Foreign Affairs committee  With respect to the Norwegian peace accord, it was unfortunate that the Tamil Tigers, according to the Scandinavian peace monitors, had by July 2006 violated it 7,306 times. That says what happened. During that time, they brought in 11 shiploads of weapons to this province, and the Scandinavian monitors couldn't do anything about it.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a very complex situation, actually, unless you understand the culture of the Tamil community. The word Eelam Tamil is a genus, but the species is.... There are Jaffna Tamils and Batticaloa Tamils, and even to speak in terms of merging the two provinces is not going to help, because the Jaffna Tamils believe they are superior to the eastern Tamils.

Foreign Affairs committee  Exactly. I think—

Foreign Affairs committee  If the government wanted to clean up the Tamil Tigers, they could have done that two weeks ago. They are going very slowly because of the trapped civilians. According to the government, they have a zero tolerance for harming the civilians who are trapped. That's the reason.

Foreign Affairs committee  As far as I'm concerned, it is a humanitarian operation, because they are trying to liberate the people who have been caught under the Tamil Tigers. That is a liberation of the people. If you liberate the people, that is a humanitarian cause, and—

Foreign Affairs committee  To the degree that I understand it, they are trying to liberate the people who are being held back by the Tamil Tigers.

Foreign Affairs committee  One more point is that Karuna, or the second in command of the LTTE, who was the commander of the eastern province, packed up terrorism in 2004 and became a democrat. Today, after five years he's in the cabinet and is the minister of national integration. He's now working with other Tamil parties to see what can be done.

Foreign Affairs committee  Exactly. Douglas Devananda, who is--

Foreign Affairs committee  Douglas Devananda, who is a Tamil cabinet minister who looks after Jaffna, was a terrorist who was fighting Prabhakaran. LTTE tried to assassinate him 11 times; he has survived. They might very likely go after Karuna too, but I hope he's going to survive. Pilliyan, who is now the chief minister of the eastern province, was a child soldier with the LTTE.

Foreign Affairs committee  I cannot see coming to any conclusion without getting rid of the LTTE, but there are moderate Tamils, and actually politicians, who are in right now in.... The Jaffna minister is a Tamil. Douglas Devananda was a former terrorist. He's in the cabinet. There are other moderate Tamils who are leaders of some of the parties, such as PLOTE and TELO, and there's Anandasangari of TULF.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, good afternoon. I'm grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to express my concerns on recent events in Sri Lanka. I intend to clarify some of the misconceptions about this ethnic crisis, this terrible war between a legitimately elected, democratic government, a member of the Commonwealth, and a non-elected group, the Tamil terrorists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers.