May 4, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

REBEL OFFENSIVE TRAPS SRI LANKA FORCE

LONDON, May 4, Graphic News: WITH PARLIAMENTARY elections barely three months away, a series of morale-sapping blows delivered by the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas over the last weeks has stunned a beleaguered Sri Lanka and forced the Cabinet to put the country on a war footing.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are now within 20 miles (32km) of the northern capital Jaffna, after capturing the seemingly impregnable Elephant Pass garrison guarding the peninsula on April 22.

The Defence Ministry has confirmed that its soldiers are holding on to the main defence line 15 miles (24km) south of Jaffna. But the rebelsÕ clandestine Voice of Tigers radio said they had captured two crucial areas Ð a sea supply route and a seven-mile stretch of road along the coast between Elephant Pass and Kilali to the north.

The road is key to helping the rebels move supplies in a final assault on Jaffna, where 40,000 government soldiers are trapped.

After ten months spent recruiting and training, the Tigers launched a new offensive, ÒCeaseless Waves IIIÓ in November 1999. The Tigers have now retaken most of the land they lost to government troops more than four years ago.

Between 1990 and 1995, the rebels ran a virtually independent state on the Jaffna peninsula. They had their own police, civil administration, courts and even a small navy. Sri Lankan troops drove them from the city of 500,000 people in December 1995.

Over the past six months, however, the roles have been reversed and the government is now on the defensive. The LTTE has managed to reaffirm its military superiority over the more than 100,000-strong Sri Lankan army.

From a ragtag band of 26 fighters, the Tigers have developed into a sophisticated force banned in Sri Lanka, India and the United States. They have websites and use satellite phones to transmit daily battlefield reports to offices in London and Paris, where supporters raise funds and handle public relations.

Members of the rebel group Ð founded in 1976 by Velupillai Pirabhakaran, a high school dropout Ð wear cyanide capsules dangling from cords around their necks, preferring suicide to capture. Suicide-bombings are also a common rebel strategy.

The Sri Lankan military believes half the TigersÕ estimated fighting force of 5,000 are women. These ÒBirds of Freedom,Ó as their fellow rebels call them, have carried out the highest profile attacks Ð the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and the several recent bombings in Colombo.

In January a suicide bomber blew herself up in front of Prime Minister Sirimavo BandaranaikeÕs office, killing 13 people. The premier was not in her office at the time. Last December, another woman blew herself up at an election rally for President Chandrika Kumaratunga. That blast killed 23 people and wounded the president, who suffered severe injuries to her right eye.

In March at least 14 people were killed and 45 wounded when LTTE members were caught laying claymore mines in Colombo to assassinate the deputy defence minister.

The recent setbacks suffered by the armed forces are likely to have an impact on the results of the parliamentary elections scheduled for August. The ruling PeopleÕs Alliance, led by President Kumaratunga, is already looking for a face saving measure after advocating Òwar for peaceÓ following the breakdown of peace talks in July 1995.

The opposition United National Party, which lost power in 1994, is now redesigning its election campaign to highlight the military failures of the PeopleÕs Alliance so it can attract votes from the Sinhalese community, which comprise 76 percent of Sri LankaÕs 18.6 million people, as well as the minority ethnic Tamils.

The rebel group demands a separate homeland for Tamils in the islandÕs north and east. Discrimination by Sinhalese in civil service recruitment and admissions to professional courses fueled anger among Tamil youths, leading to bloodshed in 1983 when the LTTE massacred 13 policemen in the Jaffna peninsula.

In a backlash to the killings, thousands of Tamils were killed in the southern part of the country and hundreds of thousands of them fled back to Jaffna or left the island.

In March 2000 the Norwegian government sponsored peace talks to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, but while the Sri Lankan government has agreed to the proposal, TigerÕs chief Pirabhakaran has not responded to the request. Instead his latest offensive could become a tidal wave crashing on the shores of JaffnaÕs lagoon.
/ENDS
Sources: International Institute of Strategic Studies, Reuters, Associated Press