‘People in uncleared areas disillusioned with Tigers’

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he was convinced that people in uncleared areas are not supporting the LTTE and asserted that the Army was taking all precautions to avoid civilian casualties during operations against the LTTE.

“A letter that was recovered from the pocket of a slain little female Tiger by the Army has touched me.

The letter speaks about the girl’s helplessness in (not) attending the Thaipongal festival as she has been told to fight in the North,” President Rajapaksa said during an interaction with editors and foreign journalists.

The President said it was largely clear that the common people, especially the parents of the girls and boys who are forced to join the LTTE insurgency are disillusioned with Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

He said the military is treading a cautious path in the battle against the LTTE and trying to avoid any civilian casualties. “In fact in some major operations we have not had any civilian deaths,” he added.

A military official said the Army was following what the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) did in Sri Lanka in the 1980s when they tried to protect the civilians when undertaking operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.