Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) directed a heavy artillery barrage towards a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) frontline position in Mannar, killing one soldier and wounding 10 others. LTTE artillery began hitting SLA controlled Nochchikulam area at around 8.30 PM Friday (14th) night. It is believed that LTTE used a 122mm artillery gun to shell the SLA position.
Previously, Military Intelligence revealed that LTTE had placed a 122mm heavy artillery gun in close proximity of the sacred Madhu shrine. This gun, placed inside the no-war-zone, was used to shell SLA positions in Thampanai area in a bid to halt SLA advances from Mannar.
Meanwhile a truck accident in Morawewa resulted in the death of 2 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel. 14 more airmen were wounded in the accident. The truck, belonging to SLAF, was transporting airmen who were returning to base after a training exercise when the incident occurred.
I am wondering what Rayappu Joseph the Terrorist Supporting Head Catholic Priest of the region has to say when "his boys" artillery gun in his premises of worship?
ReplyDeleteHe has been campaigning to keep the Madu Shrine area as a No War Zone to keep the SLDF away from the area, so that it can be made a safe haven to the terrorists.
These are the same people who dressed Prabhakaran as a Catholic priest and smuggled to Ireland and Norway and back with other genuine Catholic priests during Ranil's time.
Rayappu Joseph should be made accountable for the death of these valiant soldiers.
Noltte=peace we come back to basics here..None or Few of these 122mm guns have been destroyed.This is because rightly the bombing is concentating on killing concentrations of tiger cadres.We have a problem because to capture these guns we need to occupy more land which means we ill be subject to much more casualties as a result of artillary and small arms fire and strectching our forces .
ReplyDeleteDefenceNet..when you have the time..what is the current casualty count.
Defencenet,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the possibility of LTTE using some Surface to Surface Missiles. You might have seen the colloboration between LTTE and North Korea. And Israel has accused North Korea of Providing the Missile Technology to Hisbullah?
Is there any possibility that LTTE can use Surface to Surface Missiles ?
Prabakharan Injured Slightly in Air Force Bombing
ReplyDeletehttp://transcurrents.com/tamiliana/archives/458
We are close guys! One more year! Well... I'm not sure... but this is the ONLY reason I support this Government. Otherwise this Government is good for noting!
Ares no offense ..n one is saying this govt is fantastic but dont blame the govt for all the ills of the country.This is a cumulative effect of electing donkeys to parliament for over 30 yrs..starting with JR.The people who elected these donkies were those who suffer from a desease called "attha essilla" for a loaf of bread..Ex1..at election time some politician brings a van full of bread and gifts it to people for their vote.It is called a lack of political maturity..which i am happy to say is changing now thank god..Ex2:University students protesting ..these guys are studying free of charge and seem to have forgotton that it is the govt that gives them this opportunity while fighting a murderous devil..Maybe we should eradicate free education and start charging students say $10,000?p/a for university education?..
ReplyDeleteImagine at this rate we will eradicate the BOPayments deficit in a year!!..
ReplyDeletemy shadow,
ReplyDelete"What is the possibility of LTTE using some Surface to Surface Missiles. You might have seen the colloboration between LTTE and North Korea. And Israel has accused North Korea of Providing the Missile Technology to Hisbullah?"
Currently, the threat of LTTE using S2S missiles is low. According to MI, they do not have any dedicated S2S missiles other than weapons like LAW. But as you mentioned there are several places tigers can obtain them from. Anyway they will need specialized training to operate such even if they do acquire the weapons.
ares and other,
"Prabakharan Injured Slightly in Air Force Bombing"
Dont get your hopes too high guys this is merely a rumor. MI has not confirmed this story.
meanwhile security has been tightened around several hydro power plants after MI warned about a possible tiger attempt to cripple the Island's power generation.
ReplyDeleteDefence Column.
ReplyDeleteThe Nation.
DefenceNet
ReplyDeleteI urge you again to add a pictures and videos feature to this blog on the SLA.
There is a huge need for greater presentation of our military's capabilities to keep our people also motivated in working towards a resolution of this conflict once and for all.
There are plenty of material that is available on the SLAF and SLN websites towards that objectives but the SLA is not adequately represented.
Athas's defence column is back this week. Mostly his regular analysis, including of the Anuradhapuara attack inquiry, but this sentence was pretty interesting
ReplyDelete"Also on Friday, the Commander of the Army, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, addressed his high-ranking officers at his headquarters. He made clear it was his intention to finish off the military campaign against Tiger guerrillas by August next year. He was confident he could achieve this."
True? If so pretty ambitious.
Skywalker, thanks for the link. No wonder I couldn't find it on Google :)
ReplyDeleteDefence Column.
ReplyDeleteSunday Times.
Defence Column.
ReplyDeleteLakbima.
ReplyDeleteNext Sea Tiger attack might originate from Thamilnadu itself...
This is according to another blogger in another blog..
He cited the recent arrest of the Sea Tiger supermo in Tamilnadu as a precursor for this.
Any ideas?
It seems we are not capable of tracking the position of those artilary guns are located when they fired and/or destroy them using arial attacks. Using LRRP guys to locate the guns also seems difficult. Even in the east big guns were captured as tigers couldn't move them away. (They did from sampur to vakarei.) So basicaly we need to get territory to neutralize these guns. This is chalenging. If SLA can remove tiger's big guns before starting offensive things become relatively very easy. So SLA should find a way to do this.
ReplyDeleteDefence Column.
ReplyDeleteRivira.
Guys
ReplyDeleteCan we avoid capitalizations and highlighted posting please?
The importance of each posting will be judged by the reader and should not be forced on anyone unnecessarily.
No offense meant to anyone.
ninja bandara
ReplyDeleteWe need fire finding radars to locate exactly where the LTTE artillery fire is coming from. Then the airforce jets armed with PGMs will take care of the rest. In the 1990's we order 2 fire finding radars from the US, since then I heard that one of them is broken, so only one is operational.
We need to buy a few more fire finding radars, and China is the best place for a country lanka to buy them. I bet their price is hard to beat as well.
The Chinese make good fire finding radars like the BL-904 artillery locating radar, SLC-2 artillery locating radar, Type 371 artillery locating radar, Type 704 artillery locating radar.
Defencenet;
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the spy info which we get from LTTE,
*) It's a fact our forces get enough info about LTTE leadership movement and where the real time locations are.
*) Also we have often enough info about Sea Tiger movements.
*) Often get the info about up coming land attacks too.
However looks to me, we are still lack of info / spy info about LTTE air unit. Are we still under estimating the enemy?
Can we hire a spy satellite or (There must be hackers who are prepared to help too for free of charge as a good will) some team who can give us enough info about take off positions as well as landing.
Are these things been consider on normal defence meetings on Gov top level?
Apologies if this sounds silly, I'm not a defence military person, just a normal civilian who thinks in day to day passion.
I would like to ask 4 a gr8 favour frm DN.Please try to post more graphics in here.For an instance it would be gr8 if u can provide a map of the current positions of SLA and battle zones.Although there are some maps those does not provide clear idea to the ppl who r not familiar abt the areas.
ReplyDeletesrilankan,
ReplyDelete"what is the current casualty count."
Casualty count is the same. 1 KIA and 11 wounded.
"I urge you again to add a pictures and videos feature to this blog on the SLA."
Sorry about the delay tropicalstorm. We are currently working on it. But the best we can do is to create a collection of videos that are already scattered on the web. We do not have the time or bandwidth to upload new videos for the time being.
tangara,
"Next Sea Tiger attack might originate from Thamilnadu itself..."
Could be possible. MI warned of a possible LTTE plan to hide boats in those seas in hibernation mode so that they can be used on an attack on the Harbor. They will not use the same strategy twice and they are known to innovate.
", we are still lack of info / spy info about LTTE air unit. Are we still under estimating the enemy?"
Well its not underestimation. As we explained in a previous thread, LTTE aircraft are housed at random locations. They are said to be hidden in subterranean hangars which would neutralize the impact of an airstrike (unless BBs are used). Unlike LTTE safe houses which are placed in populated areas these hangars are said to be in LTTEs HSZs and covered by jungle cover, which are difficult to recon.
bentz
"f u can provide a map of the current positions of SLA and battle zones"
We'll try our best but cannot guarantee anything as time really is a barrier. And we do not always have access to internet.
Many thanks DefenceNet..
ReplyDeleteGEagle..will the "maritime radars?" given by the americans be of any use to track these artillary pieces?
DefNet;
ReplyDeleteHope you'll be able to get a decent collection of still and video to represent the SLA and its components soon. Thanks for considering my request.
Illegal-Ex:
Re; your comments on Athas, I'd still say that the bastard hasn't given up his under-the-radar attempts at demoralizing the Enlish media reading city types by a constant barrage of negativity. The proof is in the fact that his column is the only one which keeps on publishing the damaged assets at A'pura. Even TamilNut has quit doing that.
There also seems to be a need for clarification of what the out-going Brit Diplomat stated. Pls refer the following article;
"..THE OUTGOING British High Commissioner Dominic Chilcott Monday said that the government’s offer on devolution should be addressed to moderate Tamils and that he didn’t believe a future peace process should be based on talks exclusively between the government and the LTTE.
While expressing the belief that there was no purpose in putting something on the table that would attract the attention of the LTTE, he asserted that the LTTE was unlikely to respond to anything from the government that did not offer them separation. "It would be nice to be proved wrong on that but I don’t expect to be."
The outspoken diplomat said that such talks were probably necessary to arrange a ceasefire. But the political process needed to be more inclusive and also more demanding of the participants, he said, delivering the Dudley Senanayake memorial lecture. He also acknowledged Sri Lanka’s right to defend herself against the threat posed by the LTTE.
In a hard hitting speech which tackled a gamut of contentious issues, he urged President Rajapaksa’s government to distance itself from the ongoing JVP campaign targeting UN agencies, INGOs, NGOs and their staff over, what he called, wholly unsubstantiated allegations..."
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=9299
All this is good advice and shows that we still have a big need for cool heads in times of chaos. This particular administration has too many people who talk too much and too far out of bounds. Even sons of diplomats seem to be issuing policy statements without any control.
defensenet, please do not provide any maps of the current position of SLA. As you know, there are hardcore LTTE supporters here to get any information they can get that would help the enemy.
ReplyDeleteGE, thanks mate. I am wonderung why we don't have it. Is it too expensive or any other problems?
ReplyDelete"It's time to take terror threat in South India seriously
ReplyDeleteby: Anjali Sharma
Recent terrorist attacks in India show that terrorist groups and their network of associates and supporters are not confined to any single geographical location but across the country. Cities and towns in several States are now in the terror trajectory. Most worrisome is the emergence of south India as the favourite hunting ground for terror networks as the Maldives blast, the increased presence of Tamil terrorists and the rising number of extremist groups in Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka and Kerala indicate.
Southern India’s brush with terrorism is not exactly recent. The 1992 Babri Masjid demolition witnessed the birth several small radical organisations in different parts of south, most noticeable and powerful among them being Al Umma. The group quietly mobilised the Muslim youth to carry out bomb explosions on February 14, 1998 in Coimbatore.
Even as al Umma came into public focus, Abu Hamsa alias Abdul Bari, an Indian Muslim in Saudi Arabia with links to Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Abu Omar, a Pak citizen, set up Muslim Defence Force in Coimbatore.. The group held its first clandestine meeting in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, in which they planned country-wide activities. As Abu Hamsa became one of the most wanted terrorists after the explosions in Andhra Pradesh, he floated another organization "New Vision" with the help of his connections in Tamil Nadu to propagate Islam amongst the so-called backward classes of the Hindu community and recruit them for training in jihad in Gulf. It was also decided to establish hide-outs for jihadi terrorists visiting Tamil Nadu. Their links with Sri Lanka became evident when Abu Hamsa visited Sri Lanka couple of times.
Another major terrorist group which has been active in south India since early 90s is Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT). The group has always listed the `liberation of Hyderabad` high on their agenda. This objective, enunciated on numerous occasions, has pushed the group to establish networks in south India, which came to the fore recently when LeT trained terrorists carried out blasts on September 29 in Male, the capital of Maldives, a tourist destination and smallest but the most prosperous country of South Asia.
According to the Maldives police, the Islamist cell that carried out the attack had connections with LeT operatives in India. The terrorists had first traveled to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala before leaving for Pakistan to be trained in explosives and other terror activities in the training camps of LeT.. The police said an ultra-right group Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis is believed to be behind the bombing of the Sultan Park, Male in which about 12 foreign tourists were injured. The key figures responsible for planning the Sultan Park bombing was Saeed Ahmad and Moosa Inas said to have links with a Faislabad seminary Jamia Salafiya Islamia that has hosted dozens of religious students from Maldives. It is the same seminary that has trained several key LeT leaders.
There have been quite a few indications of Kerala’s links with terror. The proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) controlled as many as 12 front organizations in Kerala. The prominent among them are National Democratic Front and Islamic Youth Centre both with sizeable presence among the Muslim youth of Mallapuram and Kozhikode districts in North Kerala. As per police reports, SIMI was operating under the cover of religious study centres, rural development and research centres. It is also reported to have established a women’s wing in Kerala. This means further penetration of the Indian territory by terrorists. In April 2005, for instance, Asif Ibrahim of Maldives told the police that he had been tasked to set up a support unit for a new Maldives based terror group Jamaat-ul-Muslimeen in Thiruvananthapuram. These groups find it easier to procure explosives in India than Maldives where a strict national identity card system makes such purchases subjected to police scrutiny. The explosive device that went off in Male was similar in its construction to the ones which exploded in Ajmer and Hyderabad early this.
LTTE is another group which has been active in the region for quite sometime. The group is said to have bases in Tamil Nadu and there is a visible increase in its activities in the recent past. There were reports that LTTE operated as many as 25 training camps in Tamil Nadu. Periyar town served as a source of the group’s uniforms while Tuticorin provided a sanctuary to smugglers and a hospital in Tiruchi provided medical facilities to the wounded ’Tigers’. Thanjavur was their communication base and Nagapattinam was the hub of professional smugglers who ferried arms and ammunitions from India to Jaffna in Sri Lanka.
Even today LTTE cadres maintain a base in Tamil Nadu though the Manmohan Singh government refuses to acknowledge the fact, given its political compulsions in Tamil Nadu. Last month, a chance encounter between Sri Lanka Navy and LTTE exposed the existence of arms dump in India. The Navy seized a five and a half feet long small aircraft which could have been used to bomb key targets in Sri Lanka. The military said that the Tamil terrorists were using India as a transit point to ferry arms, ammunition and other equipments to Wanni. The destruction of their floating arsenal by the Sri Lankan Navy (it has sunk 9 out of 10 ships belonging to LTTE) had forced the LTTE to shift the supplies to their south Indian hideouts.
Lax legal and security environment facilitate the movement of terrorists in south Indian states provide a convenient route for them to move towards their destinations via sea, be it in Maldives or Sri Lanka or Pakistan or Bangladesh. Till 2005, terrorists have used south India only as a transit point for their terrorist activities but now they have started targeting key economic and scientific establishments in southern states. In January 2007, for instance, a LeT operative Imran was caught with a satellite phone, SIM cards, and maps indicating locations of airport and the offices of IT majors Wipro and Infosys Technologies. There have been a number of arrests made at regular intervals from all the four south Indian states, clearly indicating the strong emergence of terror networks in the region. This poses a serious threat to a region which houses country’s major nuclear power plants, space installations, science centres and information technology hubs.
**************************************
Anjali Sharma is Associate Fellow with Obsever Research Foundation in Chennai."
Well...well, OaO Asithri is Baaaack! I said “I will be baaack” (so said the Terminator I remember…LMSSAO!)
ReplyDeleteMy apologies Patriots, I had some urgent business travels that took me to China, UAE and then back to the US via freaking Timbukktu (at least I thought so) and hence, I was out of circulation (so to speak)! LMSSAO!
Anyway, whatz cooking here mates…how many filthy bloody carcass-maggots have we liquidated since I last connected here? At least 250 I suppose…going by MOD claims and LTTE denials (actually, we here in the US have perfected a good “predictive model” that tells us the probable number of LTTE casualties judging by what MOD says, what the Skunk Rasiaya Illantariy (or whatever the f his name is) claims and it has only failed us 5% of the time! Not bad eh? LMSSAO!
SL said...
[defensenet, please do not provide any maps of the current position of SLA. As you know, there are hardcore LTTE supporters here to get any information they can get that would help the enemy.]
SL, hey bro…great to see you here…yep, I remember you from LNP (where the LTTE mf’s generally have a field day with profanity attacking us Sinhelas and we Sinhelas cannot go to that extent as the “lokka” Brown tends to kick us out! LMSSAO!) and good to know you are still doing the good work bro. I fully agree with your above appeal…yes, there are LTTE filthy maggots masquerading here as just “defense enthusiasts” but it is all too evident to some of us that these mf’s are here to “phish” for vital info.
DefenceNet: Mate, what is the truth about the Fat Black Ugly Oily Pig getting hurt from a SLAF bombing? I am getting mixed messages and my contacts in the SLAF are unreachable (they have all gone on R&R at the same time – truly LMSSAO!) and as such, am not getting a clear pic of what the truth is…appreciate if you could cast some light here.
PEACE to all SL Patriots...
OaO Asithri
SL im very sorry to break this news to u bt i dnt think that LTTE is not aware of current positions and war fronts that they r fighting. Although I accept that this request for a map is only based on "curiosity" i honestly dont think it will harm SLDF in anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd DN, u guys r doin a gr8 job and it was just a request..Keep it up guys.........
Astiri,
ReplyDeleteBelow details been posted by defencenet earlier.
May be could have some roste pork later date.
"ares and other,
"Prabakharan Injured Slightly in Air Force Bombing"
"Dont get your hopes too high guys this is merely a rumor. MI has not confirmed this story."
DefenceNet,
ReplyDeleteis it true?
Next year 2008 will be declared as "A Year of War"
Sri Lanka declares no-fly zones
ReplyDeletehttp://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=subcontinent&xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/december/subcontinent_december572.xml
Bentz..no offense to you..however even though it is simple curiosity for you it is actually a question of life or death for the soldiers which ranks way way higher than curiosity.Actually releasing operational details and troop deployments on any web page is not the "done thing".This is because the internet is accessible to the wholeworld..what will the outcome of this disclosure (regardless of the LTTE spies) be if for example the norweigian ex-secret service agents get involved (since money buys everything) with the LTTE..The last thing we want to do is to contribute to increasing troop casualties of these brave soldiers who are beggers compared to this LTTE filth overseas who are minting money.Please lets give the families of these brave souls a break shall we?
ReplyDeleteSrilankan, If it is such a gr8 deal i would be more than happy to accept ur argument,bt if it was hw come defence.lk ppl put a map abt the battle grounds in their situation reports.But the prob with those maps is dat they contain too much info.Im asking 4 a less detailed more focused on the frontlines sort of map.Coz it is really important to provide
ReplyDeletesuch a overall view abt the situatuion to the ignorant ppl in the south.For an instance i hav many time come across ppl who r saying"there haven't been any significant progress in the fronts"
And SriLankan i think u,me as ppl who r more concerned abt this gr8 cause hav to get this msg to the ignorant bastards in the south which is
"We are winning and we can finish it off".
Finally,iqbal athas came out this sunday,with a superb article!.go iqbal,go!..no one can beat his style of writing,flow,etc.,of course,sometimes he does make some blunders,but atleast he corrects himself,later on..iqbal,if yor reading this,mate dont get demotivated,demoralized by any government thuggies,who try & continue to harass you..keep up the good work,iqbal!!
ReplyDeletesrilankan
ReplyDeleteI don't think that maritime radars can track artillery fire. But maritime surveillance on OPVs can play a huge role in this conflict.
Simply put, a maritime radar can have a range of 100km or even more, and that makes detecting ship size objects in our oceans much easier. Even though an OPV can look like a small speck out in the great sea, the range of its maritime radar will give it a huge reach.
ninja bandara
I don't know why our military did not try to buy more fire finding radars. I hope they will give the chinese models a serious look.
Goldeneagle,guys
ReplyDeleteDon't our TPQ-36 firefinder counter-battery radars still work?..have we lost any of these to the Tigers,by any chance?..well,it all comes with a "commis" after all,,MR,GOTA& co must be looking at investment options to purchase luxury properties in Dubai,perhaps? or maybe they are in the process of finalizing a deal to buy one of those islands?..well,of course,if its public money,what the hell?..After all,Mihin Air seems to be the srilankan equivalent of the USA's airforce one(a loss-making bird at that).. :{..sri lanka-"a land like no other"!!-definitely,spot on..
One of the best fire finding radars in the world is the Swedish ARTHUR artillery finding radar.
ReplyDeleteEach ARTHUR system costs about $20 million. It has a maximum range of 40 km and can have an incredible accuracy range of within 2 meters!!! So in other words it can detect and locate the LTTE artillery unit to within 2 meters of its location.
Here is a MUST WATCH instructional video clip of the ARTHUR system:
http://www.liveleak.com/
view?i=3aa_1189642012
Unfortunately the Swedish won't be willing to sell it to a small country like Lanka even if we do have the money to buy a few.
renegade
ReplyDeleteLast I heard, one of our fire finding radars is out of action and the other is transported to be used where ever it is needed. Unfortunately I hear that transporting fairly old fire finding system like the TPQ-36 around makes it less effective, because we never really fully install the system to one place which takes too much time. A fully installed TPQ-36 is said to be the most efficient at doing its job.
Dear Bentz, Sri Lankan
ReplyDeletePublish a map, do not worry at all about it if it is a very highlevel map only indicating specific places. Military use very sophisticated maps and LTTE do the same. If the published map to be a real valuable thing it should be with the correct scale and coordinates marked. If such a map is published defineitly we have breaced national security. In addition to that LTTE map plotters have already plotted the entire area with the newly established defence line.
Publishing a highlevel map for the public is required to give them a feeling on the ground situation.
GEagle & Bentz many thanks for your input.I think it is a really stupid idea to publisize that we are winnig the war till we win (which i think wont happen for some time) because this so called "international community" has this lets be "good fellows" idea of supporting the "under dog" in any situation .Fx Past british admins and the LTTE filth in the west.As for the population in the south..i am sure they will be more than happy with a disclosure that "we are winning" and for the families to see their loved ones return alive regardless of various demands for the disclosure of detailed info from time to time... There is no need to disclose detailed troop deployments to anyone..do we have detailed maps of troop deployments of US forces fX in afganistan?
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Abhaya for your input.
ReplyDeleteAbhaya i forgot to add that we need to develop our skills of playing the "under dog" who has been "victimised by everyone"...
ReplyDeleteWhat I am saying is a map can be published only with three to four town names or places like Giant Tank. And two areas in different colors just to give an ndication. That will be good enough.
ReplyDeleteTroop deployment, defence positions, gun positions are Holy of Holies my friend.
Abhaya your absolutely right mate!!.Anyway most of these so called maps published simply indicate areas of operations which is all what the public want to see..fx today if we are in colombo and tommorrow in galle is just fine since it shows progress by the forces.
ReplyDeleteSL,
ReplyDeleteWe need a combination of Propaganda, Phys Ops and Stratagical and Tactical warfare. These rules of engaging and winning wars has not changed over the history of mankind.
You need bunch of brainers, leaders and courageous boys in the ground.
No doubt the SLDF in the ground is second to none. I highly appriciate them considering the minimum hardware, training resources they have. They were very brave and useful even under some idiotic politicians and leaders. They are the forefront saved this war for 20+ years.
Now I it is obvious we have better leaders and better hardware. I do not see any obstruction in winning this war to let our children live in a better place(for all Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher children).
My heart aches when I see LTTE child soldiers with AK47s, where they should have a book or bat and should be studying maths or playing cricket instead.
And SriLankan thats what i've been saying all along!!!:)Just a simple graphic to indicate our progress.
ReplyDeleteYour right Abhaya..we cannot undo the past mate..this all started because these criminals found safe heavens overseas...We are also to blame..but i have this feeling Vp was waiting for any excuse to start this war...Lets hope we can solve this problem and the legacy of the Govt to the nothern tamils are not LARGE CEMETERIES.
ReplyDeleteO.K Bentz:):)
ReplyDelete1.With the death of S. P. Thamilchelvan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), under mysterious circumstances on November 2, 2007, the Sri Lankan Tamil cause faces an uncertain future.
ReplyDelete2. Thamilselvan, the presumed No.3 in the pecking order of the LTTE leadership after Prabakaran and Pottu Amman, the chief of the intelligence wing of the LTTE, was the only leader not involved in any major act of terrorism either in Sri Lankan or Indian territory. The direct involvement of Prabakaran and Pottu Amman in many acts of terrorism in Indian territory, including in the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister, in May 1991, would rule out for ever the Government of India having anything to do with the LTTE so long as the perpetrators of Rajiv's assassination continue to head the organisation and seek to control the destiny of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
3. P. Nadesan, a former Sri Lankan Police officer, whom Prabakaran has nominated as the successor to Thamilchelvan, is not a leader of any calibre. He is essentially a stooge of Prabakaran, who has not given any evidence so far of having an independent mind of his own.
4. As demonstrated by the LTTE's spectacular raid on the Anuradhapura air base of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) on October 22, 2007, the LTTE's morale, motivation and capacity for resilience are still strong despite the set-backs suffered by it in the Eastern Province and the damage, which the Sri Lankan authorities claim to have inflicted on its Navy and commercial ships, which were being used for gun-running. Morale, motivation and resilience can keep the LTTE fighting for years, but they alone would not be sufficient for making the Tamil cause prevail. The Tamil cause cannot prevail without a plurality of political leadership in the LTTE, with a vision of what is achievable and what is not.
5. As an insurgent-cum-terrorist organisation, the LTTE is any day far superior to Al Qaeda, but as a political or ideological organisation it is far inferior to Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden is a blood-thirsty terrorist leader who has no qualms about killing not only non-Muslims, but even his co-religionists, but one has to grudgingly admit that he has allowed a plurality of leaders to emerge in his organisation so that it does not have to depend only on him for its future successes.
6. That is why many analysts agree that the elimination of bin Laden will not mean the end of Al Qaeda. Other leaders will take over and carry on with its operations. Prabakaran is an extremely jealous political leader, who has not allowed alternate political leaders of any stature to emerge either in the LTTE itself or in the Sri Lankan Tamil community. Thamilchelvan, who might have been able to take over the leadership and keep the LTTE fighting, is gone. Pottu Amman may be a brilliant and dreaded intelligence chief, who knew how to kill with precision, but he has given no evidence of any political standing, which would enable him to rally round the Tamils after the death of Prabakaran. There have been unconfirmed reports that the dynasty bug has bitten the LTTE too and that Prabakaran is trying to groom his son, who grew up in the West, as his successor. Even he won't be able to mobilise the Tamils.
7. Thus, if the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) succeeds in its projected aim of decapitating the LTTE by killing Prabakaran ---either through its own efforts or with the help of Pakistani and Ukrainian pilots--- that could mark the beginning of the withering away of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. That has been the fate of all terrorist organisations over-dominated by a single person. That was the fate of the organisation headed by Carlos. After his arrest by the French intelligence in August, 1994, it has withered away. That was also the fate of other ideological organisations such as the Baader-Meinhof and the Red Army faction of Germany. One can also cite many other instances of what happens to an insurgent or terrorist organisation when its leader does not tolerate the emergence of other leaders.
8. The SLAF has valid reasons to target Prabakaran. He has killed more political leaders----Sinhalese as well as Tamils--- than the leader of any other terrorist organisation in the world. He has been responsible for innumerable deaths of innocent civilians. If the Sri Lankan authorities conclude that he has to be eliminated in order to stop the bloodshed, nobody can question their right to undertake a decapitation strike.
9. A successful decapitation strike may not mean the immediate end of the bloodbath. In fact, more blood will be shed by the angry and frustrated followers of Prabakaran in the short term, which may last about two years or so. Thereafter, the inevitable process of withering-away will set in and the LTTE will cease to exist as a terrorist organisation in the medium and long-term.
10. It is in the interest of not only Sri Lanka, but also India and the rest of the international community that the LTTE ceases to exist as a terrorist organisation. The Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka would also want to put an end to the LTTE as a political organisation so that there is no well-motivated organisation which defends the aspirations of the Tamils. If the Sri Lankan authorities succeed in putting an end to the LTTE as a political organisation too, Sri Lanka will be back to the pre-1983 years when a highly chauvinistic Sinhalese majority rode rough-shod over the rights of the Tamils
11. Make no mistake about it. President Mahinda Rajapakse and other Sinhalese leaders are no lovers of Tamils. They may smile and smile, but they would like nothing better than to crush the LTTE even as a political organisation so that the Tamils could be ultimately reduced to the status of the Red Indians of the US.
12. India has a moral responsibility to see that while terrorism ends in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese majority is not able to take the country back to the pre-1983 days. A reversion to the status quo ante can be prevented by preserving the assets of the LTTE as a political organisation, which is able to articulate and fight politically for the interests of the Tamils without degenerating once again into a terrorist organisation shunned by the international community. The elimination of Thamilchelvan reduces India's options in working for such a political organisation, but this should not discourage India from interacting closely with different sections of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka and abroad in order to see that the Sri Lankan authorities do not succeed in extinguishing the Tamil political struggle for their legitimate rights.
13. President Rajapakse is no different from Prabakaran in certain matters. Both live in their own self-created world of illusions. Prabakaran thinks he can still achieve an independent Tamil Eelam despite the attrition of capability and international support. Rajapakse thinks that he can crush the LTTE militarily and impose a dictated peace on the Tamils. So long as Prabakaran is alive, the LTTE will keep fighting like a ferocious animal. It might have lost territory in the Eastern Province, but territorial control is never an important factor for an insurgent or terrorist organisation. We saw in Afghanistan that the loss of territorial control did not mean the end of the Taliban. It has staged a spectacular come-back. Morale and motivation are more important than territorial control. Both remain intact and as strong as ever as one saw at Anuradhapura.
14. If Mr. Rajapakse is an intelligent political leader with a vision and with a recognition of his responsibility to look after the interests of all Sri Lankans---whether Sinhalese or Tamil--- he would have accelerated the search for a mutually acceptable political solution, even while maintaining his counter-terrorism operations. He has abandoned the search for a political solution, thinking that a military victory is not far away.
15. Caught between the illusions of two political leaders, the prospects for a negotiated political solution have further receded. It is not only the Tamil community, but even Sri Lanka as a whole, which faces an uncertain future. The calculated inactivism of the Government of India is contributing to a drift, which could prove detrimental to India's interests. Public opinion in Tamil Nadu should be more active in persuading the Government of India to see that under the pretext of ending the terrorism of the LTTE, the Sinhalese majority does not once again crush the legitimate Tamil political aspirations.
Defencenet, LTTE Arti is most lethal killer. Who not we call in the SLAF to neutralize these arti pieces or if not use the same arti tactics to counter attack LTTE positions?
ReplyDeleteShould send every sla into smithereens to hell, innocent or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteInnocents ones cuz they were stupid enough to volunteer to be MR bull frog's cannon fodder. Its survival fittest baby and the human race dont need 200 generations of inbreds.