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| Sunday, 28 September 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Indian, US naval blockade... Prabhakaran starved of ammunition in 6 months
"Bernard, few people know this. At the battle for Mullaitivu the LTTE was under the command of Colonel Karikalan, their best field commander barring Prabhakaran himself. He had under him at Mullaitivu the crack Charles Anthony Brigade and supported by the crack Kittu Brigade of Artillery. It was Colonel Karikalan himself who realised it was futile to battle with our Special Forces and Commandos. Therefore he ordered his crack troops to withdraw into the jungles after sunset and after blowing up our camp in Mullaitivu which they had captured the previous night with all personnel, 1108 officers and men, killed in action. Such is the respect the LTTE has for our elite troops, the Special Forces and the Commandos. On the other hand the LTTE ridicules our under-trained troops who become cannon fodder. They refer to them contemptuously as Shingala modaya (Sinhalese fools). Their favourite camp song is the Sinhala ditty, 'Sinhalaya modaya, Kavun kanna yodaya' sung with a Tamil accent! I have seen Prabhakaran himself singing this at their campfires in Killinochchi!! "But Prabhakaran is a thoroughly irrational fellow. His most irrational decision was to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. Overnight the entirety of India, even the Anna DMK led by Jayalalitha, turned against the LTTE. What will happen if this mad fellow decides to go to war? What do your high powered friends from Harvard say? "The US will never send ground troops to Sri Lanka, they will never fire a cruise missile at Killinochchi. Instead they may embark on a Naval blockade of the North and East coast of Sri Lanka while operating in international waters repeat while operating in international waters. The Eastern Fleet of the Indian Navy backed by the massive Seventh Fleet of the US Navy operating out of Subic Bay and Diego Gracia may undertake the blockade. A solitary ship from the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy may come in but that will constitute only a token presence. In six months Prabhakaran will be starved of ammunition even if he has the arms to sustain the war. "Have you noticed that of late the United States is helping our Navy, not the Army or the Air Force. For example in the midst of the crisis of the SLNS "Sayura" sinking a tramp steamer of the LTTE, the US embassy suddenly released photographs of a US Coast Guard ship recently sold for a song to our Navy. I understand more such ships are on their way. Besides every month a US warship now visits either Colombo or Trincomalee. Right now the aircraft carrier USS "Kitty Hawk" is in Colombo. "Jungle", I have learnt the hard way that conflict resolution is a very slow process, more often that not an agonizingly slow process, President Jayewardene knew this but not President Premadasa. As Foreign Secretary he sent me to New Delhi on six occasions in my first year in office. I functioned more as a Special Envoy of the President than as the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka." "Jungle, now the LTTE is in a new phase in their evolution, they have to prove to the Tamil community on the one hand and the international community on the other, that the LTTE is searching for a new identity". "Smuggling of arms and exterminating informants of the Government is part and parcel of their old trade mark. The LTTE did well in rushing humanitarian aid to Ratnapura and Galle during the recent floods. Are they changing fast enough? I remember when you were our Ambassador to Egypt and her neighbouring Arab nations you wrote several Special Reviews on the Civil War in Lebanon. You always reported that the combatants met quietly at some holiday resort on the Suez Canal and discussed peace. Did they change fast enough from prosecuting a war to searching for peace?" "Bernard, those who negotiated for peace in Lebanon moved at a speed that made a snail pace look fast! Those negotiations began in 1975 and ended in 1995!! I well remember the brilliant Ambassador of Lebanon to Egypt, my classmate at Harvard, telling me that he dreaded attending those meetings because they were so boring. He confided in me that he was tipped to be their next Ambassador to the United States. He feared that he may fall asleep at these negotiations and thereby ruin his chances of promotion to Washington. Therefore he made all manner of excuses and finally sent his Minister-Counsellor instead. That poor fellow not only fell asleep but snored rather loudly!" (loud laughter). "Jungle" listening to you I well remember our very dynamic Foreign Minister Ranjan Wijeratne telling me that he felt so bored and sleepy attending the Peace talks with the LTTE in Colombo in 1990. He was also the Deputy Minister of Defence. Therefore whenever the LTTE came to Colombo he took to the hills! Ranjan Wijeratne was indeed so bold and so courageous. He dreaded not the LTTE, he dreaded falling asleep before the LTTE!" (loud laughter). In an international crisis Bernard Tillakaratne is still indispensable to our nation. He was a superb Ambassador and I was so fortunate to learn routine Embassy work under him when he was Minister-Counsellor in our Mission (Embassy) to the UN in New York and I was a Third Secretary (a probationer) way back in 1967 and 1968. It was such a pleasure to work with him especially when we were both serving as Ambassadors. As a young Ambassador to Indonesia I used to telephone him regularly to our Embassy in Japan, seeking his advice. Late in March 2003, I left for Jaffna fully briefed by our intelligence. In Jaffna the mood was very different from what I had seen one month earlier. The students were volatile, sometimes violent, however the LTTE was subdued. The LTTE was no longer talking in terms of capturing Jaffna in three days of fighting. The LTTE cadres I met in Jaffna, for instance in their office, were significantly quiet and so mature in their approach. In fact they chose to speak to me about cricket, especially the performance of the Sri Lanka team in the recent World Cup. The confidential briefing I had from the Roman Catholic Church in Jaffna was truly brilliant. It cannot be revealed in this Volume. In essence, the LTTE was not preparing for war, as of now. That was also evident in Killinochchi. Even my friend S. P. Tamilchelvan, who is sometimes emotional, was cautious about what the LTTE will do next. I left Killinochchi for Thandikulam, the border check point near Vavuniya, in one of their jeeps which was captured from our Army some years ago and still carried Army number plates! At Thandikulam I took the night train for Colombo. The train was complete with a sleeping car in the first class configuration. I slept so soundly because I was thoroughly convinced, that as of now, the LTTE was not preparing for war! (To be continued next Sunday) |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Continuing Chapter II of T. D. S. A. Dissanayaka's latest in the 'War
or Peace in Sri Lanka' series titled Peace: At What Cost? to be released
shortly.
