Captains Courageous

Lalin FERNANDO Maj. General (Retd)

ATTACK: August 2006 began with depress. Great numbers of our troops sacrificed their lives as they fought to repulse diversionary attacks of the LTTE profusely supported by artillery and mortar fire on many fronts in Jaffna.

This was an attempt made to overrun the Muhamalai and Nagar Kovil defences and to divert attention from the Mavil Aru confrontation where arguably an unnecessary battle had been fought. It was followed by a LTTE dawn attack to capture Muttur.

Such attacks in the past had been successful for the LTTE but not this time. Many were killed and thousands of civilians were made homeless. When repulsed, the LTTE retreated in their customary mode callously using civilians as human shields.

They also utterly devastated the infrastructure of the town. In Colombo where sporadic suicide bomb attacks took place, the Pakistan High Commissioner survived a claymore mine blast which tragically killed four Commandos and several civilians.

This was the first time that a Diplomatic Head of Mission was targeted by the LTTE but not the first time that foreigners were attacked by them. A Japanese monk preaching peace was killed in Jaffna and an English woman was kidnapped by them on the A9 in the mid 1980s.

The Tri Nations cricket series was abandoned beginning with the decision of the Boer element of the Proteas to 'springbok' out from our shores. It was followed by two weeks of torrential rain which while creating floods and landslides brought deaths and injuries to hundreds.

From the gathering gloom out stepped our captains of courage. They stood there tall and steadfast. The Defence Force commanders and their officers and men at all levels using their well honed professional skills and years of experience met the LTTE, unflinchingly.

Over 130 soldiers died as against over 750 from the LTTE. A heavy price to pay for any nation, ironically with a CFA legally in force. The troops dramatically retrieved our fortunes and restored our morale to a level it had not been for many years.

Even as we mourned the distressingly huge human toll of the conflict, the nation gratefully acknowledged that this time the Armed Forces fulfilled their duties. Many died in doing so. The courageous captains stood by them and the country.

The results are there for all to see. Nowhere were the LTTE able to sustain their offensives. They were routed and lost young men and women piteously and horrendously. It was all to satisfy the blood lust of Prabhakaran, the man who has publicly stated that they must all die if he cannot achieve what he wants.

Following an insane credo firmed in on a suicide mentality, it fulfils its leader's wish to commit hundreds of its brainwashed youth to death for an unattainable objective. One in which only its leader and his cronies believe.

So far no Tamil who has fled the fighting has opted to get into territory the LTTE holds unless it was closer and thus easier to avoid the incoming LTTE fire.

Colombo's population is not only 40% Tamil but it continues to be home for nearly all Tamils who have abandoned the rigours of the Wanni and the promises of the self appointed God father and his bodyguards for 23 years. Can the International Community understand this?

The LTTE being so caring for the Tamils blocked even the very food convoys meant for the people of Jaffna and those living under its fascist grip in the Wanni. One has only to look at the hundreds of stringy dead bodies of the LTTE and compare them to the spreading flesh on the Killinochchi junta to know where the best part of the food convoys that the GoSL sends to the Wanni ends up.

Unfortunately its conscripted cannon fodder cannot escape from the LTTE and has merely to do and die. Backing the LTTE are others living comfortable lives here and abroad. They support the LTTE financially and psychologically, ignoring with intent that they are contributing determinedly only to a burgeoning roll of martyrs. The supporters however are not all Tamils.

They include a few Sinhala businessmen who for anything from 30 pieces of silver to thousands of dollars have betrayed their countrymen. They have worked night and day not only funnelling money to the LTTE but also attempting to suborn the Armed Forces to the extent even of promoting desertion. When the bombs go off in Colombo they are missing in action, having bugged out from Sri Lanka.

They return only when everything is settled. They then cover their tracks with a deluge if not a barrage of ostensible 'patriotism' contributing funds to the Armed Services and charity to cover their treachery.

Today the vast majority in the country acknowledge that the Defence Forces have shown their boldness. This includes many who being politically aligned and through desperation and fear blindly backed the infamous MoU.

The thinking now is that we should be able to negotiate a solution to the conflict for once from a position of strength. They realise that supinely waiting for the LTTE to agree on any sort of peace we must have was futile. Massive brain washing together with the earlier failure of the Forces to act decisively made them doubt that there was an alternative.

Today the Army which took the brunt of the fighting and the casualties as well as the SLN and the SLAF are led by officers who not only have been in the crucible of battle during their entire careers but have proved themselves. They believe in their ability to fulfil their duties to the country.

The Army has been inspired by a brazenly confident Army Commander who having led throughout from the front in his 36 years of service, knows his troops intimately.

He refuses to be cowed down either by retired mercenaries of the International and local Brigades or their bountifully looked after local collaborators and contractors. This too after being at the receiving end of a failed suicide attack.

Importantly the Forces are also better equipped than they were ever before. They are today tasked to do what they can and must do and are supported with the wherewithal unlike previously when they were short of even replacements for their uniforms and sufficient ammo for their annual weapon firing. Their morale has never been so high since the days of Generals Kobbekaduwa and Wimalaratne.

The Navy which remained at action stations right through the phoney peace of the CFA continues to absolutely dominate the seas and rule the waves. The SLAF has performed audaciously and brilliantly. It has neutralised the LTTE support bases and fire power.

It is instead the overwhelming patriotism of the rural folk that brings home the truth of the sacrifices made by the servicemen and the police for the country. The impromptu but stirring words of Susanthika Jayasinghe paying tribute to the Defence Forces after the SAF games were truly inspirational.

She, our only Olympic Bronze medallist publicly acknowledged the part the defence forces played not only in safeguarding the integrity of the country but by doing so also enabling the country to host the SAF games.

It was an eye opener not only for the Minister of Sports but all those who are never deprived of a good night's sleep in the comfort of their homes while our soldiers bravely died, day and night.

This is something to be immensely valued in a country that has spawned detached and contemptible elite who if they are not, are very close to being traitors to the nation and collaborators of the LTTE. Thank you Susanthika and may you win gold at the Asian games too.

There is an unseen hand in our fortunes too. The absence of Karuna in the battle order of the LTTE. His men led personally by him were earlier the shock troops and spearhead of the LTTE. He no longer serves Prabhakaran.

There has been little love lost between the Jaffna and Batticaloa Tamils even though as Tamils they made common cause in their fight for recognition of their legitimate rights for over 20 years. It must have struck Karuna that his men who bore the brunt of the casualties then, were being treated as expendables with an ulterior purpose.

While the megalomaniac Prabhakaran strove to gain ascendancy over the GoSL, Karuna's troops were being gradually neutered. Karuna must have seen that in the promised but elusive Eelam, the eastern Tamils would without its fighters be subservient to Prabha and his worshippers from the North.

Whatever it was Karuna made his move to save the Tamils of the East by splitting from Prabha. The LTTE no longer has the luxury of throwing in the formidable eastern Tamils to make the breakthrough in every battle. It has to conscript more little girls and boys but this time only from the Wanni.

The eastern Tamils have preserved their manhood for the day of reckoning. Curiously some of the media became deliriously ill when Karuna broke away from Prabha. They wept for the havoc it caused the LTTE and their own dreams. They did their deadliest to expose Karuna's whereabouts and his benefactors. Karuna kept the faith.

The Muslims have once again been at the receiving end of the LTTE, this time in the East. The Gampola Gab is the lose cannon in their times of grief and misery. Being both deaf and blind to what the LTTE does, he pretends to be a leader.

Unlike Arafat he doesn't visit the front lines. His utterances may have caused concern at the beginning but later provided only dark humour in a grim situation. He blamed the Army for the casualties suffered during the LTTE artillery shelling on Muttur.

To know how big is his gab one must remember his repartee when as a Minister he was questioned about the need for a hospital in Olluvil. He responded with "why, you think there can be only Sinhalese hospitals"? He offers no hope.

The Eastern Muslims fortunately have plenty of brave men and women who will provide selfless leadership. They have already shown it.

The country is finally being led by a new set of leaders who wish to assert its sovereignty. Previous leaders did their best to convince the people that buckling under the LTTE threats was the road to survival. They failed to say it was their personal survival that they were thinking of.

Our soldiers in common with other South Asian nations are neither going to Iraq nor are they interested in chewing gum or religious revivals. They have a job to do here.

The country's leaders today unlike the earlier dead beats are not afraid to say they can overcome the LTTE. They are also willing to face the bloody responses of the LTTE.

The country has paid a heavy price for their leaders' boldness but has not taken a step backwards. The ones who did so carry on materially if not internationally rewarded but are forgotten or despised. The present leaders carry the hopes of their countrymen.

That is a heavy burden to bear after over 23 years of fighting and 60,000 deaths. There is no reward for them except in the hearts of a people whose only wish is to see that the scourge of the LTTE is diminished and peace is ushered.

Hopefully the sacrifices made now will usher in peace with honour and justice to all. Let the International Community meanwhile not forget their past before they preach.

They must remember their contribution to international disorder from their time as colonial masters to the present in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon to Africa.

We too must identify and punish the murderers of the five youth on the beaches at Trincomalee and the 17 aid workers in Muttur if our way can be called correct. Then only can we stand tall in this time of anguish and still live in hope.