Govt's aim to weaken Tigers - Gotabhaya

The Government's aim is to weaken the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said.

"Our objective is to weaken them. We have to defeat them militarily, we have to control Wanni," he told AFP in an interview at the Defence Ministry.

"It is possible. We just have to squeeze them. Then a political solution becomes possible," the Defence Secretary said, repeating his view that the Tigers only used a truce to smuggle in more arms and can therefore only be bombed into peace.

Rajapaksa said the Government now had the upper hand in the long-running conflict, with LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran limited in both his movements and ability to score strategic victories. Earlier this month, LTTE's political head, S.P. Thamilselvan, was killed in an air strike. "That sent a very powerful message: they know we have good intelligence on their movements," Rajapaksa said.

Monday was also the day the LTTE chief marked his 53rd birthday. "We are after him. We are specifically targeting their leadership," he said. "For the last few months he has been even more restricted in his movements. We want to keep them under pressure. We are gathering intelligence, information."

Prabhakaran's speech, broadcast yesterday, came at the end of a year of several setbacks for the LTTE. Government Forces regained full control over the East in July, and have also managed to sink the bulk of the Tigers' fleet of gun-running ships.

The Defence Secretary insisted that the tide of the 35-year-old conflict was finally turning in the Government's favour.

He also signalled that the year ahead would see an escalation of the conflict, finally closing a chapter of "phoney war" that began with a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire and its progressive collapse. Still, Rajapaksa brushed aside the significance of Tiger attacks.

"In the end it's just symbolic. it affects morale, but strategically it makes no difference," said the Defence Secretary, who narrowly survived a suicide bomber sent by Prabhakaran last year. "In the end, what have they gained during the last 20 to 30 years? Just destroyed property and destroyed lives."