A matter of time for total victory for the Security Forces -
Defence Secretary
Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Picture by Rukmal Gamage |
Considering the arms and ammunition
the LTTE have collected for the past 25 years we have to fight hard
during the next few months, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says
assessing the capabilities of the LTTE at a time security Forces have
come to the doorstep of Kilinochchi.
“That is what people have to expect in
the coming months” , he says in an interview with the Daily News on the
eve of the Air Force shot down one LTTE lighter aircraft over Mullaitivu.
He says the SLAF should be commended
for this achievement as it is a difficult task to shoot down a low
flying aircraft as the state of the art equipment that are available in
the world are meant to shot down sophisticated aircraft.
He still maintains the position that
the LTTE should be banned and there should not be an organisation by the
name LTTE.
“Its leader had killed one of our
President, Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, Indian Prime Minister,
Navy Commander, so many Ministers and so many Tamil leaders. So this
type of organisation should have been banned long time before and there
is no reason why we should not ban. I don’t see any logic in that”, he
says commenting on the LTTE.
The Defence Secretary says that the
Government asked the aid workers to leave Kilinochchi as the Government
cannot guarantee the security of them and does not want unnecessary
problems by allowing them to operate there.
Commenting on the criticism on his
alleged “anti-media” stance the Defence Secretary says that media
freedom and all these issues are only nice words and people should look
at the practical side of the war. “We are determined to finish the war.
So I will criticize anybody who is working against the war.
That is why I have been critical of
some media but not critical of all the media. It was proven that I was
correct”, he says.
Following is the full interview the
Daily News had with Defence
Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa:
Ranil WIJAYAPALA
Q:Could you explain in brief what
Security Forces could achieve after two years of fighting with the LTTE?
The entire country is aware what we have achieved with the liberation
of the Eastern province. What we have achieved in the Wanni is going
according to the plans of the Army Commander. So far we have done more
than what Army Commander was planning to achieve in the Wanni. That is
landwise. But, the major thing is that when we started the operation our
aim was to first weaken the LTTE by destroying their assets.
That was our aim. Not to just march forward and gain territory. That
is why we took a longer period at the beginning. That is the period of
attrition. By confronting the LTTE we inflicted many casualties to the
LTTE and it is clear now when we move forward you can see the cemeteries
and the posters put up by the LTTE on death notices. Any one can observe
there had been a lot of casualties.
At the same time we took lot of air targets and we were able to
destroy their bases and equipment. This way in the first few months our
aim was to destroy them and weaken them. You could have seen, we had
huge successes and a rapid advance. That was because we have weakened
them and there were less confrontations when it comes to that level.
Without stagnating at the same place we moved in quick succession. We
captured Vedithalthivu, Illuppakadavai, Vellankulam in the coastal belt
and most important towns like Thunukkai and Mallavi later. Now we have
reached Nachchikuda. Upto this place we moved very quickly.
What the Army has achieved is very clear after moving forward into
their territory on several fronts.
It is not only in one place that we are confronting the LTTE. We have
Task Force I in the Mannar side, we have 57 Division in the centre, then
we have Task Force II towards the A-9 and 59 Division in Weli Oya. Then
we have two offensive Divisions in Muhamalai. We are putting pressure on
the LTTE on all fronts. The LTTE has never faced this type of pressure
from all these fronts. Actually we have not still committed our full
strength in the offensives. In all areas we have the capability to put
some more Divisions into the offensive but we have not committed that
strength so far.
Q:What are the achievements from the
Navy and the Air Force operations?
The Navy has performed a lot. We destroyed 10 LTTE ships and trawlers
smuggling weapons into the uncleared area. That was a major success and
a big blow to the LTTE. For the first time they went to deep seas far
away from the shores and destroyed the LTTE floating warehouses.
The other thing is changing the tactics in the sea with the
introduction of a small boats concept through a Special Boat Squadron
and the Rapid Action Boat Squadron. It was a great success. We have
weakened the Sea Tiger capability to a great extent. And also by taking
Silavathura and Vedithalthivu and most of the Western coast we have
restricted the areas they could go to the sea and also in some parts in
the Eastern coast. They are confined to a small area on the Western
coast. So their sea access is very limited.
The Air Force is also getting their targets very accurately. Their
bombing is very precise. Because of that we were able to inflict a lot
of damage to LTTE training camps, headquarters, leaders, their ammo
dumps and their defences. The Air Force has done a marvellous job.
Q:Last week Security Forces faced
stiff resistance from the LTTE and they suffered a relatively higher
number of casualties. How can you explain this situation?
Now we are getting closer to Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. That is
their main concentration and they will try to fight more and more using
all their assets artillery and mortars and they will try to put their
cadres and recruit more and more civilians forcefully. Another thing
they have done was the building of a huge bund with a ditch from East to
West.
They have done this to stop the advance of our troops. That is where
weeks back we got a few casualties by trying to confront with the LTTE
there. We have come across such bunds earlier also but we were able to
negotiate with them.
We will overcome this barrier and move forward. For this we have to
balance all the fronts to move forward. This line, we have gone beyond
the normal plan and we reached the door step of Kilinochchi.
Q:There is a perception that the
Security Forces cannot continue the war due to the massive commitment to
hold the areas they have captured in the East and in the Wanni ?
Once we took over the Ministry of Defence, we anticipated the
requirement of absorption of a lot of troops to the Security Forces.
Therefore, we increased the strength of the military by 50,000 that is
about 30 per cent of the total. We increased the number of homegards by
20,000. It is a huge increase. We anticipated and we predicted that
requirement. We conducted an aggressive recruitment campaign with a lot
of advertisement motivation. We have a very good response from the
people and we have no problem of recruitment to the Security Forces. And
the training programme we planned far ahead of time.
Therefore, we don’t have to abandon the places we captured earlier.
That was the problem we had earlier. Once you clear the East to clear
Wanni you have to get the troops from the East. Here we have not taken a
single person from the Jaffna peninsula. We have the full commitment
there. We are dominating the Jaffna peninsula very strongly. In fact we
have increased the battalion strength there.
We have increased, not decreased the strength of Security Forces
personnel in the East. This includes STF, Police, Home Guards and the
military. We are holding in strength to give the necessary security
requirement in the East. We have committed a lot of troops even in Yala
where a small group is creating problem. That is because we planned from
the beginning. So we have no problem holding the ground.
Q:Successive Governments have engaged
in this war for the past two and half decades. But they could not
achieve this much of success. What is the prime reason behind these
successes ?
Approaching the whole problem professionally held to achieve these
successes. We have very capable commanders who are very committed. At
the same time they have good experience and knowledge. Because all three
commanders from the very beginning have faced counter terrorist
operations from their younger days. And also all of them have been
involved in all major offensive operations conducted for the last 25
years. So they have the knowledge and they are able to read the battle
very well and assess the situation very well. They have the full
authority and the command power.
They know the capability of the officers involved in the battle. This
way we have achieved results.
Q:What is your assessment on the LTTE
capabilities at present? Are they weak or are they strong?
We have weakened them to a great extent. But they will try to do
everything to delay the troops advance and inflict casualties to the
troops. The other point is that during peacetime they have acquired a
fair amount of artillery and mortar. So they will try to inflict
casualties to us. They will try to do everything to delay our advance
into Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. A lot of LTTE cadres have been killed
and lots of lower level cadres have been killed. That is why they have
put small boys and girls to the front. That is why we say they have been
weakened. They can’t face a superior military.
They can do what they used to do - sabotage terrorist activities,
killing civilians, exploding bombs and suicide attacks. But they cannot
change the military scenario by doing things like that.
Q:A considerable number of civilians have been forcibly kept by the
LTTE in the Wanni. What would be the fate of these civilians once
fighting escalates there?
Gradually when we put pressure they will come out , as you can
remember in Sampur we knew that they were having their so called
Mahaveer families. From Sampur they came to Eethalampattu and then moved
into Vakarai. In Vakarai we put pressure from all directions. They came
out from that area and the passage was restricted. That happened in
Thoppigala. Similarly they will not be able to keep the civilians when
troops advance gradually into their territory.
The civilians will not listen. We have heard certain instances where
civilians have reacted against the LTTE when they have tried to recruit
people by force. So the LTTE will not be able to keep them forcefully.
When the time comes they will come out of these places in large masses
to Vavuniya. Then they will not be able to stop the civilians. We are
ready for this situation because this is not a new thing. It happened in
the Eastern province.
In the East around 170,000 people displaced. We handled that
effectively and we have resettled them. This happened in the 1996 when
Riviresa operation was launched to liberate Jaffna. There were 400,000
people there and they had to come out. Ultimately they were settled and
there is no problem at all. Therefore, this is not a new thing. We have
experienced such situations. We will be able to tackle this problem
effectively.
Q:The Government has issued fresh
announcement asking the aid workers to leave Wanni. What made the
Government to make such a request? What is the background behind this
request ?
There are two categories. One is NGOs local and international. The
other group is the United Nations. The NGOs and INGOs were allowed to be
there to do various development work. They have signed agreements with
various line Ministries and they were doing various development work.
That was what they were supposed to do. But, now there is no way that
they can do any development work. So there is no meaning for them to be
there. That is one reason the Government has asked them to come out of
uncleared areas.
The second reason is, it is not secure for them to be there. We can’t
give guarantee to their security. Forces are advancing gradually into
Kilinochchi.
So there is no way we can guarantee their security. Therefore, we
have advised them to come to a safer area.
Then we have this case of Norwegian People’s Aid where the LTTE took
control of all the assets belonging to them. They couldn’t do anything
to control that. Later when we came out with that they accepted that
they had done a mistake and they apologised for that. Anyway they had to
come out leaving all their assets there. So you could see, it was a good
example that the LTTE had done this to Norwegian People’s Aid. I don’t
understand why we should allow all the other NGOs to face this
situation. I don’t know whether the LTTE had already taken their assets.
This is another reason why we have requested them to come out.
The other point is we have warned them that they can’t officially
stay there and they must withdraw with their assets out of Kilinochchi
and announce that they have no more operations going on there. We don’t
want them to later face a situation like in Muttur where aid workers got
killed. Security Forces had to face unnecessary commissions and
inquiries. We don’t want such a thing to happen again.
So we have clearly told them that we can’t guarantee their security
and officially we want them to cease all their operations and come out
of that place so that they
The NGOs and
INGOs were allowed to be there to do development work. They have
signed agreements with respective line Ministries and they were
engaged in development work. That was what they were supposed to
do. But, now they are unable to continue their work. That is one
reason the Government has asked them to come out of uncleared
areas |
can announce that there are no more members there in
Kilinochchi because, we don’t want to face unnecessary situations. We
are not responsible for anything after that. So these are the reasons
why we have decided to call INGOs and NGOs to come out of Kilinochchi.
When you take the UN again security is the first concern. We are
responsible for their security. But, we can’t guarantee their security
any longer because of the exchange of artillery and mortars on the
battlefront. As you know the LTTE used to erect their camps close to UN
offices as a safety measure.
We don’t want any of the UN installations to get damaged when we
engage these LTTE installations with indirect fire. Security is the main
concern of ours. So we have asked them to pull back to a safer place in
Vavuniya and operate from Vavuniya. So there are no restrictions for
their operations. Right now the only operation they can do is the
humanitarian, so they can conduct their operations in Vavuniya and we
have told them to establish their food warehouses in Vavuniya. From
there they can distribute the food to GA’s.
Q:Is there any mechanism available to
send essential food items to the Wanni civilians once the UN withdraws
from the area ?
The GAs will look after the IDPs. That is the case even now, even
though these UN organisations are there, actually the food distribution
and other relevant issues are done through Government Agents. That
process can continue.
If you can remember in Vakarai, there were INGOs , NGOs or UN
organisations in Vakarai. There is only one AGA and through the
Government Agent in Batticaloa we provided food to the civilians in
Vakarai. When there was a shortage food and other essential items we
organized 100 lorries of food to Vakarai. Of course we managed to send
89 of those 100 lorries. Then the LTTE started firing mortars and we had
to stop the balance. But we sent these lorries. Later on when we
liberated Vakarai and went into Vakarai we saw how the LTTE used the
food to build their bunkers, so enough food was there in the area.
Similarly we can send food for these people. Then the UN will operate
from Vavuniya.
Q:Will this affect the presence of
the ICRC also specially in Omanthai entry exit point?
Yes, of course, we have told them to move out in stages. But that
will not affect their presence in Omanthai. The Omanthai entry exit
point will be kept open for the civilian movements. We have given the
civilians an area for them to withdraw or to hold back from Kilinochchi
to Puthukuduiruppu and later from Puthukuduiruppu to Oddusudan. From
Oddusudan they can move into Vavuniya. That is the route that we would
like the civilians to take.
Q:You maintained the position that
Ceasefire should be abrogated and the LTTE should be banned. The
Ceasefire has already been abrogated and what about the banning of the
LTTE ?
There was no Ceasefire so there was no reason to have a Ceasefire. It
has already been abrogated. It was an unnecessary one. I maintained the
position that it should be abrogated. Similarly, the LTTE is a terrorist
organisation and it must be destroyed. It must be hundred per cent
destroyed. Most countries have banned the LTTE as a terrorist
organisation. It has killed so many innocent people.
It has destroyed innocent lives. Its leader had killed one of our
Presidents, Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, Indian Prime Minister,
Navy Commander, so many Ministers and so many Tamil leaders. So this
type of organization should have been banned a long time before and
there is no reason why we should not ban. I don’t see any logic in that.
We should destroy this organization why we should not ban it.
Q:The Sri Lanka Air Force says that
they were able to destroy one LTTE light aircraft over Mullaitivu on
Tuesday. But public opinion is that they had taken long period destroy
an LTTE aircraft ?
We must be grateful to the SLAF even after a long time for having got
one aircraft. Actually when the first flight came and even when we
started in 2005 there was not a single weapon or any system to counter
an air threat. From the very beginning we have to start. One must
understand whatever the aircraft and defence system available in the
world are for highly sophisticated systems to face air threat. But here
we get a low flying small aircraft which is very difficult to detect
even from ground.
It is there in the air only for very few seconds. So we have get
advice from different countries. Their opinion was that it was a very
difficult task to target this type of aircraft. But we tried and
developed a system with all the assets. We developed the system now we
see that at the end it was a success.
The more important thing you have to remember is that by dropping
these two bombs they will never be able to change the military balance
or make any impact on the military situation. It was just a method used
by the LTTE for their propaganda to boost up their Diaspora and boost
their fund raising campaigns. Everytime they drop very crude locally
made bombs of course at many times their targets were off. So it was
sort of a psychological thing.
For the past one and half years they came five or six times. Imagine
for the past two years we have done over thousand air raids and dropped
bombs 500 Kg, 1,000 Kg and 250 bombs. We have dropped hundreds of this
type of bombs. If we are so concerned about the LTTE aircraft and
bombing you can compare how LTTE is concerned about our air capability.
But at the end the Air Force gave us assurance somehow they will shoot
down their aircraft. At the end they have shot down one aircraft.
Q:They have attempted to destroy the
radar system of the SLAF in Vavuniya on Tuesday. What is the situation
there ?
Probably they may have targeted the radar system. But they have not
come closer to the radars.
You have set time frame to reach Kilinochchi. Is this a realistic in
the present context ?
What I say is the time plan of the commanders. The Commanders do the
military assessment; they are the people who know how forces are moving.
According to the Army Commander it was the time line to reach
Kilinochchi. That is what I have told. Not only Kilinochchi we have to
go beyond that so falling Kilinochchi will be sort of break down for the
LTTE. Above that it will be a matter of time. But considering the arms
and ammunition they have collected for the past 25 years we have to
expect to fight hard during the next few months. That is what people
have to expect in the coming months.
Q:You have been criticized for taking
anti media stance. Is there any specific reason for you to take anti
media stance ?
What I said was not only to media. What I said was not to demoralize
the Forces by working against the Forces and working against the
country. Because, this is not a private war or something. Our Forces we
are fighting for the country to save the country from terrorism, from
the LTTE.
Anybody who loves the country have to support the Security Forces.
Anybody who is not supporting the Forces, they are in the other side,
because there are only two sides LTTE and the Security Forces. That is
the reason I have been critical of the people who are not supporting the
Security Forces. What I have always said is that it is not the weapon,
it is the man behind the weapon that matters.
If you take this man and give him a correct mission, correct
leadership and proper training you can prepare him to face any
situation. More than anything else, if you can motivate him that is what
you need to give to the war. This is why I have always said that nobody
should do anything to demoralize this man. If you want to win this war
you have to energize, motivate, activate the man behind the weapon. That
is the soldier. This is why I am always against anybody who writes and
do anything to demoralize the Security Forces.
Media Freedom and all these things are only nice words. We have to
see the practical side of this. We have been fighting this menace for
the 25 to 30 years. We are determined to finish this. So I will
criticize anybody who is working against the war. That is why I have
been critical of some media but not critical of all the media. It was
proven that I was correct.
I have been critical in most of the cases it was not anything to do
with me personally. All these were what they have written against the
war which were not correct. Now you can go through all these defence
analysts you can see they were all wrong. That is why I was criticizing
them at that time. |