Fall of Vakarai emblazons military strategies

Commonsense by Y. King

The fall of Vakarai to the Government troops on Friday emblazoned the competence of the local military strategies and the apt implementation of such strategies by area ground commanders with the support of the other troops to liberate another 10,000 civilians from the clutches of the LTTE.

The defeat signalled the capability of the political leadership and the power of the troops to combat terrorism if local and international forces do not interfere in the affairs with ulterior motives.

The local and international forces who used the good office of facilitators, mediators and so on and sympathised with the Tigers, to help them propagate terrorism and separatism while depriving the rights of the innocent civilians in the area holding them captive as a human shield should realise now that the time is right for them to change themselves to do their job and help the Government to find a peaceful solution to the conflict or pack their bags and leave.

A severe food shortage in Vakarai affecting thousands of civilians including women and children was their punch line of many stories fabricated to the international media. It was pity that many of them did not worry to explain why there was a food shortage.

They should be ashamed to hold such diplomatic positions and take sides of terrorists and betray those who funded and appointed them to do a noble service. All parties to the conflict expect them to be unbiased but many of them did not have the guts to say that lorryloads of food sent by the Government to the civilians in Vakarai were robbed by the LTTE to be stocked for the use of their cadres.

Even after sending 89 lorryloads of foods sufficient for 20,000 people for three months, the same agencies trumpeted of the same shortage after well over half of the captured civilians fled Vakarai to the Government areas and the Government troops liberated Vakarai on Friday.

All that is now history and the Government's top priority is to repulse the attacks by the isolated and fleeing terrorists in the area and restore normalcy for the people to return to their day to day life.

A large development program for the East is already on the cards, but before it is implemented, the Government has to ensure the safety of the people and the property in the East, and for this purpose, the LTTE terrorism should nipped in the bud from the area.

Though several major LTTE camps fell to the Government troops and the STF during the last few days, there is still another major Tiger camp, Toppigala is still to be removed from the East.

Then the entire area would be free from major LTTE threats, and this would enable the Government to set up police posts and police stations where necessary to maintain law and order in the area. Later, Government institutions, schools, hospital, banks, markets, industries and so on would be able to function properly.

Under such circumstances, the civil adminstration would gradually be established for a smooth flow of life in the East.

However, the security forces have to intensify their positions in vital points along the coastal areas, passages in the Wanni jungles and other areas to stop the LTTE infiltration to the area and destabilise life in the East again. Better security measures should also be taken to stop this menace.

Though politicians, political parties, scholars and international bodies show diverse views on the future of the North and East, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's view is that the fate of the East should be decided on by the residents of the East. Fair enough and democratic proposal it is, while the Government's responsibility is to take prompt measure's to clear the area from the terrorists and make the area safe for people to move freely. Once, safety is ensured, the much awaited development, trade and other social activities would reach the East under the present Government's development programs of developing the Village concept.

The security forces are now in control over the security of the North. Despite various invisible elements trying to mar the image of the forces as well as the Government by raising fake issues such as artificial shortage of food and medicine to the international arena, the troops today even join the officials in distributing food and medicine to the residents when the need arises.

After the East is liberated, the Government would gradually work to establish civil administration first while the security forces and the police would do the needful to maintain law and order in the area.

This situation would create a conducive environment for the Government to hold a fair election and allow people in the area to decide on who should rule them in the future.

Under such environment, the Government would go for a Provincial Council election to elect representatives to the area to look into the much needed development of the region - economic activities, education, industries, fisheries, agriculture and rural infrastructure.

People of the East in particular and Sri Lankans in general would urge the international community to extend their support towards any such plan the Government presents to develop the East.

The organisations which showed much interest in resolving the conflict in Sri Lanka in the past should now help the Tamils to get their grievances redressed.

Those organisations should invest their funds and knowledge to make a better tomorrow for the Tamils but not promote the Tigers to gain sympathy internationally, and other protection to go into hiding and reorganise themselves.

The Tigers would be confined to a small enclave of the Wanni, and they would soon be isolated further in the international community for their engagement in brutal terrorism for well over two decades.

In the current context, all powerful nations have in one voice condemned terrorism, and it is high time that they too corner the LTTE and assist the Sri Lankan Government to eliminate the two-decade old terrorist war in the country before it spreads to the world at large.