Sangaree & Night Mission

“The TULF leader should not forget the fact that, our armed forces have to wage war against ‘the most dangerous and deadly extremist outfit in the world’, as determined by the FBI, and it is the military that decides where to strike and when to strike.”
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by Stanley Weerasinghe

(April 265, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In an open letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, published in the Medias of 18 April, TULF leader, V. Anandasangaree had expressed ‘grave anxiety and concern’ over aerial attacks during the night.

When the TULF leader says, ‘The aerial attacks during daytime is bad enough, although civilians have the advantage of being able to run away and save their lives,’ he gives a wrong signal to the world that, Sri Lankan Air Force is bombing civilian areas, which is factually incorrect. In fact, bombing by SLAF on 15th night had been on an LTTE base in a jungle eight kms North-West of Oddusudan, while another strike had been targeted at LTTE runway at Iranamadu, at end of last month. The military had confirmed that these raids were done after night surveillance, and aimed at destroying LTTE’s capacity to wage war.

The TULF leader should not forget the fact that, our armed forces have to wage war against ‘the most dangerous and deadly extremist outfit in the world’, as determined by the FBI, and it is the military that decides where to strike and when to strike. As far as civilian casualties are concerned, which is presumably worrying the TULF leader, he will have to admit that, liberation of the Eastern Province was successfully accomplished by our valiant armed forces, with the least number of civilian casualties –a war which began when the LTTE closed the Mavilaru sluice depriving 30,000 civilians of drinking water and drying up about 10,000 acres of paddy .

‘I do not want a single civilian life lost due to army action’, says the TULF leader. What are his comments on the recent death of 15 civilians and about 90 more injured, when the blood thirsty LTTE assassinated Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle at a sports event? He should realize that, our armed forces do not purposely target civilians, as done by the ruthless Tiger terrorists.

When the so called human rights groups attempted to pin the blame for the massacre of 17 aid workers in Muttur, on the armed forces, it was revealed in the presidential commission that the French aid agency that employed these workers, was to be blamed for their deaths.

In his acceptance speech of the prestigious UNESCO prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-violence, with which he was honoured last year, TULF leader had reportedly urged the international community to, ‘liberate the Tamil people from the clutches of ruthless LTTE and their wanton terrorism that has brought nothing but misery to Sri Lanka.’

When our armed forces are engaged in doing precisely what he had urged to be done, TULF leader’s fear of civilian casualties, is unfounded.
- Sri Lanka Guardian