Wounded tigers
The LTTE are fighting a defensive battle in Lanka.
It is common knowledge that a wounded tiger is the most ferocious. The Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers may not admit yet that they are wounded in the ongoing battle with the armed forces in the Vanni regions which are under their control. But the increasing ferocity and the sickening regularity with which they target civilians in Colombo since January this year show their desperation and their contempt for the opinion of major nations which have already branded them as terrorists.
The year started with a bomb attack on an army bus in Colombo. The most ferocious attack came on January 16, the day the Sri Lankan Government formally abrogated the ceasefire agreement, when the Tigers mounted a claymore mine attack on a civilian bus in Battala, 240 km south-east of Colombo, killing 27 civilians. From January till the second week of June, 128 civilians have been killed in attacks, mostly on buses and on a couple of suburban trains in and around Colombo. This does not include the assassination of minister D M Dissanayaka in a claymore mine attack in Ja-ela, a Colombo suburb,on Jan 8.
The undeclared war of the last two years has cost the Tigers dear. The government has cleared the east of the Tigers, successfully, conducted provincial elections there and got breakaway LTTE faction leader Pillaiyan installed as chief minister. Simultaneously, the armed forces have made inroads into rebel-held areas in the north, especially in Mannar. Gaining absolute control of Mannar, Killinochi and Mullaitivu which are under LTTE control is no easy task. But the fact remains that the Tigers are fighting a defensive battle. The LTTE’s new political wing leader B Natesan, while conceding that the military balance has shifted in favour of the Sri Lankan armed forces since the February 2002 ceasefire agreement, says these are transient and the army's claims are exaggerated. In an indirect justification of the increasing attacks on civilians in the south, he says the world is not aware of loss of civilian lives in the north in claymore mine attacks by the army. Through periodic attacks on soft targets, the Tigers have succeeded in widening the schism in the south. Proof is former Prime Minister and opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s comment that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government has failed in its war against terror as is evident from the series of blasts in Colombo and elsewhere.
It is common knowledge that a wounded tiger is the most ferocious. The Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers may not admit yet that they are wounded in the ongoing battle with the armed forces in the Vanni regions which are under their control. But the increasing ferocity and the sickening regularity with which they target civilians in Colombo since January this year show their desperation and their contempt for the opinion of major nations which have already branded them as terrorists.
The year started with a bomb attack on an army bus in Colombo. The most ferocious attack came on January 16, the day the Sri Lankan Government formally abrogated the ceasefire agreement, when the Tigers mounted a claymore mine attack on a civilian bus in Battala, 240 km south-east of Colombo, killing 27 civilians. From January till the second week of June, 128 civilians have been killed in attacks, mostly on buses and on a couple of suburban trains in and around Colombo. This does not include the assassination of minister D M Dissanayaka in a claymore mine attack in Ja-ela, a Colombo suburb,on Jan 8.
The undeclared war of the last two years has cost the Tigers dear. The government has cleared the east of the Tigers, successfully, conducted provincial elections there and got breakaway LTTE faction leader Pillaiyan installed as chief minister. Simultaneously, the armed forces have made inroads into rebel-held areas in the north, especially in Mannar. Gaining absolute control of Mannar, Killinochi and Mullaitivu which are under LTTE control is no easy task. But the fact remains that the Tigers are fighting a defensive battle. The LTTE’s new political wing leader B Natesan, while conceding that the military balance has shifted in favour of the Sri Lankan armed forces since the February 2002 ceasefire agreement, says these are transient and the army's claims are exaggerated. In an indirect justification of the increasing attacks on civilians in the south, he says the world is not aware of loss of civilian lives in the north in claymore mine attacks by the army. Through periodic attacks on soft targets, the Tigers have succeeded in widening the schism in the south. Proof is former Prime Minister and opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s comment that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government has failed in its war against terror as is evident from the series of blasts in Colombo and elsewhere.
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