE. Districts of Tamil Nadu – Anna-Sirumalai/Thanjavu/Thanjavur East/Salem/Madurai/Ramnad. Largest LTTE camp in Kumbarapatti in Salem District; 459 combatants – 90 female (these females trained alongside 40 male LTTEers). Training: arms training, boat driving, physical, swimming.
• Five training camps – TELO. Districts of Tamil Nadu – Ramnad (three camps) and Salem (two camps); 233 male combatants. Training: arms training, boat driving, swimming, physical training.
• Two training camps – EROS. Districts of Tamil Nadu – Ramnad/Pasumpon Muthuramalingam. Eight male combatants. Training: physical and arms training.
• Seven training camps – EPRLF. Thanjavur West (three camps)/South Arcot (two camps)/Trichy (one camp), Ramnad (one camp); 73 male combatants. These camps had sophisticated weapons. Training: guerrilla warfare, arms training.
• Eighteen training camps – PLOTE. Thanjavur West (11 camps)/Thanjavur East (one camp)/Pudukottai (four camps)/Tirunelveli East (two camps); 2,236 male combatants and 94 female combatants. Training: guerrilla warfare, physical training, swimming, and boat driving.
• Two training camps – Tamil Eelam Army; 31 combatants.
• Three training camps – TELA-Kanthan Group; 117 combatants.
• One training camp – TELA-Rajan Group; 10 combatants.
• One training camp – TENA; 25 combatants.
• One training camp – RELO; 13 combatants.
• One training camp – NLFT; two combatants.
• One training camp – ECRP; four combatants.
• One training camp – TMPP; six combatants.

Total: 3,363 Tamil combatants (3,197 males and 184 females) were trained in Tamil Nadu with the nod of the Indian Government. Chandrahasan in his 22 August 1996 affidavit even names the offices LTTE had set up in Tamil Nadu. Journalist Anita Pratap in her deposition on 17 August 1996 named LTTE offices in Besant Nagar. Kasi Anandan (in charge of LTTE literature) in his deposition of 10 September 1996 states that the LTTE had offices in Indira Nagar, Adayar, where Prabhakaran was a frequent visitor. It is relevant to note that the LTTE shot to fame only after the killing of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in July 1983. There is an unanswered question on whether the riots were pre-planned to bring the LTTE into the open and justify their militancy. Equally important to note is how Prabhakaran and key members left for Tamil Nadu immediately after the killing of the soldiers. Prabhakaran was in India from 1983 to 1987 January. What was Prabhakaran doing in Tamil Nadu?   A matter of accountability   While on the subject of disappearances, many Tamil youth who joined the numerous militant groups trained in India wished to leave. Unfortunately, these youth did leave, but they left the world altogether. Who has counted their deaths and given justice to them? Similarly, combatants had to carry a cyanide capsule – how many combatants died biting this? Was this not a form of suicide under duress? The world cannot omit to note that Prabhakaran would not have become what he became if not for the support of India and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. In fact, Sri Lanka would not have suffered 30 years of terror if India had allowed Sri Lanka to capture Prabhakaran in May 1987 instead of flying him off to India in a helicopter. There can be no accountability if there is selective accountability. No deaths or disappearances can be counted omitting parts of the puzzle. There cannot be selective justice. The UNHRC is simply nit-picking on whom it deems should be held accountable, while ignoring bigger crimes committed. This is unfair justice. Everyone needs to return to the root cause and the players involved. Resolutions on accountability cannot omit this crucial factor where armed militant training and guerrilla warfare were imparted by a ‘friendly’ neighbour. How was Sri Lanka to react? Simply watch and allow these trained militants to do as they like, targeting innocent civilians? Do the UN and allies consider the rights of terrorists above the rights of unarmed civilians who were terrorist targets? We would like to know whose interests come first for the UNHRC.