Government stage-managing the war

by R. Jayadevan

(September 11, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Truth is the first victim of any war and Sri Lanka is not exception to this. Twenty five years of war between the government forces and the LTTE has made Sri Lanka a specialplace in producing unending and questionable claims on casualties. With the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), there has always been a situation of over stating the casualties of the opponent, thus down playing its own casualties. The LTTE too makes wild claims but unlike the Sri Lankan government, it maintains astonishing silence on sensitive claims. The LTTE discloses its casualty figures of its carders accurately. On the other hand, the GoSL is known to be very manipulative and insensitive in telling the truth about its own casualties.

If one count the numbers of daily death claims by the GoSL on the LTTE casualties since the conflict started twenty five years ago, it will become clear the total will exceed the entire Tamil population in Sri Lanka and the diaspora Tamils. Even civilians killed in the encounters have been claimed as LTTE terrorists by the government.

Even the widely reported overall death total of the conflict of 70,000 in the independent media had not moved a point even for the past three years. During these three years, the LTTE has accounted for over 10,000 deaths of its cadres. There are scores of deaths of Sri Lankan forces and civilian population and these remain unaccounted.

The present war in the north is entirely a stage managed game of the government. In order to take advantage of preventing adverse media publicity, the government is doing everything possible to stage manage the war by exclusively controlling the war theatre. The latest order to the UN aid agencies to leave the conflict areas is another extension of a game to hide the truth from the public eyes.

Due to the precarious situation prevailing in the north, media men are not prepared to risk their lives to visit the war zone clandestinely. In the eyes of the media men both the government forces and the LTTE are lethal elements not worth risking their lives.

Let us analyse the latest statistics of casualties for the month of August 2008 published in the media. The media states according to government claims at least about 10-40 tigers are perishing daily. By and large these statistics are not backed by any evidence. If one averages the daily killing of tigers to 10 members per day, the aggregate number claimed would be a staggering 3,100 for the month of August 2008. Even if we down size the number to 1,550, still the claim is very high indeed.

On the other hand, the government maintains silence over the casualties on its side. Trickle of information filter through the media daily. One has to wait until the Prime Minister read out the monthly statistics in the parliament. In his latest disclosure, had had claimed 155 Sri Lankan forces have been killed and another 983 injured in August 2008. This confirms an average of 5 Sri Lankan Forces being killed and 31+ being injured per day in that month. Researching through the independent media one could establish this claim cannot be corroborated.

In the latest LTTE raid on the joint operational camp of the government forces in Vavuniya, conflicting claims have been made by the GoSL and the LTTE. The government made its drum beating claim that the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) had shot down one of the LTTE’s Zlin 143 planes. The SLAF official statement confirmed that:

i.‘in the early hours of today at approximately 0310 hrs LTTE terrorist launched a pre-dawn ground assault coordinated with artillery fire…’

ii.‘LTTE aircraft was detected by the radar at around 3.26am’

iii.‘A second aircraft was spotted 5 minutes later’

iv.‘SLAF interceptor jets scrambled from SLAF base Katunayake to engage the enemy craft’

v. ‘At approximately 0355am …. LTTE Zlin 143 … was shot down over the Mullaitivu jungles’.

Assuming there was no damage to the radar within the time scale of 0326am and 0355am (29 minutes) the SLAF at Katunayake upon getting the message from Vavuniya was able prepare within minutes or even seconds and fly over one hundred miles and shoot down the LTTE Zlin 153 within minutes. On this occasion the SLAF were in unbelievable readiness that within matter of minutes, it was able to fly at a speed to hit the opponent’s flight precisely.

Tamilnet (of the LTTE) published the LTTE version of story at 00.53GMT (Sri Lanka time approximately 5.53am). It said ‘LTTE’s aircrafts bombed the SF HQ around 2.30am. Vavuniya residents confirmed the bombing went on for over three and a half hours. The difference in the time claimed by the SLAF and the LTTE is just under one hour. Based on the Vavuniya resident’s statements, the LTTE’s claim of 2.30am appears to be fairly accurate and it seems the fighting had gone on till 6.00am which the residents confirmed. It is unfortunate that the SLAF did not present any aerial pictures of their action against the LTTE planes to justify their claim. Neither had they failed aerial pictures of the place where the LTTE plane had fallen. The SLAF had published pictures of aerial bombardment of other LTTE targets in the past but on this occasion they are still to provide this vital evidence.

When both the culprits reveal facts about their combatants the casualties of civilian population receives very little attention. The people are sick and tired of the war. They remain more vulnerable as a result of the government decision to eject the UN agencies from the conflict zone.
- Sri Lanka Guardian