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TIMES OF INDIA REPORTS OMINOUS SIGNS FOR TAMIL TIGERS

By Walter Jayawardhana

India’s leading newspaper Times of India said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is cornered into a tight enclave in the Northern Province of the Sri Lankan island nation in a failing war is “desperate for fighters.”

Indicating ominous signs for the Tamil Tigers the Times said, “Less than three years after it took on Colombo with aggressive war mongering, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is desperate for fighters, say Tamil activists and diplomatic sources.”

Citing unnamed Tamil sources in the island's troubled north and east, the Times said LTTE is appealing to Tamil families to contribute at least one member each, irrespective of age and gender, to take on the advancing military.

But the newspaper pointed out that the LTTE has now lost the sprawling Eastern province it once occupied and that supplied the human resources for its once unbeatable land army and seagoing forces.

Though the newspaper warned that the LTTE “will not give up come what may” it in no uncertain terms said , “the LTTE appears to be on the retreat in the north.”

The Times of India in its front page story added, “ The LTTE now controls about 4,000 sq km - or just six percent of Sri Lanka's land territory. And the population under its control is said to be about 250,000 - a mere 1.25 percent of the country's total. This is a far cry from 2005 when it controlled a vast area in Sri Lanka's north and east. However, soon after President Mahinda Rajapaksa took power in November that year, the LTTE took the offensive, stoking a war that rages to this day.”
Citing military sources the Times of India also said that the LTTE's ability to counter-attack in a major way has been seriously eroded over the past year. The loss of the east has meant that the LTTE has lost valuable training ground and a region where it recruited cadres to wage war.
Indicating more bad news for the desperate Tamil Tigers the Times said ,

“Sri Lanka knows it needs to keep India on its side. For the first time in a long time, India, however, does not seem to be making any bones about being neutral in Sri Lanka. Despite pro-LTTE noises in Tamil Nadu, India refuses to publicly criticise anything it feels is going wrong on the Sri Lankan war front.”

 

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