LTTE clutching at straws

The LTTE is certainly in it’s death throes and as a last throw of the dice it is deploying suicide bombers, the most crudest weapon in it’s armoury, now that it has lost almost all it’s military hardware, Sea Tiger assets and air power to the Security Forces.

Not only that, the Government had rubbed salt to the Tiger’s wounds by displaying all the captured military hardware of the outfit at the Deyata Kirula exhibition. Surely a most rankling experience for the LTTE who made proud boasts earlier of the capture of troops’ weapons caches and armouries. Naturally Prabhakaran’s desperation may have exceeded all bounds.

Hence Monday’s suicide attack at a check point in the vicinity of a IDP registration centre in Visuamadu could well be an act of defiance and an attempt to demonstrate to the world that the outfit was still alive and kicking.

That it thought nothing of blowing up innocent men women and children among the exodus was of little consequences to the outfit. This was no time to think about such niceties of being the ‘sole representative and protector of the Tamil people’.

By this dastardly act it is clear that the LTTE wanted to achieve the twin objective of issuing a warning to those fleeing it’s domain while also making a desperate bid to show it still has some fight left in it after the mortal blow delivered to it’s invincibility by the Security Forces.

However the defiance shown by the civilians risking life and limb shows that the iron grip of Prabhakaran is at last beginning to unclench. Some 20,000 civilians have already crossed over to the cleared areas defying all odds and the edicts of the Tiger leader.

He now has no option but to get his cadres to infiltrate the mass exodus in order to cause the maximum damage. For the Tiger leader who was all sound and fury will not want to go down with a whimper. So we can expect more such suicide bombing attempts in the coming days as the outfit will want to go down with a bang.

It is in this context that new measures and approaches will be required for the registration of civilians fleeing the Tiger den. Human rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has already mentioned about such a course of action though he did not spell out the details for obvious reasons.

True, the LTTE will seek to inflict the maximum damage in it’s final death gasp and it behoves on our security establishment to be fully alert to this possibility. It would not be beyond its capability to carry out spectacular attacks in Colombo and also major cities with the view to dilute the victories of the Security Forces.

Now that it’s capability as a conventional fighting force is all but neutralised it’s guerrilla avatar is bound to raise it’s ugly head once again bringing back memories of gruesome carnage in the city two decades ago.

It is in this light that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assurance that he would not allow any vestige of terrorism to raise it’s head once again is most encouraging and a cause for allaying the fears of the general public. No doubt the President and the security top brass would already have drawn up a foolproof plan in this regard.

It is the duty of all citizens to co-operate in ensuring it’s success. Sacrifice and hardship may have to be endured for the sake of national security. No citizen, we are certain, would want a revisit of those harrowing times.

Monday’s barbaric attack also shows that the LTTE has chosen to ignore the appeals by US and India to allow safe passage of civilians to enter Government controlled areas. It is hoped that Tamil Nadu politicians at least now will identify the true villain who is causing all the misery to Tamil civilians.

We are still to hear condemnation of Monday’s attack by Human right bodies such as AI who have been weeping buckets for the plight of Tamil civilians. Also deafening is the silence of local NGO activists who go to town on any alleged atrocity on Tamil civilians by the Security Forces.

How come this horrendous attack targeting innocent civilians, who had fled from the LTTE and come to register at the transitional camp, fail to register with these do-gooders. Even some of the statements condemning the attack from certain foreign Governments is lukewarm to say the least - a far cry from the lengthy harangues reserved for the Government. It is at least gratifying to note that they had identified the perpetrator as the LTTE this time around.

The Security Forces should be commended for carrying out an onerous task amidst the ever present danger. They are now called upon to contend with a hidden enemy who may come in the guise of a refugee to wreak havoc as happened on Monday.

The moving pictures in the media of members of the Security Forces providing succour to the men, women and children who had fled the grip of the LTTE is clear demonstration of their commitment to the Humanitarian mission assigned to them by the President, even oblivious to the lurking danger.

A far cry from the civilian carnage that was seen on world’s television during the Gaza operation.