The truth will prevail

By Ranil Wijayapala

Four years have elapsed since Sri Lanka achieved that great victory against the LTTE, described by the United States as the most ruthless terror outfit in the world, worse than Hamas guerrillas of Palestine. Whatever, the enormity of the victory in the context of Sri Lanka, throughout the past four years, different people tend to observe this victory from different perspectives.

The Western world sees this as a victory of a majority community against a minority community while the Global Tamil community sees this as an invasion of Tamil habitats in the North and the East against their wish by the Security Forces. For human rights bodies, the victory of the Security Forces is a bundle of human rights and humanitarian law violations against the 'innocent' LTTE cadres and Tamil civilians.

They all have the right to make their own observations based on the feedback about the conflict in Sri Lanka and nobody can deny them of that opportunity. Whatever the comment or observation they made on the victory achieved by the valiant Security Forces in Sri Lanka on May 19, 2009 they have to keep in mind, that only the people of this country whether they live in the North, South, East or the West, are the only segment who can make a true assessment of the terrorism for nearly three decades and came to an end on May 19, 2009.

Any of us in this country will not disagree under any circumstances with the defeat of the LTTE terrorism which was the root cause that kept the entire nation in constant fear for decades. Therefore, as we walk freely on the streets of Colombo or in the North and the East today, we feel the true meaning of defeating that terror outfit once and for all other than that anybody looking at the process is doing so with a biased mind and with a sense of creating an issue.

Truly speaking the process of defeating the terrorists was not a simple task. As a defence correspondent, intensely engaged in covering terrorism in Sri Lanka, I felt the seriousness of that effort made by the Security Forces. Therefore , for me, it was a process of fighting against the evil force after filtering them from the common masses.

The people who have witnessed, the way bullets came from Tiger guns and ripped through fellow citizen, the way people who have no connection with terrorism were blown off into pieces in bomb blasts and the way truly democratic leaders who made tireless efforts to see that the conflict was resolved in a peaceful manner and were shot down mercilessly had their strong support for the Government to go ahead with the humanitarian operation. Therefore, it was at a time, the conflict reached a momentum with the closure of the 'Mavil Aru' sluice gates on July 22, 2006.

The so-called groups who backed the LTTE at that time would never have thought that 'Mavil Aru' was only a trap the LTTE had created to push the Security Forces to fire the first bullet in the battle and then becoming the victim. The true intention of liberating the people form the clutches of terrorism finally made the Security Forces victorious less than three years after the military operations to eliminate the LTTE.

Though the Mavil Aru operation was only a reaction to the situation, the remaining humanitarian operation was well-planned. Never in the three decades of terrorism no such calculated and well-organised effort was made to defeat the LTTE and the LTTE also never thought for a moment that they would fac such a miserable situation during their existence. But it was the endurance of the Security Forces even in the worst situation they faced was the basic element that led to the victory of the Security Forces.

The Security Forces ability to withstand the massive attack launched on the Kattaparichchan Army detachment on August 2 2006 that continued for more than five days and the massive attack by the LTTE on the Kilali, Muhamalai and Nagar Kovil Forward Defence Line on August 11, 2006 were the key victories for the Security Forces that enabled them to achieve continued successes in the Eastern, Wanni and Northern operations without any setback. Even today the battles fought in Kattaparichchan and Muhamalai are recalled with gratitude for the troops who withstood the massive attack launched by the LTTE.

Though the initial battles were planned as reactions to the LTTE attacks the rest of the humanitarian operation was planned for the LTTE to react to the situation. It was so systematically planned to eliminate all roots of terror outfit confronting them at regional level and confronting the top leaders at the tale end of the humanitarian operation leaving the Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to fight to the end until he faced his death in the mangroves on the banks of Nanthikadal lagoon in Mullaitivu on May 19, 2009.

Even though seven years have already passed from the date the Humanitarian operation was started from Mavil Aru in July 2006, the photographic memory of those unforgeable event unfold in my mind like a film that highlight the battle of humanity Vs inhumanity.

From the successes beginning from Mavil Aru in July 2006, the victorious troop marched on their path clearing the LTTE strongholds Sampur on September 2, 2006, Vakarai on January 19, 2007, the liberation of East of A-5 Chenkaladi Maha Oya road on April 10, 2007 and capturing the Thoppigala or the Baron's Cap on July 11, 2007 to declare that the Eastern province is free of Tiger strongholds.

The Sri Lanka Air Force and the Sri Lanka Navy made their contribution by way of providing air support and the Navy by making the LTTE starve of armament to fight the war. The destruction of the floating warehouses of the LTTE by the Sri Lanka Navy made them more miserable.

The political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa combined with the military leadership, leadership of the ground commanders, the bravery of the soldiers and the strong support came from the civilian population towards the Security Forces effort with the flow of youth towards the Security Forces made the victory more inevitable for the Security Forces. The approach made by the ground troops by creating a massive front in the Wanni theatre with the formation of 57 Division, 59 Division, Task Force I which was later converted into 58 Division and the eight Task Forces formed in the Wanni theatre made the LTTE untenable in the same soil they fought against the Security Forces for more than two decades.

That led to sweeping the LTTE from their strong holds in Pooneryn, Elephant Pass, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu leaving them to fight the final battle in Puthukudiyiruppu and Wellamulliwaikkal in the banks of Nanthikadal lagoon after the Northern front also combined with the Wanni troops follwing the capture of Elephant Pass in January 2009.

Though the capturing of their strongholds were significant in militaristic sense the most prominent feature of this humanitarian operation was the Security Forces ability to liberate the civilians who lived a pathetic life under the LTTE rule becoming a shield for their military purposes.

Therefore, the civilians flooded from Puthumathalan became the central point of the victory of the Security Forces throughout the entire humanitarian operation as they could prove to the world about their capability to fight a war whilst safeguarding the rights of the people to live.

That may be the prime reason to augur heavy criticism over the final stages of the humanitarian operation over an imaginary figure of civilian deaths which may have calculated by them using their own criteria.

Those critics who are making baseless allegations through the Darusman Report and through many other international media totally biased on the Tamil Diaspora have never considered that the LTTE never had the intention of protecting the lives of civilians.

But it was the prime duty of the Security Forces to take even greater risks in protecting their lives.

Therefore, it is sad to observe that the Security Forces who had fearlessly fought a war against the most ruthless terror outfit armed with their band of suicide cadres have to fight another battle with those so-called critics making their observations without considering the ground reality of the Sri Lankan conflict.

But it is patently clear that the truth will prevail over the millions of lies and imaginations as Security Forces who fought this battle had the true intention of liberating the civilians.