(10) Problems of perception - Tamils and the diaspora - An outsider's comments on the Sri Lankan conflict

These days, the LTTE’s strongest support probably comes from the diaspora communities in countries such as the UK, France, Canada and USA. The LTTE has well-organized networks in these communities.

More diaspora Tamils than Tamils in northern Sri Lanka see the LTTE as the representatives and protectors in Lanka – “Our boys” – and Prabhakaran as the “father of the nation.” The LTTE does have support in northern Lanka, but people’s feelings there are more ambiguous and jaded.

The terrible experiences of Tamil civilians in the “safe zone”, when they were held and used as human shields by the LTTE, will in due course lead to further questioning of the LTTE. This will begin among Tamils in Sri Lanka, but also take hold in the diaspora communities.

The LTTE’s strong organization within the diaspora communities may, however, limit the degree of overt public questioning.

And indeed, one of the upshots of the crimes of the Sri Lankan army and the incarceration of the northern population in camps may be to strengthen the LTTE once again, both inside and outside Sri Lanka. Tamils in the Vanni region and in the diaspora might easily be persuaded that the LTTE were right all along, since without the Tigers’ protection, monstrous things were done by the Sri Lankan state.

In my view, it would benefit the Tamil cause greatly if Tamils in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora tried now to think and plan beyond the LTTE – or at the very least, beyond what it became under Prabhakaran.

For while the LTTE gave strength to the Tamil cause, they ultimately failed, and failed the Tamil people, not only because the coalition lined up against them was too strong, but because they were inflexible, unimaginative, too ready to murder non-combatants, and too eager to condemn alternative viewpoints as treason.

And just like their Sinhalese foes they were controlled by nationalist strings. Prabhakaran spoke not long ago of how, when he thought of all the cadres who had died, he could not give up on the dream of Eelam, for if he abandoned the ultimate goal of secession, they would have died for nothing.

As if Sinhalese people standing at the memorials in Colombo and Galle and Hambantota, or looking at the faded photographs of their dead sons, did not feel exactly the same emotion!

It is not a good idea to found policy on loyalty to the dead. What matters is living people – all the people of Sri Lanka.

The military defeat of the LTTE is far from the end of the Tigers. But it has placed the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka in a situation of desperate vulnerability. They desperately need the diaspora’s help – but with new ideas, new organization, creativity, innovation and courage.