Unless Retaliated Harder LTTE
Will Continue to Target Civilians
Dilrook Kannangara
Tigers find it very hard to escape the security forces; daily skirmishes
kill a good 10-20 terrorists everyday. In this context, targeting civilians
is a very effective means of getting things done for any terrorist group.
It puts additional political pressure on the government in many ways.
First, the ruling political entity becomes unpopular not only among
those who suffered and their relatives, but also nationwide. Given the
very volatile political situation in Sri Lanka, this has a damning impact.
Secondly, it forces a brave government to go all out and destroy the
terrorists while a coward government to take shelter by retracting its
military operations. Thirdly, attacks on civilians tend to take the
wind out the war sails. It can also fuel the rich and powerful surrender
campaign. Without the public backing there is no way a government can
run the war campaign. Fourthly, this repeat attack in Kabithigollewa
is part of LTTE’s ethnic cleansing acts aimed at chasing away the
Sinhala villagers in the North. Fifthly, this type of attacks can easily
fuel ethnic tensions that can escalate into ethnic riots. When that
happens, the government would be in a real mess.
The timing of this terror attack is also important. It comes at a time
when the security forces are not engaged in any major offensive. Some
say that the government has stopped all operations pending the budget
debate. This allows tigers a free hand in killing civilians. Also tigers
want to ward-off further attacks on them by the DPU by trying to show
that they can dominate a claymore-warfare. However, they are sadly mistaken;
given the number of LTTE vehicles criss-crossing in Vanni plus the growing
discontent the Vanni dwellers are going through, it would be child’s
play to target tiger convoys in Vanni using the same technique. No doubt
Parabakaran is in a state of panic after he narrowly escaped SLAF attacks
and other attacks. His fear of the DPU is legendary and that shows is
effectiveness. Hence the path to take is clear and shown by none other
than tigers themselves. DPU attacks on terror leaders must be increased
drastically to drive fear into them before it is too late; security
establishments – SLAF, SLN bases must be protected with better
vigilance; the killing rate of tigers must improve by a few times if
there is to be an outcome.
Last time when terrorists committed a similar war crime in 2006 in Kabithigollewa,
the security forces hammered them hard. Sencholei terror camp was ravished
by the SLAF killing a large number of terrorists that drove home a powerful
message into the LTTE. A similar strategy must be used this time as
well. Tiger leaders know very well that there is a massive numbers disparity
between them and their enemies. They know that a tit-for-tat killing
spree can only annihilate them and therefore would immediately go underground
the moment the government started actively and repeatedly retaliating.
Retaliation has other benefits as well. It sustains the support for
war; people see results of the large defence expenditure burden. Opinion
polls have always shown the military outlook and hence a powerful position
military-wise help sustain the war – an endeavour for which public
support is imperative.
However, the main reason why retaliation is justified remains its deterring
effect. Unless the tigers suffer a similar or worse setback they are
going to follow the blood trail even further. If they are given the
signal that the government succumbs to defeat every time civilians are
targeted, LTTE terrorists are only going to increase attacks on civilians
as each time they attack, the government would bend down like an ostrich.
On the other hand, if a tit-for-tat attack is carried out, tiger leaders
would come to realise the cause-effect relationship in unequivocal terms.
This is the only way to stop attacks on civilians.
The government failed to do so after the Nugegoda attack which emboldened
the LTTE to do more. Take no further action and expect more and more
similar terror attacks.
If Israel has not been the world’s biggest retaliator, it would
have been overrun by terrorists decades ago!
The biggest problem with the present administration is that it intermingle
politics with the war. Although there are a few good points to do so,
recent events suggest otherwise. The government has acknowledged to
this and as a result they have requested the Speaker to advance the
third reading of the budget to the 7th December and as usual the Opposition
has protested thus allowing tigers more time to kill. However, this
should not be so; the military arm must be allowed to carryout its functions
regardless of political developments. During the next nine days leading
up to the 14th, tigers will cause maximum damage they can as they know
very well that no retaliation attack is forthcoming. Same thing happened
during the truce that was observed for the last round of ‘peace
talks’ when a very large contingent of sailors were massacred and
for the Cricket World Cup. Unfortunately the politico-defence establishment
is devoid of intelligent individuals who can at the very least learn
from their own mistakes!
As mentioned in a previous article the Defence Secretary does not deserve
his name ‘abhaya’ (simply means anti-terror) if people live
in fear. It is a national crime if not a crime-against-humanity if the
defence establishment robs USD 1.5 billion from the people and leave
them to die! As a result of repeated war budgets people are under severe
financial stress and the fatcats at the defence ministry are either
blissfully unaware of this or they don’t care. Tax them and hack
them seems their guiding principle. If the LTTE has a strength of 30,000,
this means Rs. 5.8 million per one terrorist! If it is 15,000, cost-per-head
is Rs. 11.6 million! Surely it doesn’t cost so much to kill a terrorist.
This shows the enormous waste, inefficiency of the defence establishment
and their lack of focus, not to mention the brotherly love the Finance-Minister-
brother has for his Defence-Secretary-brother.
Some even talk of good governance and transparency; they are talking
in irony! If the strike rate, the average and overall performance of
defence authorities steadily fall, it’s time for new blood. There
is no point leeching there any further for people’s money and blood.
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