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News Analysis
Kilinochchi capture a severe blow to LTTE morale
The Tribune’s Colombo Correspondent Chandani Kirinde Writes

Last October LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said in an e-mail interview with an Indian magazine that capturing the LTTE’s stronghold of Kilinochchi was just a day-dream for Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Unfortunately for the LTTE leader, this day-dream became a reality on January 3 when in the early hours of last Friday morning the Sri Lanka army gained full control of the once thriving administrative hub of the LTTE, forcing the Tigers to retreat into the thick jungles of Mullaithivu.

From here for a decade the LTTE had run a parallel administration with its own judicial system, police force and tax collection network. It was also here that the elusive LTTE leader met visiting foreign dignitaries during the four years when there was cessation of hostilities between the two sides owing to a Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement.

When troops marched into Kilinochchi breaching several kilometres of earth-bund the Tigers had erected to defend the town, all that remained were the abandoned grand buildings bearing the Tigers’ emblem where the LTTE once held sway. It has been more than a month since the LTTE forced its civilian population to move out of the town, anticipating the military advance. What the military found was a ghost town.

With the tables now turned in favour of the government, President Rajapaksa went on live television at 4.15 p.m. (local time) to announce the capture of Kilinochchi, 328 km north of Colombo. He said the capture of Kilinochchi was not only his dream but was also the dream of all the Sri Lankans, who are opposed to separatism, racism and terrorism.

The President described the victory as “truly incomparable”. “What our heroic troops have achieved is not only the capture of the great fortress of the LTTE, but a major victory in the world's battle against terrorism”, he said. He also used the occasion to issue an ultimatum to the LTTE to lay down arms and surrender, or be prepared for being finally defeated by troops.

Though the area is not of much strategic importance in terms of military manoeuvres, it has been of great symbolic value for the LTTE. “Nothing could have dealt a worse blow to the LTTE’s morale than the loss of Kilinochchi,” one of the country’s leading English dailies, The Island, declared in its front page editorial. The Defence Correspondent of The Sunday Times in Colombo called it a “humiliating defeat for the LTTE.”

The LTTE took control of Kilinochchi in 1998 when it ousted the military from there, and built up the area as its administrative capital and showed it off as it staked its claim to set up a separate state in the north and east for the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

The news of the fall of Kilinochchi was greeted with street celebrations by people across the country who burst fire-crackers and hoisted the national flag. Though the government of President Rajapaksa has been slow in attending to the growing economic woes of the people and has sidestepped many of the allegations of corruption and nepotism in his administration, the majority of Sri Lankans back it with a tough stance against the Tigers.

The civil war that has ravaged the country since 1983 may not be over with the fall of Kilinochchi. But analysts say the protracted war has entered a decisive phase with the recenet military victories which have also motiavted the military to push ahead and finish the job. The Army Commander, Lt-Gen Sarath Fonseka, said the LTTE would be eliminated within the year that has begun. He put the number of remaining LTTE caders between 1700 and 1900.

But there are also fears that with the LTTE losing vast areas under its control, it could also be the beginning of a protracted guerrilla war by it. A political leader of the LTTE, B.Nadeasn, told the BBC in an interview days before the fall of Kilinochchi that losing land and recapturing it was common and that their “freedom struggle will continue to create war towns until our struggle reaches its goal, until we win.”

Another Tamil Member of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), N. Srikantha, said it would be the beginning of a long drawn-out guerrilla war. “There will be no victors or vanquished in a war of this nature. Both parties should meet at the negotiation table to achieve permanent peace,” he said.

 But any hopes for negotiations with the Tigers are an extremely unlikely scenario now. President Rajapaksa has already warned that the LTTE would be banned in Sri Lanka if it does not allow the thousands of trapped civilians in the areas that it still controls to move into the areas liberated by the army. Speculation is rife in Colombo that a ban may be announced within days, shutting the door on any short-term prospects for talks with the Tigers.

 Since the fall of Kilinochchi the military has begun focussing on the last remaining areas under the LTTE control, the thick jungle area of Mullaithivu. On Saturday the Air Force carried out several air strikes in the area, targeting the places where the LTTE leadership is believed to be hiding.

 But in the meantime the LTTE has resorted to diversionary tactics. It began soon after the President finished addressing the nation when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the entrance to a large Air Force complex in downtown Colombo, killing four people and injuring more than 35.

Analysts say such attacks are likely to increase in the coming days as the military tightens the noose around the Tigers. Whether the military will achieve the same kind of success in its battle for Mullaithivu can only be seen in the coming weeks.