Tiger Facing Major Blow says Jane’s Defence Weekly

Photo:Political wing head of the LTTE with body of former Political wing head

(November, 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) After a year of retreat and reversal, Sri Lanka's ethnic insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) recently suffered another major blow with the killing of the head of its political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan, during an early morning air force bombing raid on 2 November, Jane’s intelligence Defence weekly reported on Today.

According to report, “ His death marks the most high-profile killing to date since the resumption of civil war in mid-2006 and it followed soon after the meticulously planned LTTE suicide attack, backed up by aerial support, on the Anuradhapura air force base on 22 October.”

“These two major attacks are likely to have more of an impact on morale rather than significantly altering the balance of military power between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. Indeed Thamilselvan's demise is likely to further strengthen President Mahinda Rajapakse's administration's grim resolve to pursue a military solution to the conflict.”

“Thamilselvan first rose to prominence when he played an influential role in the 1995 peace negotiations with the government of then president Chandrika Kumaratunga. The former head of the political wing subsequently played a key role in all the peace processes, although the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, who died last year, remained the international face of the rebel group. Indeed, the significance of Thamilselvan's death is arguably comparable to the assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005.”

“Much now rests on what the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran will say in his closely followed annual 'Heroes Day' speech on 27 November. Prabhakaran's televised address is normally his only public appearance during the year, and is carefully dissected for its style and substance.”

“Given the present circumstances, it is likely that Prabhakaran can do little more than express his defiance and promise to fight on. It is possible that the LTTE will organise further expensive and high-profile attacks - possibly aimed at government ministers and key military and civilian infrastructure assets in the south - in the weeks preceding the address.

“There is public speculation that the LTTE may soon announce a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) - but such an announcement will be meaningless in the current atmosphere of international hostility and the insurgent group's apparent military reversal,”the report added.