Tiger civilian forces in Vakarai?

Commonsense by Y. King

The first blow on the LTTE in one year was the Government Security forces' retaliation and the fall of Sampur. Later it was humanitarian operation in Mavilaru to save over 15,000 farmers from the Tiger clutches.

This signalled the Tigers to run away from the East and confined to a small enclave of Vakarai. From Vakarai, they used over 30,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a human shield to discourage retaliation from the security forces.

However IDPs who were fed up of LTTE acts, many of them braved dangerous trekking through the jungles, lagoons and landmines to escape to the cleared areas.

The latest propaganda campaign undertaken by various LTTE sympathisers and pro NGOs is that there is still a shortage of food in Vakarai.

The Government sent 89 lorry loads of food to Vakarai last month which is sufficient for 20,000 people for another three months and according to reports, 10,000 people have escaped from Vakarai by now.

Then the simple arithmetic proves that food sent to Vakarai would be enough for those 10,000 for another three months.

A food shortage in Vakarai is remote unless the food meant for civilians was robbed by the Tigers.

At the same time, if 10,000 people wanted to escape despite the danger it means that there is possibility for others to follow suit.

It is reported that the families belonging to Mahaveer or pro LTTE supporters and relatives of the cadres and a few other families still remain in Vakarai.

On an earlier occasion, in one of our former defence columns, Bull's Eye reported that the LTTE gave military training to civilians.

If the remaining civilians in Vakarai do not want to escape, they could be those trained by the LTTE as civilian forces.

The LTTE's major strategy is to send such cadres to the front and when they are killed, to use their dead bodies for false propaganda alleging that the government is targeting civilians to gain international sympathy.

The LTTE uses this ploy when such people are killed when air strikes target selected LTTE training bases.

Ellalan force target civilians

With the attacks on civilians buses in Pasyala and Seenigama killing over 20 innocent passengers including women and children, the LTTE's dastardly force has started to show the Tiger's desperation after their camps fell one after the other to the Government forces and the STF.

The STF took over the Stanley base and Janak camp last week which were Tigers strategic bases to launch attacks in the area, and the forces would run over Vakarai soon, the only Tiger hold in the East. With the fall of Vakarai, the LTTE's terrorism would come to an end in the East, opening a new era for the people in the East.

In this backdrop, the Tiger strategy was to draw the forces' attention to other areas; they have ordered their coward supplementary forces, the Ellalan Force to launch attacks on civilians in other areas. Security forces, police and the civilians know this old gimmick better now as the Tigers had made such desperate efforts every time in their history of barbarism for over two and half decades.

Successive governments fell presto to such gimmick as the international community put pressure on them, but even the international community is well aware of such dirty tricks of the LTTE, and they apparently feel different to put pressure on the government when the government makes a sincere effort to save the innocent civilians from the jaws of Tiger terrorists.

The Government would not bow to the Tiger hegemony or their terrorism and it would only consider to suspend retaliation only if the Tigers would show a sincere willingness for negotiation.

Certain INGOs have admitted that they have no access to uncleared areas, used Government statistics and interpreted them to show that there was a food shortage in Vakarai and Jaffna, for whose benefits are they manipulating stories? Only God knows.

Moragahakanda to irrigate the East

While the Security Forces are operating in the East with much sacrifice to liberate the East from the Tiger hold, the Government on the other hand has arrangements to go ahead with the country's largest irrigation development plan to provide water to the East. The first mega project and the last phase of the Mahaweli project to be completed with local funds would commence work by the end of this month.

The much-awaited project would no doubt usher in a new era of prosperity to the East and would be a boon to the agricultural and industrial sectors.

The devastated area and its economy would regain its prosperity benefiting from the waters of Moragahakanda to overcome the disaster caused in the area during the two and half decades hostilities. No successive Government in the past was able to manage the conflict in the East other than the present Government in order to create a conducive environment to go ahead with such a mega project while allocating huge funds from its budget.

It is the bounden duty of the residents of the East to show their solidarity with the Government to eradicate terrorism in the East and use the new infrastructure facilities and development drive to rebuild their lost economies and social life to gain a better future for generations to come.

Refugees to India from uncleared areas

A recent survey revealed that majority refugees to India were from the uncleared areas in Wanni. Failing to endure the continuous suffering at the hands of the Tigers, they pay their life's savings to human smugglers to escape to India, as they fear that the LTTE would punish them if they stay in cleared areas.

The main intention of these escapees is to save their children from the Tigers as no parent wants to see their children to be trained in combat operations and carry arms against the Government's security forces.

The survey also revealed that the Indian Tamils abhor the Tigers and their heinous acts but they show solidarity with the innocent Tamil speaking people, which should not be interpreted that they are supporting the Tigers.

The Government has been strengthening its political power to find a solution to the national problems and many from the Opposition have agreed to support such a national cause.

A strong leadership is imperative to clear the present impasse towards peace and development which undoubted, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has in ample measure and it is an optimistic sign of all stakeholders shedding petty differences and rally round the President to heal this national wound and save the country from disaster.