People ready for polls amidst confidence on Forces

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The Eastern Provincial Council election has become the main focus of the entire country with only six days to go for the May 10 election that will decide the future of the two and half decade long conflict in the country.

The Security Forces turned a new chapter in the Eastern province by fully liberating the province from the clutches of the Tiger terrorism during the last year and they are now awaiting their political liberation at the May 10 election preparing to elect their own representatives to run the administration in the Eastern province.

Conducting the Eastern Provincial Council election is definitely a challenge as this column highlighted in the previous weeks.

Conducting such election after a lapse of two decades is a much bigger challenge since it is a difficult task for the people to adjust themselves for a democratic process after experiencing a gun culture in the province for more than two decades.

However, the people in the Batticaloa district had their first democratic experience sans any guns behind them at the March 10 Local Government elections. Things have rapidly changed in the Batticaloa district since the conduct of the Local Polls on March 10. There is a new trend among the public to adjust for this new culture.

Any one visiting the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, which were the most affected districts from Tiger terrorism, can witness the way people are adjusting themselves for this new democratic culture openly supporting the political party according to their wish.

For outsiders who are trying to have a picture based on the facts given by the politically biased opinion on the situation prevailing in the Eastern province will not be able to get a correct picture about the current political situation in the East.

There is no opportunity to get the correct picture from the opinions expressed by the politically motivated people planted by vested interested parties in the district to gain narrow political objectives.

TMVP redressing problems

It was only through an independent study of the facts that one can get a correct picture of the Eastern province.

Those who are complaining about the presence of the armed cadres of the TMVP can now witness the way the TMVP members got elected for the respective Local Authorities, how they are now mingling with the people addressing their problems.

Their main objective is to see that the people who had been displaced due to the conflict be resettled in their respective villages. According to statistics only 3419 internally displaced people (IDPs) are yet to be resettled in the Batticaloa district and they are from Poolakkadu, Vakaneri, Punani West and Milawadduwan.

The number of IDPs to be resettled in the Trincomalee district is only 3323. Out of this 1711 can be resettled soon with the completion of de-mining in those areas.

De-mining teams are busy in Punani West which is one of the borders to the Thoppigala jungles where the LTTE faced their final defeat in the eastern province. The thousands of acres of abandoned paddy lands are now being cultivated by the farmers without facing any harassment like in the past.

According to sources 60,000 acres of abandoned paddy lands are now being cultivated by the Tamils and Muslims in the Batticaloa district after a lapse of more than four years. They do not want to heed to the jungle law of the LTTE this time. Therefore, they can feel the difference though they cannot express their candid opinion as they ware not used to free expression of views.

It is true that all these activities are taking place under the supervision of the Security Forces and the Police.

Their strong presence in the district was aimed at preventing the Tiger outfit to raise their heads in the Eastern province once again taking the cover of these innocent civilians who are now making a determined effort to adjust to this new life.

Their confidence towards the Security Forces and the Police has increased as they got the feeling that the forces will not leave them allowing the LTTE to raise its ugly head in the East.

It was due to this confidence in the Security Forces and the Police that the forces have been successful in their efforts of foiling all attempts by the LTTE to sabotage the election in the Eastern province.

Tigers desperate to sabotage polls

As mentioned in an earlier SITREP the Wanni leadership has already dispatched a team of Tiger cadres to the East with the objective of sabotaging the provincial council election. This has been confirmed by a female suicide LTTE cadre now in custody of the Security Forces in Batticaloa, who was arrested last week.

According to the information given by her, she had arrived from the South of Kuchchaveli with the intention of reaching Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts to engage in sabotage acts aiming the PC elections.

There are possibilities to target VVIPs attending the election campaign mainly in the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts since those districts provide the LTTE the required atmosphere to clandestinely engage in their terror operations.

Since the Tiger outfit is facing difficulties to operate independently in the Eastern province with the fall of their jungle hideouts in the province and the recovery of large hauls of weapons and ammunition, they are trying to hire civilians to accomplish their terror objectives.

This was witnessed in Thambalagamuwa and Kinniya in Trincomalee with Security Forces detecting two Tiger supporters, one who helped the LTTE to detonate a claymore mine targeting the Security Forces and another civilian who had kept a suicide kit with him until the LTTE wanted it to accomplish its terror operation.

However, the LTTE is reportedly facing difficulties accomplishing their terror operations as they do not get proper logistic support. It has been evident that the Tiger cadres operating in the jungles in Trincomalee are facing difficulties even getting their meals. Under these circumstances they have compelled to rob isolated boutiques in search of food.

Earlier the LTTE enjoyed a greater deal of public support especially from the Tamil community but this support has reduced in a greater extent due to people’s confidence towards the Security Forces and the Police.

With this background in mind the Security Forces have increased its search operations in the jungles in the North and South of Trincomalee since these jungle patches has been very frequently used by the Tiger outfit for their terror operations.

Mine explosions

The number of claymore mine explosions close to Kebithigollewa, Aluthhalmillewa and Dutuvewa areas can be part of the terror operations conducted by the Tiger cadres that landed in the North of Trincomalee recently as divulged by the female suicide cadre now under the custody of the Security Forces.

A claymore mine exploded in the Aluthhalmillewa in Trincomalee close to Pulmoddai Bogashandiya road in an area yesterday at 8.30 am. No one was hurt in the explosion except that a lamp post was damaged.

Earlier at 8 am yesterday a Civil Defence Force member and a soldier of the Special task Force (STF) sustained minor injuries due to a claymore mine explosion in the Kallepuliyankulam area on the Vavuniya Kebithigollewa road.

The Civil Defence Force member and STF trooper got caught in this claymore mine attack as they were traveling in a motorbike on the Kebithigollewa-Vavuniya road which is now closed for public except for the people living there.

There had been several such incidents in this area during the past few weeks. However, the intense search operations conducted by the Police Special Task Force and the Security Forces have foiled many Tiger attempts to target Security Forces and the civilians in the area.

But the team sent by the LTTE Wanni leadership to the East was only a part of this process of sabotaging the Eastern polls which would have a severe impact on the very foundation of the LTTE with people flatly rejecting the leadership of the LTTE and embracing the democratic process along with the political parties opposing the view of the LTTE.

Therefore at this decisive point the public in the Eastern province and also the politicians should strongly support the idea of establishing true democracy for the Eastern people and be extremely vigilant of Tiger plans to sabotage the elections without falling to the traps set by the LTTE.

Amidst the focus of the country drawn towards the Eastern elections, the Security Forces continue on the winning path this week despite the Tiger attempts to show off their military might by various means.

Following the liberation of the sacred Madhu church from the clutches of the LTTE, the Security Forces in the Vavuniya battlefront are now heading further towards the Tiger territory in Vavuniya.

While troops of the 572 Brigade taking full control of the Madhu area, the 571 Brigade has surrounded the Palampiddi junction which has a strategic importance for the LTTE to operate in the area.

Issue of sacred statue

However, the issue relating to the sacred statue of Madhu still remains unresolved with the statue still remaining in Tevampitti area in the North of Mannar.

The troops in the Mannar front operating under the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva also recorded a number of hits within this week with troops capturing vital Tiger bases and some townships in the Mannar sector this week.

Troops gained total control over Karukkakulama town area, located North West of Parappakandal in Mannar on Thursday, following concentrated amour and artillery shell attacks at the LTTE.

Army infantrymen made swift incursions into the LTTE strong point and captured 1.6 km of land stretch in the area at around 6 a.m. According to military sources, a soldier has laid his life, while another was wounded during the advances made on Thursday.

Meanwhile, ground sources citing intercepted LTTE communications said that, the LTTE has suffered at least 15 fatalities during confrontations with troops.

As the troops of the 57 Division and the 58 Division continued their mission the troops in the Weli Oya front also faced stiff resistance from the LTTE this week. However, the troops in the Weli Oya front captured vital Tiger bases ahead of their defences amidst stiff resistance from the LTTE.

According to ground sources the LTTE has intensified artillery fire on the Security Forces defences in the Weli Oya this week. Many of these artillery rounds fell short of their targets in Weli Oya, Janakapura area and even into Padaviya area.

The aborted air raid by the LTTE on the Weli Oya sector last Sunday also came amidst intense artillery fire directed at the Weli Oya area.

The Security Forces are contemplating whether the Tiger outfit had received a new stocks of artillery rounds as intelligence reports indicated of an unloading of artillery round stock by the LTTE in the month of February which went unnoticed to the Security Forces.

Therefore, the Security Forces believe that the LTTE show off in Jaffna FDLs on April 23 was due to their increased firepower with the unloading of arms and ammunitions to Wanni battlefront.

LTTE suffers heavily

However, the LTTE too suffered heavily during this confrontation despite the firepower they had. The most unfortunate thing is that many local media tried to show off the Muhamalai incident as a debacle faced by the Army ignoring the ground realities and even forgetting the facts about the two and half decade long history of the North East conflict.

Certain media were ignorant of the fact about the LTTE casualties, the ground captured by the Security Forces and also about the facts about the debacles faced by the Security Forces. However one fact comes to the fore due to these criticisms by the media about the military operation.

The media now considering the death of 83 soldiers in a single battle as they do not observe such number of soldiers get killed in a single military operation within the past two years. That means the Security Forces have been able to achieve all these military victories with minimum number of deaths on the part of the Security Forces.

The media have forgotten the debacle in Pooneryn in 1991, the Mullaitivu debacle in 1996, the debacle in Kilinochchi in 1998 and the debacle in Elephant Pass in the year 2000 in which more than 1,300 troops were killed including very senior Army officers.

Therefore, Security Forces have to swim against the malicious criticism by certain media over operations.

These critics should realise the fact that all these sacrifices of the troops whether it is dozens of soldiers in a single day or one soldier per day, they are making their sacrifices in the battlefront in a bid to defeat Tiger terrorism completely. They have sacrificed their lives not in vain but for a worthy cause bravely facing the enemy.