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. |