Desperate Tiger attempt to flee comes to grief

By Ranjit Surendran in Vavuniya

(March 09, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) During the wee hours of Thursday/Friday night a band of Tigers carrying a variety of weapons came to grief when they tried to escape from Puthukudiyiruppu.

When what they hopefully expected that they would achieve a ceasefire using hundreds of Wanni people they herded as human shield and using them as ransom failed, they were desperate to flee.

On Thursday night, they forced three hundred civilians to leave the safe zone area and the army personnel quickly identified them and stood silent. They suspected this was a ruse for some Tigers to escape. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the mistake they made was to carry some powerful weapons with them which were quickly laser detected by the army and they quickly got into action.

Unfortunately, the Tigers had to carry arms for two reasons. Firstly, they have the plans to regroup but more importantly, they were afraid civilian hostages were likely to rebel against them and even attack them. The kind of arms they carried included LMGs, T56 rifles, RPGs and a supply of hand grenades and pistols. Surprisingly there were no AK47s, obviously buried in the jungles to be recovered once the ceasefire they were sure of was achieved to give them a chance to regroup.

When the sun arose on Friday morning over 60 dead bodies were seen floating in the Chalai lagoon and none of them were that of the civilians. More casualties are possible from this attempt to escape.

Desperate situations demand desperate measures and since the LTTE was so sure of ceasefire perhaps as assured by the pro-LTTE Diaspora who organized several demonstrations about genocide against the Tamils, have now come to believe that the chances of ceasefire has melted away totally. They are now even forced to dig the ground for water and to be constantly on the lookout for escapes. They only thought Puthukudiyiruppu would only be a transit base.

In this situation they even fear the civilians so much, even the Rev Father Pathinathar and another non-RC priest, have gone into hiding in the jungles. Their Norwegian friends, sick of this development that is most embarrassing to them have asked the LTTE to let the people go and negotiate with the government. The Sri Lankan government has clearly indicated that there would be no negotiation with the LTTE.

In India too, Tamilmadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi in the deadly political embrace of the Congress, has begun to take into custody pro-LTTE elements in his state. Y Gopalaswamy has been warned that the National Security Act may be invoked against him.

Finally in Tamilnadu people are coming into increasing realization that the Tamils and Tigers are separate entities and they were never the same as was attempted to present by the LTTE, its supporters like Y Gopalaswamy, Ramdoss, Thirumavalavan and Nedumaran and the shameless, gutless Prabhakaran lackeys, the members of the Tamil National Alliance. The Tamils are Tigers contention has now evaporated completely.

Amidst all these where is the Great Leader of the LTTE who was so obsessed to be the sole voice of the Tamils? If he is not leading from the front, he is not even seen at the back. What kind of leadership is being foisted on the Tamils? Has there been a dummy Prabhakaran in office as the make-belief sole voice of the Tamils?

Let those who speak for the LTTE whether in North America or in Europe, India or Cambodia, come out and tell the world that Prabhakaran is indeed alive and let him tell the people he claims to be their sole voice what exactly he has in mind.

The claim that the senior LTTE fighters are in the forefront has not been proved by reality unless such seniors are child soldiers cast as gun fodder. There is a curious and indeed incredible claim by a well known Tamil journalist who lives in Canada. According to him Prabhakaran will only talk through Pottu Amman but then even Pottu Amman is not talking. Perhaps he will only talk through D B S Jeyaraj a specialist admirer of the LTTE arms purchaser Pathmanathan alias KP. -Sri Lanka Guardian