Sangaree tells Prabhakaran in a bunker to stop driving civilians into escalating war zone to be used as a shield

(By Walter Jayawardhana)

In an amicably written letter addressing him as my dear Thamby senior Tamil leader V. Ananda Sangaree told LTTE terror chief V. Prabhakaran to stop driving innocent civilians to escalating war areas to be used as a human shield.

"It is known well to every single person on this earth the reason as to why these people had been driven into escalating war zone. It is the innocent people who always become human shield. Wherever possible you should have allowed the displaced people to get into safe areas under the control of the government", Sangaree, the President of the Tamil United Liberation Front warned.

In the letter addressed to Prabhakaran, who lives in a bunker in Sangaree's former electorate of Kilinochchi which he represented in the Sri Lanka parliament before the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) abolished democratic representation the former parliamentarian said, that he was writing this letter realizing the urgent need of this hour.

"The urgency is due to my concerns for the people of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu in particular and for those people in Mannar and Vavuniya who had been driven into Kilinochchi, very irresponsibly by your cadre. It is known well to every single person on this earth the reason as to why these people had been driven into escalating war zone. It is the innocent people who always become human shield. Wherever possible you should have allowed the displaced people to get into safe areas under the control of the government. Whether this letter will reach your hand before you yourself get displaced from your present board is in great doubt. However I am duty-bound to give you a timely advice" Sangaree said.

He further said , "I am perhaps one of the very few who had been constantly predicting that you will never win this battle and been warning you to come back to your senses and to take some positive steps to save our people in Vanni and your cadre for which several opportunities came on your way, you ignored. One of the reasons for it is that you had so much of confidence in your spokespersons all over the world. You never realized that most of them who had lost their credibility in their own land went running to countries in Europe, Australia, Canada and America to take the first place as your supporters. While pretending to be supporting you, they filled their pockets with the money collated in your name. The offer of 20-30% commission on their collections came as an incentive for them. They pretended to be more Prabaharan than you".

"They should have been by your side by this time to give you physical and moral support. If they are genuine they should have realized the grave crisis you are facing at this moment, when your enemy has virtually encircled you. They, some of whom publish some tabloids give false hopes to the Diaspora that you are waiting to round them up after allowing them to get into your area and on that score they have collected large sums of money. They also collected money for the maintenance of displaced persons. Please take my word at least now. Wake up and look around. You will find your enemy is at your door-step. But the people, whom you kept under your subjugation all these days, expect the army to liberate them and soon they will be liberated from you and your cadre who had been very hash on the innocent people, for several years.

"Even now it is not too late for you to declare ceasefire unilaterally to lay down your arms and to agree for talks. Declare your willingness to give up your demand for separation and agree for a solution within a United Sri Lanka as recommended by me. I am opposed to a solution under the Unitary System, only because a future Government can take away the powers devolved under a Unitary Constitution. This is exactly what happened for the safe-guards the minorities had in the Soulbury Constitution, within 9 years of its adoption.

"Please be assured that your declaration to drop the demand for separation will be a great incentive to the hardliners to come down from their present position and agree to give up the demand for a Unitary Constitution. A large number of Sinhalese will agree for the adoption of a constitution based on the Indian model.

"The Sinhalese now know, very well of your tactics of provoking a backlash. The recent murder of a Sinhalese undergraduate at the Eastern University had vicious motive of which the whole world knows. It is by this type of thoughtless acts you lost your credibility and the support of the International Community.

"Hence please give up this barbaric tactics and follow my advice to win the International Community. What the Tamil people want today is peace with dignity and equality with all others. The people of Vanni want to live a just and normal life without any harassment or hardships. When they are weeping in silence for their children forcefully taken away from their own homes, they are not in a mood to think of Tamil Nationalism or of Eelam. I hope you will not dispute this claim. My solution is the best and acceptable to a majority of the Singhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims, above all the International Community as well.

"I also have the blessing of the religious heads of all religions in Sri Lanka. This is the very last opportunity made available to you to save the people of Vanni and your cadre. You have already scarified over 20,000 Tamil youths as combatants. We shall not forget those who got killed by you, just because they joined other groups by their choice. Please save the lives of the remaining ones for their parents want them alive and not as charred or deface or as chunk of flesh. "Please consider my appeal seriously at this critical juncture. Unlike the opportunistic politicians of the TNA who praise you and live out of Sri Lanka most of the time with their families, I do not want to fool our people and the world. My advice is true and genuine coming from my heart and based on opinion obtained by me from people of all walks of life. Please do not allow our people to perish by keeping them with you under compulsion".