Following rout of terrorism:
Diplomatic victory for Sri Lanka
Sri
Lanka a Lilliput compared to the superpowers in the world engaged in the
war against terror achieved victory post completely eliminating the LTTE
terrorism from its soil leaving behind all the giant nations who had
launched similar wars with much grandeur and sophistication at a time
this poor nation was struggling to overcome that menace for decades.
Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka arriving at the Victory
Parade. Pictures by Rukmal Gamage |
It was the very same giant nations, the US, UK who were among the
first nations to proscribe the LTTE as a banned terrorist movement and
to extend their support to Sri Lanka to crush LTTE terrorism after the
9/11 attack, that tried to belittle the unparalleled victory by charging
the Sri Lankan Government of committing war crimes and violating Human
Rights.
Finally, just as the Sri Lankan Government faced all sorts of
challenges in its way towards that magnanimous military victory, it also
won the last challenge before it when the majority of the international
community voted in favour of the Sri Lankan resolution to garner the
support of the international community to reconstruct and rehabilitate
the war ravaged North at the United Nations Human Rights Council on
Wednesday.
This was due to the efforts of the Sri Lankan Government, especially
of the Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and Ambassador Dayan
Jayatilleke who were able to get the support of 29 friendly nations
around the globe against the 12 nations who stood against Sri Lanka with
some sort of colonial attitudes.
According to Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe the Sri Lanka’s victory at
the United Nations Human Rights Council is an endorsement of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s contribution towards eradicating terrorism and
protecting Human Rights.
Unethical charges
The Field Commanders of the Vanni liberation operation who
received the Army Commander’s commendations for their
performance at the battlefield. |
The resilient leadership shown by President Rajapaksa and the
outspoken and challenging attitude of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa towards the unacceptable and unethical charges against the Sri
Lankan Security Forces by the world superpowers, stood like a tower of
strength to achieve this victory facing all odds.
It was after two days sessions at the UNHRC in Geneva a resolution
was adopted on Sri Lanka to extend UN support to rehabilitate and
reconstruct war ravaged areas.
The Government faced this challenge even at a time when a handful of
disgruntled politicians were launching a campaign to bring disrepute to
their very own motherland accusing the Government of violating the Human
Rights of Tamil community in the country.
It was amidst all those obstacles the Sri Lankan victory against LTTE
terrorism was endorsed both locally and internationally paving the way
to build a new Sri Lanka as all Sri Lankan resources are readily
available for its people with the liberation of the entire land, sea and
air from the clutches of terrorism.
With all these successes the Sri Lankan Government has been left with
many more challenges to turn this victory into a true victory that would
bring prosperity to the Sri Lankan nation as a whole.
As a part of it the Sri Lankan Security Forces have also been left
with many more challenges to overcome to make its victory a lasting one.
At the initial stage it has to launch extensive search and clear
operations in the Eastern jungle patches as a handful of Tiger leaders
and cadres are still operating inside the jungles in the East especially
in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.
According to military intelligence, Tiger leader Ram is still
operating in the Eastern jungles in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa district
along with a 12 to 14 members of the LTTE. Initial reports indicated
that Ram has reportedly contacted Nation Building Minister
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan to surrender to him soon after he heard
about the death of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
However, there was no response from him for the last few days
compelling the military to believe that he was hiding inside the thick
jungles in Batticaloa.
It was on Wednesday, the Commando teams operating in the
Kanchikudichchiaru jungles lay and ambush and killed another team of
Tiger terrorists operating there in the jungle. It was strongly believed
that the team had been operated under the leadership of Nagulan. But,
military sources confirmed yesterday that Nagulan was not among the 11
Tiger cadres also got killed in the Kanchikudichchiaru jungle.
Apart from Ram and Nagulan two other Tiger leaders Thevan and Kulilan
are reportedly operating along with another 12 to 14 cadres.
Kokkadicholai Tiger leader Daya Mohan is also missing from the Tiger
leaders who had got killed among the last batch of Tiger cadres.
Fifty officers and 1,201 other rankers representing all the
Regiments in the Sri Lanka Army marching in the Victory Parade
to mark the Sri Lanka Army’s victory against the LTTE. |
Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka was of the opinion that there
is no major threat emerging in the Eastern province as the Security
Forces have laid strong foundation to create proper intelligence network
in the Eastern province with the support of the civilians and the
political leadership.
However, the Army has taken initiatives to deploy two Regular
Infantry battalions to conduct search and clear operations along with
the Special Forces and the Commando teams.
Apart from the Eastern province extensive search operations are also
expected to be conducted in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts in
search of the Tiger cadres who have escaped into jungle patches. The
search operations are also aimed at recovering the large stocks of arms
and ammunition of the LTTE.
The Tiger cadres operating in Colombo and suburbs will also come
under the focus of the Security Forces as Tiger cadres operating
undercover are yet to be exposed by the intelligence operatives. But
things have become so difficult for the intelligence operatives to
identify those cadres as many of these cadres are operating with the
assistance of big business tycoons in Colombo.
So it has become a challenging task for the military to identify
those links. However due to the strong presence of Police and its
operational network in Colombo will give a hard time for those cadres.
Therefore, it is believed that these Tiger operatives will have
natural deaths as they are now operating without any command from their
leaders as almost all the Tiger leadership has perished in the
Vellamullivaikkal battle.
The Special Forces and Commando troops are engaged in extensive
search operations in the East to nab these last set of Tiger cadres
operating in the East.
A set of Tiger cadres got killed at the hands of the Special Forces
troops in the Peraru jungles soon after the final assault on the LTTE on
May 19 in Vellamullivaikkal killing all the top Tiger leaders.
Apart from this the Security Forces have also focused their attention
towards conducting search and clear operations in the estate sector also
as they have to take precautionary action to avoid any unfortunate
incidents taking place in the country even after fully eradicating LTTE
terrorism.
As LTTE makes use of the estate sector for their covert operations
and to plant their suicide cadres along with the stocks of arms and
ammunition for their future terror operations, conducting of search and
clear operations in the estate sector has also become a priority for the
Security Forces.
Amidst this situation the Sri Lanka Army is still pondering as to
whether LTTE intelligence Wing leader Pottu Amman got killed or alive as
it a decisive factor for the existence of the Tiger cadres operating
every part of the country in hiding.
According to military intelligence it is 90 percent sure that Pottu
Amman was killed during the battle in Vellamullivaikkal but there is no
clear evidence to prove that he was killed. Like the death of Pottu
Amman, the death of Madivadani and Duaraka has also become a puzzle for
the military as there is no strong indication to say that either they
were killed or alive although it was hundred percent proved that
Prabhakaran’s two sons Charles Anthony and Balachandran were killed
during the Vellamullivaikkal battle.
It is believed either Prabhakaran’s wife and daughter have fled the
country in the same manner LTTE Sea Tiger leader Soosai’s wife and
family members tried to escape from country. The military believes that
the family members of Soosai had tried to escape from the country with
the proper knowledge of the Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Therefore, it is believed that family members of other Tiger leaders
would have also fled the country before they were encircled in
Karayanmullivaikkal by the 58,53 and 59 Divisions.
Due to this doubt the military are conducting further investigations
to ascertain whether Prabhakaran’s wife and daughter had fled the
country or are hiding in a country like Malaysia as intelligence reports
have indicated about their escape on February 24, this year.
Intelligence chiefs
This has been confirmed by two top most intelligence chiefs to the
Government. As the military investigating about this incident the
military has got information about the presence of Tiger Leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran’s farther and mother in the Zone 4 of the Menik
Farm Welfare camp.
Prabhakaran’s farther Thiruvenkatam Velupillai aged 85 and Vallipuram
Parwathie aged 78 had fled the safe zone along with the last batch of
civilians on May 17, through 59 Division area after crossing the
Vadduvakkal causeway and from Mullaitivu they have been dispatched into
Vavuniya welfare camps. According to military official who had
questioned them, Prabhakaran’s father and mother had lived in a separate
area from the area where Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was living
in hiding.
Prabhakaran’s farther and mother arrived in the country during the
Ceasefire period from their exile in India and reached Kilinochchi
through the Omanthai Entry Exit point. Since then they have been living
in Visuamadu area and have shifted to Puthukudiyiruppu and later into
North of Mullaitivu once the safe zone was declared by the Government.
According to senior military officials Prabhakaran’s parents will be
separated from the other civilians as their presence with the civilians
following their identification may cause problems to the military.
Like Prabhakaran’s parents nearly 10,000 Tiger cadres have arrived in
Government controlled areas along with the civilians and surrendered to
the Security Forces later.
According to Army Commander 9,800 Tiger cadres have surrendered to
the Security Forces and have been separated from the civilians to be
rehabilitated at Government institutions. At the time intense fighting
was going on in Puthukudiyiruppu East and West, more than 4,000 Tiger
cadres have surrendered to the Security Forces having arrived in
Government controlled areas along with 75,000 civilians.
The majority of the Tiger cadres who surrendered to the Security
Forces during that period were properly trained cadres. But during the
period the civilians were rescued from the Safe Zone in Puthumattalan
and Vellaimullivaikkal area, more than 4,000 well trained cadres
surrendered to the Security Forces. They had fought with the Security
Forces a minimum period of two to three years.
With these facts, the Security Forces have explicitly demonstrated
their humanity towards the surrendered Tiger cadres and have not taken
any step to imprison them or ill-treat them if they volunteered to
surrender.
Therefore, the allegations levelled by the international community
become are baseless as the Security Forces have tried their best to
safeguard the lives of Tiger cadres that voluntarily surrendered to
them. But it is unacceptable, when those so-called international
community accuses the Government of committing war crimes citing
desperate efforts by the Tiger leaders to surrender amidst fierce
fighting whilst another section of Tiger leaders were making attempt to
escape from the country.
Chaotic period
What they should understand is that any organization that wants to
negotiate their surrender should do it when things are calm and quite
not during a chaotic period where intense fighting is going on as it was
not possible to stop soldiers firing towards massive number of Tiger
cadres trying to escape from them and negotiate terms for their
surrender.
Therefore, the allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan
Security Forces were baseless and it was due to the realistic
understanding of the international community that supported Sri Lanka at
the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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