Massacre of Sir Lankan Police

Your article vividly described how the terrorists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam killed more than 850 captive policemen who surrendered to the rebels (front page, June 19). Once again, the tragic story exposed to a horrified world the fact that perhaps the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers are the most atrocious terrorists in the world!

Led by the PLO-trained Velupillai Prabhakaran, this gang of death has shown little respect for the value of human life and did not even spare fellow-Tamil politicians in their carnage--not for opposing their doctrine of separation but for refusing to succumb to the terror group’s despotic leadership. Since its inception in the 1970s these messengers of death have massacred little children, pilgrims praying at shrines, chanting Buddhist monks and nuns, surrendered Tamil guerrillas of opposing groups, prisoners and even uninvolved foreign tourists. The macabre behavior of laughing and clapping, as described in your news item, by the Tiger terrorists just before they pulled their triggers to massacre hundreds of helpless and bound human beings is only possible when minds of men and women are deranged by the sheer madness of racism.

From the Thimpu peace talks held in Bhutan under the guidance of their former sponsor, the Rajiv Gandhi government of India many years ago, to the most recent 14-month-long peace talks with Colombo which they brought to a close taking the government unaware, Tiger terrorists have shown nothing but treachery and intransigence. They have used peace talks with Indian and Sri Lankan governments to buy time for their singular objective of forming a one-party racist state in the Northeast of the island republic.

During the peace talks, which ended abruptly with the surprise takeover of police stations by the Tigers, they demanded from the government of Sri Lanka that Tigers be considered the sole representatives of the Tamil people. While their leaders were engaged in peace talks last month Tiger gunmen killed a Tamil parliamentarian together with his wife for making preparations for talks between other Tamil groups and the government. When the Sri Lankan government gave into the Tigers and promised to hold fresh elections to the Northeast provincial government on the grounds that the last election was rigged by the Indian army, it also requested the Tigers to surrender arms so that a fair and free election could be held. The refusal of the Tigers indicated that their intentions were no better than those of the Indians, whom they condemned. Meanwhile, thousands of Tamils from the North and East fled to India under the protection of the Indian troops in fear of the murder and mayhem of the Tigers. Muslims, who constitute one-third of the population of the East of the country, charged that if the government continued to accommodate the Tigers the rebels would soon set up a fascist one-party state.

The firepower of the Tigers mostly comes from funds obviously raised outside Sri Lanka. Unless their dastardly acts are widely condemned in the West, the fountainheads of their barbaric might cannot be effectively dried up. Such damnation will also be a sure step for uplifting human civilization.

WALTER JAYAWARDHANA

President

Sinhala Defense League and

American Federation of Sri Lanka Assns.

Los Angeles