Crocodile tears over Sri Lanka

By Ashok K Mehta

(May 13, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) The people of Tamil Nadu will be voting today with echoes of Eelam still ringing in their ears. To the military axiom that truth is the first casualty of war, one can add, ‘and during election in Tamil Nadu’. There are several versions of the Wanni war in Sri Lanka and India. Forget the manipulation of truth in the so-called No Fire Zone which was anything but that, now disingenuously named New Safe Zone where ‘combat operations’ had officially ceased on April 27 after a false claim by India that it was under its pressure that Sri Lankan guns had fallen silent.

Both Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga have confirmed that Indian emissaries never raised the question of ceasefire. Yet, this distortion was conveyed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. He drank orange juice and called off his six-hour-long fast. Sri Lanka’s security forces have in reality continued their ground offensive with ‘small arms’ dispensing with the use of heavy weapons.

Over the weekend and on Monday, according to the Government doctor in a makeshift hospital in the NSZ, an artillery barrage was unleashed, killing 450 and wounding 1,100 civilians, ignoring the embargo on employment of heavy weapons. Human Rights Watch in New York accused the military with repeatedly hitting hospitals in the war zone with artillery and air attacks and said the commanders involved in the attacks “may be prosecuted for war crimes”.

The argument is over who fired: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or the security forces. The Tigers are locked in an NSZ, which has shrunk to 1.5 to 2 sq km. It is difficult to imagine how artillery attacks can be mounted from within this zone but an Army spokesperson has clarified that its radars had detected LTTE mortars shelling the NSZ. The outcome of the latest ground offensive was the release of another 1,000 civilians, nowhere near the 100,000 civilians who escaped on April 23. Gothabaya Rajapaksa has repeatedly announced that within 48 hours the LTTE will be history. Another deadline expired on Tuesday.

The security forces were obviously under pressure to wrap up the operation before the election in Tamil Nadu and the discussion on Sri Lanka in the UNSC on Monday. There are still around 30,000 to 50,000 civilians being held hostage by the LTTE in the NSZ. Separating V Prabhakaran from the layered human shield and going for the kill is the final goal.

In the run-up to the election in Tamil Nadu, most poll pundits had said Sri Lanka would not be a factor at the hustings. In the event, 13 people have immolated themselves, the cry of Eelam is louder in Chennai than in the NSZ. Ms J Jayalalithaa, AIADMK chief, has done a double somersault, demanding Eelam and promising to send the Indian Army. Mr M Karunanidhi, DMK chief, has jumped onto the Eelam bandwagon.

Mr Rahul Gandhi, who is not a member of the Council of Ministers, has ruled out sending Indian troops, a fact dutifully endorsed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Ms Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by Mr Karunanidhi in Chennai, skipped the issue of Eelam but brazenly claimed that it was due to her Government’s efforts that combat operations had been halted. Mr Karunanidhi recited an elegy to the head of the LTTE’s political wing SP Tamilchelvam who was killed in a Government surgical strike last year.

Each of the political players in this sordid election drama went by his or her script while voicing concerns about the humanitarian plight of Sri Lanka’s Tamils being pounded by gunfire. The charade goes on. Having supported this war, New Delhi has no moral right to call for its premature termination.

India’s moral high ground over the plight of Sri Lanka’s Tamils has been seized upon by the West — notably the US, the UK, France and Austria. After several appeals for ceasefire, Foreign Ministers of the UK, France and Austria briefed eight members of the UNSC on Monday and described the situation as one of “appalling distress”. Four experts from UN humanitarian agencies have warned that the situation in the north is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe and sought access beyond the Vavuniya camps to Refugee Screening Areas and the outskirts of the conflict zone.

A case was being made in the UN for deeper access into the conflict zone and allowing neutral observers to negotiate with LTTE for release of civilians in the NSZ. Not only was the idea rejected by Colombo but fears expressed that the team would be taken as additional hostages by the Tigers. It is being suggested that this, the world’s largest rescue mission, cannot be allowed to drag on indefinitely given the abject suffering of trapped civilians. For securing one man’s head — Prabhakaran — the lives of 50,000 or more non-combatants are being put to risk.

The separation of civilians from LTTE has been attempted since last month without any notable success but with horrendous civilian casualties. 58 and 53 Divisions are crawling forward in the NFZ with the LTTE fighting its “last bund battle”. Earthen embankments dotted with mines have been constructed across the beach at Karyamullivaikkal and Vellamulivaikkal, the last two fortifications before the cluster of tents housing the civilians. No one is sure where precisely Prabhakaran is dug in, so inextricably intertwined are civilians and LTTE, now in civilian clothes. Ground, amphibious and air strike options to take out Prabhakaran are being tried but all with inestimable civilian casualties.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa frequently says, “Freeing hostages is my duty” and adds “there is no humanitarian crisis as such, but we will manage it”. Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka has predicted that for the LTTE it is either mass surrender or mass suicide. Mr Gothabaya Rajapaksa talks about 300 civilian casualties during a Russian rescue mission in North Ossetia. A Sri Lankan blogger says, “I would accept 50,000 dead to finish LTTE”.

The success of the military option in the NSZ without hugely disproportionate civilian casualties is highly improbable. The security forces are dealing with the remnants of the world’s wiliest and most barbaric guerrillas — the LTTE’s elite, including 140 Black Tigers.

That is why it is necessary to examine other options to avoid a humanitarian tsunami. UN Secretary-General Ban ki Moon appealed last week that protection of civilians is the priority and that the Sri Lankan Government must not use heavy weapons in the NSZ. He said the world was watching closely for violation of international humanitarian law. Colombo, whose priority is Prabhakaran, has merely redesignated NFZ to NSZ. So who will prevent the bloodbath?

-Sri Lanka Guardian