Eye for an Eye ('the LTTE is already blind')

Photo: LTTE Leader V. Pripaharan with Norwegians and his Right and Left-hand men- Thamilchelvan and Vaithiyalingam Sornalinga alias 'Col' Shankar, October 21st 2000 Kilinochchi.

By: Defencewire

(November, 04, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) LTTE Leader Veupillai Pripaharan has released a statement to the media lamenting the loss of Suppayya Paramu Thamilchelvan (43) killed in an Aerial Attack by SLAF Ground Attack crafts from Number 10 and Number 05 Fighter Squadrons, ironically the same squadron the Tigers attempted to destroy at Katunayake on 24th July 2001 and again on 26th March 2007. Both attacks were planned by Velupillai along with Pottu Amman and Balraj. The LTTE's attack plan on Katunayake was enhanced significantly by the knowledge of aircrafts by 'Col' Shankar, the Founder of the Air Tigers. Two months later, on 26th September 2006, around 10 in the morning 'Col' Shankar was killed in Oddusudan by the Army's Long Ranger Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP). Themilchelvan had escaped Shankar's fate by a whisker around two months before the Katunayake attack at Kokavil in the general area Mankulam on 16th May 2001.

Tamilchelvan had escaped this fate only to face the wreath of an angry SLAF, at his usual haunt in Thuruaiaru in Iranamadu Kilinochchi yesterday, in an area increasingly targeted by the SLAF. The bombardment came two weeks after the Anuradhapura attack. Velupillai Pripaharan has now lost both his left and right-hand men, with the loss of the so-called International 'Human Face' of the LTTE. In his statement released yesterday (Nov.03), Pripaharan says "I taught him as my own beloved younger brother....I raised him as a great commander, an unparalleled political head, a diplomat who communicated with the entire world, and a skilled negotiator." Can Pripaharan expect to preserve lives of those beloved to him when he himself take others' lives?

Meanwhile some LTTE Tamil websites operated by Sethu Nadarajah from Oslo, Norway has started a poll to select the 'Rajapakse Brothers' to be killed in revenge for Thamilchelvan's death. They have titled the poll 'An eye for an eye (the world is already blind)' .

We can reasonably assume that the LTTE and its funding sources have forgotten past lessons. The South cannot be convinced to giving up through violence. The more the LTTE violence, the more the Southern violence towards them. For the Sinhala South at least, losing a President or 'an eye for an eye' is a familiar situation having lost a President, numerous Ministers, Military Leaders, Political Leaders, Intellectuals, Diplomats etc to LTTE violence. Somehow, despite all these losses, there seem to be new political and military leaders emerging from the South who are hell-bent on destroying the LTTE.