Last hours in the battle front; what’s next, explains Pathmanathan

LTTE’s Head of International Relations explained in an interview Tuesday to a Australian Tamil Media about what happened at the last hours of Tamil genocide in the battle front in the Tamil land. He also spoke about the urgent responsibilities that lie ahead of the World Tamils.

LTTE’s political wing was in touch with S. Pathmanathan, LTTE’s Head of International Relations until the last moment they were slaughtered by Sri Lankan Army on May 17. 

When asked what they were discussing, Pathmanathan said “My brothers Nadesan and Pulithevan’s death has deeply affected me, while many of our people were mercilessly killed — every moment our boys were shot down, they were discussing what we have to do next.”

We were talking with Sri Lankan government to end the war. “Through a prominent government minister – with the agreement of Sri Lankan President – Nadesan and Pulithevan went with white flag to the army camp for negotiation – on their way to the army camp with white flag they were shot dead by Sri Lankan Army,” he said.

Similarly some civilians walking with white flags also were shot to death by the Sri Lankan Army flouting all promises given by the government. This is the truth he said in the interview.

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka said recently that they got the message about the surrender of Nadesan and Pulithevan after they were killed.

Responding to that Pathmanathan said that they spoke to the Sri Lankan authorities 24 hours before the surrender and as an initial arrangement one important minister, a Tamil parliamentary member and two Catholic Priests were to be present at the location of surrender. For some reasons, that didn’t happen.

But still we continued our negotiation and we were informed by Sri Lankan authorities that LTTE come directly for discussion.

We do not know whether this was informed to Sri Lankan Army Commander, but the absolute truth is that, the Sri Lankan President is well aware of this surrender and that was arranged with the order of Sri Lankan President.

A large number of people were massacred in the last days of the battle; Pathmanthan was making a lot of efforts to urge the international community to save those people.  The interviewer asked whether he did receive any favourable sign from the international community.

Yes, we made many attempts to avoid that, but Sri Lankan government was giving various reasons and continued to ignore the requests, Pathmanathan said 

At the last moment on May 16th also we tried to negotiate for a ceasefire, but it was brushed off. Sri Lankan government didn’t head to any international pressure to avoid the tragedy.

He further added that our community is maimed and confined to camps; Sri Lankan government is continuing to maim our community. The fate of our Tamil community is now in the hands of the Tamil Diaspora. We have just faced a political Tsunami and in despair of the destruction. It is the responsibility of the Tamil Diaspora to save our people.
 
Tamil Diaspora in compliance with their local laws has to take forward the struggle in a peaceful way to urge their governments to help our people. We need to gain their sympathy for our cause. All Tamil Diaspora must come forward to do whatever they can in this struggle.

We continue to talk with UN and ICRC. We need to see that food and medicine reach our people; we are talking with India also regarding this. We need to see the help reach our people, by whatever means.

Our people have suffered enough; we cannot allow them any more to suffer without food and famine deaths. Give them hope. That will make them live.

We have a great commitment to fulfil the responsibilities our leader left behind. Therefore, please forget all difference and come forward to save our race. I kindly appeal to all to save our people confined behind barbed wires.

When asked, the place held in our homeland by LTTE is now left vacuum and how he is seeing the need for a political leadership, Mr Pathmanathan said that the vacuum is unexpected and said “we are trying hard – we are discussing with all sides, especially with all political parties and movements. We hope we will succeed in our effort.”
 
Below is his answers to some of the questions on what next: 
 
Are you taking any action to get the attention of the Indian Government?
 
We have done this at the first instance and are continuing to work on this issue. We need a bit more time for this activity and are unable to give any more details at the present.
 
What are you focusing on now?
 
We are concentrating on saving our people held in military run camps, getting amnesty for all prisoners of war and stressing for a political solution.
 
We need to forget all differences and stand under one umbrella to work for a political solution. This is my aim. I am trying all avenues in this regard.
 
How do you view continued protest and awareness campaigns amidst the pain and exhaustion the Tamil Diaspora is feeling?
 
A cyclone, that I never thought would happen even in my nightmare, has wiped away our younger generation. We need to work very hard to recover from this damage.
 
In our awareness campaigns and rallies, what message should we be aiming for the media and governments of respective countries?
 
The torture that our people are undergoing inside military camps, the atrocities that our sisters are enduring in the hands of the Army, the separation of even young children from the parents is what we need to point out first. We must focus International attention on the military run camps.