Liberating the civilians from the clutches of the LTTE

BATTLE: The Security Forces and the LTTE is now engaged in a fierce battle in the Eastern theatre. This battle has now turned out be the most significant battle that has been ever fought in the history in the North East conflict since it is going to decide the fate of a near 30,000 population forcibly held by the LTTE as a human shield.

Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka on Wednesday making a statement to the media said that LTTE would be driven out of the Eastern battle ground so that the civilians could pursue their daily lives peacefully.

The Security Forces, having fought several battles on humanitarian grounds, first in Mavilaru to restore the water supply to more than 30,000, then in Sampur to facilitate the resettlement of Muslims in Muttur is now engaged in another humanitarian task of liberating another section of people forcibly kept by the LTTE jackboot.

Following their Muttur and Sampur experience the LTTE had taken advantage of the presence of civilian population to launch attacks in Vakarai and Kathirveli. According to the civilians who fled the area the LTTE is forcibly keeping nearly 20,000 people who had moved into the Vakarai area from Sampur once the Security Forces started moving toward Sampur in early September.

Out of the nearly 10,000 original inhabitants of Vakarai and Kathirveli there have been a steady exodus towards Valachchenai braving the LTTE fire and mine fields. But, the Tigers are keeping the Sampur population, majority of them are from Mahaveer families to serve the needs of the fighting LTTE cadres.

According to accounts of the civilians who fled the area even a majority of these Mahaveer families too were in desperate need of leaving LTTE territory without being willing victims of Tiger machinations.

Having realised the human tragedy caused by the LTTE acts the Government in a message sent to LTTE through Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hansen Bauer requested the LTTE to create a safe haven for the civilians, allowing them to move towards safer areas.

But the LTTE flatly rejected the Government request totally disregarding the plight of these civilians.

Instead they used the human shield they were having in Kathirveli and Vakarai to evict the Sinhala villagers in Mahindapura, Kallar, Agbopura, Serunuwara, Arippu and other Sinhala settlements extending their artillery and mortar fires towards these Sinhala villages commencing December 07.

Due to the artillery fire directed towards Somadevi Vidyalaya in Serunuwara and another round of artillery shells fell into the village resulting in the deaths of five civilians.

This prompted the civilian population living there to leave their villages and move towards Kanthale and take refuge at schools and temples in the area.

The Security Forces noticed that the LTTE had moved their guns towards Echchlampattu in the North of Vakarai and towards and Thonithandamadu area in the West of Vakarai.

The Infantry battalions in the general area of Mahindapura on December 09 in order to neutralise the LTTE gun positions in Echchalampattu, moved physically towards the area confronting a large number of LTTE cadres.

During this battle Security Forces were able to push the LTTE cadres further south of Mahindapura killing more than 30 of them.

In this battle two Security Forces personnal were also killed and four others reported missing during this limited operation aimed at neutralising LTTE gun positions directed towards the villages of Mahindapura, Kallar, Serunuwara and Alioluwa areas.

On the same date LTTE intensified its artillery and mortar fires towards Kajuwatta and Mankerni Forward Defences using their 120 mm mortar launchers and 122 mm canons from Kathirveli and Vakarai areas.

On December 10 the infantry troops from 23 Division in Welikanda physically moved ahead of the Kajuwatta Forward Defence line and towards Thonithandamadu to neutralise the 120 mm mortar position of the LTTE.

The Security Forces successfully destroyed the LTTE 120 mm mortar launcher killing nearly 40 LTTE cadres wounding a large number in the process.

Six soldiers were also killed and 19 sustained injuries in this confrontation.

Meanwhile, the Security Forces at Kajuwatta FDL also went ahead of the FDL and took control over the first and second Defence Lines of the LTTE inflicting heavy casualties to LTTE cadres. During this confrontation Security Forces confirmed that 47 LTTE cadres had been killed.

Two Army Officers and 16 soldiers were killed during this clash while two officers and 47 other rankers were injured.

The Security Forces had to suffer due to the continuous artillery fire directed from the LTTE in Vakarai and Kathirveli using 120 mm mortar launchers, 122 mm artillery guns located in densely populated areas of Vakarai and Kathirveli and the 152 mm gun located in the Palchena area.

The Security Forces were very careful not to be provoked by the artillery attacks directed from these populated areas since such a reaction would have had brought detrimental consequences on the civilians forcibly kept at schools and other public places by the LTTE.

If the Security Forces were able to neutralise these artillery guns they would have easily faced LTTE cadres on the ground compelling them to retreat towards the Thoppigala jungles. The Security Forces moved ahead of Kajuwatta FDL and discovered how the LTTE was keeping buffer food stocks from the food convoys sent by the Government for the use of civilians living in the Vakarai area.

Here the Security Forces found the food stocks provided by the Government and the NGOs for the civilians which were safely stocked in underground bunkers by the LTTE.

The LTTE has kept the Panichchankerni bridge as a reserve for demolition by setting explosives in each part of the bridge to explode the bridge at any given time using a remote control devise.

The Security Forces acted very humanely when conducting this operation to salvage 30,000 people from the clutches of terrorism. The Security Forces unlike the LTTE allowed the ICRC to bring the civilian casualties to Valachchena hospitals.

The Security Forces now believe that the LTTE is using two 122 mm artillery guns, two 120 mm mortar launchers and 152 high calibre artillery guns to launch their assaults on Security Forces.

The LTTE is also using 'Mon gun' manufactured by the outfit, in the Vakarai area.

The Security Forces having conducted operations in the area west of Panichchankerni lagoon for the past few weeks also killed 296 LTTE cadres in different confrontations. They also learnt through communication intercepts that more than 133 LTTE cadres had sustained injuries during these confrontations.

Therefore, the coming days will be very crucial for the civilians living under the forced seige of the LTTE would they breath the air of freedom or become unfortunate victims of terrorism.