Destiny of Wanni civilians bleak

The Tiger outfit was vociferous in their demand for the opening of the Muhamalai entry exit point when it was closed on August 11, last year with the outbreak of confrontations between the Security Forces and the LTTE across the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in Jaffna.

The Tiger outfit shed crocodile tears and demanded that Government should ensure the freedom of movement of the Tamil civilians by opening the road at Muhamalai and were highly concerned about the plight of the civilians in the peninsula over their food supplies.

But they failed to display their humanity when the Sri Lanka Navy and the Air Force undertook the humanitarian mission to transport essential items to the peninsula to feed the Jaffna population and also to fulfil their needs, the Tiger outfit obstructed the move and forced Jaffna traders not to open their outlets and maintained their demand for the opening of the road highlighting a bogus humanitarian crisis to the international community.

A situation quite contrary to what prevailed last year has arisen today with the Tiger outfit keeping mum on the closure of entry and exit points at Omanthai and Uyilankulam disconnecting the entire Wanni population form the other part of the country.

The International Committee of Red Cross, which facilitate the civilian movement across the entry and exit points at Omanthai and Uyilankulan with the deployment of their monitors in the no mans areas has so far failed to obtain a security guarantee from the LTTE about the safety of their monitors.

Security guarantee

The discussion the ICRC officials had with LTTE Political leader S.P. Thamilselvan on Friday had ended without any solution to the problem. The LTTE which claimed to be the sole representative of the Tamil population now turned their role to the suppressor of the Tamil community as they are fast losing control over the Tamil community.

The ICRC officials had to withdraw their offices form Omanthai and Ulliyankulam on Tuesdays (22) as the LTTE terrorists launched mortar attacks at the two roadblocks two Tamil youth aged 26 and 27 had pleaded with the LTTE to grant them permission to enter cleared areas in Vavuniya through Omanthai entry exit point which was opened from the Security Forces side on Tuesday.

But they have been kept waiting by the LTTE for over 12 hours at the roadblock with no justified reason and the two youth decided to escape the Tiger grip as they felt they won't be allowed to enter cleared areas as they wish. They have been fired upon by the LTTE as they fled the Tiger grip without heeding the Tiger orders.

The ICRC officials in the no mans area witnessed the scene and withdrew from their officers on security concerns.

The LTTE leaders do not allow youth to escape from Wanni as they are now engaged in a vicious campaign to recruit more youth to their organization to undergo weapon training to strengthen their fighting cadres to face Security Forces offensive.

Meanwhile, reliable sources have revealed that the LTTE is trying to keep the Wanni civilians in captivity in order to cover up its tyrannical rule in the un-liberated areas. Arbitrary executions, torture and abductions have become the order of the day in Wanni as the civilians are continuing to distance themselves form the LTTE.

They are hastily preparing for this type of attack as they were well aware of the fact that Security Forces would not take too long to infiltrate into their territory to liberate the remaining Tamil population form the Tiger grip.

The Tigers are aware any lapse on their part will not be in their favour as many of the Tiger cadres have perished at the hand of the Security Forces personnel now engaged in clearing operations ahead of FDLs in West of Omanthai and also in Madhu area and also during clearing operations in the East.

The Security Forces engaged in Madhu operation are slowly but steadily achieving their objective amidst stiff resistance from the LTTE. However, the operations in Wanni would not be that easy as LTTE too will make use of their full strength to face the Security Forces making use of their maximum resources.

Fire power

Therefore, one cannot expect the Security Forces to achieve the victories in haste since the fire power of the LTTE in Wanni is much higher than the fire power they had in the Eastern theatre.

Under these circumstances the fire power of both sides will play a key role in the battles that are to be fought in the Wanni and much more human strength will be needed to gain control and dominate these areas against Tiger domination.

As the LTTE face severe setbacks in the Wanni the Security Forces continued to strengthen security in the East by conducting more and more search operations without allowing the LTTE to destabilize the situation there in Batticaloa where thousands of displaced civilians are being resettled in their villages.

Troops engaged in search and clear operations ahead in the eastern province gunned down a group of seven LTTE cadres who had attempted to move across the Eravur area on Wednesday evening (23).

According to the Army the group of terrorists had moved into the area to disrupt the resettlement of displaced people which is now being successfully undertaken by the government and the group has been entrusted with the task to provide assistance to the troubled LTTE leader "Jeyam" who is presently entrapped in the Thoppigala jungles.

Following the attack, the troops conducted a swift cordon and search and found one General purpose machine gun, six T 56 assault rifles, one micro pistol, six claymore mines each weighing 15 kgs and a stock of ammunition.

Troops also recovered several dresses worn by Muslims. Speculation is that the infiltrators planned to move dressed as Muslims.

According to the latest information the self styled "Colonel" Nagulan, the person in charge of LTTE's Charles Anthony band; "Major" Maniwannan Master, the LTTE's intelligence coordinator for Batticaloa and; LTTE female cadre Mala, a senior member of LTTE's Sothiya band were also among the dead LTTE cadres.

Two photographs taken of themselves with terror chief V. Prabhakaran were also found with two dead LTTE cadres. The bodies were later handed over to the ICRC. Earlier on Wednesday troops engaged in search operation killed another three Tiger cadres who opened fire at the troops hiding behind an abandoned house in Eravur.

During that operation too, troops recovered large cache of arms and ammunition left behind by Tiger cadres.The Tiger cadres are now making these desperate attempts in the East as they wanted to rescue the Tiger cadres entrapped in the Thoppigala jungles as troops had not allowed any cadre to move out of the jungles.

Therefore, they are trying their best to create panic situation in the east to divert the attention of the Security Forces enabling the remaining cadres in Thoppigala to flee the area.

The amphibian attack by the LTTE on the southern most Naval detachment in the Delft Island was one such desperate attempt by the LTTE to come out of the current impasse from the part of the Tiger outfit after a month long silence after their failed attempt to create mayhem in the South.

But the Tiger outfit miserably failed in their attempt to induct their cadres into the Delft Island to disrupt the normality in the island and thereby to accomplish their targets under the cover of panic driven people in the island.

However, their plans went down the drain as naval troops effectively faced the Tiger attack destroying four of their armed craft and also damaging two of their craft The Naval detachment in the Southern most tip of the Delft island came under Tiger attack from land as two Tiger boats came in the cover of the darkness tried to induct their cadres to the island.

However, Naval troops reacted fast to take control over the situation deploying their Dvora Fast Attack Craft and destroyed one of the Tiger armed craft close to the Naval detachment and the battle continued till Thursday morning until Tiger boats withdrew towards Nachchikuda and Vedithalthivu between Mannar and Pooneryn.

The Air Force also assisted the Naval Troops to attack withdrawing Tiger boats and destroyed two more boats as they were reaching close to Nachchikuda.

The Navy lost communication with the Naval detachment as the fierce fighting continued in the wee hours of Thursday and later found four dead sailors and another four sailors injured during the confrontation. Later in the day the Navy assured the island was free of Tiger threat after conducting a search operation.

Eighteen LTTE cadres including seven senior cadres were believed to have been killed in the confrontation. The intercepted radio transmissions of the LTTE had revealed that, Sinnathurai Vijeykala ("Major" Thamil Vendhani), Weerasinham Iyankaran ("Captain" Muhilan), Panja Chalan Suhandan ("Lieutenant" Sudheshan) , Sebasthiyan Pillai Mary Kanista ("Lieutenant" Thanivili), Kadirapillai Mariyakoraei ("Captain" Thalaithendul), Chandrasekaran Mayuran (Sirimaran), Fransis Unis Kumar (Kadal Mahindan) and Anton Sujandan (Kadal Chelvan) were among the dead LTTE cadres.

The Navy described this effort by the LTTE as an attempt to take control of the Delft Island to facilitate their arms smuggling since they are running out of arms and ammunition due to heavy resistance by the Navy in the Palk Strait.

The four Tiger cadres arrested by the Maldivian National Defence Force rescued from the sunken fishing vessel Sri Krishna while engaged in arms smuggling mission have told the Sri Lankan Navy officials who questioned them in Maldives last week that they had tried to enter Sri Lankan waters for more than two months after they hijacked the vessel from Indian fishermen but failed achieving their task due to increased surveillance by the Navy.

Mortar smuggling foiled

According to the arrested four Tiger cadres by the Maldivian Coast Guard they were smuggling mortars which were loaded from a ship to Tiger held Wanni at the time they got caught to the Maldivian Coast Guard.

However, with the incident involving the twelve Indian fishermen who had been abducted by the LTTE along with the fishing vessel Sri Krishna had put the Tiger outfit in a more embarrassing situation with the Indian authorities as their efforts to antagonize Indian authorities with the Sri Lanka Navy has become futile with this incident.

The faith kept by the Tamil Nadu people on the Tiger outfit has eroded following this inhuman act by the LTTE in detaining 12 Indian fishermen for nearly two months.

The incident has prompted the Indian authorities to increase surveillance across the International Maritime Bountry Line between Sri Lanka and India by deploying more vessels with the capability of destroying suspected aircraft. This is in view of facing any impending air attack by the LTTE.

The dramatic reverse of the Indian approach on the LTTE is noticed taking place as the country remembers Operation Liberation launched by Government Forces 20 years back to wrest control of the Jaffna peninsula flushing out Tiger threats from the peninsula with the intention of taking the LTTE to the negotiation table.

The then Indian Government had completely different opinion on the LTTE, in 1987 and put pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to halt the military operation 48 hours before completing its mission, even airdropping food to Jaffna violating air space of Sri Lanka.

But they could not see an end to the problem though they got LTTE leader Prabhakaran to accept the political solution given through Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. The Indian Government had to see the repercussions of their action when LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's ruthless suicide cadre assassinated Rajiv Gandhi while he was participating at a political rally in 1991.

And now the Indian Government which violated the air space of Sri Lanka in support of the LTTE has to strengthen their air defence system against any threat from the Tiger air wing.

Many people who supported and opposed the LTTE had been assassinated ruthlessly by the LTTE irrespective of the stance taken by them. So the time is now ripe to decide whether to repeat the same mistake again and again or to go ahead after correcting the past mistakes for the sake of providing just solution for the Tamil people liberating them from the terrorism of the LTTE.