Stop the Food Wars in Tamil Eelam
TAMIL TRIBUNE, October 1997 (ID. 1997-10-01)
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ABBREVIATION
LTTE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Behind the shadows of the bloody war between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), another subtle, yet nevertheless inhuman, war is going on in Tamil Eelam - the food wars of Tamil Eelam.
For years, the Sri Lankan government has allowed only a trickle of food items and very little medicine into Tamil areas under the control of LTTE. After the Sri Lankan army's capture of Jaffna City and surrounding areas, transportation of food and medicine was even further restricted to the Wanni region (Vanni region) still under LTTE control. Why? Is it to starve the people and force them to leave LTTE areas and come to Sri Lankan army controlled areas? The reason given by the Sri Lankan government is that some of the food and medicine going into LTTE areas will be used by LTTE fighters engaged in a series of minor and major battles with the Sri Lankan army.
Seemingly, in direct retaliation, the LTTE started attacking Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan chartered ships carrying food to army-controlled Jaffna. In the same way as some of the food and medicine going to Wanni will, undoubtedly, be used by LTTE fighters, some of the food and medicine shipped to Jaffna will, surely, be used by the Sri Lankan soldiers there. This seems to be the logic behind LTTE action.
Unfortunately, it is the Tamil civilians in the north who are suffering because of this food war between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers. I hereby propose a bipartisan solution to the food war. Let the international relief agencies urge that each of the two warring parties declare that it would allow free flow of food and medicine into "enemy territory" (except for checks by an international relief agency to prevent weapons and ammunition smuggled with the food) if the other side would also do the same. If one side makes such a declaration and the other side does not, then there would be no deal.
Let us see who would agree to end the food war and who would not. LTTE claims to be the legitimate representative of the people of Tamil Eelam. If they do not agree to this arrangement, the world would know that they no longer care about the people of Tamil Eelam.
Ever since President Chandrika Kumaratunga launched one of the bloodiest military operations in the ongoing Sinhala-Tamil conflict, she has often repeated that her war is against the LTTE and not against the Tamil people. If she does not agree to the proposed bipartisan end to the food war, then the world would know that her oft-repeated concerns for the Tamil people are mere words, and that she is no different from her predecessors.
FIS020825X 1997-a1d