Vakarai: Life after Swarnam and Elilan

Special Forces that drove the LTTEaway from Vakarai, with a captured artillery gun

Sometime ago I maintained in an article in The Island newspaper (1st Sept.06) that the much flaunted "invincibility" of the LTTE was a very fragile one. Our security forces have proved me right in the eastern theatre of the conflict with the terrorist LTTE. They have been defeated in the east. They now do not occupy any main town in the east. They have been driven in disarray to the Thopiagala jungle without much food to sustain them and without many of their lethal weapons to wage war with the army. Given that they do deploy many suicide cadres, the LTTE would be able to mount many destructive campaigns in the areas under the control of the government. Eternal vigilance is the price we have to pay until the LTTE is substantially disabled and neutralised and peace is restored in the country.

Many LTTE sympathizers have tried to down play this crucial victory as a tactical withdrawal by the LTTE. With over 1000 dead and more than a 1000 badly injured the withdrawal was forced on the LTTE by our security forces. This certainly is a victory in my books and the territory gained is of immense significance, in that, the LTTE cannot now site their capital of Eelam in Trincomalee, the physical and political case for the merger of the east with the north has been demolished and the eastern Tamils, the Muslims and the Sinhalese have been liberated from the ogre of the LTTE oppression and the daily artillery barrages.

In the north the LTTE is still a formidable force. This force will now be reinforced by the eastern cadres who managed to escape to the Wanni. It probably has in its possession technically advanced weapons ready for effective use there when it matters by surprise attacks. More importantly, it has a substratum of northern Tamil society that supports the ideology of Eelam. Therefore a consummate military plan need to be put together and thoroughly tested for all conceivable contingencies before any onslaught is made on the LTTE in the north. Any hotch-potch campaign will result in another humiliating Muhamaly debacle. Given the efficient manner of the eastern campaign, one can be certain that our security forces will not again rush in where angels fear to tread.

Perhaps "little now and more later" policy is called for in the north while "the military assets of the LTTE are destroyed wherever they are found" and exposed. The President and the security forces ought also to be congratulated for the demonstrating to the country the successful alternative to Ranil’s abject appeasement policy towards the LTTE. Ghandian patience was endured by the government when the LTTE began their attacks in Dec.2005. This appeasement mode continued till April 2006. The international community did not much care about the deaths and destruction caused by the LTTE, nor did they do anything to rein in the LTTE, and their silence only encouraged the LTTE to greater outrages which ended at Mawil Aru. The new policy is the measured military response for any attack by the LTTE. As these unprovoked artillery attacks took place from their entrenched positions in the east, it became quite apparent that the LTTE ought to be chased out of the east for the attacks to stop and the people to live peacefully. This is what has been accomplished at minimum cost to the army and maximum cost the LTTE. All Sri Lankans should be proud of this achievement. We should evince our full support for our security forces in the frontlines.

In Vakarai and other towns captured from the LTTE security of the territory would be the urgent immediate concern. Security in terms of clearing the place of landmines and bombs is just one of the problems. The other is the infiltration by the LTTE as civilian returnees. They would return to dig up the weapons they had buried and start killing people, destroying property, disrupting commercial life and agricultural occupations, and de-stabilising society. The police therefore have a very difficult task of screening the returnees and keeping an ever watchful eye on those people. This is a thankless yet a necessary job. The pro-LTTE NGOs and other rabid Tamil nationalists are likely to resort to detraction of the police and accuse them of all sorts of crimes not excluding the manipulation of ethnic proportions in the area! Such treacherous conduct should be publicly treated with contempt. This situation calls for maintenance of adequate security personnel in the area and prevents them from being shifted to other areas of conflict. This redeployment of troops happened under Minister Ratwatte and the east fell like a ripe mango into the lap of the LTTE. Let it never happen again.

Once the security is established, and the returnees have been settled, the government should conduct a full population census of the areas not included in the 2001 census and update the electoral register. A reliable census is the basic information necessary for all other development work. Our security forces should never forget the fact that thousands of Tamil IDPs abandoned the LTTE and sought refuge in government controlled areas. They were confident that they will have not only food and shelter there, but also security of life and limbs and freedom from being used as human shields and slave labourers to construct LTTE bunkers. This is the life after Swarnam and Elilan they would now expect in the east. They cannot be thrust into the arms of other armed groups in the east nor should they be allowed to be exploited by such groups. The confidence of these marginalized people in the government and the security forces should be further reinforced by measures restoring to them what is their due in terms of economic development, social improvements, provision for wider educational opportunities and the enhancement of their health.

The government should stop acting as their nanny at the earliest opportunity. Simply handing out food, clothing and materials to build shacks might be considered as immediate necessities. But there is life beyond these immediate needs. For this the people need to be involved in the tasks of building their roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and communication facilities. They should be made to feel proud of being directly involved in building their towns and villages, and the infra structures necessary to sustain profitable economic life in a peaceful environment conducive to healthy life for themselves and their children. The days of victimisation and marginalization should be banished for good. They will recover their dignity when they are enabled to lead a life not dependent on handouts from the government and NGOs. Smiling faces in the midst of hard work to restore their shattered lives to normalcy should be the end-objective of the policy of the government and the security forces. The government simply cannot fail them at this juncture.

In rebuilding these devastated areas there is one policy the government has so far failed to consider let alone implement. I am referring to propaganda to de-eelamize these traumatised people. The government has been very successful in its current propaganda TV campaign in favour of the army. A similar local campaign in the east to wean the people from the LTTE is opportune at the moment. Posters, bill-boards local press and radio should be utilised on a daily basis to drive home the point that the Eelam dream of one man is the cause of their dire destitution, destruction of life and property. Pirapakaran has caused them utter misery and robbed them of their children and the future of their children. It is time to ditch him and win back the lives of misguided children under his jackboots. That these children have a real future to lead normal lives than be living as mindless cannon fodder for the LTTE. There is more satisfaction and joy in a society that cares and shares and lives in peace with the neighbours. Surely it is worth trying to instill the positive aspect of our lives living in one free multi-ethnic country rather than the life in a myopic ethnic and fascistic enclave that Pirapakaran had hitherto propagated in the minds of these unfortunate people.

The lynchpin to the successful re-integration of these abused Tamil people is the expected reasonable offer of a new deal to sort out all their problems both real and perceived. In this endeavour, one hopes that the government realises that there are also alternatives to NGO/Majority Comittee Report and Prof. Vitharna’s proposals. Justice and fairness to all both the majority as well as the minority should be the bottom line in any new deal.

(http://www.island.lk/2007/02/02/features1.html)