In the wake of humiliating defeats in the Northern and Wanni battle fronts:

LTTE no longer an invincible force

The LTTE which used to live in a dreamy world appearing themselves to the international community as invincible force has now been compelled to embrace the ground reality that it is no longer an invincible force.

It was after their humiliating defeats in the Northern and Wanni battle fronts and after the exposure of their terror network in the South with many of their terror operatives being arrested through the anti-terror operations carried out in Colombo and suburbs.

There is no doubt that the international community and also the local community believe in the fact that the LTTE has no escape from their defeat in the intensified military thrust on them in the Wanni.

The immense pressure on the LTTE from the Tamil community has become one of the most challenging situations for the Tiger outfit as they are fast losing the Tamil community's confidence due to their successive failures in battle front and due to the Tiger leadership's in ability to give a ray of hope for the common masses.

Hundreds of Tiger cadres being killed in the battle fronts, the forcible deployment of civilians to guard forward defence lines in the battle fronts, deprivation of their health facilities and top of all the forcible recruitment of the children has contributed immensely for the deteriorating confidence on the LTTE by the Tamil community.

In a sense they have lost all hopes they had kept on the LTTE as the liberator of the Tamil community as they no longer tolerate the way their sole liberator is acting risking their innocent lives.

Under these circumstances the Tamil population entrapped inside the Wanni has become a pathetic crowd awaiting their liberation at the hands of the Security Forces. Therefore it has become a responsibility of the Security Forces to free this Tamil population from the clutches of the LTTE.

They will soon realize the fact it was not under the LTTE their freedom ensured but in society sans LTTE pressure and influence they can taste true sense of democracy. The Tamil community who were liberated from the clutches of the Tiger outfit is now witnessing the true sense of democracy in the East with Government taking first step towards enshrining the Eastern population of their political freedom with arrangements being made to hold elections for nine Local Government authorities in the Batticaloa district tomorrow.

This will ensure that the development work in the liberated east would be handled by their representatives.

The Government sailed through stormy seas to conduct this election which is considered to be the first step towards establishing true democracy in the Eastern province or a pre-cursor to the Provincial Council elections most probably scheduled for mid of this year.

Therefore, many attempts are being made by the LTTE to sabotage the elections after engaged in a campaign to visualize a bad picture about Batticaloa by influencing Southern political parties especially the United National Party led by Ranil Wickremesinghe and some NGO's canvassing for democracy but with the hope that democracy will never be a realistic idea in the North and East.

The most prominent feature among all these organizations canvassing against the Local Polls in Batticaloa is that they are talking only to the international community and with none of their feet in Batticaloa to get a true account of the situation prevailing there.

If they are so concerned about pluralism and democracy they could have easily gone there and actively engaged in activities to organize the civilian population to implement true democracy in the East.

These critics assume the long silence and the apparently lethargic attitude of the population there in the East as a mark of protest towards the election. But they have been badly mistaken if they assume this attitude of the civilians as a mark of protest.

The reality is that they cannot believe the fact that they have become part and parcel of the system in Sri Lanka. On the other hand it is impractical to expect a civilian population who had been living a gun culture for nearly three decades to express their views freely like the population in the South who enjoyed true means of democracy in different situations.

Therefore, it is incumbent on the organizations canvassing for free democracy in the country to assist this civilian population to come out from this situation and exercise their democratic rights.

The increased security measures taken by the Police to provide security for candidates contesting the elections and the deployment of large number of Police for election duty and to maintain law and order in the Batticaloa has created a better environment to conduct this election.

Steps have been taken to provide personal security for 255 candidates out of the total of 831 candidates contesting the elections for 101 seats in nine Local bodies in the district. The Police Department has allocated 600 Policemen for these 255 candidates who had sought Police protection after filing their nominations for the Local Polls.

The increased security measures now in effect in the Batticaloa district, according to the Eastern range Senior DIG Mahinda Balasuriya also include 62 mobile patrolling units and 39 road blocks.

For security arrangements for the elections the Police have deployed 5620 Police personnel including 1,500 Policemen from outside Police stations. The deployment of 500 Police Special Task Force personnel and 300 Army personnel strengthen the security measures for the elections.

The successful conduct of the Batticaloa election will mark the downfall of the LTTE apart from the military setbacks they are facing in the battle fronts in the North and in the Wanni.

Therefore, the LTTE is struggling to come out of this massive pressure by using various tactics. Bringing pressure on the Government and to divert the attention of the Security forces towards the South is the main objective of all these terror plans.

The anti terror operations conducted by the Security Forces and the Police could achieve much success during the past few weeks.

It was the alerted Security Forces personnel who on February 03, a day prior to the Independence Day celebrations arrested Tiger suspect Ramesh in Pettah, due to his suspicious behavior.

Ramesh, a trained Tiger cadre who had undergone his training under Kapil Amman had been sent to Colombo to take some targets in Colombo including VVIPs such as President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Based on his revelations the Security Forces have been able to expose major terror networks operating in Colombo and many safe houses where they stored weapons, explosives, claymore mines, suicide jackets and various other objects which can be used for their terror operations.

They were arrested in many parts of Colombo and in areas close to Kalpitiya and Puttalam The LTTE had transported huge quantity of explosives to explode transformers along the Puttalam and Kalpitiya areas.

Nineteen Tiger suspects including four females have already been arrested based on his revelations.

It was with his arrest the Security Forces and Police were able to expose the latest path used by the LTTE to transport explosives, weapons, suicide jackets to Colombo. The LTTE has used the path across Wilpattu National Park as their base to transport explosives to the South.

A Police team from Colombo was dispatched to Anuradhapura this week to conduct a search in Kalaoya area based on facts revealed by Tiger suspects with the arrest of explosives from Colombo.

The Police team was dispatched to Eluvankulam Army detachment since the location they have to reach was only seven Kilo Metres away from Eluvankulama detachment.

It was during this Police team was there in Eluvankulama the Kalaoya causeway outpost of the Eluvankulama detachment came under 40 mm grenade attack on Tuesday night. In a subsequent search operation carried out in the area in the following morning one soldier was injured due to a explosion of Improvised Explosive Device.

With this incident steps were taken to airlift troops from Wasgamuwa to Vilpattu area on the same day to carry out an intense search operations inside the Vilpattu National Park. Another soldier injured during this search operation too.

However, the troops could not observe during this search operation but found that the LTTE was using delaying tactics by laying IEDs in the jungle to shift their cadres from the area before search teams arriving there.

With this incident it was confirmed that the LTTE is taking the assistance of the hunters and trackers operating inside the Vilpattu jungles to transport explosives and other logistic requirements to Kalpitiya and Puttalam area.

With these revelations and with the arrest of many of the Tiger cadres operating in the South being arrested by the Police and Security Forces, the LTTE had to further abandon their major terror plans in Colombo to come out of this desperate situation.

Apart from this the arrest of a Pastar attached to Four Square Church who was arrested by the Police on revelation made by a Tiger cadre arrested in Wattala also exposed major terror network operating in Colombo.

Nine persons have been arrested connected to this network and those who had no connection with this Tiger network are due to be released soon by the relevant authorities. With the arrest of this Pastor the Tiger activities based in Mannar was also exposed to a greator extent.

The investigations now being conducted to Modera blast also revealed that the Tiger cadre blew off himself inside his room as he was well connected to a Tiger network operating in Colombo.

He had blown off himself to avert exposing the Tiger network linked to him. Investigations have revealed that the Tiger cadre was an expert in the explosive devices and also in fixing timing devices to explosives. He was the mastermind behind number of explosions took place in Colombo within this year.

With Security Forces and Police having major crackdown on Tiger networks in Colombo the troops in Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli Oya actively engaged in continuing their military thrust on the LTTE.

Though the battle fronts in Vavuniya and Weli Oya were comparatilvely silent, there were hive of activities in the Mannar front this week. Many of the Tiger defences fall into the Security Forces hand without major confrontations with the LTTE.

The entire Parappakandal area came under the control of the Security Forces on Thursday with 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavindra de Silva advanced from Giant tank area to Parappakanda area covering 1.8 Kilo metres stretch. The troops attached to 8 Gemunu watch operating in the Giant Tank area made this move under the command of Lt. Colonel. Jayasundera.

The 8 GW troops made this move two days after the 10 GR troops under the command of the Lt. Colonel Sarada Samarakoon advanced on the Uyilankulam -Andankulam road capturing the LTTE cross loading point.

On Friday troops further advanced 400 metres in Parappakandal area on Friday with no resistance from the LTTE. This is a clear signal that the LTTE is fast abandoning their positions in Mananr or either they are attracting our troops towards the North to mobilize their cadres and launch massive assault.

But the way the troops are marching forward, there is no possibility for the LTTE to mobilize their cadres from one place to another. The only available option for them is to deploy the cadres from the reserve to these defences.

But it also has become extremely difficult task as they have to deploy nearly 3,000 well trained cadres to provide security for it leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran who is suffering from acute diabetes.

So troops are expecting much more desperate acts from the LTTE as they are about to lose Madhu with troops attached to 57 Division is due to capture the area within next few weeks. So LTTE will resort to tactics to tarnish the image of the Security Forces by directing fire from the Madhu shrine area to counter the troops assault on them.