LTTE’s trademark brutality

The LTTE has once again displayed its extreme brutality and desperation by triggering a bomb blast at a civilian centre - this time round in Ratmalana, amid peak time traffic. At the time of writing the blast has claimed seven civilian lives, while injuring scores of others.

It should be obvious that the LTTE is focusing its terror predominantly on civilians in a desperate bid to deflect the attention of the Security Forces from the major operational areas in the North and East.

It is also an evil ploy to make-up for the Tigers’ battlefield losses and to orchestrate communal animosities. In other words, the LTTE is trying every conceivable macabre machination to propel the country into a state of chaos and ungovernability.

Fortunately, the country is facing these provocations with exemplary calmness and fortitude.

To the extent to which the public remains calm and collected, to that extent would the Tigers’ evil designs be defeated. We call on the people to remain thus stoical and courageous in the face of grave provocation and brutality.

There is considerable substance in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s position that these brutal Tiger attacks are aimed at plunging the country into a communal bloodbath in view of the military successes scored by the Security Forces in particularly the Eastern Province.

In the East, the Security Forces have not only routed the LTTE but united all our communities under the Lankan flag. Therefore, the Tigers would be trying every mindless machination to weaken this enduring harmony among our communities.

Hardly a week ago we had a blast in the heart of Pettah and on Monday evening another in Ratmalana. The manifest pattern is to target high-population civilian centres and the aim is to spill blood on a mind-numbing scale.

These dastardly attacks, then, also highlight the purely terroristic nature of the LTTE. They simply do not believe in waging a war against the State on what may be considered classical lines, where the Tigers directly confront the Security Forces.

Rather, having suffered humiliating defeat after defeat at the hands of the Security Forces, and finding them hard to beat, they are now unleashing their brutality on civilians. This smacks of both moral and strategic bankruptcy.

While the country should continue on its path of stoical courage in the face of these attacks, every means of support should be extended to the State to defeat LTTE terror.

Besides, these brutal Tiger acts should be forcefully brought to the notice of the world community. The price Sri Lanka has to pay for the lack of concerted world action to defeat the Tigers, should be consistently highlighted.