Sri Lanka

[CougarKing]

Here are some pics from the front just from a number of days ago, before the offensive resumed:

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) shakes hands with Army Commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka after arriving in the northern town of Kilinochchi April 16, 2009 during a one-day visit to the defence force based in the war-torn north of the country. Sri Lanka's two-day humanitarian truce ended on Wednesday and the military announced it was now free to begin a final assault to end the 25-year war against the rebel Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lankan military says only 1,000 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels remain, and accuse the fighters of holding around 100,000 civilians as human shields. REUTERS/Sri Lankan Government/Handout

Sri Lankan soldiers stand next to a recaptured Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) tank and other weapons during a visit by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the defence force base in the northern Sri Lankan town of Kilinochchi April 16, 2009. Sri Lanka's two-day humanitarian truce ended on Wednesday and the military announced it was now free to begin a final assault to end the 25-year war against the rebel Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lankan military says only 1,000 LTTE rebels remain, and they accuse the fighters of holding around 100,000 civilians as human shields. REUTERS/Sri Lankan Government/Handout

Sri Lankan soldiers stand next to weapons they claim they had captured from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces during a visit to the defence force base by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the northern Sri Lankan town of Kilinochchi April 16, 2009. Sri Lanka's two-day humanitarian truce ended on Wednesday and the military announced it was now free to begin a final assault to end the 25-year war against the rebel Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lankan military says only 1,000 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels remain, and accuse the fighters of holding around 100,000 civilians as human shields. REUTERS/Sri Lankan Government/Handout

A Sri Lankan soldier looks through a pair of binoculars while manning an anti-aircraft gun located atop a tower near the Presidential residence in central Colombo April 17, 2009. India asked Sri Lanka on Friday to extend a pause in war hostilities to enable civilians trapped in the conflict to leave for secure areas, saying the fate of Tamils could not be ignored.
REUTERS/David Gray (SRI LANKA MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS)

An armed Sri Lankan policeman patrols along the seashore near the Presidential residence in central Colombo April 17, 2009. India asked Sri Lanka on Friday to extend a pause in war hostilities to enable civilians trapped in the conflict to leave for secure areas, saying the fate of Tamils could not be ignored.
REUTERS/David Gray (SRI LANKA MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS)

A Sri Lankan naval boat crewman rests on a gun as it sails past another naval boat whilst they patrol the coastal waters off the city of Colombo April 19, 2009. Britain said on Saturday it was gravely concerned about fighting between government forces and Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka and had sent an envoy to the United Nations for urgent talks. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the conflict in northern Sri Lanka threatened many thousands of civilian lives and repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire to allow civilians to leave the conflict area.
REUTERS/David Gray(SRI LANKA MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS)

A Sri Lankan army soldier keeps guard at a checkpoint in Piliyandala suburb of Colombo on April 17. Sri Lankan security forces captured a defence line of cornered Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday and rescued at least 5,000 civilians being held as human shields, a military spokesman said. (AFP/File/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

 

[CougarKing]

At least this has demonstrated the Colombo government's resolve to finally eradicate the Tamil Tiger insurgency once and for all.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/26/sri.lanka/index.html

Sri Lanka rejects Tamil Tigers cease-fire
Story Highlights
Government says it will continue offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels

Rebels control a dwindling swath of north Sri Lanka

U.N. agency says 100,000 refugees have fled fighting

(CNN) -- Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday, warning instead that government troops intended to continue a new offensive until the group surrenders, a senior government official said.

"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer," said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security.

The proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in the country's northern area. Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan Army sources.

A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast.

Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of "fresh displacement" has now exceeded 100,000 individuals.

"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the U.N., EU, the governments of the USA, India and others, the (LTTE) has announced an unilateral cease-fire. All of LTTE's offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect," the rebel leaders said in a written statement issued earlier Sunday.

"We welcome the attempts by the U.N. and its agencies to assist the civilian population and are ready to engage and cooperate with them to address the humanitarian needs of the population. ... We are in full agreement that the humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by declaration of an immediate cease-fire."

The Tiger leadership asked the international community to "pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate" on the cease-fire offer.

The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.

 

[CougarKing]

In spite of the large number of deaths caused by an artillery barrage as described below, the offensive seems to be still going forward.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090510/world/sri_lanka_civil_war

Hundreds of Sri Lankan civilians reported killed in artillery barrage
Sun May 10, 6:02 AM



By The Associated Press


COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A government health official says at least 257 civilians have been killed and 814 wounded in a massive artillery barrage fired by Sri Lankan forces into the northern war zone.


The military denies launching the attack, saying it was only using small arms in its effort to wipe out the rebel group.


Physician V. Shanmugarajah says it is feared that many more are dead and already buried by relatives in the attack that began late Saturday and lasted until early Sunday.


The doctor who works in the war zone called the situation "overwhelming."

 

[CougarKing]

A Sri Lankan naval patrol boat floats in front of a container ship as it sails towards the port in Colombo May 6, 2009. The U.N. Security Council said it saw no point withholding an IMF loan of US$1.9 billion or taking other steps to punish Sri Lanka, the council's president said last week, to allow a truce in the 25-year civil war so civilians trapped in a tiny area the Tamil Tiger rebels still hold can escape. Sri Lanka looks to the loan to help weather the global economic crisis and pay for postwar reconstruction.
REUTERS/David Gray (SRI LANKA CONFLICT TRANSPORT BUSINESS POLITICS)

In this photo taken on Saturday, May 9, 2009, a boat carrying displaced Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils sails towards a passenger ferry, top left, charted by International Committee of Red Cross at Mullivaaykaal, Sri Lanka. (AP Photo)

A Sri Lankan military vehicle drives along the streets of Vavuniya on May 7. The Tamil Tiger rebels have accused the Sri Lankan government of killing more than 2,000 civilians in 24 hours of artillery attacks, but the military denied the allegations.
(AFP/File)

A policeman stands guard as a military vehicle pass through the streets of Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka. The UN has condemned the killing of civilians in the island state at the weekend as a "bloodbath" in which more than 100 children have died, as the government and Tamil Tiger rebels traded blame for the attacks.
(AFP/File/Pedro Ugarte)

Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard near the rebel-held area in northeast on May 2, 2009. Sri Lankan soldiers have overrun another Tamil Tiger defence line standing between government troops and the small strip of territory still held by the ethnic rebels, the defence ministry said Friday.
(AFP/File/Line Wolf Nielsen)

 

[geo]

After fighting the Tamis Tigers for 25 years, the Sri-Lankan government have had enough and have taken steps to finish this fight once and for all.

If the Gov't had conceeded to global pressure tactics and allowed Tamil Tigers to escape / vanish into the mass of displaced persons - what would be the cost in lives and destructions over the next 25 years of the same conflict.

The winding up of this insurection may cost some lives now - but once it is done, it will be done and over with.

 

[CougarKing]

So is this finally the end of this insurgency?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090516/world/international_us_srilanka_war


Sri Lanka says Tigers defeated
Module body

Sat May 16, 1:19 PM

By C. Bryson Hull and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said the Tamil Tigers had been militarily defeated as soldiers seized control of the entire coastline for the first time in a 25-year war.


Rajapaksa, on a visit to Jordan, said he would return to Sri Lanka on Sunday "as a leader of a nation that vanquished terrorism."


Rajapaksa spoke after troops took control of the Indian Ocean island nation's entire coast for the first time since war broke out in 1983, cutting off the Tigers' last hope of escape from a military advance aimed at crushing separatist resistance.


Intelligence reports indicated that Vellupillai Prabhakaran, founder-leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and other leaders were surrounded by soldiers in barely a square km (half a sq mile) of land near the northeastern coast.


The LTTE's conventional defeat has been a foregone conclusion for months. The only question remaining has been the fate of tens of thousands of people the United Nations and others say the Tigers are holding in harm's way as human shields.


Explosions rocked the battlefield as the LTTE set off its ammo dumps, the military said.


"My government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily," Rajapaksa told a meeting of 11 developing nations in Jordan.


A presidential official who declined to be named said Rajapaksa's statement was not the official declaration of victory, which would come in a TV address after his return.


Nearly 11,900 people fled rebel areas on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 25,000 since Thursday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.


TIGERS WARNING


The LTTE said a conventional defeat would only result in a new phase of Asia's longest modern war.


"Colombo's approach, to finish the war in 48 hours through a carnage and bloodbath of civilians, will never resolve a conflict of decades," the pro-rebel website www.TamilNet.com quoted the LTTE's S. Pathmanathan as saying.


"On the contrary, it will only escalate the crisis to unforeseen heights."


Pathmanathan, believed by diplomats to be somewhere in southeast Asia, has for years been the Tigers' chief weapons procurer, and is wanted by Interpol.


The Tigers have answered early battlefield losses with suicide bombings in the capital, Colombo. Their widespread use of assassinations and suicide blasts has prompted the United States, European Union and India to class them as terrorists.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, was due in Colombo to make a last-ditch attempt for a negotiated end to the war.


The Tigers this week again refused to surrender or to free civilians, while the government rejected calls to pause its assault to protect civilians.

Each side accuses the other of killing civilians, and diplomats say there is evidence both have done so. The U.N. rights chief on Friday said she backed an inquiry into potential war crimes and humanitarian violations by both sides.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate end to fighting and said Sri Lanka "must understand that there will be consequences for its actions."

Nambiar's visit, U.N. and Western condemnation and U.S. threats to withhold a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan all appear to have come too late to stop a fight to the finish between uncompromising foes.

The Red Cross called the civilians' plight an "unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe" because of the lack of food, water and medical care in the battle zone, where the United Nations estimates 30,000-80,000 people are trapped.

"We have not eaten for weeks," a Tamil woman who escaped told Derana TV.

"Tell your leader to rescue all our children, all the Tamils. There are children without legs, some are dead on the streets. After seeing so many, I have lost interest in life."

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Many analysts expect the LTTE to return to its hit-and-run guerrilla roots with financing from the global Tamil diaspora, but the military says it is ready to face that threat.

The LTTE has vowed to attack economic targets.

That could complicate Rajapaksa's plans to revive Sri Lanka's $40 billion economy, reeling from falling revenues from garment and tea exports, a balance-of-payments deficit, a declining rupee, and depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Despite the U.S. threats, the IMF on Friday indicated it expected the loan to be worked out in a few weeks.

Prabhakaran began his fight for a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils in the early 1970s, and it erupted into full-scale civil war in 1983.

Tamils complain of marginalization at the hands of successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority, which came to power at independence in 1948 and took the favored position the Tamils had enjoyed under the British colonial government.

 

[CougarKing]

And even the Tamil Tigers have admitted defeat.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090517/world/international_us_srilanka_war

Sri Lanka's long war reaches climax, Tigers concede

2 hours, 30 minutes ago

By C. Bryson Hull and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Tamil Tigers conceded defeat in Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war on Sunday, after launching waves of suicide attacks to repel a final assault by troops determined to annihilate them.


President Mahinda Rajapaksa had declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the day before, even as combat raged in the island's northeast and the military said it was freeing the last of thousands of trapped civilians.


By midday Sunday, the military said troops had freed all the civilians being held by the LTTE inside an area that was less than a single square km (0.5 sq mile). A total of 72,000 had fled since Thursday, it said.


LTTE founder-leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran's fate remained a mystery, although military sources said a body believed to be his was recovered and its identity was being confirmed.


The LTTE, founded on a culture of suicide before surrender, had shown no sign of giving up. Suicide fighters blew themselves up on the frontline on Sunday morning, and more than 70 were killed trying to flee overnight, the military said.


But by afternoon the military said fighting had slowed, and the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com released a statement from the LTTE's head of international relations saying: "This battle has reached its bitter end."


"We remain with one last choice -- to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns," Selvarajah Pathmanathan's statement said.


The military had no immediate comment.


Pathmanathan, who is wanted by Interpol and was for years the LTTE's chief weapons smuggler, said 3,000 people lay dead and 25,000 more were wounded.


Getting an independent picture of events in the war zone is normally a difficult task, given both sides have repeatedly distorted accounts to suit their side of the story and outside observers are generally barred from it.


PRABHAKARAN DEAD?


Government forces on Saturday took control of the entire island's coast for the first time since war broke out in 1983, cutting off any chance of escape for a militant group whose conventional defeat has been a foregone conclusion for months.


The military has in less than three years captured 15,000 square km (5,792 sq miles) the Tigers had controlled as a quasi-state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils.


There was still no confirmed word on the fate of Prabhakaran, who built the LTTE into one of the world's most violent insurgent groups through hundreds of suicide bombings and assassinations that earned it a terrorist designation in more than 30 countries.


Military sources told Reuters a body believed to be his was found. Prabhakaran had vowed never to be taken alive.


"They are taking the body for checks to confirm it is the real Prabhakaran," one military official told Reuters on conditions of anonymity. Four other military sources confirmed the recovery and said identity checks were under way.


Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara denied that.

The cataclysmic end to the war came after the government rejected calls for a new truce to protect civilians, and the Tigers refused to surrender and free 50,000-100,000 the United Nations and others said they were holding as human shields.

Each side accuses the other of killing civilians, and diplomats say there is evidence both have done so. The U.N. rights chief on Friday said she backed an inquiry into potential war crimes and humanitarian violations by both sides.

A wave of diplomatic pressure from the United States, Britain, France and the United Nations last week, including threats to delay a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, appeared to come too late to stop the final fight.

POST-WAR BOOM?

Sri Lanka's $40 billion economy is struggling with depleted foreign exchange reserves, shrinking export revenues for tea and garments, rising import costs, a declining rupee currency and a balance of payments crisis.

Rajapaksa's government is counting on victory in the war to help boost the economy and renew economic growth that for years had been among the highest in south Asia.

The Tigers have warned that their conventional defeat will usher in a new phase of guerrilla conflict targeting Sri Lanka's economically valuable targets, an indirect threat to a tourism sector the government hopes can be boosted after the war.

Nonetheless, people set off fireworks and celebrated in the streets of the capital Colombo on Sunday, a day on which the government asked people to fly the national flag in celebration.

Rajapaksa, who was in Jordan on an official visit, kissed the ground after he returned home early on Sunday, state TV showed.

The government said he would address parliament on Tuesday about the military victory.

The Tigers have answered earlier battlefield losses with suicide bombings in the capital, Colombo. Their widespread use of assassinations and suicide blasts has prompted the United States, European Union and India to class them as terrorists.

Prabhakaran began his fight for a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils in the early 1970s, and it erupted into full-scale civil war in 1983.

Tamils complain of marginalization at the hands of successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority, which came to power at independence in 1948 and took the favored position the Tamils had enjoyed under the British colonial government.

 

[Old Sweat]

And now for something completely different. In 1971 as part of my takeover in CFHQ, I was informed that we had a Commodore in then Ceylon advising its government on countering the infiltration of insurgents from India. This mission was the result of a Prime Minister to Prime Minister request at some time in the recent past. As I recall, after he returned to Canada there was a short story in the press which soon disappeared from memory.

Events may have come full circle, and it only took 38 years.

 

[Infanteer]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the magnitude of the victory claims by the Sri Lanken government will be inversely proportional to the time it takes for a bomb to go off by a government building.  The Tamils may have lost conventionally, but the war of the flea is still a viable tactic for the recalcitrant who don't see defeat in the field as total.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Actually i suspect that the LTTE as any kind of force has lost the confidence of the people it is supposed to support, in which case they will be a fish out of water. The Sri Lanakan army has a breif window to reduce any chance of support for the LTTE, by how it handles the displaced persons and refugees. If done right, they show the civilian Tamils that they don't need to fear the Sri Lankan government. Done wrong, the whole cycle continues.

 

[CougarKing]

This photograph released by the Sri Lankan military on May 15, 2009 shows what the army says is equipment they captured from Tamil Tiger rebels inside the 'No Fire Zone' where they have surrounded the rebels for the final battle in a quarter-century conflict. Sri Lankan troops on Saturday seized the entire coastline for the first time in its 25-year war with the Tamil Tigers, the military said, cutting off escape for separatist rebels now facing total destruction. QUALITY FROM SOURCE. REUTERS/Sri Lankan Government/Handout (SRI LANKA SOCIETY MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT)

Sri Lankan troops in a newly-captured area in Mullaittivu district after destroying Tamil Tiger defences. Sri Lankan troops on Saturday captured the last patch of coastline held by the Tamil Tigers and the rebels would shortly be left without any territory, a top military source said. (AFP/SLDM-HO/File)

A Sri Lankan Army photo shows government troops in northeastern Mullaittivu district. Sri Lanka has vowed to kill or capture the remnants of the Tamil Tiger army, with an intensive search underway for the leader of the defeated rebels.
(AFP/HO)

A Sri Lankan Army photo shows government troops inspecting a heavy weapon captured from Tamil Tiger guerrillas in northeastern Mullaittivu district. Sri Lanka's military said that troops had killed three senior Tamil Tiger militants and found the body of the son of the rebels' leader in mopping-up operations after the movement's defeat. (AFP/Sri Lanka Army/Ho)

This handout photograph dated Saturday, May 16, 2009, provided by Sri Lanka's army, shows a soldier walking on the coastline next to a boat the army says, was used by Tamil Tiger rebels close to the war front in Kariyalamullivaikkal, Sri Lanka.
(AP Photo/Sri Lanka Army)

In this photograph released by the Sri Lankan military on May 16, 2009 shows what the army says is a captured Tamil Tiger gun-boat on a beach inside the 'No Fire Zone' where they have surrounded the Tamil Tiger rebels for the final battle in a quarter-century conflict. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said the Tamil Tigers had been militarily defeated as soldiers seized control of the entire coastline for the first time in a 25-year war. Rajapaksa spoke after troops took control of the Indian Ocean island nation's entire coast for the first time since war broke out in 1983, cutting off the Tigers' last hope of escape from a military advance aimed at crushing separatist resistance. REUTERS/Sri Lankan Government/Handout

This handout photograph provided by Sri Lanka's army, dated Saturday, May 16, 2009, shows Sri Lankan soldiers carrying their national flag, center, along with their unit flags at a site they say is the last strong hold of the Tamil tiger rebels close to the war front in Kariyalamullivaikkal, Sri Lanka. (AP Photo/Sri Lanka Army)

 

[Yrys]

Sri Lankan rebel leader 'killed', Monday, 18 May 2009 15:31 UK

Profile: Velupillai Prabhakaran

The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed,
the military says. It said Prabhakaran - along with two of his top commanders - had
died while trying to flee from the last rebel-held patch of jungle in the north-east.

The military said it had crushed the Tamil Tigers, ending the rebels' 26-year insurgency.

No photos of Prabhakaran's body have been released. The army says it is working to
identify it among the dead. The claims cannot be verified as reporters are barred
from the war zone. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned
civilian casualties and called for an inquiry into alleged war crimes by both sides.

Ambush

Over the past few weeks Sri Lankan forces routed the rebels, overrunning their territory.
Army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said on Monday: "Today we finished the work handed
to us by the president to liberate the country from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam)."

Military officials said Prabhakaran had been killed along with his intelligence chief Pottu
Amman and Soosai, the head of the rebels' naval wing. They were shot dead in an ambush
in the Mullivaikal district while trying to escape the war zone in an ambulance, the general
added. The government's information department also sent news of Prabhakaran's death by
text message to mobile phones across the country.

Later on Monday, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse reaffirmed the government's
victory during in a televised ceremony. "We have successfully ended the war," he is quoted
as saying by AFP news agency.

Earlier, at least three senior rebel leaders were killed, including Prabhakaran's eldest son,
Charles Anthony, the military said. State TV broadcast images of what it said was Charles
Anthony's body.

The military said 250 Tamil Tigers had been also killed overnight. n the past few days, the
LTTE had been hemmed into a 300 sq m (3,230 sq ft) patch of land - a tiny part of the
15,000 sq km territory they had controlled until recently.

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Adam Mynott says Prabhakaran was a shadowy figure,
constantly under the threat of arrest or assassination. He says he fashioned a ruthless and
uncompromising fighting force, which assassinated several Sri Lankan political leaders and
the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Under Prabhakaran's leadership the LTTE was branded a terrorist organisation by many
countries, and he was wanted by Interpol - the global police network - for murder, terrorism,
organised crime and conspiracy.

Anger and jubilation

There is still widespread international concern about civilians who may have been caught up
in the fighting. Sources in the UN say significant numbers of civilians were still in the combat
zone but the Sri Lankan government said all civilians had left.

There have been street celebrations in the capital, Colombo, but also an angry demonstration
against Britain, with protestors accusing it of seeking to help the rebels by earlier calling for
a ceasefire. More than 1,000 Sri Lankans protested outside the British High Commission. Some
protesters threw stones and burnt an effigy of UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. A High
Commission spokesman said it was "an outrage" that the Sri Lankan authorities let the
demonstration become so violent.

The Tigers had been fighting for a separate state for Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka
since the 1970s. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and thousands displaced.

 

[Yrys]

Tamils hunt for news of relatives

Many Sri Lankan Tamils around the world say they are unable to find out information
about their loved ones in the war-torn north-east, reports Swaminathan Natarajan of
the BBC Tamil service.

Thomas Cruz says he is undergoing treatment for depression and that his health has
been badly affected by what is happening in north-eastern Sri Lanka. For more than
six months all the telephone lines to the rebel-controlled areas, except the official lines
connecting government offices and hospitals, have been cut off.

But some Sri Lankan Tamils there have been able to speak to relatives abroad via
satellite phones provided by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Mr Cruz, who
is living in London and seeking asylum, says his mother and sister were living in the
shrinking area controlled by the rebels.

"My mother is old and suffers from diabetes. She can hardly walk. She was displaced
many times. When she called me last, she told me there was no medicine even for
ordinary fever and a shortage of food and other essentials. "I have no idea where she
is. I hope my sister is taking care of her. Whenever I see the news, I get disturbed.
Every day scores are getting killed. When I think about this I am not able to sleep at
all," he says.

Relief camps

More than 110,000 civilians are estimated to have left the war zone in the past three
weeks, since the Sri Lankan army destroyed earth-work defences built by the Tigers.

But 50,000 people are estimated to be still trapped, according to the United Nations.
Many civilians became separated from their families when trying to cross over to the
government-controlled areas. Those who made it out safe have been housed in relief
camps set up by the government in Vavuniya.

Pathmanathan Vasegaran, a student studying in Manchester in north-west England, lost
contact with his family two months ago. "My relatives who reached Vavuniya camp have
passed on information that my parents are still in the LTTE-controlled area. When I last
spoke to my family, they said they were living in a bunker covered by a tent.

"When I get up in the morning, the first thing I see is the news. I study the list of those
killed and injured. Now since the death toll is going up, they are not giving names and
other details. I used to watch TV footage in the hope of spotting them. "I used to send
money to them via the LTTE, but now even that is not possible," he says.

The options of using these illegal channels is drying up and Tamil relatives want the
Sri Lankan government to help them to send money to their loved ones in the Vavuniya
camp.

Post offices

The government says it has opened banks in a relief village (where camps of the displaced
are located) and promised to open more branches in other camps too. Minister of Resettlement
and Disaster Relief Services Rishad Bathiudeen says telephone lines are working in about 15
camps and more will be added to help the displaced.

"We have given a telephone connection to one of the newly established relief villages; another
three will be connected within a week. We will also be opening post offices in the relief camps.
This will help them to communicate with their relatives," he says.

"We are yet to complete the registration of the people who have come to these camps. Once that
is done anyone who needs information about their relatives can contact my ministry or the
concerned government agency to get details," Mr Bathiudeen says.

But many Sri Lankan Tamils abroad are not convinced by the government's assurances. Some,
like Lakshmi Jayakumar, who took part in recent protests held in Parliament Square in London,
wants more action from the international community to end the sufferings of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

"Some of our relatives are in Wanni. We were not able to speak to them after December. A few
of them were in Valingarmadam. In February, my second cousin's daughter Kanimozhi was killed
there. We saw her photo in a web-based news portal. After that I called up another relative in
Lanka who confirmed the news.

"When I think about the fate of my relatives back home, I am not even able to cook for my
children here," says Lakshmi.

 

[Yrys]

Peace hopes grip Sri Lankans, Monday, 18 May 2009 22:21 UK

Many jubilant Sri Lankans believe
the conflict is all over

The national flags are out. They are decking the streets, sold in clusters on street corners,
fluttering from the auto rickshaws, waved by men in a pick-up truck. On the streets of
Colombo there is jubilation and smiling faces as the firecrackers are lit.

"I'm very very happy. After 30 years we've won… victory, I suppose!" says a young woman
in Pettah, an old market area near the city centre, almost in surprise. She says she is proud
of the president and intends to go home and put out flags.

Not only Sinhalese but also Tamil, Muslim and other people tell the BBC they are relieved.
For decades they had feared boarding buses or visiting temples, some said, for fear of
bombs. Now they hope there will be peace. 'Pride'

There is patriotic satisfaction, too, in website postings by Sri Lankans. "Sri Lanka Rockz,"
says one. Some take pride in the military. "Every time we all are with you, our great
warriors... One nation - One flag - Sri Lanka."

The army says its operations are ended, that rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead
and troops now hold all of the island's territory for the first time since 1983.

Such news will have been greeted almost with disbelief by Sri Lankans, many of whom
were born into war or barely remember the time before it. "We're part of history!" says
another posting. "Today is the first day of my life I'm living in a Sri Lanka where there is
no war."

A taxi driver expresses the view that, with the top Tamil Tiger leaders out of the picture,
bomb blasts really will become a thing of the past.

But will they?

End of the road

Some commentators have predicted that, after their military defeat, the Tigers will
concentrate more on their hallmark bombing tactics - saying this will be made possible
by the cells they maintain. But one expert tells the BBC he does not accept that argument.

Maybe there will be stray cases, he says, but with so many of the top LTTE [Tamil Tigers]
leaders reportedly killed by the army, he does not see what Tamils would want to kill
themselves for. After all, according to Prabhakaran's biographer MR Narayan Swamy,
for the Tigers he was "their brain… their heart… their god… their soul".

Indeed, asked whether they would continue the guerrilla war, the LTTE's foreign-based
international relations head, S Padmanathan, told Britain's Channel 4 television on Sunday
he believed in a peaceful solution for the Tamil people. The war started by the LTTE has
left humanitarian suffering on a huge scale - including in its final stages.

Dealing with the suffering of the refugees, the wounded and the bereaved will loom high
on Sri Lanka's agenda in the immediate future. Almost a month ago, the United Nations
said it feared 6,500 civilians had been killed and twice the number wounded in the war
zone since January - civilians who, it alleged, were forcibly held there by the LTTE
(although the rebels always denied that) and were caught in heavy crossfire.

It described more recent violence in the small rebel-controlled zone in the north-east of
the country as a "bloodbath". Doctors working in the area described hundreds of deaths
and injuries at their makeshift clinics, having to abandon the facilities in the last days.

The government said it doubted their information, as they might have been speaking under
LTTE pressure - but the UN trusted them as an impartial source. Even on Monday the UN
refugee agency's head in Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, said he was worried civilians might have
been killed within the past 48 hours.

Ongoing grievances

Hundreds of thousands of traumatised, emaciated people have poured out of the combat
zone in the past few weeks and now stay in difficult conditions in government-run camps.

The UN and humanitarian agencies will be hoping for better access to them now that the
war is over. The UN has also said it is concerned about the welfare of the doctors who are
believed to have escaped the fighting but have not been heard from since.

The government says political reforms will also be on its agenda, reforms that will perhaps
aim to tackle some of the grievances of Tamil citizens who, as an ethnic minority, feel
discriminated against or marginalised by the state. There have also been calls, both from
within and outside the country, for a process of reconciliation and healing, and for the
government to be magnanimous in victory.

One Sri Lankan exile, also posting on the web, says he is concerned that a "hunt for Tigers
and traitors will continue" - reflecting on the hard line the government has often taken
towards dissenting voices and those it accuses of giving comfort to the rebels.

"We shouldn't be triumphalist," a Sinhala woman, who largely supported the government's
campaign against the LTTE, told the BBC.

 

[geo]

Look at what's going on in Ireland.

Anyone who might have thought that "the troubles" were over was in for a rude surprise when Soldiers, Policemen & pizza deliverymen were executed in Northern Ireland earlier this year....

Something for Sri Lanka to look forward to - I guess

Congratulations to the people of Sri-Lanka for having seen this insurection to the very end... in spite of the attempted interference from those who shoulda known better.

 

[Yrys]

Sri Lankan Rebel Leader Also Served as a Cult Figure, 18 May 2009

BANGKOK — For a quarter century, Vellupillai Prabhakaran led a brutal and committed insurgency
that terrorized Sri Lanka with massacres, suicide bombings and assassinations. The founder of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. Prabhakaran, 54, was apparently killed Monday in a
government military offensive that destroyed the remnants of an army he had built that at one point
numbered some 10,000 fighters.

Many analysts have predicted that the movement, with its military destroyed and its territory gone,
will reconstitute itself using the tactics it was built around: guerrilla warfare and terrorist bombings.
But Mr. Prabhakaran was as much a cult figure to Tamil separatists as he was a commander, and it
was not clear what would become of his insurgency without him.

Rest of article on above link



Tamil doubts over rebel leader's death, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 14:32 UK

The photos said to show Prabhakaran's
body have not convinced everyone

The Sri Lankan military has released pictures of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran
which it says prove conclusively that he is dead. State and private stations aired footage
of what they said was the body of Prabhakaran, along with what looked like his Tamil Tiger
identity card and tag. The army says his body has been positively identified with DNA testing.

But rebel sympathisers say questions remain about when and how he and other rebel leaders
were killed, and over apparently contradictory statements in relation to his reported death.
Some among Sri Lanka's Tamil community and the influential Tamil diaspora doubt whether
the rebel leader really is dead.

Ambushed

"The government is eager to present this as its Ceausescu moment - with photographs of the
body of the tyrant widely released to give the impression that a defining moment has been
reached," one Colombo-based diplomat told the BBC - drawing an analogy with the filmed
execution of the Romanian dictator in December 1989. "But there are questions surrounding
Prabhakaran's identity tag. Is it really credible that a man reputed to have numerous lookalike
doubles to avoid capture by the army would really carry this around with him?"

The army says Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body was found on the banks of the Nanthikadal
lagoon, his last stronghold in north-east Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning. Earlier it said his body
was found on Monday morning. Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebel leader
had been shot in scrubland - probably in fierce fighting.

That statement contradicted an earlier announcement - made on state television but never verified
by the army - that Prabhakaran's badly burnt body was discovered on Monday. It said Prabhakaran
had been killed after he was ambushed by commandos as he made a desperate attempt to break
through government lines in an ambulance. He had been badly burnt when his vehicle burst into
flames, it said. State TV also said the rebel leader's body had been found with those of intelligence
chief Pottu Amman and Soosai - the Tamil Tiger naval commander.

But on Tuesday the army said Soosai's death had not been confirmed.

Its version of events was first given by Gen Sarath Fonseka. "The good news from the war front is
that the body of the leader of the terrorist organisation which destroyed the country for the last 30
years, Prabhakaran, have been found by the army. We have identified the body," he said. Gen Fonseka
said the bodies of the rebels would be disposed without any formal funerals as "many of them were
in bad shape".

The private TV stations Derana and Swarnavahini showed soldiers surrounding what the troops said was
Prabhakaran's body, with his distinctive moustache and regulation tiger-stripe camouflage fatigues.

Denial

The government argues that there are perfectly innocent explanations for the differing accounts of
Prabhakaran's death - that in war time what is happening on the battlefront can sometimes get confused.

The BBC Tamil section's Jagadheesan Leklapoodi says that following the release of the photographs most
Indian Tamil newspapers appear to have accepted that Prabhakaran is dead. "But the Tamil population
around the world will only grudgingly accept that is the case," he said. "Prabhakaran is revered by some
of them as the liberation hero fighting for their cause for over 30 years. Many of them will find it difficult
to accept that he is no longer on the scene."

So far the most influential pro-rebel website, TamilNet, has not acknowledged the death. Speaking before
the release of the photos, a rebel official abroad denied Prabhakaran had been killed and said the Tamil
Tiger leader was "alive and safe". "He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil
people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan said in a statement posted on the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site on Tuesday.
But he offered no further details or evidence to support the claim, only drawing attention to what he said was
Colombo's "treachery" in the killings of senior unarmed Tamil Tiger political wing leaders in the north-east,
who he said had been shot as they carried white flags.

While the land fighting between the two sides has finished - the propaganda battle continues undiminished.

 

[Yrys]

Winning the peace in Sri Lanka, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 04:23 UK

Supporters of the Tamil Tigers abroad
held new protest rallies on Monday

Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict has almost ended after nearly three decades with the military defeat
of the Tamil Tigers but the victorious government may still need to tackle other fronts, including
finding a political solution to the long-standing Tamil issue.

Apart from the Tamil minority, the international community will be keenly observing the next
moves of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which doggedly pursued its military
objectives despite criticism from various quarters.

The dramatic events of recent weeks, including the annihilation of almost the entire senior Tamil
Tiger (LTTE) leadership and the end of the military offensive, will no doubt increase the govern-
ment's popularity in the majority-Sinhalese south. The military victory will be regarded as the
crowning glory of President Rajapaksa's administration. But there are daunting tasks ahead.

The immediate challenge for the government is to resettle more than 250,000 people displaced
by the war back in their homes in the north. At the moment, these people are housed in state-run
camps with the help of aid agencies. There have been strong criticisms from human rights groups
about the living conditions and the lack of freedom of movement in these "welfare camps".

"Any long delay in resettling these war-ravaged Tamil people will further alienate them," says
Sri Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj. "It will also attract international criticism over the government's
motive in keeping these refugees in these camps beyond a reasonable period of time."

Appeal for generosity

The government says it needs to keep these civilians inside the camps under tight security in
order to identify rebel fighters who might have escaped the war zone along with the fleeing Tamil
population. On the other hand, with the fall of the Tamil Tigers the government is under pressure
to step up efforts to find a political solution to the decades-old Tamil issue. The Tamils have been
complaining that they have been treated like second-class citizens by the Sinhalese majority and
that they need more autonomy for Tamil areas.

"Obviously the government of Sri Lanka has won the battle but has not won the peace," the
Norwegian Minister for International Development, Erik Solheim, told the BBC. "Everything will
depend on whether they can prove leadership qualities in this situation." Mr Solheim worked for
10 years with both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government and brokered a ceasefire
deal in 2002.

"If the Sri Lankan government can show generosity in victory, give a substantial devolution of
power to Tamil self-government in the north-east and create an inclusive state for the Tamil,
Sinhalese and Muslims, then we may see a lasting solution to the Sri Lankan problem," he said.

But the Sri Lankan government says it is working on a political solution and it requires time to
evolve a consensus among political parties in the south.

Hearts and minds

"Once the LTTE terrorism and fanaticism is eliminated, which is the case at the moment, the government
will work hard with the other moderate Tamil political groups... to bring a practical, sustainable political
solution that will satisfy the aspirations of every community," said the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner
in London, Sumith Nakandala. However, Tamils fear that now that the government has won the war, it may
not feel the necessity to come out with far-reaching political reforms, which may trigger another round of
Tamil dissent.

"The future depends to a great extent on how the Rajapaksa government reaches out to win the hearts and
minds of the Tamil people," says Mr Jeyaraj.

While the government may be focused on solving its problems domestically in coming months, dissatisfaction
is brewing in Western capitals over the reportedly high number of civilian casualties in the Sri Lankan conflict.

The UN believes that nearly 7,000 civilians may have been killed and another 13,000 injured in the war since
January. The government disputes these figures. Human rights groups blame both sides for the humanitarian
suffering.

Now the European Union says it is appalled by the high number of civilian casualties, which include children.
EU foreign ministers have called for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes and human rights
violations during the weeks of intense fighting between the army and the rebels.

 

[Yrys]

UN chief in Sri Lanka access plea, Saturday, 23 May 2009 19:39 UK

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Sri Lanka to allow "unhindered access" by aid agencies
to displaced people in the war-ravaged north. He spoke after visiting a huge camp for refugees who
fled fighting between Tamil rebels and government forces. Following talks with President Mahinda
Rajapakse, Mr Ban said the government was "doing its utmost" but that more could be done to assist
victims.

Earlier this week the government said it had defeated the 26-year insurgency.

'Humbled'

On Saturday, the UN secretary general saw first-hand the main government-run camp for about 220,000
refugees at Manik Farm, near Vavuniya. "I was humbled by what I saw," he told reporters afterwards.

Humanitarian agencies say access to hundreds of thousands of refugees has been restricted and the
distribution of aid hampered by a ban on vehicles from the UN and other groups.The government says
it needs more time to find any Tamil Tiger guerrillas hiding in the camps, and is suspicious of some
agencies which it has accused of helping the rebels. It plans to resettle most refugees with six months.

"We will try to work hard to keep that promise realised," Mr Ban said. "They need to be resettled as soon
as possible." After talks with President Rajapaksa at his residence in Kandy, Mr Ban said: "The government
is doing its utmost best", but added that there was a "wide gap between what is needed and what can be
done".

Sri Lanka has appealed for $151m in UN funds to improve the camps.

Mr Ban also called for political reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese and minorities, including Tamils.
"If not history could repeat itself", he said.

Without a political settlement that gives Tamils real rights, UN officials believe the fighting will begin anew,
says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, who is travelling with Mr Ban.

Battleground

On Saturday, Mr Ban also took a low-level helicopter flight over the coastal area where the final battle was
fought. "It was a very sobering visit, very sad and very moving," he said of the scene of the battle.

Sri Lanka officially announced an end to the war this week, after its troops took the last segment of land held
by the rebels and killed the Tamil Tiger leadership, including its chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran. It is thought at
least 80,000 people were killed in the war.

The UN says 7,000 civilians have died since January alone, although the government disputes this figure.

At a rally before Mr Ban arrived, Mr Rajapaksa dismissed any attempt to take him to an international war
crimes court. "There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war
crimes tribunals. "I am not afraid. The strength I have is your support. I am even ready to go to the gallows
on your behalf."

 

[Yrys]

Agony in Sri Lanka's refugee camp, Sunday, 24 May 2009 03:17 UK

Menik Farm camp houses
some 200,000 people

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spent Saturday in Sri Lanka pressing for political reconciliation
and full humanitarian access for displaced people in camps, following Colombo's declaration of
victory over Tamil Tigers rebels. The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan was travelling with
Mr Ban and sent this report.

The Menik Farm camp in northern Sri Lanka has a distinctly military air for a place which is housing
more than 200,000 people displaced by the fighting. There is barbed wire everywhere, and
camouflage-clad soldiers who are not at all keen on journalists speaking to those inside the camp.

As Mr Ban arrived amid a cloud of dust generated by his helicopter to see for himself the conditions
in which people are living, there was an official welcome. Next came a presentation by Sri Lankan
officials, about how well run the camp is.

Screening

Yet there is clearly overcrowding here. Greson Brando, from the UN's office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, explained that on one plot of land more than 74,000 people were living in a
space designed for half that number. Mr Ban came to press the Sri Lankan government to allow the
UN and aid agencies full humanitarian access to the camps and to call for those inside to have
freedom of movement.

The Sri Lankan government will not let the mostly Tamil people here leave yet. They are screening
them to make sure they are not a security risk (i.e. Tamil Tigers who might begin to fight again).

The UN says people must be allowed to reunite with their families. Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha
Bogollagama, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told me the screening process is on course and
when it is over the resettlement will begin.

What about allowing agencies full access to people here, I asked Mr Bogollagama. "You can see how
much humanitarian access people are enjoying," answered. "People here were denied their basic
human rights by the LTTE [Tamil Tigers]."

Malnourished patients

Mr Ban was serenaded by well turned out children waving Sri Lankan flags. The camp floor was neatly
swept, there were flowers in the gardens. A huge sign welcomed Mr Ban "to our motherland". 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spent Saturday in Sri Lanka pressing for political reconciliation and
full humanitarian access for displaced people in camps, following Colombo's declaration of victory over
Tamil Tigers rebels.

Yet there was no disguising the agony here. Women spoke of walking through water to escape the fighting,
being shelled from both sides, by the government and the Tamil Tigers.

In a makeshift hospital Mr Ban saw elderly, malnourished patients lying on cot beds in the open air, drips
attached, flies buzzing round their heads. A few looked close to death. Mr Ban was clearly moved by what
he saw, describing himself as saddened and humbled. He praised the Sri Lankan government for the help
it is providing, while saying it lacked capacity - diplomatic code that more can be done.

'Vision of hell'

From the camp we were off by helicopter once again - this time to see the conflict zone itself - by Mullaitivu.
We were the first international journalists to see the scene of the final days of the fighting.

The tiny spit of land in north-eastern Sri Lanka could be a beach paradise. Instead it is like a vision of hell.
Houses have been destroyed, buses blown up, palm trees devastated, and there are craters in the beach.
On the sand I saw row after row of tents. People lived in these cramped conditions, allegedly used by the
Tamil Tigers as a human shield while the Sri Lankan military closed in.

Mr Ban did not land and look around the conflict zone. As a guest of the Sri Lankan authorities, he was well
aware of the risk of being used by the government to portray international support for their military victory.
So he flew over instead, looking from the safety of the sky.

Joint statement

From there, Mr Ban went on to meet President Rajapaksa. UN officials were hoping to underline with him
the importance of winning the peace as well as the war, by reaching out to Tamils and giving them rights
in a comprehensive political settlement. "If issues of reconciliation and social inclusion are not dealt with,
history could repeat itself," warned Mr Ban. The two men issued a joint statement after their meeting.

On the situation in the camps, the statement said the government would continue to provide access to
humanitarian agencies, which did not acknowledge that it was not quite doing that. President Rajapaksa
says he will begin talks with all parties - including the Tamils - to bring about lasting peace. Mr Ban in his
dogged way has prodded the Sri Lankan government to address the concerns about the camps and work
for reconciliation. The test of his influence is whether anything here changes.

 

[Yrys]

How Sri Lanka's military won, 22 May 2009

The army stretched the rebels thin by opening up many fronts

Few believed him when Sri Lanka's powerful defence secretary said he required three years
to defeat the once invincible Tamil Tiger rebels.

When Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the assertion, the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam [LTTE], controlled nearly one third of the country, had a well-organised, ruthless fighting
unit, sufficient stocks of heavy weapons, a small navy and a rudimentary air force. They had no
problems of fresh supplies as they had enough resources pouring in from their supporters abroad
and through their commercial ventures.

Only a handful of military analysts believed that the rebels could be wiped out completely.

Today, Sri Lanka is among the few nations that can say it has successfully quelled a nearly three-
decade insurgency by military means. The entire rebel-held territory has been captured, huge
caches of weapons have been recovered and destroyed, and the entire Tamil Tiger leadership is
thought to have been wiped out.

So what led to the military success of a force that had been at the receiving end for many years?

'No ambiguity'

"So many factors have contributed to the success of the Sri Lankan forces. There was a clear aim
and mandate from the political level to the official level and to the military level to destroy the LTTE
at any cost. There was no ambiguity in that," Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC. When the current
president, his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, came to power in 2005, he made it clear that he would
go all out against the rebels if they were not sincere in peace talks.

Once the peace process failed, he gave the go ahead for the war to his brother and the hard line
army commander Gen Sarath Fonseka. A massive recruitment drive for the armed forces was launched
(it increased from about 80,000 to more than 160,000). New weapons, including fighter jets, artillery
guns and multi-barrel rocket launchers were bought from countries like China, Pakistan and Russia and
new military strategies and tactics were evolved.

"That was the time when the international community was totally disappointed with the rebels because
of their insincerity in peace talks. So countries like India and the US gave their tacit support for the all-
out offensive against the LTTE," says Sri Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj. Hostilities between the two sides
broke out first in Eastern Province in August 2006. After months of intense battles, the government
declared it had completely dislodged the rebels from the east.

One of the main reasons for the rebels' eastern debacle was the split in 2004 - when the Tigers'
influential eastern commander, Col Karuna, broke away because of differences with the leadership.

"The LTTE could never recover from that. Thousands of fighters went away with Karuna and the LTTE
could not recruit fresh cadres from the east, dealing a severe blow to their manpower. They struggled
hard to replace fallen cadres in the subsequent northern battle," says Col R Hariharan, former chief of
military intelligence of the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.

It was only a matter of time before the Sri Lankan military launched the second phase of its offensive
to recapture the rebel strongholds in the north. In the meantime, the Sri Lankan navy had also hunted
and destroyed many Tamil Tiger supply ships in deep seas, dealing a crucial blow to the rebels.

Battlefield plans

The army also changed its tactics and became better able to cope with the kind of warfare waged by
the guerrillas. Small teams of commandoes were sent behind enemy lines to carry out attacks against
rebel leaders and key defence lines. The military also started to stretch them thin by opening up a
number of fronts in the north.

The Tamil Tigers had no answer to the bombing missions by air force jets.

"The rebels never knew about the battlefield plans. We surprised them in many areas. For example,
they didn't expect me to capture the strategically important town of Paranthan, near Kilinochchi, by
outflanking them," Brig Shavendra Silva, commander of the Sri Lankan army's 58th division, told the
BBC in a recent interview from the frontline.

The capture of Paranthan forced the rebels to withdraw from the strategically important Elephant Pass,
a small land bridge that connects northern Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the country. From Paranthan,
Sri Lankan security forces battled their way into the Tamil Tiger de-facto capital of Kilinochchi. The 58th
division, which is credited with a series of military successes against the rebels, battled hard to forge
ahead from Mannar up to Matalan beach on the eastern coast in Mullaitivu district.

"It was not an easy walk. But we went ahead with a huge momentum and kept our pace and there were
clear-cut instructions and leadership from our superiors," Brig Silva said.

But many argue that the military's success has come at an enormous humanitarian cost. The UN believes
that nearly 7,000 civilians may have been killed and 13,000 injured in the conflict since January.

Aid agencies say around 275,000 people have been displaced. A number of villages and towns have either
been damaged or destroyed.

Both the military and the rebels are being accused of gross violations of international humanitarian law.
The two sides deny the charges. "The Sri Lankan military juggernaut cruised ahead despite mounting civilian
casualties. The rebels thought the international community, especially neighbouring India, would intervene
looking at the civilian suffering and bring about a ceasefire in the final stages. When that did not happen,
they ran out of options," says Mr Jeyaraj.