Forces to enter decisive phase in Wanni battle

The Local Government elections in Batticaloa which was concluded on a successful note on Monday was an eye-opener for those who disbelieved the liberation of the East from the clutches of the LTTE.

Their eyes were wide open when almost all people observed the conduct of the elections in Batticaloa, ranking it as one of the best conducted elections in the country.

But those who continued to disbelief the liberation of the East, were badly irritated as it was the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal which secured the victory of the Batticaloa mini polls by securing the administration of eight Local Bodies out of the nine. The United People’s Freedom Alliance secured the Batticaloa Municipal Council.

Baseless protests

The group led by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could not tolerate this fact as all their predictions and speculations became invalid with these facts. As the entire community was satisfied with the manner in which the election was conducted, he went onto protest opposite the Elections Commissioners Department in Colombo.

It was because he could not accept the ground reality that things are happening so smoothly in the ground though he lives in an imaginary world full of dreams.

If he was genuinely interested on the democratic rights of the people why couldn’t make his protest in Batticaloa.

He could have easily gone to Batticaloa and taken the support of the people there to convey the very same message to the international community more effectively, if he was fighting for a genuine matter.

Hypocrisy

The reality is that he cannot do that because he is well aware of the fact he was engaged in a false campaign against the elections and against the will of the population living there as a cover up to the major blunder he made by boycotting the elections.

Secondly he cannot go to Batticaloa as he feels guilty about the statement he made about the Eastern liberation.

For him liberation of the east was merely a capture of jungle while others aiding his objectives visualising the liberation of the East as a capture of a desert abandoned by the LTTE. So he is not in a position to reach Batticaloa as such a visit would contradict his own assessment of the East.

The other factor is that he cannot face the heroic soldiers who committed themselves for the liberation of the East. It was with that guilty conscious mind he was compelled to conduct a baseless protest in Colombo to cover up the big blunder he made by boycotting the Batticaloa mini polls on the ground that the situation in Batticaloa was not conducive for elections.

Contrary to all what had speculated by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Non Government Organisations hell-bent to the LTTE, more than 56 per cent of voters cast their vote to elect their own members to the Local Government authorities after a lapse of 14 years.

The highlight of these facts is not to highlight any political message but to highlight to prove that all myths on the Eastern liberation have been dispelled with the successful conduct of the Batticaloa elections.

Effective measures

The fact that had been proven through the Batticaloa elections is that the LTTE no longer influence the people in the East. Peaceful conduct of elections without any incident did not mean that the LTTE made no attempt to sabotage the elections.

The LTTE activated all its machineries to sabotage the elections but all of them became futile in the face of effective security measures taken by the Security Forces and the Police.

Therefore, the successful conduct of the Batticaloa elections proved the fact that the Security Forces and the Police were in full control of the situation there and that there was no element to challenge their presence in the East.

In other words they are 100 per cent successful in restoring security of the people living there even to cast their vote in a free and fair manner to elect their own representatives to the Local Authorities.

The prime factor emerged through this is that the efforts made by the Security Forces and the Police to liberate the East had paid dividends in respect of restoring true democracy in the East through the liberation of the East.

Embracing democracy

But that was not the end of the story in the East.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already embarked on the second step in the process of restoring true democratic institutions in the East.

According to reports the Provincial Councils elections is scheduled to be held in May this year allowing the Eastern populace to run their own Provincial administration in the East. So the true sense of the Eastern liberation can be felt by the Eastern populace very soon.

But prior to this the Government should embark on a process to orientate the ex-militants turned politicians about the democratic process after distancing them from the gun culture if the true meaning of democracy is to be established in the East.

That has become a part of the responsibility of the Government and also the organisations that made a big fuss about the ex-militants who contested the Batticaloa Local Polls.

If these organisations appear on behalf of the democratic rights of the people, they should increase the capacity of these ex-militants to become a part and parcel of the democratic process.

Therefore, it is an immediate requirement on the part of the Government, prior to the conduct of the Provincial Council election to orientate them towards democratic institutions. Failing so all of them will fail in the efforts of embracing true democracy.

The decision taken by the Provincial Council and Local Government Ministry to conduct workshops for the elected members to the nine Local Bodies in Batticaloa should be hailed as a positive step towards restoring true democracy in the country.

The next step

The Government has not abandoned its endeavour of restoring democracy in the country after the conduct of elections in the East. It is so vibrantly engaged in the process of liberating the North too from the clutches of the LTTE.

The President is keen to liberate Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu soon enabling the civilian population entrapped in the Wanni too to enjoy their democratic rights.

The Security Forces embarked on this task effectively by launching military thrusts effectively on the LTTE from four fronts.

Though many critics who are ignorant of what is exactly happening in the battle fronts try to create a bad picture about the situation there, things are very smoothly going on in the battle fronts. Since they are unable to take stock of the situation, they are trying their best to speculate about deadlines given to liberate the North from the LTTE.

Speculation on deadlines

All these speculations are based on the comments made by the Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka in January this year that the war can be brought to a turning point within eight months. From that statement he never meant that the war can be brought to an end within eight months.

What he tried to convey through that statement was that considering the progress of the battlefront in another eight months it could be brought to a turning point in which the LTTE will not be able to operate from their military bases and defence lines.

In reality all his predictions are turning into reality considering the progress achieved by the Security Forces within the past few weeks.

Progress in the battle fronts

It is true that the 57 Division which was formed as the first offensive Division to launch a major thrust on the Vavuniya front in February 2007, took more than nine months to advance 10 kilometres towards Tiger territory.

At the initial stages there had been many setbacks and many of the captured territories were fallen to the hands of the LTTE compelling them to withdraw from their positions towards the original Forward Defence Line.

There was a higher casualty rate among the troops in the Vavuniya Front as they had to brave heavy minefields and booby traps to advance into the Tiger territory.

But the 57 Division which is operating under the Command of Brigadier Jagath Jayasuriya has advanced more than seven kilometres within the first two months of this year. That means they have achieved more than what they had achieved within the first nine months of their operations during the past two months.

The 57 Division which is operating as three brigades is now further advancing towards the North with troops reaching closer to Palampiddi in one direction and passing Vilattikulam from another direction.

Simply they have cleared the path to Wanni very effectively to speed up their process of liberating Wanni with the formation of two other offensive Divisions in Mannar and Weli Oya.

The Mannar front which was initially started its operation as Task Force -I in the last quarter of 2007 under the Command of Brigadier Chargi Gallage and later handed over to Brigadier Shavindra Silva after forming it as 58 Division has also achieved remarkable progress during past two months.

From the capture of Silavatura in the South of Mannar the 58 Division had advanced further into the Tiger territory in the North of Mannar. There were few decisive battles in the Mannar front within a week with troops advancing in many fronts towards the Tiger territory capturing their heavily fortified bunker lines.

The adverse whether conditions now prevailing in Mannar had not become a hindrance to these operations as troops are committed to achieve their task disregarding any barriers before them.

So far there have not been any reverses for them despite heavy resistance they had to face from the LTTE with the barrages of artillery and mortar directed at the troops advancing towards the North.

They are now in full control of the West of Giant tank area towards Manthai in the North of Mannar on Mannar Sangupiddi road. The only exception in this territory is the Adampan town.

The 59 Division which is operating in Weli Oya since mid of January this year under the command of Brigadier Nandana Udawatta has also made speedy advance towards Northward direction by advancing four Kilometres into Tiger territory from Janakapura, Karuvalagaswewa front and one and half kilometres from the beach front from Kokkuthuduvai.

The 59 Division confirms the fact that 245 terrorists have been killed in the Weli Oya front against the 45 soldiers killed during this period.

The Jaffna front is also operating successfully though they had not made any advances towards the Tiger territory from Muhamalai and Nagar Kovil fronts.

But time to time the troops are taking control over the Tiger defences temporarily at least for few hours but withdraw towards their original defences without holding the defences permanently as the LTTE has already registered their artillery guns towards their own defences to thwart any advance by troops into their territory.

On Tuesday the troops held their positions in the Tiger defences in the West of A-9 road for nearly five hours but later withdrew to its original defences.

The field commanders and also the Army Commander in fact, accepts the fact the casualty rate among the troops is comparatively high due to booby traps and minefields they have to cross in their advance towards Tiger territory. But the encouraging factor is that 50 per cent of these troops are reporting back to their duties after treatment.

Army recruitment

The other positive factor is that there is greater enthusiasm from the youth of this country to join the Army. Within the first two months of this year 10,000 youth have joined the Army adding to the 32,000 youth joined the Army in the year 2007.

The Army is in need of another 15,000 to fulfil its required strength for this year. Once it completes the recruitment drive the full strength of the Army will shoot up to 160,000 enabling the troops to achieve the target of liberating the Wanni soon.

This achievement will enable the Army to deploy well trained troops to the battlefront and deploy troops to hold the ground once they capture Tiger territory. The provision of arms and ammunition and the welfare measures will enable the troops to keep their morale high in the battle grounds.

The civilian factor

The LTTE too continued its recruitment drive despite losing the control of a huge population in the East and also in Jaffna and Wanni. They are depending on the 250,000 population entrapped in Wanni to increase their strength. As long as the civilian population continue to live in the LTTE held areas the task before the Security Forces will be a difficult one.

But the battle in the Wanni is expected to turn into decisive phase in the coming weeks as troops are about to enter civilian populated areas in Vavuniya and Mannar. Early signals on an exodus of civilians to Government held areas emerged this week with more than 20 civilians arriving in Government held areas in Mannar from Vedithalthivu area.

This is a situation similar to the Vakarai and South of Batticaloa as only few families who managed to escape from the LTTE arrived in Government held areas.

Later almost all the civilians entrapped in these areas arrived in Government held areas ahead of the confrontations between the Security Forces and the LTTE. If such a situation developed in the Mannar and Vavuniya fronts the troops will be able to continue its thrust on the LTTE without any hindrance.

Therefore, the troops are now poised to enter the most decisive phase in the Wanni battle to decide on the future of the Wanni liberation.