{"id":59129,"date":"2016-09-26T16:07:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=59129"},"modified":"2016-09-26T16:07:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T23:07:11","slug":"the-1990-siege-of-batticaloa-a-tribute-to-the-warriors-of-the-gemunu-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/09\/26\/the-1990-siege-of-batticaloa-a-tribute-to-the-warriors-of-the-gemunu-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"THE 1990 SIEGE OF BATTICALOA: A TRIBUTE TO THE WARRIORS OF THE GEMUNU WATCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: BG (Ret.) Hiran N. Halangode , Sri Lankan Army \u00a0This\u00a0article \u00a0was published in the US\u00a0issue of the\u00a0Combating Terrorism Exchange<\/strong>\u00a0magazine of August 2016\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The rifleman fights without promise of reward or relief. Behind every river there’s another hill and behind that hill, another river. After weeks or months in the line, only a wound can offer him the comfort of safety, shelter, and a bed. Those who are left to fight, fight on, evading death but knowing that with each day of evasion they have exhausted one more chance for survival. Sooner or later, unless victory comes, this chase must end on the litter or in the grave.<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0 General Omar N. Bradley<\/a>1<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

S<\/span>ri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeast tip of India. Most of the land is flat and rolling, with mountains in the south-central region rising to over 8,000<\/span> feet (2,438<\/span>meters). The two nations are separated by the Palk Strait, which is only 18<\/span> miles (29<\/span> kilometers) wide at the closest point between Rameswaram in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar in northern Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Indo-Aryan emigration from India in the fifth century BCE<\/span> led to the formation of the largest ethnic group on Sri Lanka today, the Sinhala. Tamils, the second-largest ethnic group on the island, were originally from the Tamil region of South India and emigrated between the third century BCE<\/span> and 1200<\/span> CE<\/span>. The Tamils, primarily Hindus, claimed the northern section of the island while the Sinhala, who are predominantly Buddhist, controlled the rest of Ceylon. Beginning in 1505<\/span>, Ceylon became a colony, first of the Portuguese empire, then of the Dutch East India Company (1658\u20131796)<\/span>, and eventually, of the British Empire (1802\u20131948)<\/span>. The British brought indentured labor from South India to work their coffee, tea, and rubber plantations, thereby displacing many Sinhala in the central highlands of Kandy. On 4<\/span> February 1948<\/span>, after443<\/span> years of colonial rule and under pressure from Ceylonese nationalist leaders, Ceylon became a self-governing dominion of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name was changed to Sri Lanka (“Resplendent Island”) in 1972<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

The Ceylon Army (first instated on 10<\/span> October 1949<\/span>) was deployed in 1951<\/span> to assist the police in preventing illicit immigration and smuggling between Ceylon and Tamil Nadu in India. This was in addition to its other task of assisting the government in maintaining essential services. The problem of poaching and smuggling in the shallow waters off the northern coast continues to this day and has had a profound impact on relations between the two countries. Such illicit activities also remained a center of dispute during the civil conflict.<\/p>\n

Ever since independence, the Tamil minority in the north of Sri Lanka has harbored resentment towards the Sinhalese majority due to political, economic, and social differences, exacerbated by the differences in culture and religion. The Tamils claimed that Prime Minister S.W.R.D.<\/span> Bandaranaike championed Sinhala nationalism and further marginalized the Tamil minority when he made Sinhalathe country’s official language and institutionalized state support of Buddhism in 1956<\/span>.<\/a>2<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

In the 1970<\/span>s, the insurgent group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)<\/span> arose in the country’s north, with the goal to win independence for the majority Tamil regions of Sri Lanka and create a greater Eelam<\/span> (“Precious Land”) aligned with the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.<\/a>3<\/a><\/span> In 1975<\/span>, the Tamil mayor of Jaffna waskilled by the separatists simply for holding a government office. After a government crackdown in the north, some Tamils crossed to Tamil Nadu as refugees, many moderate Tamils who had been living among the Sinhala in other parts of the country fled to the north, and a few migrated to Western countries and formed the Tamil diaspora. The Tamil Nadu government supported, financed, and gave refuge to Tamil rebel groups, allowing them to operate clandestinelyfrom Indian territory. The Indians also helped train and arm certain Tamil guerrilla groups to fight the Sri Lankan Armed Forces after Sinhala racial riots in July 1983<\/span> that resulted from the ambush of a Sri Lankan Army patrol in the north.<\/p>\n

The first of a series of five peace talks and many ceasefires was arranged by the Indian government in Thimpu, Bhutan, in 1985<\/span>. At this meeting, the five main Tamil rebel groups presented four demands to the Sri Lankan government:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Recognition of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a distinct nationality. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Recognition of the right of the Sri Lankan Tamils to an identified homeland.<\/li>\n
  3. Recognition of the right of self-determination for the Tamil nation.<\/li>\n
  4. Recognition of the right to citizenship and the fundamental rights of all Tamils living in Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The government of Sri Lanka rejected outright the four demands put forward by the Tamil rebels but agreed to recognize the right to citizenship of the descendants of the indentured labor force brought from India by the British in the nineteenth century.<\/a>4<\/a><\/span> It was this situation that led to the commencement of violence and the initial stages of the long civil conflict. During the mid-1980<\/span>s, the LTTE<\/span> pushed out the other Tamil rebel groups and took charge as the sole representatives of Sri Lanka’s Tamil people and the dominant Tamil militant group in northern Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

    In the face of brutal terrorist attacks on civilians and India’s continued support for the insurgency, the Sri Lankan government launched a major military operation in 1987<\/span> to liberate the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE<\/span>. After it successfully completed that operation, it was then poised to liberate the town of Jaffna and nearby areas, but the LTTE<\/span> fighters fled to Tamil Nadu. Continued support for the insurgency from India forced the two sides into what is known as the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987<\/span>, which secured India’s national interest but sadly didn’t meet the Sri Lankan state’s needs or the LTTE<\/span>‘s basic aspirations.<\/p>\n

    The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)<\/span> arrived in Sri Lanka in July 1987<\/span> to bring about peace, but it only brought about more bloodshed. One thousand fifty-five IPKF<\/span> soldiers were killed and many more were wounded during the IPKF’<\/span>s nearly three-year tour of duty in Sri Lanka’s northeast. In 1990<\/span>, the new president of Sri Lanka, R. Premadasa, made a second attempt at peace talks with theLTTE<\/span> to try to settle the conflict, facilitate the withdrawal of the IPKF<\/span>, and bring peace to Sri Lanka. This is the point at which this story begins.<\/a>5<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Batticaloa<\/p>\n

    To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.<\/p>\n