Special Task Force personnel engaged in a defensive operation inside Kanchikudichciaru jungle were able to capture eight young combatants who had been forcibly conscripted by the LTTE. STF personnel ambushed an LTTE movement near Akkaraipattu- Pothuvil main road. Children were rescued once the senior LTTE cadres fled into the dense jungle nearby. All of the eight rescued children except one are below the age of 18. They were armed with explosives and light weapons at the time of capture.
Kanchikudichciaru jungle was once a major hub of LTTE operations but situation changed drastically with the success of operation "Niyathai Jaya (Definite Victory)". However small groups of LTTE cadres are still operating from within the jungles and they are still carrying out guerilla styled attacks against troops.
There are 2 articles on the IHT based on an interview by Lee Kuan Yew.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/asia/lee.php
I will qoute from this one which contains his actual interview.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/asia/lee-excerpts.php
"To begin with we don't have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors, a homogenous population, common language, common culture and common destiny.
We are migrants from southern China, southern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, before it was divided, Ceylon and the archipelago. So, the problem was, can we keep these peoples together?
The basis of a nation just was not there. But the advantage we had was that we became independent late. In 1965, we had 20 years of examples of failed states. So, we knew what to avoid - racial conflict, linguistic strife, religious conflict. We saw Ceylon.
Thereafter, we knew that if we embarked on any of these romantic ideas, to revive a mythical past of greatness and culture, we'd be damned. So, there's no return to nativism. We have left our moorings. We're all stranded here to make a better or worse living than in our own original countries."
"We had Chinese, Malay, Indian schools - separate language medium schools. The British ran a small English school sector to produce clerks, storekeepers, teachers for the British. Had we chosen Chinese, which was our majority language, we would have perished, economically and politically.
Riots - we've seen Sri Lanka, when they switched from English to Sinhalese and disenfranchised the Tamils and so strife ever after.
We chose - we didn't say it was our national language - we said it was our working language, that everybody learns English whatever language medium school you go to. Which means nobody needs interpretation to read English."
Navindran,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the relevance of LKY to the titled story from the view point of STF-LTTE battle? I can understand the relevance of what you are saying from the macroscopic point of view. However, I can't see any microscopic relevance at all. Can you please elaborate?
Sam, Defencenet, My apologies. Wanted to point out something from and earlier debate.
ReplyDeleteAll-
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with defence in SL.
But worth reading since we all using bloggs.
Bloggers battered by viral storm
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ReplyDeleteOne of my friends lost his Gmail account through similar scam last week.
ReplyDeleteBe careful and do not let your browser install un-known components.
Keep your Security Level to Medium (at least) and do not make Blog Sites or other sites that the public can post links as "Trusted Sites" (do not add them to trusted sites list).