Accusing the Tigers for committing damages to the Tamil community and calling them for laying down arms and releasing the civilians, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Indian Parliament on Wednesday offered India’s facilitation to evacuate civilians, working along with the Colombo government and the ICRC, who would be responsible for the security, screening and rehabilitation of them, BBC reported. This offer without taking responsibility, neither to the future plight of the civilians nor to the political consequences that would follow, is the ‘best of its abetment’ India is rendering to Colombo in the subjugation of Tamils, according to Tamil political observers.
“The government of India is ready to facilitate the evacuation of civilians trapped in the area of conflict, working with the government of Sri Lanka and the International Committee of the Red Cross, who would take responsibility for the security, screening and rehabilitation”, Pranab Mukherjee said.
Pranab Mukherjee’s estimate was that only 70,000 civilians are trapped in Vanni.
His remarks in the Indian Parliament caused the fury of the MPs of the Tamil Nadu political parties PMK and MDMK, and forced two adjournments.
The Colombo government has already embarked upon large scale plans to run refugee settlements of the model of Nazi Concentration Camps for the civilians, expected to stretch for a period of three years.
India is now going to supply civilians to these camps. But it is not going to take any responsibility to the ‘security, screening and rehabilitation’.
Pranab Mukherjee’s inclusion of the term ‘screening’ invites special attention.
The Indian position is clear: They want the war to proceed, until the vanguard of Tamil nationalism, the LTTE, which is seen by Colombo and Delhi as their common enemy, is liquidated. Since Eezham Tamils look upon the LTTE as their fighting force, first they should be seen bereft of that safe-guard or negotiation power and then they should be terrorized and punished by being left to the discretion of the chauvinistic Sinhala regime, political observers said.
It is not difficult for Tamils to understand that continuation of the war against Tamil interests is more important to Colombo and India than the unfolding tragedy and long term consequences the Tamil civilians would be facing.
It seems the present Indian establishment has given up its hopes forever in getting the goodwill of Tamils.
The danger of the situation is that the sufferings of the civilians of Vanni have become a shield for many with ‘heinous intentions’ to poke their noses, besides the Colombo’s agenda of total subjugation of Tamils, one of the observers based in Colombo said.
“It is for that purpose attacks on civilians are being accelerated and are deliberately carried out in a fearsome way by Colombo on one hand, and is being indirectly but actively encouraged by India and some powers from outside,” he noted.
“They cause the tragedy and insist the remedy should also be theirs.”
"Causing catastrophe to Vanni civilians is their tactics of blackmailing Tamils all over the world."
The acceleration of the attacks on civilians by Colombo and intensification of the accusations on the LTTE by India and some agencies in recent days are not without reasons.
On 30 January, a feature article, ‘India’s devastating play with fire in the island of Sri Lanka, appeared in TamilNet read: “But, for everything [for the aims of the proxy war concurrently waged by India against Tamil nationalism], the war has to be over soon at least with the semblance of conclusiveness. If it doesn’t end soon, indications are there that the Indian establishment may even physically try a hand at it, as time is running out for it with elections around the corner in April.”
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