Final battle to eliminate terrorism:

Soldiers followed all humanitarian norms - Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

“We will never hand over this war to the next generation”, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s deep voice vowing to command a fresh battle against the world’s deadliest terrorists may have reverberated in the Eastern sky soon after re-opening of the sluice gates of the Mavil Aru.

Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva

Under new political command, the soldiers who fought with renewed energy had liberated vital areas of the LTTE, including Thoppigala, the LTTE’s most strategic point in the East. The entire East was liberated. It was the first mission to liberate civilians under the LTTE in mid 2007.

Then all military energy - man and fire power- was poured to the Northern liberation. The new divisions and Task Forces gradually entered the operation making the battle more strong. The new Division 57 commenced its operations from Vavuniya and Task Force 1, which was commanded by Brigadier Chagie Gallage (now Maj. General), contributed to capture Thoppigala turned into 58 Division. With its new Commanding Officer Brig. Shavendra Silva (now Maj. General) started its military push from Mannar and the main target was capturing the Mannar Rice Bowl. Later the 59 Division entered the battle from the Welioya front. Later it grew to five offensive divisions and several Task Forces.

From 2007, the battle to destroy the LTTE was on with more vigour and the LTTE’s land domination of 15,000 sqms started to shrink with each inch that soldiers stepped into.

That is the birth of the 58 division, which spearheaded the world’s biggest hostage rescue operation this year.“We looked after whoever who sought our protection.

From the civilians to terrorists all were provided with water, food, medicine and shelter”, Director General Operations of the Sri Lanka Army Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva, the former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 58 Div said recalling how his division had captured land under the LTTE and saved thousands who lived under LTTE terror.

Fighting in the Mannar Rice Bowl was not easy for the soldiers as the terrain was more open with lots of water bodies.

The zigzag earth bunds by LTTE were totally new to the soldiers. Since Brig. Silva was also the Brigade Commander of the Commando Brigade he made use of the skills of the Commandos with the infantry troops to gain ground in the Mannar Rice bowl.While the battle was still slow as the offensives were mainly conducted during night taking the cover of the darkness, the soldiers found creeping and crawling into the Tiger was a new experience in vast open terrain which allowed enemy to dominate the ground by observation for miles.

“It was a tough game as the LTTE pumped their maximum to hold the ground and they never wanted to lose their territory. Our aim was not to gain ground but to have more kills”, Maj. Gen Silva said.

As the Army progressed well capturing key grounds of the Tigers, the initial target, which was 10 minimum kills a day went up to 15 minimum kills a day. Though the soldiers of the 58 division still had a slow move they reached the target of destroying more LTTEers.

“While having a slow move on ground and less casualties, we trained our troops to be familiar with the ground and got ready for the future battles. We promoted team work and identified the capabilities of each battalion. We introduced the motto: ‘Unity is strength’.

According to Maj. Gen. Silva, this brought immense benefits to get to know the capabilities of the battalions and their members ranging from commanders down to section level, even for that matter, those who are in the Forward Defence Lines. They also got a chance to be aware about the requirements of the Division Commander.

During their operation to capture Mannar Rice Bowl that dragged for eight - months, they confirmed over 2,030 terrorists casualties and according to the LTTE an equal number got injured. While, the LTTE pumped in more of their cadres to the battle, the 58 division preserved their troops.

Except for a few civilians who sought refugee, the majority were taken further North by the LTTE after the liberation of the Rice Bowl. They were convinced by the LTTE that they would not lose ground and their victory was certain.

An Army soldier carrying a disabled Tamil woman during humanitarian operations

Innocent people seemed to be largely misled by the LTTE. Most people believed the LTTE propaganda and they - some willingly but majority forcefully remained with the LTTE” he said.

The first female LTTE captive was taken by the 58 division during their operations at the Rice Bowl. Then in two other occasions, three LTTE under-aged girls and a teacher surrendered to the Army. One girl with severe wounds was airlifted to the Anuradhapura Hospital from the battle field to save her life.

“We did not kill any of these captives. The soldiers always honoured humanity and we treated them not like terrorists but as another unfortunate set of misguided people who needed protection under our wing”, he said.

The 58 division which captured vital townships and locations of the LTTE including Vellankulan, Mulankavil, Nachchikuda, Jayapuram, Pooneryn, Paranthan, Elephant Pass, Kilinochchi and Dharamapuram, got ready to save lives of the fleeing civilians, after capturing Vishuwamadu January this year.

A female suicide bomber, mingling with civilians, blew herself while screening was under way in an IDP centre in Vishuwamadu. Ten including small children and women who escaped the LTTE had died and over 40 civilians and three women soldiers got injured. The LTTE, which wanted to prevent civilians fleeing had initiated suicide missions.

“After capturing Vishuwamadu civilians had realized that the Army would not give up the battle and their faith in the LTTE was fast fading. The LTTE tried hard to stop civilians and cadres abandoning the outfit. People protested against recruiting their children to the LTTE”, he said.

Maj. Gen. Silva said that it was a huge challenge for the 58 division as they were entrusted to rescue civilians, who were just pouring in. “My biggest task was to keep a balance with the military operations to capture the last patch of land, holding ground and rescue people from LTTE while taking care of their initial needs”, he said.

He said as some pro-LTTE elements and the sympathizers all over were trying to cook up stories on how we treated the civilians, the eyes of the entire world was directed at the operation, government gave strict orders to maintain zero civilian casualty rates.“Although, we wanted to move fast, we could not do so as we were instructed to give maximum care to these civilians. On April 19 within two hours civilians started crossing from Puthumathalan to Pudukudirippu through the lagoon after SF (Special Forces) entered the other side of the land”, he said.

Maj. Gen. Silva said that the Sri Lanka Army had never handled such an operation before, where checking, feeding, treating wounds, transporting the civilians while facing the risk of suicide bombers and fighting to liberate land to destroy the remaining terrorists who were still fighting and terrorizing civilians trying to flee were simultaneously occurring.

He said they also wanted to make a good impression about the soldiers among the civilians who were going forward to have contact with outsiders for the first time in their lives or some for after decades. Simply, the devilish image of the Sri Lankan soldiers portrayed by the LTTE needed to be erased, with good care and giving the message that they were in safe hands.

Meanwhile the mentality of the soldiers in the forward lines was also looked into.They needed to be motivated to welcome them with more humanity despite the threats of suicide attempts. He said that ground commanders in this instance including all Brigade Commanders, Battalion Commanders down to the level of Section Commanders handled it well with adorable commitment.

The divisions including other offensive divisions and Task Forces moved forward to with a single purpose - to capture the last remaining LTTE dominated Puthumathalan to get their biggest catch - Vellupillai Prabhakaran, who still ordered to kill innocent civilians who tried to save their lives.

The West and LTTE sympathizers were active again and pressurised the government to stop the battle while warning about a heavy blood bath. The government never wavered and stood firmly in its mission. The military march to liberate the rest of the civilians was not abandoned though it got slowed due to restrictions on using fire power.It was May 17 that the second biggest flow of civilians from Puthumathalan sought protection. There were over 80,000 civilians.

“We waited until the last civilian reached us. Even at the last minute, the LTTE thought of holding ground and attacking the soldiers. They sent suicide bombers, who killed innocent civilians who ran for life and also soldiers who rescued them”, he said.The soldiers including female soldiers had a tough time with checking civilians which took at least 10 minutes for each person. One female soldier got injured due to ‘a stray bullet’ as the terrorists still in the last edge of Puthumathalan were firing at civilians. The soldiers skipped their meals to feed the civilians. Using their additional stocks of rice and flour, the Army provided food to each and every civilian who was starving for days. Water bowsers pumped water continuously as there was a big demand for water to drink and bathe.

On May 18, the Army waited till the last batch of civilians reached them. Those, especially, the old and sick , who were abandoned by their families, were saved. The last group with six members of the clergy and 78 orphans reached the 58 division at 6 pm.

“I had communication with these fathers for weeks but as the LTTE was shooting people, they could not reach us. When they came to us we transported them safely and gave all facilities”, Maj. Gen. Silva who says that 58 division rescued over 190,000 civilians.Among the LTTE cadres surrendered, there were child girl soldiers who were recruited months and weeks before May 18 by the LTTE. “Whoever who came to surrender without arms, we took all of them in. George Master and Daya Master were also among them.We easily identified the girl soldiers as they were with short hair and they came in crying in fear as the LTTE had taught them the soldiers would kill them when surrendering.

I had to deploy female soldiers to explain them what was going there and soldiers would save their lives”, he said.Today, over 11,000 ex-LTTE cadres, including former child-soldiers are under rehabilitation. The Majority of them were forcibly recruited by the LTTE during the last stages of the battle and surrendered to the Army abandoning the outfit.Then the 58 Division soldiers moved in to the last remaining patch, where the remaining cadres were fighting to save their leaders’ lives.

The division commander and the battalion commanders had another task of motivating the soldiers to fight until they captured the body of Prabhakaran, whose body was not found among the dead initially.“The battle was concluded after we liberated the last patch of LTTE held area of Kariyamulliwaikkal. The end of the 30-year-old bloody war was few hours away and all the soldiers wanted to live to see the victory.

The hunt for Prabhakaran was going on. We faced a difficult to ask soldiers to go closer a few meters as the last few hours would be deadly with the LTTE suicide cadres”, he said.However, making every one happy the hunt ended successfully killing Prabhakaran and his trustworthy body guards in the early hours of May 19.

The Director General Operations said that in the end battle, the encirclement of 600 LTTE cadres, in which prominent leaders like Theepan, the LTTE’s Northern military chief, Bhanu and several female LTTE leaders like Dhurga and Vidusha got killed in the East of Puthukudiriyappu, was the major turning point of the battle.“It was the first ever encirclement done by the Army.

Earlier we talked about encirclements only in theory books. This was carried out by the soldiers of the 58 division and 53 division under the command of then Acting GOC Brig, Chagie Gallage. It was a big success and the first major defeat with regard to the LTTE’s leadership occurred after that operation.They lost their major players. I believe that if we did not do that the final battle would have dragged for some more days. Prabhakaran suffered without good leadership after this”, he pointed out.Thanking the media, he said that media coverage made the people to believe that the war was going to end and the battle was truly going on.

“The media was dedicated and played a pivotal role in our mission. People started believing the battle and in turn they gave us immense support. They sent their children without hesitation as they know very well that the war was heading to an end”, he added.Recalling the early days that the battles were abandoned due to poor manpower, Maj. Gen. Silva said they never stopped the battle due to shortage of manpower to hold the ground. He cited that facilities of latest technology was another advantage.

The UAVs had played a very vital role in capturing ground. Starting from the 58 division, all the other offensive divisions were given UAV facilities and it helped to get a good study about the ground and the behaviour of the LTTE before fighting commenced.“The Air Force also played a major role and they took very accurate LTTE targets. They helped immensely in casualty evacuation”, he added. The Air force on the instructions of the Secretary of Defense kept a separate fighter pilot to assist and control the air support which helped accelerate the momentum towards the eradication of Tiger resistance.The soldiers of the 58 Division which captured the largest number of LTTE strongholds covering over 203 kilometres from Mannar Rice Bowl to Kariyamullivaikkal stand tall.

The soldiers of the other divisions - 53, 55, 57 and 59 and Task Forces - 2, 3, 4 and 8 were equally credited for the mission - humanitarian and military - accomplished on May 19 ending Asia’s longest war, killing the world’s most ruthless terrorist leader and rescuing the world’s largest number of civilians kept hostage by the terrorists.