{"id":97232,"date":"2020-01-03T00:17:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T06:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97232"},"modified":"2020-01-02T17:14:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T00:14:30","slug":"eelam-war-series-6-some-observations-on-the-eelam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/03\/eelam-war-series-6-some-observations-on-the-eelam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"EELAM WAR SERIES 6. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE EELAM WAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s armed forces were praised and\nadmired long before the Eelam victory of 2009. The US Pacific Command team\nwhich evaluated the Sri Lanka army in 2002 said the soldiers were well\nmotivated and were confident as a team.  They were well trained, knew their weapons,\nand were proficient in the skills expected of them. \u2018Maneuvers in close\nproximity to automatic weapons fire were rapid,\u2019 they noted. Soldiers had a\ngood understanding of LTTE warfare and knew how to defeat the LTTE. They had\nmaintained a fighting spirit amidst tremendous hardships and it was this spirit\nthat had prevented more drastic defeats. \nThe army would have succeeded better if the entire system were committed\nto that end, they concluded.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deputy head of the Naval Monitoring\nteam of the SLMM, Lars Bleymann was on board Pearl Cruiser II\u201d when it was\nattacked by the LTTE in 2006. He wrote to the Navy high command   thanking the navy, from the bottom of his\nheart, for saving his life. He said that the officer in charge and his crew behaved\nin exemplary manner. The OIC was calm, collected, never wavered, and never lost\ncoolness.   His crew carried out his\norders. They are a credit to the navy and the Sri Lanka Navy is in very good\nshape, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On another\noccasion, the head of the International Committee of Red Cross had written to\nRajiva Wijesinha \u2018Your men either at sea or on land, carried out their tasks in\nan exemplary manner. Whether it be to protect the state and its citizens or the\ncare of the sick and wounded they displayed a strict discipline and respect for\nrules of engagement and at the same time a very respectful and kind attitude to\nhelp those in need.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geneva Convention (Additional Protocol II, 1977) is the\nonly regulation that is of any use to a government engaged in civil war. This\nProtocol supports the right of governments to preserve national unity, protect\nterritory, and maintain law and order in a civil war situation. This Protocol\nprohibits others from meddling in the war or interfering with any actions the\ngovernment chooses to take on the matter. \nSri Lanka has not signed this Protocol and therefore cannot make use of\nthese valuable clauses.  When asked why\nSri Lanka did not do so, officials have no answer.  Observers ask, was it deliberate? The present\ntrumped up \u2018war crimes\u2019 charges are due to this omission.  The Ottawa landmine treaty prohibits the use\nproduction and stockpiling of anti personnel mines. We have not signed that\neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The armed forces faced many obstacles when\nfighting this war, including sabotage. When the government negotiated to buy RM 70\nmultiple rocket launchers from Czechoslovakia, there was an attempt to scuttle\nthe deal and the Czech manufacturers had to retain lawyers to proceed with the\nsale. The purchase was made but the plane carrying the launchers vanished after\nleaving Czechoslovakia. It was found in a former soviet republic. Sri Lanka\nmade representation and the plane was allowed to take off. When the plane\narrived in Sri Lanka, the Czech technicians in Colombo found that wires had\nbeen cut in both machines. They repaired the launchers with the help of SLAF\ntechnicians. The second aircraft carrying two more launchers was intercepted by\nfighter aircraft of a Middle Eastern country and forced to land in a military\nairport. It was held there for three weeks. An East European country had to\nmake representation on behalf of Sri Lanka to secure the aircraft\u2019s release.\nThese rocket launchers were urgently needed by the army. LTTE fighting strength\ncame primarily from their rocket launchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some sections of the media helped the LTTE by publicizing arms\npurchases.  Specifications of the newly\nacquired fire finding equipment were published. Sensitive combat information\nwas made public.  Navy said they could\nhave targeted another LTTE vessel in addition to the ones they hit in 2003 if\nthe media had not announced navy operations in advance. They charged that they could have destroyed at least\nfour more LTTE ships in 2003 and 2006 if the media had not published sensitive\ninformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military experts from UK, USA and India, three countries which\nopposed the war, were given an inside look at our armed forces. US Pacific\nCommand invited by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe,  carried out a comprehensive study of the armed\nforces, to see whether the government could defeat the LTTE.  They assured, in their top secret report that\nthis would not happen. The army did not have the\nnecessary equipment.  Air force    did not have a comprehensive air operational\nplan  and lacked the equipment needed for\nsurveillance and reconnaissance. They should acquire cluster bombs. US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was invited to\nadvise on Sri Lanka\u2019s intelligence. They \nused this to sit in on intelligence briefings.  Lt Gen Nambiar and Vice Admiral Jacob (India)\nwere invited to advice on Jaffna high security zone and a special sea route for\nLTTE. ( <\/strong>2003)<\/strong> General Rose (UK) came to advise on military reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it became clear that the government was going to win the war,\nthe western powers wanted President Rajapakse to stop the war. When Kilinochchi\nfell in January 2009 USA, UK, Norway and France followed by India and Japan tried\nto force this. These countries were trying to save the badly cornered LTTE. The pressure exerted on President Rajapakse was\nenormous. Representatives of UN, UNDP, ICRC together with the ambassadors for\nUSA, India and European Union met the Foreign Minister. USA threatened to\nwithhold the promised 9 million loan unless a ceasefire was declared and\nforeign intervention was allowed. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon sent his\nchief of staff, Nambiar to meet the President. UN wanted an immediate\nceasefire.  USA\nwanted a meeting between the UN representative and Prabhakaran as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe first three Eelam wars, Sri Lanka succumbed to\ninternational pressure   and the military\noffensive was stopped when the army was about to win.  The Rajapakse government refused to do this. President Rajapakse firmly stated that he was not going to\nstop the war. They were going to fight to the finish.  Nothing short of\nunconditional surrender could save the LTTE. \nThe UN was not needed. LTTE could contact the President through the International\nCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA had also wanted President Rajapakse to offer a general amnesty\nto the LTTE. This coincided with the unilateral ceasefire declared by the LTTE\nwhen they found they were losing. President Rajapakse refused. The government\ncould not offer an amnesty, he said. Even if the top leaders surrendered the\ngovernment would go ahead with legal proceedings against them for crimes\ncommitted. It was also too late for the LTTE to negotiate a deal with the\ngovernment.   President said that he would\nnot accept Prabhakaran as party to any future settlement. Nothing could be more\nridiculous than allowing LTTE to take part in negotiations when it had lost it\nfighting capability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About two months before the final battle at Nanthikadal lagoon, USA\nhad offered to evacuate the top LTTE leaders and their families. There were\nsecret negotiations to take away Prabhakaran, Sea tiger wing leader, Soosai,\nintelligence wing leader Pottu Amman and their families, numbering over\n100.  US wanted them to surrender to a\nthird party. Sri Lanka insisted that LTTE must\nsurrender to Sri Lanka and not to a third party.  Weerawansa said the west had asked\nPrabhakaran to lay down arms to a third party because if he was arrested he\nwould tell the government how the west had helped him with the war. (\ncontinued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka\u2019s armed forces were praised and admired long before the Eelam victory of 2009. The US Pacific Command team which evaluated the Sri Lanka army in 2002 said the soldiers were well motivated and were confident as a team.  They were well trained, knew their weapons, and were proficient in the skills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}