Tigers desperate to save face as Muttur gamble fails

Dushy RANETUNGE

MAVILARU: There have been reports in the press, especially the pro-LTTE sections that LTTE cadres are in Muttur town. A person informed me this morning "There may be more LTTE cadres in Colombo town, although they are not firing."

For obvious reasons I cannot attribute this comment to the person who made it. This article was written at 7.00am on Friday morning. Within the last hour, separate security forces including reinforcements were sent into link up in Muttur and the LTTE's desperate initiatives in Muttur were being frustrated.

The few remaining LTTE cadres left in Muttur town were being hunted down as this report was being filed.

The LTTE has run out of steam. Its desperate initiatives were being frustrated one by one. The master strategist of the LTTE who decided to deprive water to civilians in the Mavilaru area played right into the governments hands and as the government resorted to military action and began moving to forcefully re-establish the water supply, the LTTE found itself losing ground and its reputation before the forces of Tamil nationalism.

Out of sheer desperation, to distract from its impending humiliation, the LTTE chose to overrun a thinly defended Muslim town of Muttur.

The Military high command commented last night (Thursday) at 9.30pm that "no one expected the LTTE to go around terrorising a thinly defended Muslim town."

He also confirmed that the large numbers of soldiers who were targeted by the LTTE while travelling from Kankasanturai to Trincomalee by ship were soldiers going off duty from Jaffna and were not re-enforcements redeployed in the East, from the North.

This action of terrorising a thinly defended Muslim town was a desperate diversionary tactic, and the pro-LTTE sections of the press went to town, presenting it as some heroic act and a great military victory for the terrorists.

The LTTE fed this perception by the now familier handing over of dead bodies, 40 in this instance.

This is the LTTE's way of raising a cheer from the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora and running away with dead bodies of military personnel is a part of this game.

It was however an expensive misadventure in terms of loss of cadres and alienating the local Muslims further and now facing total humiliation of being evicted from its short lived heroic invasion.

Deception and distortion are common mode of operation of the forces of Tamil nationalism. It is seen by them as a necessary tool in facing a superior enemy.

While the LTTE propaganda vehicle, Tamilnet will report hundreds of LTTE cadres been seen entering Muttur town, it is unlikely to report that the hundreds of LTTE cadres seen entering Muttur town and terrorising the local Muslim population were also seen running out of Muttur town in the face of a military onslaught.

In reality the LTTE never gained control of Muttur. The LTTE cadres were in some parts of Muttur, while the armed forces were in other parts, but the entry of LTTE cadres into Muttur allowed the LTTE to present it as some great military victory and create a diversion from an embarrassing situation.

Like a monkey jumping from tree to tree, the LTTE is jumping from crisis to crisis, trying desperately to salvage some credibility and self respect from a desperate situation, sacrificing its cadres as it gambles and throws the dice for the umpteenth time hoping for some favourable outcome.

The press led by the defence specialists meanwhile predicts doom and gloom for the umpteenth time that total war has broken out or that it's around the corner this time for sure.

These specialists have been predicting that war has been around the corner for quite a while now, and it's getting awfully tiresome.

The Government and the LTTE maintains that they will stick to the ceasefire agreement while the Norwegians want both sides to pull back and restore water to the civilians.

Total war has not broken out and it's unlikely to break out. What we are witnessing are local LTTE misadventures, going all-pear-shaped. If total war breaks out we will all know, because the army will be in the Vanni, going after the LTTE.

There is another interesting development. The LTTE no longer has a monopoly on suicide cadres, as an incident inside terrorist occupied territory confirmed last week.

There is a distinct difference in the mode of operation of the UNP administration and that of the present administration.

The UNP administration pursued a policy that was perceived by the general population as one of appeasement of terrorists.

The present administration seems to take up any challenge the LTTE presents on the basis that whatever the LTTE does, it can do better.

The latter policy obviously has majority support in the community. By depriving water to civilians in Mavilaru, the LTTE has succeeded enraging the Sinhala population and now the Muslims and mobilising support for the government as never before in the rural constituency, with increasing numbers in favour of total war with full mobilisation irrespective of cost to the economy.