Mavilaru precipitated LTTE’s downfall in the East

Forces close to fully liberating the province:

LOSING GROUND: The LTTE made a major mistake in mid last year when they decided to close the Mavilaru anicut depriving water to more than 30,000 people. On paper they had a better argument to justify their decision to close the Mavilaru anicut.

But, the genuine intention of the LTTE was not what they had declared publicly to justify their cause but to drag the Government to the path of war.

However, they themselves admitted the fact that miscalculation of the capabilities of the Security Forces and the over-estimation of their military capability strategies led the LTTE to take this decision which has turned out to be a suicidal one for them.

The Security Forces who were on constant vigilance from the date the Government and the LTTE signed the Ceasefire Agreement and with the boost of morale they had after the appointment of a correct leadership for the Armed Forces were unmistaken in their conclusions about the possibility of Tiger operations to capture Trincomalee and then the heart of Jaffna peninsula.

The strong preparedness on the part of the Security Forces, after having a clear picture on the LTTE strategies,

 to face any eventuality of an LTTE offensive had led them to the path of victory in the East thus laying a strong foundation to face any type of Tiger assault on the Security Forces whether it is in the Wanni or in the Jaffna peninsula.

The sequence of the LTTE defeats in other words, the winning trend of the Security Forces began from Mavilaru. Then, it shifted to Sampur and later to the areas West Muttur like Upparu, Gangai, Manirasakulam, areas which were tactically held by the LTTE to cripple the operations at the Trincomalee harbour and the Naval Base.

The liberation of these areas from the Tiger grip placed the Security Forces on a strong footing to face other battles in the East specially in Vakarai where the LTTE made use of all their tactics to keep the area under their control even without any regard for the lives of innocent civilians.

With the most humiliating defeats the Tiger cadres had faced the Tigers are now on the retreat in the East and fighting their final battle in the rocky jungles in Thoppigala which had once been the stronghold of the LTTE under the leadership of now renegade leader Muralitharan alias Karuna.

Troops engaged in this humanitarian operation has now been able to inflict heavy damage on LTTE cadres in Thoppigala by taking precise LTTE targets.

The Air Force played its usual role this week too supporting the ground troops confronting the LTTE cadres in Thoppigala jungles, taking precise LTTE targets in Narakamulla inflicting heavy casualties to the LTTE.

The ground troops through the intercepted transmissions have confirmed that top level senior intelligence cadres, Vendaran and Illakian were among 11 Tiger terrorists killed in Tuesday’s air attack on the Tiger base in Narakamulla, Thoppigala.

Those two intelligence cadres believed to be in the self-styled ranks of ‘Lt. Colonel’ level were critically injured in air strikes conducted by Air Force Kfir and MiG jets and had succumbed to their injuries afterwards.

At least a total of eleven terrorists were feared killed in the attack, according to those reports.

Vendaran is believed to be a senior LTTE intelligence leader who had controlled the LTTE pistol group in Colombo along with the intelligence group.

The fighter jets of the SLAF on Wednesday too pounded a gathering of LTTE cadres in Thoppigala jungles Wednesday morning.

According to ground sources LTTE cadres were posing heavy resistance to the ground troops in Unnichchiya tank area on the Maha Oya Chenkaladi road. Amidst heavy resistance they keep on to the defence line they have created in Unnichchiya tank, ground sources said.

But Security Forces are taking the brunt of the battle by tactically moving to Tiger held areas in small groups.

An eight man team from the sixth Gemunu Watch that moved into the Unnichchiya area on Tuesday had a miraculous escape even after all of them sustained injuries, two of them seriously as LTTE cadres surrounded them and fired at them.

The Tiger cadres have to make use of the Unnichciya tank bund as a cover to launch attacks on the Security Forces moving towards them. Therefore, the battle in Unnichchiya has now turned out to be another Mavilaru battle due to this high rise tank bund.

But troops assisted by air attacks, multi barrel and mortar attacks are making a determined effort to take

 control over the area.

The troops that moved into uncleared areas from Vavunthivu and Black Bridge in Chenkaladi too inflicted heavy damage to Tiger cadres.

Intelligence sources confirmed that Nagesh, who was leading the Tiger cadres in Kokkadicholai, Karadiyanaru and Thoppigala, was among the casualties.

However, it has been confirmed that the LTTE is now facing severe blows with Security Forces infiltrating Tiger held areas as a large number of lower rank cadres had started to desert the battlefront surrendering to the Security Forces.

The attitude of the Wanni leadership towards the cadres from Batticaloa has contributed immensely to this situation.

Sothinathan Jegatheesan an underage LTTE cadre aged 16 and Parameshwara Suresh Kumar (27) who surrendered to the Security Forces at Black Bridge in Chenkalady on Wednesday revealed the suffering they were undergoing in the uncleared areas.

Sothinathan and Suresh Kumar had revealed that the LTTE had suffered heavy casualties in confrontations with troops in the Koduwamadu area adding that LTTE had carried 14 bodies of Tiger cadres in carts following heavy fighting in Koduvamadu.

The two cadres have told that there was no proper coordination in the LTTE hierarchy in handling the battle in Thoppigala and ten of them were lost during the Unnichchiya battle since there was no proper coordination.

They had revealed that high casualty rates on the part of the LTTE have paralysed the LTTE’s fighting capability in the East.

A severe shortage of food and medical supplies have also demoralised their fighting cadre resulting in them showing greater reluctance to fight against the Security Forces, the surrendees had revealed to troops at Black Bridge.

They have explained the way the LTTE leaders were pushing inexperienced young recruits to fight Government troops equipped with superior fire power, battle tactics, strategy and strong leadership.

With the rising casualty rate among LTTE cadres they have now taken control over Karadiyanaru hospital and fitted their mortar launchers in the hospital ground the same way they did in Vakarai.

They too are making a human shield out of the people who could not escape from the Tiger grip to launch attacks on the Security Forces using them as a shield.

But the encouraging factor is that most Tamil civilians living in this territory have realised the fact that LTTE was no longer their liberator. They are making every effort to escape from the Tiger held areas to Government held areas.

While the Security Forces are battling in the Thoppigala jungle by launching two thrusts from Vavunathivu and from Maha Oya on the Chenkaladi Maha Oya road, Batticaloa is now facing another huge problem with the displaced civilians.

Nearly 52,000 people have arrived in Government held areas in Batticaloa adding to the number of displaced people taking refuge in Valachchenai and Batticaloa after being displaced from Trincomalee South, Sampur and Vakarai.

In face of this situation the Government has expedited the process of resettling people in Vakarai and also the people who had been displaced from the South of Trincomalee in their original villages.

However, the Government and the Security Forces faced difficulties in transporting displaced civilians from Trincomalee south areas to transit camps made specially for them due to resistance from some INGOs.

It has been reported that some of these INGOs were discouraging the civilians from returning to their original villages.

According to senior Security Forces personnel in Batticaloa though they had planned to transport nearly 5,000 IDPs from Trincomalee to their villages some elements have hindered the process by discouraging these people to go for their villages.

It has now been clear some of these INGOs are not willing to see an end to the problem of IDPs in the Batticaloa district as they have never shown their willingness to provide their assistance for these innocent villages once they are resettled in their villages.

Some senior Security Forces personnel were shocked when some de-mining groups told them they could not operate in Vakarai area since accommodation in Vakarai was not unto their standards.

The strange factor is that the very same NGOs prior to the liberation of Vakarai insisted that the Security Forces and the Government should be allowed to operate in uncleared areas without any constraints.

This correspondent witnessed how those NGOs were waiting at Cobra junction Valachchenai, with lorry loads of foods everyday insisting the Security Forces should open the road.

But they no longer have this enthusiasm to cater the people who are resettling in Vakarai and Kathirveli areas despite repeated assurances by the Security Forces and the Government that there is no hindrance for them to operate in the newly liberated areas.

Anyway, within the coming weeks the Security Forces will be able to clear all the barriers for the public to move freely in the East with the complete liberation of the East from the clutches of the LTTE.

LTTE fishing in troubled waters

CASE FOR COORPERATION: The longstanding friendly relationship Sri Lanka and India had in the past in sharing the resources in the Indian ocean is now undergoing a turbulent period with LTTE doing its best to break this cordial relationship, with recent developments that were not favourable to them.

The LTTE had made use of the all possible methods to pit the two Governments against each other as they are losing the Indian soil which has been used for their arms smuggling and all other covert operations, following the Indian Navy’s seizure of one suicide boat and explosives in Indian territorial waters.

Indian fishermen are now pointing an accusing finger at the Sri Lanka Navy for killing Indian fishermen in sea off Nachchikuda on Sunday morning. They are blaming the Navy for allegedly killing three Indian fishermen within the last three months.

According to reports from India, the Indian fishermen and the MPs of the State’s ruling alliance, including those from the DMK, Congress, PMK and MDMK have alleged that the Lankan Navy has been involved in unprovoked attacks on fishermen in the Bay of Bengal.

But the Sri Lanka Navy outright rejected these charges when Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad met Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa last Sunday to discuss this issue.

A representative from the Foreign Ministry, Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, the Indian Defence Attache and another senior Navy official participated in this discussion. The Navy Commander explained to the Indian authorities that none of their patrol craft were present in the Nachchikuda seas on Sunday morning as they were engaged in special mission in East.

The Sri Lanka Navy allows Indian fishing trawlers to fish in the sea off Nachchikuda and off Point Pedro without any hindrance to maintain the cordial relationship between the two countries.

But the LTTE never tolerated this situation since the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement and went on attacking Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan territorial waters. The first such incident was reported in Thalaimannar area in 2002 with Mannar LTTE area leader Lakshman taking a number of Indian fishermen as hostages and keeping them under their arrest.

A similar type of incident was reported in 2002 itself in the sea North of Point Pedro with the LTTE taking 200 fishermen into their custody. They were taken to Thondamanaru. The Navy interfered in both incidents to free the Indian fishermen from the LTTE.

However, when the LTTE was facing severe difficulties in transporting cargo to the Wanni they made use of the same Indian fishermen to their advantage, commandeering their fishing trawlers to transport weapons to uncleared areas in the North.

The Navy could bare this racket last year with the arrest of several such Indian fishing boats in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka. Indian Fisherman Shekar, arrested in the sea off Baththalangunduwa, was a major witness to this Tiger activity.

The LTTE could not tolerate this situation further and tried to antagonise the Indian fishermen and the Sri Lanka Navy since their cordial relationship was not advantageous to them.

Adding to the burden Indian Defence authorities took steps to intensify security along the Tamil Nadu coast and strengthen the air and Naval surveillance in the International Maritime Boundary Line.

The LTTE also continued to hijack the Sinhalese-owned fishing trawlers and Indian Defence Authorities has so far failed to trace the whereabouts of the fishing trawler ‘Hasanrangi Dua’ despite alarming the Indian authorities on time.

Therefore it is very clear that the LTTE is trying to make use of the situation to antagonise the Sri Lanka Navy with the Indian Navy and also with the Indian fishermen so they can fish in troubled waters preventing the Indian Government from extending any support for the Sri Lankan Government to block LTTE arms smuggling.

It is obvious now the LTTE is making all these efforts to block the Indian Government from offering an Offshore Patrol Vessel to the Sri Lankan Navy that would help the Sri Lanka Navy to strengthen its patrolling in the Sri Lankan territorial waters to prevent arms smuggling.

As the situation is such the two countries should sit together to iron out the differences and improve security in the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line by launching joint patrolling without allowing the LTTE to take advantage of the current situation to strengthen itself militarily at this juncture.