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On the highway of death
In mid 2006, the undeclared Eelam War IV commenced.
If there was anyone to be blamed, it was the LTTE.
By its acts of provocation, such as the April 25 attempt on the
life of the Army Chief, the June 15 Kebethigollewa bomb blast, the
June 26 assassination of the Deputy Chief of Staff and the closure
of the Mavilaru sluice gates in late July, the orgianisation invited
war.
The Rajapaksa administration was, no doubt, bent on prosecuting
a war and the LTTE, by its brazen acts of provocation, gave it the
impetus.
In other words, the LTTE flamed the fires of war.
In fairness to the Norwegian facilitators, they were able to get
the two parties to Geneva late October 2006, even after the undeclared
war had commenced.
Sensing that the government was keen on pursuing the military approach,
the LTTE could have put the brakes on. But that was not to be.
Buoyed by its initial success in Muhamalai on October 11, in Geneva,
the LTTE insisted on the opening of the A9 Road as pre-condition,
for talks. The highway was closed after the organisation, on July
11, staged a major attack at the Muhamalai checkpoint.
As far as the government was concerned, it unofficially closed its
doors for talks and seriously conducted the war, going from one
battle to another, until the east was fully delivered in 2007, the
year the war intensified.
To the world, the government maintained it was either retaliating
or pre-empting Tiger attacks. Sensing military victory in the Tiger
heartland in the Wanni, the government called off the nearly six-year-old
ceasefire agreement last week, officially declaring war.
So, this year has rightly been dubbed the Year of War.
LTTE’s ideologue K. Balakumaran has claimed the Security Forces
were trying to enter Pooneryn through the A32 Road or the A34 to
advance through Oddisudaan. He said one of these roads will be renamed,
the highway of death. As the two sides are bracing for more battles,
recruitment and conscription is also going at full pace, despite
the whole world warning that there cannot be a military victory.
But, the year opened with a soft target and continued in that vein
throughout.
Outspoken UNP MP T. Maheswaran was silenced by an assassin’s
bullet in the holy precincts of a Hindu temple on January 1.
Miraculously, the suspect was injured and is in custody. While the
Police Chief immediately blamed it on the LTTE, the Tigers are known
to take cyanide to prevent being arrested.
The opposition UNP in Parliament yesterday reiterated its doubts
whether sleuths would be allowed to independently probe this cold-blooded
murder, up to a logical conclusion. If that happens, the government’s
excuse that it lacked evidence to probe a string of killings, would
not hold water.
The day after the Maheswaran killing, the LTTE blasted a claymore
mine in the heart of the Capital at Slave Island and followed it
up on January 3 with another blast at Kebetthigollewa on the Anuradhapura
road.
The target, in both instances, was soldiers in Army vehicles. In
the first instance, two students, including one who just sat for
his O/Ls, died.
In the prosecution of war, the warring parties cannot ignore non-combatants
and treat them as mere co-lateral damage.
It is strongly suspected that the reason for calling off the CFA
was to send the truce monitors packing, so that the three forces
could go on the rampage in the Wanni, treating non-Tiger victims
as part of co-lateral damage.
The Tigers are sure to respond in the same brutal manner, taking
soft targets as they did in Nugegoda on November 28, two days after
their Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was injured in an Air Force
bombing.
The target in last morning’s blast in Ja –Ela that claimed
the life of Minister D.M. Dassanayake was reportedly Chief Government
Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who uses a similar vehicle on the Negombo
Highway.
Like Maheswaran has been a bitter critic of the government on the
ethnic conflict, Fernandopulle has been taking great pains to defend
the government, going the extra mile.
More than a war, in the classic sense, what we see and hear of is
attacks in retaliation.
In Eelam War IV, the Sri Lanka Air Force has successfully taken
on pre-identified targets in the north and east. At the time of
writing this editorial, it was learnt from security officials, Tigers
blasted another bomb just three minutes after SLAF Commander Air
Marshall Roshan Goonetilleke had passed the Lake House roundabout.
More attacks and counterattacks, not just in the battle zones, but
outside them are expected. When would this spiral of violence end?
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