CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

THE VANCOUVER SUN SAYS GOVERNMENT TROOPS COULD TAKE BACK ALL TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE TAMIL TIGERS AT YEAR’S END

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Vancouver Sun in a news feature said, that the Sri Lankan government at the year’s end can achieve its goal of capturing all territory occupied by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam( LTTE).
The newspaper said since 2006 the government troops have had “a steady succession of victories” aiming at this target.

The news feature by Jonathan Manthorpe said, “The offensive launched two years ago by Sri Lankan government forces against Tamil Tiger rebels took on new momentum in the past few days with the capture of a key rebel naval base”.

The Canadian newspaper said, the government troops took the port town of Vidattaltivu on Sri Lanka's northwest coast after heavy fighting. The port has been a base for the Tamil Tigers' small boat navy and is an important entry point for arms and other supplies smuggled in by the rebels, mostly from India across the Palk Strait, the newspaper added.

It said, Government forces swiftly consolidated their hold on Vidattaltivu and pursued Tamil fighters northwards, attacking them with air force bombers and helicopter gunships.

The Vancouver Sun quoted officers describing the capture of the port as a "fatal blow" to the Tigers, which is fighting the government of Sri Lanka since 1983. About 70,000 people have died in the fighting and terrorist attacks by Tigers, who have targeted politicians, officials, journalists and civilians, usually in the capital, Colombo, the newspaper further reported..

Since the collapse of the 2002 ceasefire and peace process brokered by Norway, and the resumption of all-out civil war in 2006, government forces have had a steady succession of victories. Colombo's military now controls northeastern Sri Lanka, in part because of the defection of a local renegade Tamil Tiger commander known as "Karuna."

It said “Though casualty claims by both sides are usually exaggerated and unreliable, the government claims to have killed 9,000 Tigers since 2006 while losing about 1,000 troops itself. Remaining Tiger forces are said to control only a shrinking area in north-western Sri Lanka.”

Fonseka is experienced enough, however, to know that even complete victory on the battlefield will not bring an end to the insurrection.

So even a conclusive military victory by the government forces now will not be a solution to Sri Lanka's internal problems, the Sun reported.

"You might never be able to kill the last LTTE member," Foneska said, adding it is quite possible the Tigers could continue a terrorist insurgency for two decades or more.

That is more than likely. The Tamil Tigers invented the suicide bomb and have counted Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, among their victims.

Terrorist attacks by Tigers in the past few weeks include the machine-gunning of a civilian bus in which 24 people were killed, and the assassination of the highways minister, it further reported

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