Forces win hearts and battles in East

The Security Forces once again proved that they can win battles under any condition and can also win the hearts of the Tamil civilians with the completion of their mission in the East taking full control of the Eastern population under them after fighting a series of battles in the Eastern theatre.

They first captured Mavilaru from the clutches of the LTTE and then moved to secure the areas under LTTE control in a step by step process in the Eastern theatre. It was not a massive battle they fought to secure territories but a well planned process to secure the civilian population from the clutches of the LTTE causing minimum inconvenience to civilians.

Mission

They continued their mission learning lessons from one battle to the other. Whatever the failures they faced in their battles against the LTTE, the Security Forces learnt lessons from each failure and made use of them at the next battle.

The lessons they learnt from the Mavilaru battle were used in the Samapur battle, that brought results to the Security Forces reducing the casualties and deaths and sometimes to bring the casualty figures to a zero level.

One classic example was the capture of Manirasakulam and Gangei, the strategically important locations without any confrontation with the Tiger outfit.

The biggest lesson the Security Forces had learnt was from the Vakarai battle in which the LTTE fought the most ruthless battle in the recent history using nearly 30,000 civilians as a human shield.

But they faced all these challenges effectively to achieve their objective by surprisingly taking Vakarai under Security Force control with zero casualties to civilians. Then they took precautionary measures to evict civilians from the areas of confrontation when they capture the areas in the West and South of Batticaloa.

Now people in the Wanni too have learnt lessons from the Eastern civilians on how to evade LTTE harassments as they too have commenced arriving in Government held areas seeking refuge.

According to Security Forces 41 people entered cleared areas on Thursday with Tigers invading their village in Vilayanthikulam, North of Mannar -Vavuniya Forward Defence Line.

Among the civilians who crossed over from LTTE active areas in Vavuniya were 5 boys, 8 girls, 12 men and 16 women. According to these people LTTE cadres had invaded their village and set up artillery and mortar positions to launch attacks on the Security Forces.

These civilians have further revealed to troops that the LTTE is forcibly holding civilians as a human shield in settlements in un-cleared areas ahead of the Vavuniya- Mannar FDL.

Therefore, the hundred per cent support extended by the Tamil civilians even risking their lives coupled with the free hand given to them to handle the battles according to ground requirement without any political pressures paved the way for the Security Forces to reach new heights in the East within this week.

The Security Forces almost reached its climax in the Eastern theatre this week with the capture of areas in the West and South of Batticaloa including the Chenkaladi Maha Oya Road from the clutches of the Tiger terrorists.

The elite Commandos of the Sri Lanka Army supported by the seventh battalion of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry (7SLLI), sixth, seventh and the eighth battalions of the Gemunu Watch (6,7 & 8 GW) completed their month long mission fully liberating the areas in the South and West of Batticaloa.

The Engineering and Artillery troops also extended their support for the ground troops to make their mission successful.

As it happened in earlier operations in the East, the Security Forces this time too launched this operation, not to capture lands but to liberate the civilian population trapped in the uncleared areas. that was not meant to capture Thoppigala jungles where there were no civilian population.

It was not meant to capture all the uncleared areas in the Batticaloa district including the Thoppigala jungles where no civilian population were living.

The major focus of the Security Forces was to capture the areas West and South of Batticaloa upto the road stretch between Pullimulaia to Chenkaladi on the Badulla-Maha Oya, Chenkaladi A-5 road which was under LTTE control for more than 14 years since 1994.

The area came under the focus of the Security Forces was also located West of Batticaloa Akkaraipattu A-4 road and also south of Batticaloa, Trincomalee A-15 road. The area demarcated for the Security Forces humanitarian operation was an area where nearly 75,000 people were living.

The area located East of the Chenkaladi Maha Oya road and West of Batticaloa was the life line for the Tiger terrorists operating in the Thoppigala jungles, as it provided much needed logistic support and much needed man power through their forcible recruitment drives.

Apart from this, Tigers also made use of this area to de-stabilise the Security Forces in the Vavunathivu, Sathurukondavil, Mailambaveli, Sittandi and Kaluvankerni through intermittent mortar fires targeting both .

The LTTE also launched mortar attacks on the helicopter carrying Western diplomats to Batticaloa when it was stationary at the Webbers ground in Vavunathivu from this direction.

Tiger threats

Under these circumstances it was compulsory on the part of the Security Forces to neutralise Tiger threats coming from this direction using the handful number of mortar launchers located there threatening the lives of both civilians and also of the Security Forces.

According to Security Forces estimates the Tigers had used few 120 mm mortar launchers, and 100 mm Mon Gun located in this area to launch attacks on the Security Forces.

Therefore, it became an essential factor for the Security Forces to capture this area to take full control of the Eastern population thus paralysing the Tiger activities which has now been confined to the Thoppigala jungles.

Thousands of civilians left their villages in the West and South of Batticaloa isolating the Tiger cadres in the areas thus facilitating the Security Forces to liberate the area with zero casualty to civilians as it happened in the Vakarai operation.

An estimated 65,126 civilians left the area prior to the Security Forces humanitarian mission to liberate the area and had taken shelter at the IDP centres in the cleared areas in Batticaloa district adding to the number of civilians who lived in the Batticaloa district after being displaced from the areas in Trincomalee.

It has again turned into a battle fought by the Security Forces in the Eastern theatre, using their strategies and tactics to counter the guerrilla warfare of the Tiger outfit taking the cover of civilian population to thwart military operations to liberate the Tamil population.

The Security Forces again averted face to face confrontations with the Tiger terrorists, deviating from the earlier practices to capture uncleared areas putting the LTTE to the level of a conventional Army.

On February 24, the elite commandos of the Sri Lanka Army were inducted into the area from the southern direction to launch a lightning assault on the Tiger cadres manning the area. The infantry troops from the four infantry battalions were also inducted to the area to consolidate the areas captured after flushing out LTTE cadres.

The troops moved in small groups towards the Northern direction clearing Tiger threats until they captured strategic Vavunathivu from the Tiger grip on March 25. The major confrontations reported on in Unnichchiya tank area on March 08 in which six terrorists were killed and 20 others were injured.

After the capture of strategic Vavunathivu from the Tiger grip troops extended their operation to clear Kokkadichcholai, Kurukkalmadam, Appalamthurai, Mavalimunai and Vellaveli. The Kokkadichcolai Tiger nerve centre had fallen to the hands of the Security Forces on March 28.

The capture of the Kokkadicholai nerve centre was one of the landmarks in this operation as troops could capture much sophisticated conference halls, medical centres and a large haul of weapons from this nerve centres of the Eastern Command of the LTTE.

In the face of advancing Light Infantry troops of the Sri Lanka Army the Tamil Tigers left most of their weapons and fled.

The Army also described the camp as the point of origin of artillery attack directed against the diplomatic officials and Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe injuring the US and Italian ambassadors in Colombo when they recently visited the Weber stadium in Batticaloa.

Defence line

With the fall of Kokkadicholai troops took large areas in the South and West of Batticaloa town under their control after creating sort of a defence line connecting the Vavunathivu and Unnichchiya areas covering the A-5 road from the Eastern sector.

Then onwards the troops continued their humanitarian mission to capture A-5 Chenkaladi - Maha Oya road with the task of liberating the area to facilitate the return of the civilian population displaced from the area and assisting the people to travel from Batticaloa to Badulla using the shortest possible road.

They succeeded in their efforts on Wednesday afternoon after taking full control of the Badulla Maha Oya Chenkaladi road confining estimated 200 to 300 Tiger cadres to 140 square kiolmetres jungle patch in Thoppigala.

During the whole operation, according to Security Forces, 180 LTTE cadres were confirmed killed and 133 LTTE cadres were wounded in action.

The figure has been finalised through the recovery of LTTE bodies and through the verifications from the intercepted radio transmissions of the LTTE and through the statements of the surrendered LTTE cadres.

The areas captured by the Security Forces will soon be handed over to the Police Special Task Force and the Police to maintain law and order in the area and to facilitate the resettlement of displaced civilians.

Though the mission appeared to be a simple operation for the observers the Security Forces had to take a strategic decision to make their mission successful.

First they had to take care of the nearly 100,000 civilian population who had been displaced from their villages while facing the severe criticism from various quarters of society over displaced civilians.

However, the Security Forces were able to manage all those pressures and also to thwart desperate LTTE attempts to blow off their defences using suicide cadres to make their mission successful.

The LTTE also directed mortar fire on the civilians in Santhiveli,Sittandi and Morakotachchenai areas killing eight civilians and injuring 25 civilians.

Through the successful completion of the last lap of the Security Forces mission in the East, they have been able to take full control of the entire civilian population in the Easten province bordering to Yan Oya in the North of Trincomalee and towards the southern tip of the Ampara district bordering to sea.

It was the LTTE which triggered off the battles in the East with their short sighted decision to close the Mavilaru anicut depriving 30,000 people of their basic need of water.

It has now been proved that the initial threat posed by the LTTE in Mavilaru has brought disastrous consequences to the LTTE, after losing full control of the Eastern population and reducing them to the level of jungle fighters in the Eastern theatre.

However this will not be the end of the story. The Security Forces are now poised to face more challenges in the North in their bid to liberate the entire Tamil civilian population from the clutches of the LTTE to free them from unending suffering.

Meanwhile, global satellite communication giant, Intelsat has taken prompt action against the LTTE propaganda material through satellite television.

Piracy

Intelsat announced that they are taking steps to halt the unauthorised use of one of its satellites by the Tigers.

In a statement, Intelsat said their officials, including its technical experts have met with Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the United States, Bernard Goonetilleke to discuss the steps to be taken to put an end to piracy by LTTE.

Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites. Since we first learned of the LTTE's signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions.

We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organisation's unauthorised use of our satellite," Intelsat's General Counsel, Phillip Spector was quoted as saying."