NOW THE SRI LANKA ARMY IS PLANNING TO STRIKE AT THE JUNGLE HIDE OUTS OF LTTE IN AMPARA DISTRICT

By Walter Jayawardhana

After clearing all major Eastern coastal towns of the terrorists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the Sri Lanka Army is readying battle plans to clear the few remaining jungle swatches from where the terrorist group is directing its attacks on civilian settlements and Sri Lanka Army garrisons in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.

The Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka said they are now concentrating on the LTTE camps in the jungles of Kokadicholai and Thoppigala, which is also referred to as Barron’s Cap in the District of Ampara adjacent to the Batticaloa District, where Vakarai is.

Ampara District is the closest area to the Batticaloa and Trincomalee Districts from where the LTTE has been successfully chased away after 11 years of continuous dominance during the battles of last few weeks.

Sri Lanka Army has also stated in separate statements that hundreds of LTTE cadres from the fallen strongholds of Vakarai Kadiravel and other LTTE strongholds have escaped to Thoppigala and Kokadi Cholai.

LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilantheriyan (Marshal) said after the fall of their strongholds ,"In the east, there is always a balance between possession of territory and fighting ability, and it may constantly change," The defiant statement of the LTTE indicated they will continue to launch their attacks from Kokadi Cholai and Thoppigala, in the dense jungles. The jungle terrains are well known to the LTTE and it would take more of an effort on the part of the security forces to take them.

But Sri Lanka’s elite police commandos, the Special Task Force took over more than 12 LTTE camps in the nearby Kanjikudichchi Aru jungles in the Ampara District without much resistance. The LTTE, suffering from a severe manpower problem in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, following the departure of their one time Commander Karuna, who is now leading a breakaway group , are mostly depending on youth abductions to fill a large number of vacancies created by many deaths in the recent battles and in attacks by Karuna himself.

Thoppigala and Kokadi Cholai are the last two strongholds of the LTTE in the Eastern province and Thoppigala is considered to be the base camp.

The Sri Lanka government is also attempting to use the planned attacks on the Ampara jungle camps to induce the rebels to sit down at a negotiating table which the LTTE has evaded continuously.
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said, "If tomorrow the LTTE says 'we are ready to stop hostilities and get back to the negotiating table', we will stop immediately, If they do not, then we'll have to liberate the Tamil civilians in the east and then call (the Tigers) for negotiations."