Round The World

New Delhi, 14 January 2009

LTTE On The Run

 POLITICAL SOLUTION KEY TO PEACE

Monish Tourangbam, Research Scholar

School of International Studies (JNU)

A week after dealing a massive blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by capturing the rebels' de-facto capital Kilinochchi, Sri Lankan forces took over the strategic Elephant Pass base, ousting the rebels from their last stronghold on the Jaffna peninsula. According to government forces, the Tamil Tigers are hanging on to a shrinking pocket of land in the northeast. The capture of the base, that is located on the isthmus connecting the northern Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the island, gives the government nearly full control of the northern peninsula, the Tamil's cultural capital, for the first time since 2000. It also puts the country's major north-south highway completely under its control for the first time in 23 years.

On January 9, Sri Lankan forces reportedly broke into Elephant Pass from the north and south.  According to analysts, the guerrillas appeared to have withdrawn their artillery and heavy weaponry from the area and were sacrificing their bases on the peninsula to consolidate forces around their last remaining stronghold of Mullaittivu. President Mahinda Rajapaksa praised the victory and declared the total liberation of the Pass in a national televised address.

By far, the fall of Kilinochchi, has proved to be the toughest and the most successful mission in weakening the Tigers. With torrential rains and a ditch-cum-wall of 40 km- long stretching from Kilay to Kilinochchi, the troops took a month and a half to gain entry into Kilinochchi. Lt.Gen. Dias, who led the 57 Division told journalists at Kilinochchi that thousands of civilians must have been surely deployed for weeks to construct such a barrier. As they tackled the approaching army, the Tigers destroyed the civil administrative infrastructure of the town, thus making the importance of the base obvious.

The political head of the LTTE, B.Nadesan, had commented on the military move into Kilinochchi, as an "insignificant development in the three decade-long liberation struggle." But his further assertion that with the support of the "Tamil Community" the LTTE would overcome all current and future challenges, clearly hints to the fear psychosis the Tigers are undergoing, with the continuous downfall of their major strongholds. The LTTE virtually conceded the strategic loss when it said that the army entered a "virtual ghost town" as the whole civilian infrastructure as well as the centre of the LTTE had shifted "further northeast".

After the military took over Jaffna in 1995, the capture of Kilinochchi has seriously dented the morale of the Tigers. In the ensuing battle between the Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil Tigers, the latter have suffered both military and political reverses. The Lankan forces gained and lost control of Kilinochchi just over a decade ago. However, this time, the comeback was a well-planned operation determined to erase the Tigers from Kilinochchi, a fruitful outcome of a 20-month-long systematic and arduous military campaign. Such a campaign has never been seen before since the departure of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in early 1990, which aimed at the "complete elimination" of the Tigers from the Wanni.

The Rajapaksa government since the mid-2006, aided by Army Chief Sarath Fonseka's grandiose plan, garnered the political determination to eliminate the Tigers. Toward this aim, the 57 and 58 Divisions of the Sri Lankan Army were created accordingly. The man behind the plan, Gen. Fonseka almost lost his life to a suicide bomb attack by a woman LTTE cadre in April 2006. As part of the new tactic, the troops aimed at maximum damage to the human resource power and the infrastructure of the LTTE and moved in small batches of four to eight to avoid battalion marches into possible Tiger traps.

The reports of the Divisions having captured vast areas under the LTTE and the significant death toll of the LTTE cadres have seriously checkmated the Tigers' area of manueovre. Also, the University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna reports on Wanni highlight a desperate effort by the LTTE to forcibly recruit cadres, thus pointing to the heavy casualties that the Tigers have suffered. As per the military intelligence, it is estimated that strength of the Tigers post-Kilinochchi is decreased to less than 2000. The army also hoisted its flag in various installations in Kilinochchi marking its victory. Announcing the fall of Kilinochchi, Rajapaksa said the recent comment of LTTE Chief Prabhakaran that the capture of Kilinochchi would remain a dream of the Sri Lankan president has been proved wrong.

The government has promised to crush the rebel group and end the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war. But, B. Nadesan had recently said in an interview that even if Kilinochchi were to fall, the LTTE would carry on a guerrilla war against the Sri Lankans. And, in a in a reminder of the rebels' ability to cause destruction even as they suffer conventional defeats, the rebels detonated a roadside bomb in the country's east on January 9 that killed three air force troops and four civilians. The attack outside the eastern city of Trincomalee signaled a return to guerrilla tactics. The government captured the east from the rebels in 2007, but attacks in the area have increased in recent months.

Earlier, almost immediately after Rajapaksa announced the fall of Kilinochchi, an LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up at the Lankan air headquarters killing three and injuring many others. In the present circumstances, suspicions are being raised that the LTTE would resort to guerilla tactics once again, avoiding pitched battles just as the Taliban and Al Qaeda did in Afghanistan in 2001.

In spite of the overwhelming victory achieved so far, it is imperative that the Lankan government does not overlook the opportunity to annihilate the hydra-headed monster called terrorism, in its mainland, by addressing the legitimate grievances of the Tamil minority. If efforts are not made to bring about a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict, the issues and concerns will not fail in leading to new breeding grounds of terrorism in the island nation. In this context, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has reiterated the government's commitment to a political solution rather than a military one.

The Congress Party has demanded that Sri Lanka extradite Prabhakaran, an accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, if he is nabbed in the army offensive. Congress spokesman Veerappa Moily, however, sought to distinguish between terrorism and ethnic issue, reiterating that Congress wanted Lanka to ensure the safety of Tamils and a policy of non-discrimination against them. This statement from the Congress assumes significance also because it came in the face of an attack by the volatile Tamil leader and an Eelam votary Vaiko on the Central government for ignoring the plight of the Tamils in Lanka. It is a signal to DMK that the Centre was not in favour of reprieve for LTTE. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)