I read with great disappointment the article entitled 'Sri Lankan mission skittish over Tigers' (May 3) by Prof P Ramasamy.

As a Malaysian who has lived in Colombo for four years I have had personal experience with the conflict. I recall vividly when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) bombed the Central Bank which indiscriminately killed nearly a hundred people (Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim alike) and another occasion when they set alight an oil depot causing black smoke to envelop the sky and orange flames to lick the sky for days.

I remember reports of whole villages being slaughtered by the LTTE irrespective of whether they were Tamil, Sinhalese or Muslim. As long as they do not support the LTTE cause they seem to be legitimate targets in the eyes of the LTTE.

Additionally, objective and well-known international publications such as Asiaweek have linked the LTTE to activities such as drug smuggling. One wonders why the writer conveniently omitted the activities of the LTTE in his article.

The indiscriminate killing by the LTTE merely serves to illustrate the point that they are in the business of spreading terror and thus are, by definition, terrorists. I am sympathetic to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka but I am of the firm opinion that violence is no solution. History has proven this many times in the past.

I see nothing wrong if foreign governments are willing to cooperate with the Sri Lankan government to curb the activities of the LTTE. In fact, Western countries such as the United States have come to the realisation that the LTTE is nothing but a bunch of ruthless terrorists, having listed the LTTE in their list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations as of Oct 8, 1999

The writer seems to be of the notion that the LTTE are fighting for the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. Clearly though, whatever noble ideologies that may have spawned the LTTE were washed away the moment the LTTE took the first life.

The writer's conclusion that the "LTTE has grown from strength to strength" is in my opinion a vast overstatement given that the LTTE have taken to recruiting children as frontline soldiers in their conflict with the Sri Lankan government

Is this the act of a powerful and righteous organisation able to "address and articulate the Tamil cause in a forthright and bold manner" or that of a cowardly and murderous organisation running low on resources and exploiting innocent children for their own ends?

Finally, let me say that I sincerely hope the plight of the Sri Lankan people can be resolved as soon as possible. I hope that those sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause do not mistake it to be one and the same with the LTTE cause and I hope those sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause are able to find an alternate and peaceful means of voicing their concerns.