General Under Attack
This afternoon the LTTE attempted to murder the Head of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Another stab at inciting retaliatory attacks by the military or some form of communal violence targetting Tamils. The obvious aim is that communal violence and or military strikes will give them a valid reason to go to war and thus saving face with the international community and yet achieve what they so clearly desire; war. This point has been quite blatantly missed by a lot of the media who have focused on attacks on Tamil civillians. What happened in Trinco last week was obviously not good by any stretch, but it needs to be explained within the correct perspective, taking into account the fact that the LTTE has been doing everything in its power to achieve this. The Military has been consistently condemned for Trinco and this is very unfair. First of all the allegations that the army stood by without stopping the violence are not well substantiated and could be exaggerated views. Secondly it fails to recognize the fact that the army has stood its ground despite continuous provocation and loss of its members and thereby exercised remarkable restraint. The media has failed to see this and has simply jumped on the bandwagon of accusations. Again I’m not condoning what happened in Trinco at all and communal violence is fallacious and playing into LTTE hands, but it needs to be understood in this context.
Today’s attack on the General was just taking things one step further. They tried in Trinco to trigger communal violence, that didn’t bear sufficient fruit so they took the battle right to the heart of the army. The army and the government needs to maintain the commendable restraint that they have been showing thus far, despite an attack on its leader. Mahinda Rajapakse made a very good start at this in his address to the nation. He clearly recognizes and states the aims of the LTTE and is refusing, at this point, to play into their hands by retaliating wholesale. “What the LTTE attempts to achieve by intensifying these attacks, while grossly violating the Ceasefire Agreement they are said to be bound by, is to bring about a clash of a communal nature among the Sinhalese and the Tamil people.” He goes on to urge the population to avoid any form of retaliatory action; “Therefore, I make a fervent appeal to all our people not to take the law into their own hands, and in a way give cause for such a communal clash.” Mr. Rajapakse is clearly making the right noises and one hopes this continues but only in a powerful manner, making it clear to the international media and fellow governments the sort of game being played by the LTTE and to make it clear that the government is refusing to play along. Thus far the government propaganda machine hasn’t done enough in this regard. This would ideally lead to greater pressure being placed on the LTTE to return to the negotiating table. The inability of the government to control the activities of the “paramilitary” forces is a quite pathetic excuse for not resuming peace talks. How can the government control the Karuna faction which is in itself another terrorist group using guerilla tactics? If the government could control terrorist groups there wouldn’t be any war in the first place. There is no solution for this problem other than a political solution, and at the moment only one of the two parties is not willing to take their seat at the negotiating table. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who is not being genuine.
A major worry is the security breach in what ought to be one of the most fortified buildings in Colombo. I do not understand why the General’s convoy would travel so close to civillians lining the road and it appears quite miraculous that he survived. The LTTE would have certainly lost a lot of ground in this event if there is no military backlash since they failed to achieve their objective and have clearly shown the international community that they are neither genuine about peace nor the interest of Tamil civillians. Let us hope the army maintains their non-retaliatory stance and that the government continues to look towards a negotiated settlement.
Cry “budhuammoooo!” and let slip the dogs of war.
What to do machang. Scene looks pretty hopeless
Prabha is not going to stop the war that made him famous by the looks of it. The paranoid bugger in me says that it seems there are more factions in this war than just the govt, LTTE and the sinhala extremists. In any case, it’s a bit retarded to have army headquarters in a civilian intensive area no? Why not move it to some godforsaken place where they can monitor the traffic to make sure no dodgy people get in?
If what you’re saying is true then good that the prez is taking the moral high ground, but hasn’t there been some sort of retaliatory airstrike?
Comment by Curious Yellow — April 26, 2006 @ 11:08 am
Yeah you bugger there have been strikes but there’s fairly good reason for that. First to show that the govt isn’t going to sit on its ass and let them dictate terms. Second, as your friend sittingnut said on his blog, showing some spine will give less reason for civillians to take things into their own hands through mob violence. Third, I don’t imagine this is going to escalate too far, the raids will probably stop soon and things will return to normal. Normal as in LTTE putting landmines and generally being idiotic. The military also won’t lose any face internationally as this was provoked. Nothing to lose, and a lot to gain, politically if not militarily.
Comment by ddm — April 26, 2006 @ 11:31 am
“How can the government control the Karuna faction which is in itself another terrorist group using guerilla tactics? If the government could control terrorist groups there wouldn’t be any war in the first place. ”
This is where you are mistaken - There is enough evidence to show that the Karuna faction are being funded by the government. Have you seen the new identity card issued by the government to Karuna - With Muralitharan (by birth) under “name” and birth place as Colombo! I think you are smart enough to understand and acknowledge the government’s backing.
Comment by M — April 26, 2006 @ 3:03 pm
M - You’ve seen Karuna’s ID card? And what’s the evidence of govt backing beyond speculation and conjecture?
Comment by ddm — April 26, 2006 @ 3:17 pm
I don’t know about Muralitharan but this link here shows you what M’s mentioned- not quite got the details of the ID correctly (has Badulla instead of Colombo and a different name too)
http://www.nitharsanam.com/?art=15580
Comment by Yaaro — April 26, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
ddm :
good post. missed it earlier bc you are not in kottu.
Comment by sittingnut — April 27, 2006 @ 1:46 am
Don’t think there is any point in gaining or losing face internationally machang, because nobody is really interested in us to be honest. I’m sure most people wont agree with me on this point, either out of patriotism or by showing proof that we have been a good country to invest in. The thing is, investors are not going to stop the war AND help us rebuild. All they will do is say, if you can stop the war we will invest, and even then, I’m not sure if that’ll leave us better off in the long run.
Any developing country to foreign investors is like a suet pudding in front of a lot of hungry/greedy people. To them we’re just a place to leech off and discard when done, and there are other countries out there that aren’t war torn like us that they can and will go to.
We’re going to have to sort this war out ourselves, not rely on some other country to hold our hand through it. Now if we had some oil, then maybe Tony’s mate George would help us out. Sadly we don’t.
I don’t know if ending the war means large scale brutality with massive civilian casualties or just handing over what the LTTE want, i.e: a separate state. Personally, I’d go with the “what price peace approach”, seemed to have worked out really well with Northern Ireland no? Look at their economy, it is flourishing like a toadstool in shit!
Comment by Curious Yellow — April 27, 2006 @ 8:23 am
Yaaro - Interesting link. The face on that is a bit thinner and longer than the pictures of Karuna that i’ve seen, but there is a resemblence. My grasp of Tamil has deteriorated over the years so I have no idea what the website is saying about how they got their hands on his ID. Any idea?
Sittingnut - Thanks.
CY - I was thinking the same thing when the LTTE so brazenly disregarded international opinion and continually, openly violated the ceasefire. But international opinion is important for a couple of reasons.
1) Lot of the LTTE’s semi-legitimate funding is from abroad, and even though international regulation can’t stop all of it there is a good chance that some of it will get filtered away. The more bad press the LTTE gets, the more serious foreign governments will be about cracking down on their sources of funding.
2) The LTTE does hope to eventually establish an independent country, and in order to gain recognition once that is achieved, they need the big international players in the good books. (For instance see the problems faced by the Hamas govt.) Though recognition is likely to be given anyway in the long run, it is easier if they don’t piss them off too much. This is particularly true of India.
3)In the longer run, any country needs to have allies to survive, for reasons of security and economics. Therefore the LTTE will need to at least try and maintain decent international relations.
Comment by ddm — April 27, 2006 @ 9:02 am
Here’s another interesting comment on Karuna
http://www.indi.ca/2006/04/suicide-bombing-in-colombo#comment-20842
The title translates to “This is the ID card issued by the GoSL to Karuna stating that he resides in Badulla”
Well, for a fact Karuna himself is in South India at the moment. I had my reservations before but I’ve spoken to many people who’ve told me several things about the government’s backing which have convinced me to believe otherwise. I am trying to make a visit to one of the Karuna camps- being abroad doesn’t help! (hopefully in the next few weeks).
It is a good tactic though I must say and kudos to the government for picking up on this fracture in the LTTE regime. But what’s important is how they utilise this advantage. Wasn’t impressed at all with
Pararajasingham’s killing. That was uncalled for.
Let’s hope for the best!!
Comment by Yaaro — April 27, 2006 @ 11:28 am
Yaaro - Interesting, though as I’m sure you understand, information from un-named sources can not be counted as difinitive in the public domain. Specially in Sri Lanka where hear’say is far from reliable. Anyway, the possibility remains.
On the other hand, I don’t agree with the tactic of aligning with the Karuna group, they are after all terrorists. And there have been plenty of lessons from international experience of how assistance to terrorists has backfired, eg. US assistance to the Mujahideen in countering Russian forces in Afghanistan.
p.s. sorry about spamblocker killing your comment.
Comment by ddm — April 27, 2006 @ 11:46 am
ddm : good post.
speculation, even informed speculation, is really all we have. besides that, we have what we see : the mindless violence, killing people on both sides of the fence.
anyway, there isn’t much to do now.
Comment by Electra — April 28, 2006 @ 1:44 am
Electra - Thanks. You’re right, and that is an unfortunate consequence of the nature and quality of Sri Lankan journalism, way too much subjectivity.
Comment by ddm — April 28, 2006 @ 10:35 am
ddm -
Mr.Rajapakse is clearly making the right noises
I have to agree, he does does look good so far.
Yaaro - Perhaps you can write up a blog report once you visit one of these camps ? take care
Comment by ivap — April 30, 2006 @ 11:23 am